Working with Production Reports – MealSuite

Summary of Production Reports
Production Reports - Tutorial Video (5:21)
Allowing Pop-Ups for your Production Reports
Generating a Production Report
- Invalid Diet Order Message when Generating Report
General FAQs for all Production Reports

Summary of Production Reports

From Production > Production Reports in the left navigation sidebar, the following menu reports are available to generate.

Kitchen Production Sheet - used on a daily basis to inform the production staff of the amounts to be produced. It offers flexibility in determining what information is included, including "Temperature Tracking" columns to record food temperatures.
Service and Delivery Production Sheet - designed for serving staff in your dining areas (including residence areas enabled as dining areas for in-room service). The report is structured by dining areas/residence areas enabled as dining areas, listing the items to be served in each dining area/residence area enabled as a dining area.
Recipes at Scale Report - generates each recipe scaled to the ingredient amounts needed for the total servings (i.e., a recipe is scaled to match your production requirements).
Diet Census Details Report - generates a count of each diet order (i.e., diet type/texture type combinations) that need to be produced for. The diet order is determined by the diet orders assigned to people and any dining areas set up with a manual diet order census.
Ingredient Preparation Sheet - generates a list of ingredients and their quantities that require pre-preparation on the day of service, such as cutting, dicing, etc.
Ingredient Pull Sheet - generates the total amount to pull for ingredients with a pull value. A pull value is the number of days an ingredient is pulled from a freezer for thawing before being used in the recipe, or the days beforehand that an ingredient is first cooked before being served.

Production Reports - Tutorial Video (5:21)

Allowing Pop-Ups for your Production Reports

If you attempt to generate a report, and nothing happens, then that most likely means pop-ups are being blocked on your browser. You can allow pop-ups by clicking the "Pop-up blocked" icon in the browser address bar, as per screenshot below.

If prompted to allow pop-ups, select the "Always allow" option.

To prevent the browser in the first place from blocking pop-ups, you can set up the browser to allow pop-ups. Instructions to do so can be found in the following article: Allowing Pop-Ups on your Browser.

Generating a Production Report

To generate a production report:

Ensure your browser is allowing pop-ups. See Allowing Pop-Ups on your Browser.
Select the base settings for your production reports.
Apply the specific report settings for each production report you want to generate.
Click the Generate button at the top of the screen.
You are presented with the message below stating that you can use other areas of the software while your report generates.
If you don't click the Yes, Send Report To My Dashboard And Notify Me When Ready button, then the report will open in a separate browser tab after it generates.
If you do click the Yes, Send Report To My Dashboard And Notify Me When Ready button, the system will notify you when the report is ready (first screenshot below), allowing you to download it now, or dismiss the message and later retrieve the report from the Notifications and Alerts section (i.e., dashboard) on the home page (second screenshot below).

Note that the dashboard notification only appears to the user who generated the report and expires after 24 hours. Also note that if you are required to log out of the system, or if your browser session ends, the reports will continue to generate and be available from the home page for 24 hours.

Note: The home page is accessed by clicking the logo at the top right of the screen.

Invalid Diet Order Message when Generating Report

If one or more persons selected to be in the report have an invalid diet order, then a message appears indicating such when generating the report.

You can view which persons have an invalid diet order by opening the People Listing screen (People > People Listing). A person with an invalid diet order has the following icon in the Alerts column: :

Hovering your cursor over icon explains why the diet order is invalid.

You can open the person's profile and change their diet order as needed.

For more on what causes an invalid diet order, see the following article: Invalid Diet Orders.

General FAQs for all Production Reports

I click "Generate", but nothing happens?

If prompted to allow pop-ups, select the "Always allow" option.

Why are items missing from my production report?

If an item is missing from a production report, you can check the following:

Ensure the base settings of the production reports (aka filters) are properly set so as not to exclude items. Note that if the menu containing a missing item is not scheduled for your selected date range in the base settings, the item will not be included in the production report.
Ensure that the item is assigned to a production area and that the production area is selected in the base settings of the production reports.
If forecasting is not applied to a menu, then by default the production report will only include items and personal menu items from resident/patient profiles with the non-select service type and the advanced servicing type. Therefore, ensure forecasting is applied to the menu (see Applying Forecasting to a Menu). For most scenarios you will apply the percentage forecasting method. However, different forecasting methods are available depending on your facility. For more information on forecasting and the forecasting method to use, see About Forecasting.
Ensure that a menu item is is not individually forecast to 0%. See Adjusting Forecasting Percentages for a Menu Item.
It could be the forecasting worksheet is locked, and as such, any new item added to the menu after the forecasting worksheet was locked will not be shown in production. To pull in items added after the forecasting worksheet was locked, select the Use Auto-Generated Forecasting check box, which will pull from the latest auto-calculated forecasting results generated by the system (i.e., locked forecasting worksheet is ignored).

There is the ability to unlock the worksheet to enable the forecast auto-calculation process to update the numbers. See the article Locked Forecasting Worksheets for more information.

What happens to a production report if forecasting is not applied to a menu?

If forecasting is not applied to a menu, then by default the production report will only include menu items (including personal menu items) from resident/patient profiles with the non-select service type and the advanced servicing type.

Why is an item on the forecasting worksheet, but not the production report?

See Why are items missing from my production report? above for reasons why a production report can exclude an item and solutions to prevent it. A forecasting worksheet will represent all items.

Why are extra items on my production reports?

This most likely means your Also Available (AA) is set with forecasting. When an AA menu is set with forecasting, all its items--not just items that were ordered--will appear on your forecasting worksheets and the production reports.

If you are using the AA menu to offer its items as fallback substitutes when the menu item selection logic excludes an item for a resident/patient (rather than using the AA menu as an addition to the standard menu), you will want to set the AA menu to not forecast. By not forecasting the AA menu, you ensure that its non-ordered items do not appear on the forecasting worksheet and the production reports.

To set a menu to not forecast, see Setting a Menu to Not Forecast.

How do I remove items from a production report that do not need to be produced (e.g., aides, supplements, drinks)?

See Removing Items from Production Report for Items that do not need to be Produced.

Why is an item on my production report twice/duplicate?

If a recipe or prepared food is used as an ingredient in a recipe, then that recipe or prepared food displays on the report after the recipe item it is part of. If that recipe or prepared food is also a stand-alone recipe, then it prints on the report as expected.

The production report will not generate. I am getting the "No Data" error message.

You are receiving the following error message: "No data was found for this report. Please check your menu, dining area and menu service location configuration."

Possible Reason 1: Ensure the menu service location that you select to run the production report is correct. Alternatively, ensure the menu is assigned the correct menu service location. The menu service location can be thought of as the “connecting piece”: the menu is assigned to the menu service location and the dining area (including a residence area enabled as a dining area for in-room service) is assigned to the menu service location. The dining area/residence area enabled as a dining area in turn is assigned resident profiles, which determines their menu, or can be a dining area with a manual diet order census.

To see what menu service location a menu is assigned to, see Seeing the Menu Service Location (MSL) a Menu is Assigned To. To change the menu service location of a menu, see Changing the Menu Service Location (MSL) of a Menu.
To see what menu service location a dining area/residence area enabled as a dining area is assigned to, see Seeing the Menu Service Location a Dining Area is Assigned To. To change the menu service location of a dining area/residence area enabled as a dining area, see Changing the Menu Service Location (MSL) of a Dining Area.
To change the dining area of a person, see Managing a Resident's Seating Arrangement

Possible Reason 2: If you have the Exclude AO People who have not placed an order check box selected, and the people selected to be in the report are all advance ordering service type and have not yet placed an order, then the report will not be generated. Therefore, clear the Exclude AO People who have not placed an order check box.

Possible Reason 3: If forecasting is not applied to the menu and you only have people profiles with the table select service type with no personal menu items, the report will not generate. The report will generate for profiles with non-select service type and the advance ordering service type if forecasting is not applied to the menu.

For more on forecasting, see Forecasting: An Overview.
To configure a forecasting method, see Configuring the Forecasting.
To apply forecasting to a menu, see Applying Forecasting to Menus.

How do I print a list of "extra items" (i.e., supplements, adaptive aides/equipment) so kitchen staff know quantities to prepare?

You can create a production area such as "Extra items", "Supplements" or "Adaptive Aides" (see Adding a Production Area), and assign the extra items to it; see Assigning Items to a Production Area.

A production report, therefore, can then be filtered on the production area (screenshot below), to print the items and their quantities that need to be gathered before service begins.

Another option, which is more of a quick snapshot, is to run the Personal Menu Items report. Because extra items (i.e., supplements, adaptive aides/equipment) are assigned to a person as personal menu items, the Personal Menu Items report is a useful means to know the total number of each extra item required. See Personal Menu Items Report (People) for more information and instructions.

How do I adjust the servings (i.e., forecasting numbers) for certain areas that need extra?

The recommended method to adjust servings (i.e., forecasting numbers) is directly for the menu item.

If using percentages forecasting, see Adjusting Forecasting Percentages for a Menu Item.
If using total needed forecasting, see Adjusting Total Needed Forecasting Amounts for a Menu item.

If not possible for whatever reason to adjust a menu item, then you can manually adjust the serving amounts on the worksheet. Note, however, when you adjust the serving amounts, the forecasting worksheet will lock, meaning any forecasting auto-calculation no longer updates the worksheet so as to not override the manually-adjusted amounts. For more information, see Manually Adjusting a Serving Amount.

I have added a production area, but it is not available for selection from the Production Areas field?

This most likely means the production area is not published. See Publishing an Unpublished Production Area.

Note, however, that a production area that was unpublished will not have any items assigned to it. To assign items to a production area, see Assigning Menu Items to a Production Area.

How to track waste/left over?

The Kitchen Production Sheet has the Actual & Leftovers option that displays an Actual Amt column and a Leftovers column for you to mark actual and leftover amounts to measure any wastage.

The Service and Delivery Production Sheet has the Leftovers option that displays a Leftovers column for staff to write in leftover amounts.

What is the "Messages from EHR are unresolved" Text on the Production Reports Screen?

If a Connect interface message from an EHR contains data in the form of a person, room, allergy or diet order that is not mapped to a corresponding MealSuite entity (person, room, allergy, diet order), then the Connect interface cannot process the message. Such a message is considered unresolved, and as such the following warning message appears in red text on the Production Reports screen:

"[X] messages received from [EHR] are currently unresolved due to unknown data in Connect Mapping. This is preventing your people profiles from being updated with the most up-to-date allergen, diet order, or room data. To resolve these messages go to People > Connect and click the Mapping button. For more information, see About Resolving Connect Messages."

You can resolve Connect messages on the Connect screen. For more information, see the Resolving Connect Messages chapter.

How can I generate a grocery list / purchasing list?

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

Can I print the recipe ID in a production report?

No. At this time, the recipe ID cannot be printed in a production report.

A workaround is to add the recipe ID to the display name of the recipe.

If needing to generate a list of recipes with their recipe IDs, you can do so via the following steps:

Open the Recipe Listing screen,
Ensure the Recipe ID column is set to display.
Customize the recipes you want to export using the available filters.
Export the list to an Excel® file.

Can I generate a production report for a past date?

Yes, you can generate a production report for a past date. In the production report settings, you would enter the desired past date or date range.

Can I generate a production report based on a people group?

No. You cannot generate a production based on a people group. You can generate a production report based on date range, meal periods, menu service locations, and production areas. See Selecting the Base Settings for Production Reports for more information and specific instructions.

A recipe includes a sub recipe as an ingredient. Is there a way to print the main recipe without the sub recipe?

No. The system is not designed to preclude sub recipes. A sub recipe is an ingredient to the main recipe, and therefore needs to be prepared prior to the main recipe.

If you do not want a particular sub recipe to be part of a main recipe (e.g., you use a jarred marinara sauce rather than a homemade marinara sauce recipe), then you must change the main recipe to include your desired ingredient. If the main recipe is a recipe owned by your account (i.e., "My Recipe"), see Editing a Recipe Owned by Your Account (i.e., "My Recipe"). If the main recipe is a master recipe (i.e., not owned by your account), click here for options on changing the recipe.

Because ingredients are associated with vendor products, it is important to ensure the correct ingredients are included in your recipes, as this affects nutrient analysis and cost.

When I select the settings for a report, are those settings saved for the next time I run the report?

Yes. Settings for each report are saved for the next time you visit the Reports screen to run a report. Note, however, if you clear you browser cache, the report settings will be lost.