A recipe is a group of inventory items that have been entered in the database and ‘bundled together’ to make up the ‘ingredients’ of a menu item.
The Recipe database not only provides reporting functions for your Recipes, but also serves to track the precise cost of preparing each of your Menu Items. Menu Items that have been entered in the database can be associated with recipes for Total Party Planner to calculate Event costs, or simply use ‘Quick Costing’ to get the costs.
Data entry of your recipes only needs to be done ONCE. As well as changes can be made in the future. Previous entry of a Menu Item and Inventory (ingredients) is required before building the recipe.
Step 1 (Pre-requisite) - Creating your Menu Item
1. Select the ‘Menu Items> Add New Menu Item’ option from the Navigation Bar.
2. Enter the ‘Name’ of the menu item.
3. Select a ‘Category’ for the menu from the drop-down list.
4. If you plan on using this item as a sub recipe (a menu item used as a recipe for another menu item) then click the ‘List as Sub-Recipe’ check box.
5. If the menu item is a beverage then click the ‘Menu Item is a Beverage’ check box.
6. Enter the menu item’s ‘Description’. This is what a client will see on the Proposal of Service Report so be sure to be nice and detailed!
7. Enter a ‘Sale Price’ if this item will ever be sold as a single unit (ala-carte). If not, say it’s a side dish always included in a per-serving price, then leave the sale price as $0.00
8. Select the ‘Sale Price Start Date’ from the calendar pop-up. This date has to be on or before the first time this item is associated with any event.
9. Click the ‘Save’ button to save the new menu item data.
Step 2 (Pre-requisite) - Creating your Inventory (recipe ingredients)
1. Select the ‘Inventory> Add New Inventory Item’ option from the Navigation Bar.
2. Enter the ‘Item Name’ of the new inventory item.
3. In the ‘Classification’ drop-down list select the class for the item you are adding.
4. Choose a ‘Category’ from the drop-down list.
Note: All fields in red are required.
Purchase Detail: how you would order this item from a vendor (ex: 1 case).
1. Enter the ‘Stock #’ if desired.
2. ‘Purchase Amount’ : enter the amount in which you purchase this item.
3. ‘Purchase Measure’ : enter the measurement in which you purchase this item. Ex: 1 pound(s).
4. ‘Purchase Cost’ : enter the cost for the item in the units that you purchased. Ex: You purchased by the pound, how much does the item cost per pound.
5. Enter the ‘Start Date’ for this item. This date has to be on or before the first time this item is associated with any event.
6. Select the ‘Vendor’ for this item from the drop-down list. If the vendor does not appear, use the ‘Quick Add Vendor’ button to add one on the fly.
Shelving Detail: how you would store this item or use it in a recipe (ex:1 case breaks down into 12 cans).
1. ‘Shelf Amount’ : enter the amount in which you store this item.
2. ‘Shelf Measure’ : choose the measurement in which you store this item.
3. ‘Sale Price’ : should be left at $0.00 for now. Currently TPP does not support the selling of raw food inventory. It is the Menu Items that are sold.
4. Click the ‘Save’ button to save the new inventory (ingredient) data.
Step 3 - Building the Recipe
1. Select the ‘Menu Items> Full Search’ option from the Navigation Bar.
2. Using the search function, find the menu item just added to the database. Be sure to click the ‘Search’ button to apply your criteria. Refer to the topic Updating Menu Item Data for more detailed information on searching.
3. Select the Menu Item by clicking the ‘View’ link.
4. To Begin Adding ingredients to the recipe click on the ‘Recipe & Costing’ tab.
Specifying Number of Servings & Yield
1. To edit how many people the recipe will serve, the yield amount, and the portion (plate) amount, click the ‘Edit Yield and Serving’ button.
2. Enter how many people this recipe will serve in the ‘Per Person Serves’ field.
3. Enter the ‘Yield’. Ex: 1 platter, 1 large pan, 2 gallons, etc.
4. The ‘Portion (plate) Amt’ is the actual serving, or presentation, portion. For example 3 pieces of shrimp, 4 ounces, etc.
Adding Ingredients
1. Click the ‘Add Ingredient’ button.
2. Search for specific ingredients you want to add to this recipe by using the search frame utilities. Be sure to click the Search button to apply your criteria.
3. Enter the amount needed (numeric value) in the ‘Amount’ grid column. A fractional unit (1/4, ½, etc.) can be entered in the drop-down list to the right of the amount field.
Note : This is the amount required to prepare for the number of servings you specified in the Per Person Serves section.
4. Select a ‘Measure’ (cups, ounces, pounds, etc) from the drop-down list.
5. Choose a ‘Preparation’, if required, from the drop-down list. Preparation items are things such as chopped, diced, cleaned, cut, etc.
6. Check the ‘Round Up’ box if this ingredient should always calculate in whole units. For example, never show 1.48 eggs – round up to 2.
7. Click the ‘Add to Recipe’ link to add the ingredient to the recipe.
8. If the selected ‘Measure’ is incompatible with both the purchase unit and shelving unit (ie., there is no logical conversion), Total Party Planner will prompt you to enter a manual conversion. Enter the values to make the prompted values "equal". You can view the ingredient’s current purchase and shelf units in the grid to see if a further conversion is going to be necessary.
9. The ‘Current Recipe’ tab will summarize which ingredients you have already added without having to close the screen and go back to the Menu Item view page.
10. Once you have entered all the required ingredients for the Menu Item, click the Back to Recipe’ button.
Re-sequencing Ingredient Order
1. Ingredients are added to the recipe in the sequential order they were picked. As an option, you may choose to reorder an ingredient to a specific position without rebuilding the whole recipe grid.
2. Click the ‘Sequence Order’ button.
3. Select the ingredient row to be moved.
4. Drag and drop the ingredients until they are in the order you wish.
5. Click the ‘Back to Recipe’ button.
Deleting an Ingredient
1. Select the ingredient you wish to remove from the recipe by clicking the ‘Delete’ link.
2. Click ‘OK’ to confirm the deletion.
Step 3 (Optional) – Including a Sub Recipe
Sub Recipes allow you to associate a recipe that is common to several products without having to duplicate the recipe for each Menu Item. For example, you provide the Menu Items Shrimp Cocktail and Crab Legs. While the recipes for these Menu Items are significantly different they both share a common sub recipe - Cocktail Sauce. Total Party Planner allows you to enter one recipe for Cocktail Sauce and associate it as a sub recipe to both Menu Items. This feature will save you time when creating recipes.
Note: The Menu Item (and Recipe) that you are to include as a sub recipe must exist in the database before it can be used as a sub recipe for this Menu Item.
Note: In order for an item to be used as a Sub Recipe it must have a yield defined.
1. Click the ‘Add Sub Recipe’ button.
2. Use the Search Box to search for any items to be used as Sub Recipes. The Menu items that appear here are those that had the ‘List as Sub-Recipe’ option checked when they were initially setup.
3. Click the ‘Select’ link for the item you wish to add as a Sub Recipe.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page.
Note: If the yield is marked as ‘*Not Defined*’, then the selected sub recipe cannot be added to the main recipe. Define an appropriate yield for the sub recipe before continuing. Refer to Step 3 above for more detailed information on yielding.
5. Enter an amount for the item. This is in terms of the yield defined for that Menu Item.
6. If the ‘Measure’ is changed then it must be a convertible measurement of the sub recipe yield amount.
7. Select a date from the ‘Recipe as of Date:’ box.
8. Click the ‘Add Sub Recipe’ button to add the Sub Recipe to the menu item.
Step 5 – Adding the Method (Recipe Instructional Text)
1. Click the ‘Recipe Method’ tab
2. Click the ‘Edit’ button.
3. Enter the step-by-step instructional text of how you would prepare this recipe.
4. Optionally enter the ‘Heating & Serving’ instructions.
5. Click the ‘Save’ button or ‘Cancel’ to rollback any changes.
Step 6 (Optional) – Adding Labor Cost
1. Click ‘Labor Cost’ tab.
2. Click the ‘Add Labor Title’ button.
3. Select a ‘Staff Title’ from the drop-down list. This title will have a general wage dollar amount associated to it. This is where the costing comes from when adding to the recipe
4. Enter the total number of ‘Prep Hours’ that this title will have to spend to prepare for the serving count defined for the recipe. The total wage cost is a multiplication of the number of hours times the wage.
5. Click the ‘Save’ button.
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