Creating & Managing Menu Cycles

Created by Harriet Medlicott, Modified on Thu, 20 Oct, 2022 at 12:49 PM by Harriet Medlicott

Piranha

Menu Management

Planning and costing a menu is a time consuming and stressful activity. Planning what specific items are going to be available on what day, and keeping track of the quantity of portions which need to be prepared can be a real headache; this is especially true for multi-site organisations where different menus are served on alternate sites. Pi's Menu Cycles tool has been designed to take the pain out of the process and make menu cycle planning quick, easy and effortless to manage. On top of that, there are a number of useful features, such as: easy ‘traffic light’ costing and menu cycle approval system, to name but a few. If you do not yet have access to Menu Cycles, contact the Pi Helpdesk and request for Manage menu cycles to be added to your profile.

Click on images within this article for easier viewing.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Getting Started
Menu Cycles Overview
Configuration
Creating a Menu Cycle
Navigating Around
Features
Tools
Related Articles

Getting Started

Select the Piranha module from the left-hand navigation bar
Select Menu Cycles

Setting up Tags is really useful when using Menu Cycles, especially for those that need to check whether they are compliant with the food-based standards for school lunches (mandatory since January 2015).

Once menu cycles have been created, these will be shown on the Menu Cycle Dashboard.

Menu Cycle Dashboard

Dashboard Overview
	The Site filter will help you find menu cycles assigned to a specific site.
	Select the Archived items checkbox to view any menu cycles that have been archived.Click the Archive icon to un-archive a cycle.
	Select Settings to configure the menu cycles set up and make changes as required.
	Select New menu cycle to create a new cycle.
	View an overview of the created menu cycles. Click on a cycle to open it. When sites have been assigned to a cycle this will show, along with a calculated Avg Res and Avg Res Cost. Organisation users will not be able to access a cycle if it has been assigned to a specific site they do not have on their Pi profile.
	Click this icon to archive a menu cycle.
	Click this icon to duplicate a menu cycle. This will make a copy of the existing for you to start making changes to.
	Click this icon to download a menu cycle in an Excel format. Before downloading, you can choose from a selection of customise options.
	Click this icon to delete a cycle. You will be asked to confirm this action before continuing.

Configuration

When first using Pi's Menu Cycles, you need to configure your Sittings or Courses. To do this, select the Settings button (located to the right-hand side of the dashboard page). Here, you can detail which meals you serve and what courses are available.

These settings will apply to all Menu Cycles in the organisation. If some sites do not offer the same courses or meal options, these can be left blank when creating the cycle itself.

Click the Add sitting button to create a new sitting (create as many as required)
Select the sitting to open the Sitting details section
Enter the name of the sitting
Click Add course to create a new course within the sitting (create as many as required)
Select the course to open the Course details section
Enter the name of the course
Use the arrows to change the positioning of these as required
Select Delete to remove any additions made
Once finished, click the Menu cycles back button

Once set up is complete, click New menu cycle (located to the right-hand side of the dashboard page).

Complete the required information for the new menu cycle
Click Save
The menu cycle will appear on the dashboard ready to be edited - select to open
Click the pencil icons to open and edit each day
Click Delete against the last listed week to remove it
Click Add week to add more

i. Adding Recipes

If the site for a menu cycle does not offer the same courses or meal options, these can be left blank.

Click the '+' icon to the left of a sitting to view the courses
Click the '+' icon to the left of a course to start adding your recipes
Under the Search recipe panel (right-hand side), use the available pre-defined search features based on your Piranha configuration to find your recipes
To add a recipe, drag and drop into the relevant sitting's course
If required, click the 'X' icon to remove a recipe

Setting up Classification labels and Tags will make finding recipes easier.

ii. Residents per day

Adjust the number of Residents per day to provide an accurate total cost. This will take into account the cost per recipe portion and how many heads are to be covered.

Click the settings icon under Residents (located top-right)
Enter the number of residents (heads)
Choose to apply to This day only or All days
Select the checkbox to Scale recipe servings, if required
Click Apply

iii. Servings

Use the Servings text field to edit the number of portions you plan to produce for each recipe - this will provide a percentage of how much will be covered based on the number of Residents. In doing this, you will also be able to view a Cost per resident along with the Total cost.

Navigating Around

All changes save as you progress. Whilst editing a day you can move to the Next or Previous by clicking the relevant option either side of the current day. Select the Week view back button to go back to the calendar view...

...and select the Menu cycles back button to return to the dashboard.

Features

The below table provides an overview of available features to help further manage a menu cycle...


Site Selection		Tools

Use the Site (for GP% costings) drop-down to choose a site the menu cycle is for. In doing this, you will be able to view a Gross Profit percentage for the whole menu cycle and also when viewing individual days.		Use the Tools drop-down to choose from a number of different tools available. Click here to jump to the Tools section in this article.
Edit	Duplicate	Delete	Download

Click this icon to edit a day.	Click this icon to copy a day over to the next empty day.	Click this icon to delete a day. You will be asked to confirm this action before continuing.	Click this icon to download a daily menu for that day. In doing this, you can choose which sitting you'd like to download along with some customise options.
Drag & Drop
Simply click on a day to drag and drop over to an empty day.

Tools

Within every menu cycle, there are a number of tools available - see an overview for each below. Use the Tools drop-down to select a function...

Menu Cycle Settings
Changes will save automatically. Click Close to return.
General	Calendar

In the General tab, you can amend the menu cycle's details.	In the Calendar tab, you can choose the days the menu cycle is active. For example, if you are not open on weekends, deselect Saturday and Sunday. Alternatively, you can configure your own calendar. Non-active days will show grey.
Costs

The Costs tab is where you can set up easy 'traffic light' costing. Enter values for the three different cost limits and you will be notified if these are exceeded. For the Lower cost limit, you will also be advised on days that fall below the limit. Use the Traffic light mode drop-down to choose how you would like the traffic lights to report. If you are using Pi's Purchase Coding module, you can also select a cost centre.

Refresh Prices

Select Refresh prices to...refresh prices. You will be notified when prices are updated.

Request Approval

When selecting Request approval, you will be asked to confirm the request before sending. Once sent, the menu cycle will be locked. You will need to notify the relevant contact to access the menu cycle to approve. The approval request can be cancelled, if required. The menu cycle's status will show as Requested, and the approver will need to use the Tools drop-down to Approve or Reject.

If approved, the status will update and the menu cycle will remain locked. Once approved, you will only be able to edit, download a daily menu, and the available Tools will be limited. If rejected, the status will update and will need to be requested for approval again. Communication to notify when requesting and reasons for rejecting will need to be made internally. Approvers will need their profile adjusted to be able to approve/reject menu cycles.

Resident Settings

Resident settings allows you to update the number of heads per day for the whole menu cycle. This will override the number of heads set for individual days. Click Apply to save.

Tagging Report

Use the Tagging report to see an overview of the added recipes and the Tags they belong to. This is handy if you need to be compliant with the food-based standards for school lunches. Or you may want to track allergens, dietary requirements, and so on. Click the '+' icon to expand and view the assigned recipes.

Export to Recipe Order

This tool allows you to create orders based on the recipes within a menu cycle. When selecting Export to recipe order you can choose the weeks, days, sittings and courses required for ordering. If a site has already been assigned to the menu cycle, this will automatically be selected. When ready, click Proceed and you will be taken to the Manage supplier orders page.

The Recipe Orders article will explain more on this feature.

Cost Per Day

The Cost per day option allows you to view a menu cycle's Cost per day or Cost per resident per day. Either option will amend the header of each day to reflect the chosen cost option.

Downloads

There are three different downloads available...

Allergen matrix - Download a PDF or Excel allergen report based on added recipes within the menu cycle. You can choose for this to be Per menu cycle or Per day.
Nutrition matrix - Download an Excel nutrition report based on added recipes within the menu cycle. You can choose for this to be Per 100g/ml or Per recipe portion.
Recipe Book - Download recipe spec sheets based on added recipes within the menu cycle. You can use the customise options provided, choosing to include/exclude certain information. These can be downloaded as single PDFs or a ZIP file containing multiple files.

Contact Us

If you need any additional help, please get in touch.

For Allergen and Nutrition data queries, email piranhadata@pelicanprocurement.co.uk