Locked Forecasting Worksheets

• About Locking
• How Does Locking Occur?
  • Automatic Locking
  • Manual Locking
• When a Forecasting Worksheet is Locked
• When the Census Changes after Forecasting Worksheet is Locked
  • Viewing the Census Changes
  • About the Census Window
  • Clearing the Census Change Alert and Keeping Original Forecast
• When a Menu Item is Added, Replaced, or Removed After Forecasting Worksheet is Locked
• When Extension Grid of a Menu Item is Changed after Forecasting Worksheet is Locked
• Menu Changes that Cause Automatic Recalculation of Locked Forecasting Worksheets 
• Manually Recalculating Forecasting for a Locked Forecasting Worksheet
• Unlocking a Worksheet or Multiple Worksheets
• FAQs
  • If manual percentage adjustments are made on the menu itself, will these adjustments apply to a locked forecasting worksheet?
  • Does unlocking or recalculating a forecasting worksheet clear any manual percentage adjustments that were made on the menu itself?
  • If total needed amounts are manually made on the menu itself, will these amounts apply to a locked forecasting worksheet?
  • Does unlocking or recalculating a forecasting worksheet clear any total needed amounts that were manually made on the menu itself?

About Locking

When a forecasting worksheet is locked, it no longer is automatically updated due to diet order census changes or menu changes in your Core account. The production staff can then use locked forecasting worksheet to begin preparing the meals. 

How Does Locking Occur?

Automatic Locking

A forecasting worksheet automatically locks in the following scenarios:

• When the production cut-off time is reached for the respective meal period/day of the forecasting worksheet.
• When a serving amount is manually adjusted on the forecasting worksheet.
• When a dining area census is manually adjusted on the forecasting worksheet.

Manual Locking

You can also manually lock a forecasting worksheet by clicking the Lock button.

When a worksheet is manually locked, a timestamp and appears on the top of the forecasting worksheet screen with the ID of the user who applied the manual lock.

Note: If attempting to lock a worksheet that is more than seven days ahead of its service date, the following message appears, giving you the option to cancel or continue with the lock:

“It is not recommended to Lock your Forecast Worksheet more than a few days ahead of service date since this will prevent MealSuite from updating it according to your most recent census. Note that changes made to your active Menu may still result in updates to your forecast”

When a Forecasting Worksheet is Locked

When a forecasting worksheet is locked, then on the forecasting calendar, the lock symbol appears on the associated meal period/day cell, as per screenshot below.

Note: When a forecasting worksheet is locked, it locks specific to the date, and does not carry forward to the next menu cycle. In other words, the lock does not repeat itself for future menu cycles.



When you open a forecasting worksheet that is locked, the Lock/Unlock button displays as Unlock.

When the Census Changes after Forecasting Worksheet is Locked

When a forecasting worksheet is locked, and there is a subsequent change to the census in your MealSuite account, the associated grid of the forecasting calendar displays the census change icon (screenshot below) to inform you that your census has changed. Hovering your cursor over the alert displays “Census has changed”.

In addition, when you open the forecasting worksheet, a census change message is displayed in red.



The census is the number of diet orders (i.e., diet type and texture type combinations) in your MealSuite account, which is established by diet order assignments to people and any dining area set up with a manual census.

• If a person in your MealSuite account is admitted or archived, the census in your account is updated to reflect the change to the diet order numbers. Similarly, when a person’s diet order is changed, the census in your account is updated to reflect the change to the diet order numbers.
• If the manual census is changed for a dining area, the census in your account is updated to reflect the change to the diet order numbers.

Viewing the Census Changes

When there are locked forecasting worksheets and the census subsequently changes, you can view the census changes to determine if you need to recalculate the forecasting (explained below) to update the numbers for the worksheets. To view the census changes for a locked forecasting worksheet:

1. On the forecasting calendar, open the locked forecasting worksheet by clicking into its meal period/day cell.
2. Click the View Census link to open the census window:
   
   
    
3. See About the Census Window below to understand how census changes are conveyed.

About the Census Window

The census window presents a diet order grid (diet types as rows and texture types as columns) to convey census changes.

• Original diet type and texture type numbers are displayed in black.
• Diet type and texture type removals from the census are displayed in red.
• Diet type and texture type additions in the census are displayed in green.
• Any new diet types or texture types in the census have a (New) displayed to draw your attention that those are new.
  
  

For example:

• Two people with the house diet/regular texture were admitted, and therefore +2 appears in green in the house/regular cell.
• A person with the lactose restricted diet/regular texture was archived, and therefore -1 appears in red in the lactose restricted diet/regular texture cell.
• A soft bite sized texture type was added in the census for the existing gluten restricted diet type, and therefore New(1) appears in green in the gluten restricted/soft bite sized cell.

In the census window you can select an individual dining area tab to see the census changes specific to that dining area.

Clearing the Census Change Alert and Keeping Original Forecast

You can decide to clear a census change alert and keep the original forecasting. To do so, complete the following steps:

1. Open the locked forecasting worksheet. 
2. Click the View Census link to open the census window.
3. Click the Clear Alert and Keep Forecast button.
   
   
    
4. The alerts are cleared and the original forecasting is kept.

When a Menu Item is Added, Replaced, or Removed after Forecasting Worksheet is Locked

When a menu item is added, replaced or removed, a locked forecasting worksheet will not be automatically updated. However, when opening the locked forecasting worksheet, a message appears in red to indicate that the worksheet can be recalculated to accommodate the change. 



Note that the message is a bit ambiguous because it states that the worksheet was "Last calculated at {datetime stamp}." This message means to say that the behind-the-scenes calculations are not being shown until you manually recalculate the worksheet (as explained below).   

When Extension Grid of a Menu Item is Changed after Forecasting Worksheet is Locked

When the menu item extension grid is changed, a locked forecasting worksheet will not be automatically updated. However, when opening the locked forecasting worksheet, a message appears in red to indicate that the worksheet can be recalculated to accommodate the change. 



Note that the message is a bit ambiguous because it states that the worksheet was "Last calculated at {datetime stamp}." This message means to say that the behind-the-scenes calculations are not being shown until you manually recalculate the worksheet (as explained below).   

Menu Changes that Cause Automatic Recalculation of Locked Forecasting Worksheets 

When a forecasting worksheet is locked, the menu changes listed below will result in an automatic recalculation of a locked forecasting worksheet. When the change is made a respective message appears to indicate such and give you the opportunity to proceed or not with the automatic recalculation to the forecasting worksheet. 

• Change in menu schedule and/or menu service location.
  
  
  
  For the above change, the forecasting worksheet will also be unlocked. 
   
• Change in menu properties:
  • active meals
  • number of weeks on the menu
  • number of choices
  • extension type
    
    
    
    Note: For the above change, the forecasting worksheet will continue to stay locked. When opening the locked forecasting worksheet, a message appears stating that the worksheet was recalculated due to the change. This message can be cleared by clicking the Recalculate button. 
    
    
     
• Change of item’s choice.
  
  
  
  Note: For the above change, the forecasting worksheet will continue to stay locked. When opening the locked forecasting worksheet, a message appears stating that the worksheet was recalculated due to the change. This message can be cleared by clicking the Recalculate button. 
  
  

Manually Recalculating Forecasting for a Locked Forecasting Worksheet

To recalculate the forecasting for a locked forecasting worksheet, complete the following steps:

1. Open the locked forecasting worksheet.
2. There are two methods to recalculate the forecasting:
   1. Click the Recalculate button and a confirmation message appears (screenshot below). Click the Recalculate and Clear Adjustments button. The forecasting is recalculated to accommodate the new census.
      
      
      
      or
       
   2. Click the View Census link and the census window appears (first screenshot below). Click the Recalculate button and a confirmation message appears (second screenshot below). Click the Recalculate and Clear Adjustments button. The forecasting is recalculated to accommodate the new census.
      
      
      
      

Unlocking a Worksheet or Multiple Worksheets

When you unlock a locked forecasting worksheet, the forecast auto-calculation process is re-enabled to update the serving numbers. 

To unlock a single forecasting worksheet, click the Unlock button. 

You can unlock all forecasting worksheets via the forecasting calendar. To do so:

1. Open the forecasting calendar by selecting Production > Forecasting.
2. Click the Unlock All button at the bottom right of the screen. The following message appears:
   
   
    
3. Click the Unlock Them and Clear Manual Adjustments button. The forecasting worksheet are unlocked.

FAQs

If manual percentage adjustments are made on the menu itself, will these adjustments apply to a locked forecasting worksheet?

If the forecasting worksheet was not locked when the manual percentage adjustments were made on a menu, then these percentage adjustments and associated serving numbers will apply to an unlocked forecasting worksheet. 

If the forecasting worksheet was locked when the manual percentage adjustments were made on a menu, then these percentage adjustments will not apply to the locked forecasting worksheet, and the associated serving numbers will not be updated. To apply these adjustments to a locked forecasting worksheet, you need to either unlock the worksheet or click the Recalculate button on the locked worksheet. 

Does unlocking or recalculating a forecasting worksheet clear any manual percentage adjustments that were made on the menu itself?

No. The functions of unlocking or recalculating a worksheet apply to the worksheet itself and do not affect any manual percentage adjustments made on the menu itself. 

If total needed amounts are manually made on the menu itself, will these amounts apply to a locked forecasting worksheet?

If the forecasting worksheet was not locked when the total needed amounts were manually made on a menu, then these amounts will apply to an unlocked forecasting worksheet. 

If the forecasting worksheet was locked when the total needed amounts were manually made on a menu, then these amounts will not update on the locked forecasting worksheet. To apply these amounts to a locked forecasting worksheet, you need to either unlock the worksheet or click the Recalculate button on the locked worksheet. 

Does unlocking or recalculating a forecasting worksheet clear any total needed amounts that were manually made on the menu itself?

No. The functions of unlocking or recalculating a worksheet apply to the worksheet itself and do not affect any total needed amounts that were manually made on a menu.