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Generating a Grocery List using Production Amounts (i.e., "Quantified" Grocery List)

Kevin U
  • Updated

What is a Quantified Grocery List?

A quantified grocery list contains the food items and quantities you need to procure without the need to manage vendor products. 

A quantified grocery list is generated from the production amounts of a selected date range, meal periods/snack times, and menu service location (a menu service location connects a menu with a dining area). The system calculates the food items you need to purchase in real-time so that new diet orders, census changes, special event menus, menu changes etc., are always accurately reflected and can take advantage of the forecasting calculations to generate results for orders to be placed in the future.   

Once a quantified grocery list is generated, you can then use it to go shopping for products or placing orders in vendor site(s). 

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Generating a Quantified Grocery List

To generate a quantified grocery list, complete the following steps. 

  1. Select Procurement > Purchase Orders. The Purchase Orders Listing screen appears. 

    PO_listing_screen.png

  2. Click the New Cart button. A new shopping cart record is created in the system, and the Populate Cart screen opens (screenshot below). 

    populate_cart.png

  3. Click the Add New button and select From Production. The Add Items From Production pop-up appears (second screenshot below). 

    from_production.png

    add_items_from_production2.png

  4. In the Date Range fields, select the date range from which to pull items. For example, if you receive your food delivery each Wednesday a week, that delivery will need to cover foods required from  the Thursday day after delivery to the following Wednesday when the next delivery arrives. 
  5. In the Meals & Snacks field, select the meal periods and snack times from which to pull items.
  6. From the Menu Service Locations field, select the menu service locations from which to generate reports. Note that a menu service location connects a menu with a dining area. The dining areas in turn determine the diet order census based off people profiles assigned to the dining areas, or a dining area set up with a manual census.
  7. If your forecasting is configured to include the advance ordering census (i.e., people with advance ordering as a service type), then the Advance Ordering section is available with the following options:
    • Use Forecast - for the "advance ordering people" (i.e., those with the advance ordering service type), the cart uses production amounts from the forecasting worksheets associated with the selected days, meal periods and snack times.  

      PO_advanced_ordering.png

    • Use Orders and Exclude AO People who have not placed an order - when Use Orders is selected, the cart uses the actual orders placed by "advance ordering people" (i.e., those with the advance ordering service type) instead of using the production amounts from the forecasting worksheets. Note that if the system is set up to automatically place an order for persons with the advance order service type who do not place an order or have forgotten to place an order (click here for more information), then there is the option to not include those items in the cart; this is done by selecting the Exclude AO People who have not placed an order check box. 

      add_items_from_production3.png

  8. Regarding the Use Auto-Generated Forecasting check box (screenshot below), some overview is first required, explained as follows: if forecasting is configured and applied to your menus, the cart will automatically include the serving numbers from the menu's associated forecasting worksheets. When a forecasting worksheet is locked, then the report will pull those numbers from the locked forecasting worksheet.

    However, If you do not want to pull serving numbers from a locked forecasting worksheet, and instead pull from the latest auto-calculated forecasting results generated by the system (i.e., locked forecasting worksheet is ignored), then you can do so by selecting the Use Auto-Generated Forecasting check box.

    Using auto-generated forecasting results rather than the results from the locked forecasting worksheet provides you with the most up-to-date information based upon your current census and menu edits. It is also a useful function to compare forecasting numbers that you may have manually adjusted on the forecasting worksheet as opposed to what the system auto-calculates.

    add_items_from_production4.png

  9. Click the Add to Cart button. You are presented with a message stating that you can use other areas of the software while your the cart generates (first screenshot below). If you click Yes, Notify Me When Ready, the system will notify you when the cart is ready (second screenshot below), allowing you to click the View Cart button to open the cart (i.e., grocery list). In addition, a message appears on the Notifications and Alerts section on the home page when the cart is ready for viewing (third screenshot below), allowing you to click the link to open the cart (i.e., grocery list).

    generating_cart.png

    view_cart.png 

    cart_ready.png

  10. When you open the cart, you will see that the system populated the cart with items that match the selected date range and meals/snacks, listing the quantity needed for each item (i.e., quantified grocery list).  

    cart_no_vendor_products.png
    (Right-click image to open and expand in new tab)

  11. To set the columns you want displayed onscreen, click the Set Columns button (for more information, see Setting Columns on a Cart or PO Screen). To filter items onscreen, click the Filters tool at the top right (for more information, see Filtering Items in a Cart or PO). 

    Note 1: As you noticed from the steps above, a quantified grocery list is created via the PO functionality in the system. As such, the grocery list is represented as an Open Cart on the Purchase Orders Listing screen.

    quantified_grocery_list_open_cart.png

    Note 2: If your account uses vendor products to link to food items, then you can create purchase order(s) from the open cart. For more information, see Creating Purchase Orders from a Shopping Cart.

Printing the Grocery List

You have two options to print the grocery list:

Exporting Grocery List as Excel® File

To export the grocery list as an an Excel® file, click the Export button. An Excel file is downloaded formatted with the columns that were set onscreen and containing the onscreen items that were selected via the filters. Use the file to go shopping for products or placing orders in vendor site(s). 

excel_quantified_grocery_list.png

Printing Grocery List as a PDF

To print the grocery list as a PDF, click the PO Worksheet button, and select from one of the following options:

A PDF of the grocery list is generated in a new browser tab (screenshot below). Print it and use the available columns to mark existing inventory (via Inventory column) and order quantity (via Order Qty column). Then use the worksheet to go shopping for products or placing orders in vendor site(s). 

Po_worksheet_grocery_list.png

Note that if your account uses vendor products to link to food items, those products are displayed with their associated items (i.e. Product ID, Suggested Qty and Pack Size columns are populated). 

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Tutorial Video - Quantified Grocery List (5:37)