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Using Menu Cost Analysis Screen to Identify Over Budget Instances on Menu

Kevin U
  • Updated

About the Menu Cost Analysis Screen

The Menu Costs Analysis screen provides detailed cost analysis on your menu and allows you to quickly identify the instances on your menu that are overbudget. 

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Opening the Menu Cost Analysis Screen

There are multiple means to open the Menu Cost Analysis screen:

  • Via the Menus Listing screen, click the cog wheel in the Action column and select View Cost Analysis. 

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  • Via the menu week-at-a-glance (WaaG) view, you can open the Menu Cost Analysis screen by clicking the View Cost Analysis button at the top of the screen. 

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  • By clicking the Settings button on the WaaG view (first screenshot below), the Edit Menu slide-out panel appears (second screenshot below). From this slide-out panel, click the Menu Budgeting tab and then click the Go To Menu Cost Analysis button. 

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Working in the Menu Cost Analysis Screen

If Budgeting by a Daily Food Amount per Resident

If you are budgeting by a daily food amount per resident, the Menu Cost Analysis window is described as follows:

  1. Number of days that exceed budget. By clicking the Show Details link, the following info is displayed;
    • Number of days that exceed budget
    • The total cost range, explained as follows: The cost on the left is from the day in the menu cycle with the lowest average cost of a choice selection, and the cost on the right is from the day in the menu cycle with the highest average cost of a choice selection. 
  2. The number of days that have menu items with incomplete costs due to missing vendor products for ingredients. 
  3. The daily budget that is applied. 
  4. Diet order (diet type and texture type combination) selection.
  5. Average cost for each choice selection broken down by week, day, and meal period (breakfast, lunch, dinner).
  6. Average daily cost for week, day, and meal period (breakfast, lunch, dinner).  
  7. Red highlight to indicate if average cost of a choice selection for a day is over budget. Red highlight to indicate if average daily cost is over budget (in the Average Daily Cost column). Note that the week of the day that has an over budget choice selection is also highlighted red. 
  8. Alert indicator if cost is incomplete for a day due to menu item(s) missing vendor products for ingredients. 

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If Budgeting by Meal Period Amount per Resident

If you are budgeting by meal periods (i.e., an individual budget is set for breakfast, lunch and dinner) per resident, the Menu Cost Analysis window is described as follows:

  1. Number of days that exceed budget. By clicking the Show Details link, the following info is displayed:
    • Number of meals that exceed budget.
    • For a meal period (Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner) that is over budget, displays the cost range, explained as follows: The cost on the left is the lowest cost of a choice selection for that meal period in the menu cycle, and the cost on the right is the highest cost of a choice selection for that meal period in the menu cycle.
  2. The number of meals that have menu items with incomplete costs due to missing vendor products for ingredients. 
  3. Diet order (diet type and texture type combination) selection.
  4. Average cost for each choice selection broken down by meal period (breakfast, lunch, dinner), week and day.
  5. Average meal cost for meal period (breakfast, lunch, dinner), week, and day. 
  6. Budget set for meal period.
  7. Red highlight to indicate if average cost of a choice selection for a day is over budget. The week and the meal period of the over budget instance is also highlighted red. Red highlight to indicate if average meal cost for a day is over budget (in the Average Meal Cost column).
  8. Alert indicator if cost is incomplete for a day due to menu item(s) missing vendor products for ingredients. 
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Selecting Therapeutic Diet Order for Menu Cost Analysis

By default, the regular diet order (regular diet type/regular texture type) is selected to display the costs for the regular menu items. To select a different diet order (i.e., therapeutic diet order), complete the following steps:

  1. Open the Menu Cost Analysis Screen.
  2. Click into the Diet/Texture field. The Diet Texture Combination window appears (screenshot below). 

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  3. Select the desired diet type/texture type combination, and then click the Select button. You are returned to the Menu Cost Analysis screen, where the costs of the menu items for the selected diet order are now displayed.  

    menu_cost_analysis_therapeutic_diet_order.png

Resolving Menu Item with Too High a Cost

When a menu instance is over budget, you can click either the week or the day with the over budget instance (screenshot below) to open the Week-at-a-Glance (WaaG view) or Menu Day view, respectively, to resolve the high-cost item(s). To resolve a menu item with too high a cost, see Resolving Menu Item with Too High (or Too Low) a Cost.

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Resolving Menu Item with Ingredient(s) that have No Vendor Product

When a menu item has no matching vendor product for an ingredient (identified with alert icon: alert_orange_triangle.png), you can click the day that is serving the menu item (screenshot below) to open the Menu Day view to identify the menu item(s). Once on the menu day view, see Identifying Menu Item with Ingredient(s) that has no Matching Vendor Product. When the menu item is identified, see Resolving a Food Item with the "No Matching Vendor Product" Label.

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