- About Manually Adjusting Forecasting Amounts
- Manually Adjusting a Forecasting Amount
- Automatic Locking of the Forecasting Worksheet
- Clearing Manual Adjustments (i.e., Recalculating)
About Manually Adjusting Serving Amounts
The percentage forecast method that you apply to a menu automatically generates the number of servings required for a meal service (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and day combination.
The total needed forecast method that you apply to a menu contains the default number of servings required for a meal service (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and day combination.
The census forecast method that you apply to a menu generates serving amounts of each menu item equal to the diet order census in your MealSuite account.
If needed, you can manually adjust the serving amounts, which is done on the forecasting worksheet. 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.
Manually Adjusting a Serving Amount
To manually adjust a serving amount, complete the following steps:
- Open the desired forecasting worksheet for the meal period/day.
- From the Menu Service Location field, select the menu service location of the menus whose serving amounts you want to adjust. Upon selecting the menu service location, the forecasting worksheet screen refreshes to display the assigned menus of the menu service location.
- The Service Type field displays All by default, which means the dining area census used by the forecasting worksheet (screenshot below) includes those assigned the table select service (i.e., table select census) and the advance ordering service (i.e., advance ordering census). To refresh the worksheet screen to display only the table select census of the dining areas, select Table Select. To refresh the worksheet screen to display only the advance ordering census of the dining areas (assuming that the forecasting is set up to include the advance ordering census), select Advance Ordering.
- There are two methods to manually adjust the serving amounts (refer to appropriate section below):
Adjusting Serving Amounts for Individual Items
- Locate the item whose serving amount you want to adjust.
- Double-click into the item’s Servings field and enter the new number.
- Repeat for other items whose serving amounts need to change.
Note: If you are displaying amounts by total unit of measurement, you can manually adjust the total field.
Adjusting the Dining Area Census
The census that forecasting uses to calculate the serving amounts comes from the dining areas assigned to the menu service location. The census for each dining room is displayed at the top right of the forecasting worksheet (screenshot below).
You can manually adjust a dining area census by clicking the census number and changing it, which then generates new serving amounts for each item on the forecasting worksheet.
Percentages Forecasting Calculation:
For percentages forecasting, the calculation to generate the serving amounts is as follows: Choice percentage multiplied by the dining area census = servings. For example, assume you have 40 people in your dining area census, and for the beverage category you know that 75% of people will select choice 1 (orange juice) and 25% of people will select choice 2 (grapefruit juice). The calculation to generate the results for production is as follows:
- 75% (choice 1 percentage) x 40 (dining area census) = 30 servings of orange juice.
- 25% (choice 2 percentage) x 40 (dining area census) = 10 servings of grapefruit juice.
Total Needed Forecasting and Census Forecasting Calculation:
For the total needed forecasting and the census forecasting, the calculation to generate the serving amounts is as follows:
Original serving amount / original dining area census x new dining area census = new serving amount.
Original serving amount | Divide by original dining area census | Equals | Multiply by new dining area census | Equals new serving amount (rounded up) on forecasting worksheet |
2 | /18 | .11 | x40 | 5 |
16 | /18 | .88 | x40 | 36 |
20 | /18 | 1.11 | x40 | 45 |
Also remember that there are two types of dining areas (the forecasting worksheet does not identify the type of dining area):
- A dining area that people profiles can be assigned to.
or - A dining area that has a manual census. The manual census is the number of diet orders (i.e., diet type and texture type combinations) the dining area supports and must be entered by you.
Automatic Locking of the Forecasting Worksheet
When the serving amounts are manually adjusted, the forecasting worksheet is locked to prevent the forecasting auto-calculation from overriding the manually-adjusted amounts. When a forecasting worksheet is locked, its Locked/Unlock button at the top right of the screen toggle to Unlock.
Note that for the percentage forecast method, you can manually adjust the percentages. However, when manually adjusting percentages, the worksheet will not lock. Instead the serving numbers are adjusted accordingly based off the new percentages.
Clearing Manual Adjustments (i.e., Recalculating)
You can clear any manual adjustments and have the forecast auto-calculation process recalculate the amounts. To do so:
- Click the Recalculate button. A message appears stating that recalculating will clear any manual adjustments to the forecasting worksheet.
- Click the Recalculate and Clear Adjustments button.