Service Date Management
Service Date Management allows you to track when meals are intended to be consumed separately from the date they are delivered.
This is helpful when delivering meals for multiple days at once (ex. delivering Friday meals intended to cover the weekend) that should be billed based on the service/consumption date rather than the delivery date.
What This Feature Enables
With Service Date Management, you can:
- Assign consumption dates to delivered meals (ex. “Delivered Friday, consumed Saturday and Sunday”)
- Choose whether billing is based on delivery date or service date
- Map multiple service days to a single delivery day
- Set up more than one schedule and assign each client to the delivery pattern that fits them
- Accurately report on services by the intended day of consumption
This creates cleaner billing, clearer reporting, and aligns with program requirements for multi-day deliveries.
Configuration
Admin > Settings > Service Date Management
Enable Service Date ManagementToggle the feature Enabled / Disabled.When disabled, Orchard Stack behaves as before—meals are tied only to delivery dates.
Choose Billing Basis
- Service Date — bill based on intended consumption date
- Delivery Date — bill based on actual delivery day
Set Up Your Service Date Schedules A Service Date Schedules list appears at the bottom of the settings page. Every organization starts with one schedule marked Default . Select Edit on a schedule to map its service days to delivery days: drag-and-drop service days (e.g., Sunday, Monday, Tuesday) into the appropriate delivery day container. Example: If Monday deliveries include meals intended for both Monday and Tuesday, you would drag Monday and Tuesday to Monday Deliveries .
🗓 Multiple Service Date Schedules
Not every client has to follow the same weekly pattern. You can create more than one service date schedule and assign clients to the schedule that matches how their meals are delivered — for example, a frozen meal group served on a different pattern than daily hot meals.
The Default Schedule
Every organization has one schedule marked Default. It governs every client who has not been assigned another schedule, and it cannot be deactivated or deleted.
Adding a Schedule
Admin > Settings > Service Date Management > Add schedule
Give the schedule a name — this is what you will see when assigning clients (ex. Frozen Meals ).
Leave Active checked so the schedule generates service date assignments.
Drag each service day into the delivery day that serves it, the same way you set up the default schedule.
Within a schedule, each service day can be assigned to only one delivery day. After you save, deliveries recalculate in the background for the clients on that schedule.
Assigning a Client to a Schedule
Client record > Meal Services > Service Date Schedule
Choose the schedule that should govern this client's deliveries. Leaving the selection on Default schedule keeps the client on the default. The page previews the delivery day mapping for whichever schedule you select, and clients on a non-default schedule display the schedule name at the top of their record.
Managing Schedules
The Service Date Schedules list shows each schedule's active status and how many clients are assigned to it.
- Edit a schedule to rename it or change its mapping.
- Deactivate a schedule to stop generating service date assignments for it and remove it from the choices on client records. Clients already assigned to it keep their assignment until you move them.
- Delete is only available once no clients are assigned to the schedule — reassign those clients first. The default schedule cannot be deleted.
🗂 How It Works
After configuration:
- Client orders, temporary stops, specials, and status change schedules are evaluated based on Service Date.
- The Service Date to Delivery Date mapping governs when the meals are delivered and appear on the Route Sheets.
- Each client follows the schedule assigned to them, or the default schedule when no schedule is assigned.
- Route sheets and reports will reflect the appropriate dates.
- Nothing changes for drivers—delivery workflow stays the same.
- For any deliveries that were previously made when Service Date Management was not enabled, the Service Date is assumed to be the same as the Delivery Date.
Service to Delivery Date Changes
When Service Date Management is enabled, the service dates assigned to a delivery day are displayed on the Deliveries page for that day. If you use more than one schedule, the service dates are grouped and labeled by schedule.
Select any service date to make a one-time reassignment to a different delivery date. The change applies only to the schedule that service date belongs to, and reassigned dates are marked (manual). Once a delivery date has been committed, its service dates can no longer be reassigned.
Reporting on Service Date
When reporting on deliveries, Orchard Stack defaults to displaying the item Service Date when Service Date Management is enabled.