Menu System: Order Guide

The order guide provides information on the food items and amounts that you need for each week or each ordering period. This allows for accuracy in ordering. This is especially important if the person normally doing the order is not available and someone else needs to do it instead.

Both over-ordering and under-ordering can negatively affect the food budget. It can also negatively affect regulatory compliance and customer satisfaction.

Some menu systems will calculate order guides (or grocery lists) based upon your menu and diet census. With manual systems, it is necessary to calculate the information by hand. However, once it is done, unless there are major census changes, it is accurate enough for the remainder of the menu cycle.

In the long-run, it is more efficient to calculate the products and amounts needed once at the beginning of the cycle and write it down in a logical format than to start from scratch each week for six months or the length of the cycle.