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Setting the restaurant up

Units, places and ingredients

The store measures in units that convert to a base; every ingredient is bought in one unit, kept in one place, and has a reorder level.

The catalogue of the store, on the Items tab. A unit converts into a base — gram, millilitre or piece — so a recipe written in grams can draw from stock bought in kilos. A unit's conversion cannot change once stock has been counted in it, because the ledger stores base units and the multiplier is how they got there: retire it and add another.

The Items tab: units on the left, places under them, ingredients on the right.
The Items tab: units on the left, places under them, ingredients on the right.

Do this

  1. A unit's code — kg, g, l, ml, pc, dozen — and its name.
  2. What it measures: weight (base gram), volume (base millilitre) or count (base piece).
  3. How many base units one of it is: kg = 1000, g = 1, l = 1000, dozen = 12.
  4. Save. Click a unit in the list to change its name or retire it.
  5. A place things are kept — Dry store, Cold room, Bar. An ingredient with no place shows as *Unassigned*.
  6. An ingredient's code (ONION) and
  7. its name.
  8. Bought in — the unit; this decides the ingredient's dimension, so a weight cannot be bought in litres.
  9. Kept in — its home place.
  10. Reorder at — in the purchase unit; below this it is tinted on the shelf and appears under *To order* on the Reports tab.
  11. Save. Click an ingredient in the list to change it; *retired* keeps its history and takes it off the shelf.

More in Setting the restaurant up

Creating an outletAn outlet is one restaurant, bar or room service. It has its own menu, tables, tax and day. The menu: categories, dishes, sizes and pricesBuild the menu yourself. Changing a price is a price change, not a deployment. GST groups, and the restaurant rateTax comes from the group on the dish — and which group is right depends on the rooms. Tables and kitchen stationsTables are where an order sits. Stations are where a KOT prints. Taking a dish off tonight (86-ing)Mark an item unavailable and it disappears from ordering until you put it back. Different prices for dine-in, room service and deliveryOne dish can carry a price per channel, and a price that applies only at certain hours. The kitchen store: what is on the shelfEvery ingredient with what is on hand, what it is worth and what is running low; a movement or a count is one form; every item has its story. Recipes: what a portion is made of and what it costsA recipe is per size of a dish, in grams, millilitres or pieces per portion, with wastage; it draws stock when the KOT fires and prices the dish against its menu price. Buying: suppliers, purchase orders and deliveriesA purchase order is a promise; the GRN is what moves stock. Short delivery leaves the order open; payables are by supplier. Food cost, variance, and what to orderWhat sold and what it cost in ingredients; the menu card at today's prices; what the recipes say should have left the store against what did; what is below reorder.