- About the Menu Budget Functionality
- Applying a Budget to a Menu
- Setting Budget-Related Columns on the Menu Listing Screen
- How Over Budget Alerts Appear on the Menus Listing Screen
- How Over Budget Alerts Appear on the Week-at-a-Glance (WaaG) View
- How Over Budget Alerts Appear on the Menu Day View
- Resolving Menu Item with Too High a Cost
- FAQs
About the Menu Budget Functionality
You can apply a budget per resident to a menu, either to the whole day or to individual meal periods (breakfast, lunch, dinner).
When a budget is set for a menu, helpful alerts will trigger on the various menu screens to indicate when you are not within you budget, along with a Menu Cost Analysis screen and a Cost Over Budget (Menus) report to allow you to investigate the instances on a menu that are over budget.
Applying a Budget to a Menu
To apply a budget per resident to a menu, complete the following steps:
- Open the menu to the menu day view.
- Click the Settings button. The Edit Menu slide-out panel appears.
- Click the Menu Budgeting tab.
- You have the following options:
Applying Daily Food Budget per Resident
To enter a daily food budget per resident (i.e., encompasses all meal periods, but not snack times), select the Daily Food option and in the Daily Budget field enter the daily budget per resident. Click the Save button at top right of slide-out panel to apply your changes.
Applying Meal Period Budget per Resident
To enter a budget per resident for each meal period (breakfast, lunch, dinner), select the Meal Specific button and in each meal period field enter the budget per resident for that meal period. Click the Save button at top right of slide-out panel to apply your changes.
Setting the Sensitivity for when the Over Budget Alert Appears on the Menus Listing Screen
You can determine the sensitivity of when the Over Budget alert appears for a menu on the Menus Listing screen (as per screenshot below).
If your are budgeting by a daily food amount per resident, then the sensitivity that determines when the Over Budget alert appears on the Menu Listing screen can be as follows from the Display alerts on Menu Listing screen when drop-down:
- Average daily menu cost is over budget (default) - if the menu’s average daily cost exceeds the daily budget, an Over Budget alert appears on the Menu Listing screen. Use this when some days may exceed budget, as long as the overall cycle stays within limit.
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Any menu day cost is over budget - if a day in the menu cycle exceeds the amount set in Daily Budget field, then the Over Budget alert appears on the Menu Listing screen. Use this option if each day must stay within budget.
If you are budgeting by meal periods (i.e., an individual budget is set for breakfast, lunch and dinner) per resident, then the sensitivity that determines when the Over Budget label is triggered on the Menu Listing screen can be as follows from the Display alerts on Menu Listing screen when drop-down:
- Average meal cost is over budget (default) - if the average cost of the three daily meals is over budget, then the Over Budget alert appears on the Menu Listing screen. Use this option if individual meals can go over budget as long as the average stays within budget.
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Any meal is over budget - if a specific meal is over budget, then the Over Budget alert appears on the Menu Listing screen. Use this option if each meal must stay within its own budget.
Setting Budget-Related Columns on Menus Listing Screen
When you have a menu budget, it is recommended to set the following budget-related columns on the Menus Listing screen (see Setting Preferred Columns on Menus Listing Screen):
- Budget - displays the menu budget
- Average Meal Cost - this column displays the average cost for a meal period, which is calculated by the dividing the amount in the Daily Budget field by three (breakfast, lunch, and dinner),
- Average Day Cost - this column displays the average cost for the day.
- Alerts - displays the Over Budget alert label if the menu.
How Over Budget Alerts Appear on the Menus Listing Screen
On the Menus Listing screen, when a menu is over budget, the Over Budget alert appears in the Alerts column.
Note that the sensitivity when the Over Budget alert appears on the Menus Listing screen can be adjusted; see Setting the Sensitivity for when the Over Budget Alert Appears on Menus Listing Screen above.
How Over Budget Alerts Appear on the Week-at-a-Glance (WaaG) View
- Badge Notification on the View Cost Analysis Button
- When Costs are Displayed on the WaaG
- If Snacks Are Displayed on the WaaG
Badge Notification on the View Cost Analysis Button
When there are menu instances that are over budget, a badge with the number of instances over budget is displayed on the View Cost Analysis button. Clicking the View Cost Analysis button opens the Menu Cost Analysis window for you to quickly identify the instances in your menu that are over budget (see Using Menu Cost Analysis Screen to Identify Over Budget Instances in Menu).
When Costs are Displayed on the WaaG
When costs are displayed on the Menu Week-at-a-Glance (WaaG) view, the cost range for each menu day is displayed (as per screenshot below). For more information about what a cost range consists of and how it is calculated, see Displaying Costs on a Menu.
If you are budgeting by a daily food amount per resident, and a choice selection is over budget for the day, then the cost range below the day is displayed in red text (first screenshot below). Hovering over the cost range displays the Over Budget label, along with the individual cost range of each meal period as per standard functionality (second screenshot below).
If you are budgeting by meal periods (breakfast, lunch and dinner) per resident, and a choice selection for a meal period is over budget, then the cost range is displayed in red text (first screenshot below). Hovering over the cost range displays the Over Budget label for the meal period(s) that are over budget (second screenshot below).
If Snacks Are Displayed on the WaaG
Note that if snacks are being displayed on the WaaG (via the Display Options), then snack costs are included in the cost range. However, snack costs are not factored into budget calculations and as such do not determine if a cost range is over budget or not.
For example, assume snacks are not being displayed on the WaaG and the daily food budget per resident is $12.00. The Thursday cost range is $8.98-$9.55, which is under budget (screenshot on left). If you subsequently display snacks on the WaaG, the Thursday cost range increases to $10.42-$12.12 (screenshot on right), which is technically over the budget of $12.00. However, because snack items are not included in the budget calculations, the cost range is not indicated as over budget by being in red text and having the Over Budget label appear when hovering over.
Note that hovering over the cost range displays the individual cost range for each meal period and snack time as per standard functionality.
How Over Budget Alerts Appear on the Menu Day View
When displaying costs on the Menu Day view, the cost range for each menu day is displayed, explained as follows: Choice 1 selections across the meal periods are summed together and choice 2 selections across the meal periods are summed together. The lower sum is displayed on the left in the range (e.g., choice 2 selections) and the higher sum is displayed on the right in the range (e.g., choice 1 selections).
If your are budgeting by a daily food amount per resident, and a choice selection is over budget for the day, then the Over Budget label appears beside the cost range.
If you are budgeting by meal periods (i.e., an individual budget is set for breakfast, lunch and dinner), and a choice selection for a meal period is over budget, then the Over Budget label appears beside the meal period(s) that are over budget.
Resolving Menu Item with Too High a Cost
See Resolving Menu Item with Too High (or Too Low) of a Cost.
FAQs
On the week-at-a-glance (WaaG) view, the cost range is not displayed for the days?
If the cost range is not displayed for the days, then this indicates that only one choice selection is selected from the Choice drop-down at the top of the screen.
Can I get alerted via email when menu is over budget?
Not at this time.
Can a parent account drill down to view and compare cost data for child accounts?
Parent accounts can currently drill down into their own menu costs. The ability to view and compare cost data across child facility accounts is planned for a future release.
Is recipe labor cost considered?
For accounts with recipe labor cost functionality, recipe labor cost is not yet included in over budget calculations,