Supply Planning

What it does

Supply planning answers the question you ask before a busy weekend: if we sell roughly what we sold last weekend, what do we actually have to buy? You list the dishes you expect to sell — by hand, or generated from what really sold on comparable days — and the recipes turn that list into a shopping list of raw products, with what you already have on the shelf taken off, grouped by the supplier you buy each one from. Export the list to send to a supplier or print, and when the delivery arrives, book it into stock the normal way on the Stock page.

Getting started

1. Make sure the dishes you plan to sell have recipes. A dish without one contributes nothing to the shopping list, and planning it will not tell you to buy anything.
2. Open Inventory → Supply planning and tap New plan. Give it a name you will recognise ("Weekend", "Christmas Eve") and set the days it covers. One day is a valid plan.
3. Fill the plan. Either tap Add dish and enter how many of each you expect to sell, or tap From sales history and let the system fill it from what actually sold.
4. Read the shopping list below. Each row shows what the plan requires, what is on hand, what is left to buy, and roughly what it will cost, grouped by supplier.
5. Turn on Top up to reorder levels if you also want to bring every product back up to its minimum stock, not just cover the plan.
6. Tap Export to download the list. Pick CSV or PDF, and turn on A file per supplier if you'd rather send each supplier only their own lines than the whole list at once — that downloads a single ZIP holding one file per supplier.
7. When a delivery arrives, receive it the same way you always do — on the Stock page, correcting quantities and prices against the delivery note. Supply planning only works out what to buy; it doesn't book stock itself.
8. Tap Save to keep the plan. You can reopen it any time — tap its row in Supply planning to select it, then tap the Edit icon that appears to open it; the shopping list is recalculated against your stock as it stands then.

Key things to know

• The shopping list is worked out the same way selling a dish deducts stock. It uses the same recipes, the same variant and modifier rules, and the same waste allowances. If the register says a dish needs 165 g of carrot, that is what the plan orders for it.
• A plan stores what you intend to sell, not what to buy. What to buy is recalculated every time you open it, because your stock changes hourly. A shopping list saved on Wednesday would be quietly wrong by Friday.
• Dishes with no recipe are named, not hidden. They appear with a "no recipe" tag and in a note above the shopping list, because otherwise they would silently contribute nothing and you would under-buy without knowing why. A dish costed by hand with no ingredients listed — a wine bought in by the case — appears there too, for the same reason.
• Variants are planned separately. A dish with sizes is planned per size, because each size has its own recipe. Modifiers are planned in their own right, since they consume ingredients of their own.
• "From sales history" replaces the whole list. It is an answer to the whole question, and mixing it into rows you typed yourself would leave no way to tell where a number came from. You are warned before it overwrites anything.
• The forecast is arithmetic you can check by hand. For each day you are planning, it takes what each dish averaged per day over the history period, and adds it up. Nothing else — no trend, no seasonality.
• Match day of week is on by default. With it on, a Saturday is forecast from the Saturdays in the history period and a Sunday from the Sundays. Turn it off and every day of the period counts the same, which is what you want for a steady weekday.
• The average is per calendar day, not per trading day. Four Saturdays in the window means the Saturday total is divided by four, whether or not you opened on all four. A day you were closed genuinely lowers the average.
• Everything is rounded up. Half a portion of chicken is a portion you have to be able to cook.
• Use "Adjust by %" for a bigger or quieter week than usual. 120% plans a fifth more than history suggests; 80% plans a fifth less.
• Prices are an estimate, and the total says so when it is incomplete. Each product is priced at what your current stock of it cost. A product you have never bought has no price at all — it shows a dash rather than zero, and the plan's total is shown as "≥" to say it is a floor, not an answer.
• Export gives you a CSV or a PDF, for the whole plan or split one file per supplier. Splitting downloads a ZIP with one document per supplier, each carrying only that supplier's lines and their own total — handy when you email or hand different suppliers their own list. Either format is disabled while the shopping list is empty.
• Receiving happens on the Stock page, not here. A plan tells you what to buy; booking a delivery into stock is the same Receive step you'd use for any other delivery, whether or not it started from a plan.
• Anyone who can view Inventory can read a plan; creating and editing one needs the Manage supply planning permission, which an admin grants in Staff → Roles.
• Tapping a plan's row selects it; it doesn't open it. The Edit and Delete icons appear on the selected row — tap Edit to open the plan. Without the planning permission, Delete is still shown but greyed out rather than missing.

FAQ

Q: Do I have to have recipes to use this?
A: For the shopping list, yes — the recipes are what turn "40 portions of soup" into "6 kg of carrots". You can still keep a plan of dishes without them, but it will not tell you what to buy. Start with the dishes you sell most of.

Q: The plan says to buy nothing. Is it broken?
A: Probably not. Either your stock already covers everything the plan needs — the page says so plainly — or the dishes on the plan have no recipes, in which case they are listed in the note above the shopping list.

Q: Why is one product showing a dash instead of a price?
A: You have never received that product, so there is no price to work from. Guessing at zero would tell you it is free, which is the one answer that is certainly wrong. Book a delivery of it once and the estimate works from then on.

Q: What does "≥ 420.00" mean on the total?
A: At least one product on the list has no known price, so the real total is that figure or more. The dash on that product's row shows you which one.

Q: How far back should the history period go?
A: Far enough to cover several of each weekday you are planning — four weeks is a good default and gives you four Saturdays to average. Much longer and you are averaging in a season that has passed.

Q: We were closed for two Mondays. Does that ruin the Monday figure?
A: It lowers it, on purpose. The average is per calendar day, so a closed day counts as a day that sold nothing. If those closures were unusual, choose a history period without them, or raise the "Adjust by %".

Q: Can I plan for one very busy day, like New Year's Eve?
A: Yes. Set the plan to that single day, and either type the numbers yourself or generate from last year's equivalent date range and scale it up. A one-day plan is completely normal.

Q: I generated the plan and some dishes are missing.
A: They sold in the history period but are no longer on the menu, so they were left out — a message tells you how many. Anything still on the menu is kept.

Q: Can I add to a generated plan by hand?
A: Yes. Generate first, then use Add dish and adjust the quantities. Just do not generate again afterwards, because that replaces everything.

Q: The delivery came up short. What do I book?
A: What actually arrived. Receive it on the Stock page and enter the quantities you were actually given, not what the plan asked for. What is still missing simply stays on the plan's shopping list next time you open it.

Q: Where do I book a delivery I planned for?
A: On Inventory → Stock, the same as any other delivery — tap Receive, pick the product, and enter the quantity and price from the delivery note. The plan itself doesn't book anything; it only tells you what to expect.

Q: I received a delivery I'd planned for. Where can I see it?
A: On Inventory → Deliveries, at the top of the list. The stock rises on the Stock page and each product gets a Receipt entry in Movements — three views of the same event, answering different questions.

Q: The supplier charged a different price than expected. Does that matter?
A: Yes, so enter the real one when you receive it. The price you book becomes the cost of that delivery, and it is what your food cost and cost reports use from then on. Anything a plan shows beforehand is only an estimate based on the last price you paid.

Q: Should I export as CSV or PDF?
A: Whichever suits how you send it on. CSV opens in a spreadsheet and is easiest to edit further; PDF is ready to print or email as-is. Either can be split into one file per supplier if you'd rather hand each supplier only their own lines.

Q: Some products have no supplier on the list.
A: They have no default supplier set. Open the product under Inventory → Products and set one, and it will be grouped from then on. Products without one stay together in a group at the bottom, so nothing is ever left off the list.

Q: What does "Top up to reorder levels" do?
A: It adds enough to bring every product back to the minimum stock level you set on it, on top of what the plan needs. Buying for the weekend is usually also the moment you replace what ran low last week. Products below their minimum appear on the list even if the plan does not use them.

Q: Does saving a plan reserve or deduct any stock?
A: No. A plan is a shopping list, not a booking. Stock only moves when you receive a delivery or when a dish is actually sold.

Q: Can I delete an old plan?
A: Yes, and nothing that was received against it is affected. Deliveries you booked stay in your stock and in the movement history.

Q: I tapped a plan's row and it didn't open. Why?
A: Tapping a row selects it rather than opening it. An Edit icon (and a Delete icon) appears once it's selected — tap Edit to open the plan.