Getting Started with Menu Management

This guide walks you through setting up Menu Management from scratch — from initializing the calendar to configuring dietary substitutions.
This guide assumes that you have already setup Dietary Needs for your organization in the Administration section of the software.

1. Initialize the Meal Calendar

Before you can assign meals, you need to initialize the calendar and choose how many weeks are in your rotation cycle.
    Navigate to Menus in the top navigation bar.
    In the Settings section, click Calendaring settings.
    Click Initialize meal calendaring.
    Choose the number of weeks in your schedule (e.g., 4 weeks for a 4-week rotating menu).
    Click Save.
Once initialized, the settings page will display your configuration: Meal calendaring initialized, Weeks in schedule, and Enable automatic substitutions

2. Configure Products

Products represent the different meal types your organization delivers (e.g., Hot Meal, Frozen Meal, Shelf-Stable). You need to enable meal calendaring for each product you want to schedule.
    From Calendaring settings, click Edit products.
    For each desired product, enable the Meal calendaring checkbox.
    Also designate a Substitution meal for each product category. This is the default meal used when a client's dietary need triggers a Substitute Meal substitution..
    Click Save.
After saving, the settings page will show your Enabled products and Substitution meal configuration.

3. Build Your Ingredient Library

If you're planning to use ingredient scaling, start by entering in the ingredients for your first menu items. Ingredients are the building blocks of your dishes, and we'll associate the ingredients with the dish in the next step.
If you aren't planning to use ingredient scaling, you can continue to the next steps. Assigning ingredients to dishes is optional.
    Navigate to Menus and click the Ingredients button in the Meals section.
    Click + Add ingredient.
    Enter the ingredient name and any additional details.
    Click Save.
Repeat for each ingredient you plan to use. You can always add more ingredients later as you build new dishes.
If you have a specific food supplier (e.g. Sysco, US Foods, etc.) for an ingredient, consider adding the supplier's product number to the ingredient name for easier ordering from the Scaled Ingredients report.

4. Create Dishes

Dishes are individual food items that allow you to assign Ingredients for recipe scaling and Dietary Needs for automatic substitutions. Dishes can be assigned to multiple meals. For example, a Banana Bread side dish might look like the following:
To add a new dish:
    Navigate to Menus and click the Dishes button in the Meals section.
    Click + Add dish.
    Enter the dish name.
    If desired, add ingredients to the dish, specifying the quantity and unit of measurement for each. The ingredient quantities you enter here are per-serving amounts. They will be automatically scaled when generating shopping lists based on client counts.
    If desired, add the dietary needs that should be flagged when this dish is being served. For each dietary need, choose one of the following rules:
    Omit Item - Alert on the Dietary Need so that the Kitchen staff can make the appropriate change to the client's meal.
    Substitute Meal - Change the client's product to the designated substitution meal for this product category.
Omit Item substitutions are recommended in most cases.
    Click Save.

5. Create Meals

Meals group dishes together into what a client receives on a given day (e.g., an entrée, a side dish, and a dessert) for a particular Product (e.g. Regular or Hot Meal).
    Navigate to Menus and click the Meals button in the Meals section.
    Click + Add meal.
    Enter the meal name.
    Add dishes to the meal.
    Click Save.

6. Assign Meals to Your Calendar

Now that you have meals defined, assign them to your rotating calendar.
    Navigate to Menus and click Edit master calendar in the Settings section.
    The master calendar displays your rotation cycle (e.g., Week 1 through Week 4).
    Click on a cell (the intersection of a day and a product) to assign a meal.
    Select the meal for that day and product.
    Repeat for each day and product in your cycle.
The master calendar defines the default rotation. Individual days can be overridden later from the monthly calendar view.

8. Enable Automatic Substitutions

Once dietary needs and substitution rules are configured, enable automatic substitutions so the system applies them when generating reports.
    Navigate to Menus > Calendaring settings.
    Click Edit automatic substitutions.
    Enable automatic substitutions.
    Click Save.
When enabled, the system will automatically apply substitution rules based on each client's dietary needs.

9. Working with Your Calendar

The Meal Calendar section on the main Menus page shows the current month's meal assignments.
  • Today is highlighted with a blue background.
  • Overrides (days where the meal was changed from the master calendar default) are highlighted with a yellow background.
  • Each day has two buttons: Edit (to change the meal assignment) and Report (to view the day detail report).
At the bottom of the calendar, you will find two links:
  • View full month — Opens an expanded monthly view of the calendar.
  • Scaled ingredient list — Generates a shopping list with ingredient quantities scaled to client counts for a date range.
When you override a day's meal, the calendar resets to the master calendar rotation after the override. A cycle reset ensures your rotation stays consistent.

10. Generating Reports

Menu Management provides two key reports:
  • Day detail report — Click the Report button on any calendar day to see a breakdown of meals, client counts, and dietary overrides for that day.
  • Scaled ingredient list — Click Scaled ingredient list below the calendar, select a date range, and generate a consolidated shopping list with ingredient quantities scaled to the number of clients being served.
When printing Delivery Day reports from the Deliveries page (e.g. the Kitchen Sheet or Meal Labels), select the automatic substitutions options instead of dietary needs to see the client's dietary needs filtered for the menu items being served that delivery day.