Food Preparation Forecast Module

The History Of Food Preparation Forecasting

Restaurateurs have always had the challenge of calculating/guesstimating what sales were going to be either for the day or week.  Too often this was done with limited accuracy and guesswork.

If historical data was available it was probably too cumbersome to go through each item to determine a rate of sale and then forecast upcoming sales.

The Need For Food Preparation Forecasting

The need is clear.  Accurately project sales to the point of meeting all customer demand without over supply and waste of food.  A simple statement.  A nearly impossible task.

You need to be able to properly forecast sales of your menu items to the point that you do not overbuy or overcook.  Maximized sales with zero waste.  That is your goal.

The Solution For Food Preparation Forecasting

DirecTouch Point of Sale comes standard with a Preparation Forecaster which will help obtain this goal.

You are able to designate the items you want to track.  These could be:

• You signature item.  The one people come to your restaurant to eat.
• Items with a long prep time.  You don't want to run out of prime rib when it takes hours to cook.
• High profit items.  You don't want to miss out on this sale.
• High cost items.  You don't want to cook something and have to throw it away.
• Items with short hold time.  Cook just what you need for this time period and reduce waste.

You are able to set up recipes for accurate usage.  Single burgers count as a single patty.  Double burgers count for 2.  Combo meals or platters are able to count the main item plus sides.

Let the system know how far back, up to 8 weeks back that you want to consider in the sales forecast.  Once this is set, the system will look at the past X (2 - 8 weeks) weeks of sales on a given day and forecast today's sales including the run rate.  That is, if you have been averaging $1,000 per Monday for the past 8 weeks with a trend of a 10% increase, next Monday's sales forecast will be for $1,100.

Based upon this sales forecast and the recipes entered for the items being tracked the system will forecast the items necessary for you to produce these sales.

The Benefit Of Food Preparation Forecasting To You

This feature certainly has the benefits to go along with the feature.

• Increased sales by having enough product for your customers.
• Decreased waste by accurately buying and cooking to your customer's demand.
• Increased profits through improved food cost.

A restaurant doing $500,000 per year that reduces food cost by only .25% (POINT .25%) increases profits by $1,250.  A reduction of 1/2 of 1% nets you an additional $2,500.

The Setup Of Food Preparation Forecasting

This feature is automatically turned on when you install the software.  Follow these steps to turn the feature OFF.

1. Enter Security Access Number
2. Click "Manager Menu"
3. Click "Software Connections Menu"
4. Click "Preparation Forecaster"
5. Enter "Prep Items Setup"
6. Save and Exit
7. Enter "Prep Recipe Setup"
8. Save and Exit
9. Enter "Configuration"
10. Save and Exit
11. Enter "Run Prep Sheet"
12. Click "Save"
13. Click "Exit"
14. Exit back to sign on screen.
15. With licensed software you would have gotten a printed item forecast.

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