After item, recipes and menus have been created and before manufacturing, and production can occur, meals must first be planned.
Step 1: From the Home tab, select Meal Planning.
Step 2: Establish meals and meal counts for each day.
View - Allows you to change how you view the calendar.
- Include Saturdays
- Include Sundays
- Show Recipe Detail - Shows all items included in the recipe for the meal.
- Row Height - Allows you to adjust the size of the rows so all items are visible when more than one recipe is allocated for a day or when viewing recipe details.
Edit Day - Allows you to edit details for the day. You may also edit a day by double-clicking in a cell.
Reset to Template - Resets the entire meal planning calendar to the template established at the the District level.
Automatic Planning - Allows you to apply existing meal plans to upcoming dates for an established date range.
Establish Automatic-Planning for upcoming dates. Then, click Ok.
Use the calendar menu to establish a date range.
You must select a date range beyond the current day in order for automatic-planning to be implemented.
- Select planning based on Past Planning Records or Past Serving Records.
Meal plans will automatically be updated based on Past Planning Records or Past Serving Records.
Quantities needed are determined by:
Menus on the calendar starting with the current date and ending with the selected date.
Ingredients on the recipes containing planned serving counts.
Scaling the recipes.
Ingredients on pending orders.
Ingredients on-hand.
- Select the Meal Type by using the drop-down menu and selecting the correct meal for which you are planning.
- Select a date and click Edit Day or double-click in the cell to select/edit menus and recipes.
The 
icon indicates that there are no meals planned for that day.
Yellow background - Meal counts are not complete.
Green background - Meal counts have been planned.
No background - No meal counts have been planned.
Blue background - The currently chosen day (not to be confused with current operating day).
The calendar view indicates production Serve Type.
 | Indicates the meal has High Participation expected. |
 | Indicates the meal has Low Participation expected. |
The calendar view indicates production status.
 | Meal has been produced |
 | Meal has been partially produced |
 | Meal has not been produced |
Step 3: Establish the type of meal serving and add a menu or recipe.
- Serve Type - Use the drop-down menu to select from the serve type list.
- Normal - Selected for every day operation.
- Low Participation - Selected when meal participation is low such as upcoming holiday periods and the end of the school year.
- High Participation - Selected when meal participation is high - typically on days a popular meal is being prepared.
- No Meal - No meal is established by default and for holidays or when meals will not be served.
- Click the Add button to add a menu item or recipe to an existing menu item.
If a menu item already exists for a day when clicking the Add button, you will be prompted to choose between adding a new menu or adding a recipe to one of the existing menus. Make your selection. Then, click Ok.
Step 4: Use the Search box to locate a specific menu or recipe. Select the correct menu/recipe. Then, click Ok.
Step 5: Enter estimated meal counts for each menu and serving group. You may expand each menu to adjust menu components counts and extra servings for items (such as à la carte sales) in cases where one menu component may be less popular than another. Then, click Ok.
Meal counts determine which items are on-hand and which items need to be ordered.
