MenuLink Client User Guide v7_3

i MenuLink Client User Guide

Client User Guide

Version 7.3

ii MenuLink Client User Guide

Copyright

Copyright ©2010, Radiant Systems, Inc. The information contained in this publication is confidential and proprietary. No part of this document may be reproduced, disclosed to others, transmitted, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language, in any form, by any means, without written permission of Radiant Systems, Inc.

Radiant Systems, Inc. is not responsible for any technical inaccuracies or typographical errors contained in this publication. Changes are periodically made to the information herein; these changes will be incorporated in new editions of this publication. Any reference to gender in this document is not meant to be discriminatory. The software described in this document is provided under a license agreement. The software may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of that agreement.

© Radiant Systems, Inc., 2010 All Rights Reserved. ALOHA® is a U.S. Registered Trademark of Radiant Systems, Inc. MenuLink® is a U.S. Registered Trademark of Radiant Systems, Inc.

Revised December 2010/ ML v7.3

MenuLink Client User Guide Inventory 3

Table of Contents

Before You Begin .......................................................................................................... 6

About This Guide ........................................................................................................................ 6

Audience ............................................................................................................................... 6

Purpose ................................................................................................................................. 6

How This Guide is Organized ................................................................................................ 7

Getting Started .............................................................................................................. 8

MenuLink Client Overview .......................................................................................................... 8

Installing MenuLink Client...................................................................................................... 8

Starting and Logging In to MenuLink Client ......................................................................... 13

MenuLink Client Main Switchboard ........................................................................................... 15

Sorting and Searching for Information ................................................................................. 16

Viewing and Printing Reports and Worksheets .................................................................... 20

Inventory ...................................................................................................................... 22

Purchasing ................................................................................................................................ 23

Creating and Managing Orders ........................................................................................... 24

Managing Vendors .............................................................................................................. 25

Purchase Order Worksheets ............................................................................................... 31

Create or Edit a Purchase Order ......................................................................................... 39

Submitting the Purchase Order ........................................................................................... 50

Converting and Managing Invoices ..................................................................................... 50

Credit Memos ...................................................................................................................... 57

Back Orders ........................................................................................................................ 57

Recalculate the Usage Per Factor ....................................................................................... 62

Viewing Purchase History ................................................................................................... 63

Purchasing Reports ............................................................................................................. 65

Inventory System ...................................................................................................................... 75

Managing Inventory Items ................................................................................................... 76

Posting Inventory ................................................................................................................ 82

Looking up a Previous Inventory ......................................................................................... 91

Transferring Inventory ......................................................................................................... 92

Creating a Transfer Entry .................................................................................................... 94

4 MenuLink Client User Guide

Entering Spoilage and Loss Information .............................................................................. 99

Inventory Worksheets ........................................................................................................ 103

Printing Inventory Worksheet ............................................................................................ 104

Suggested Prep ................................................................................................................ 112

Inventory Reports .............................................................................................................. 121

Recipes ................................................................................................................................... 129

Menu Item Recipes ........................................................................................................... 130

Prep Item Recipes ............................................................................................................. 134

Items Where Used ............................................................................................................ 139

Conversions ...................................................................................................................... 140

Recipe Worksheets ........................................................................................................... 141

Recipe Reports ................................................................................................................. 141

Sales ....................................................................................................................................... 146

Reconciling Sales .............................................................................................................. 150

Sales Mix .......................................................................................................................... 162

Forecasting ....................................................................................................................... 163

Importing information from the POS System ..................................................................... 168

Sales Reports.................................................................................................................... 170

Period End .............................................................................................................................. 180

Exporting Data .................................................................................................................. 181

Workflow ........................................................................................................................... 182

Activity Log ........................................................................................................................ 183

P and L.............................................................................................................................. 184

Period End Reports ........................................................................................................... 188

Labor .......................................................................................................................... 190

Employees .............................................................................................................................. 192

Employee Maintenance ..................................................................................................... 193

Borrowing and Transferring Employees............................................................................. 200

Payroll Export .................................................................................................................... 207

Worksheets ....................................................................................................................... 207

Employee Reports ............................................................................................................. 207

Payroll ..................................................................................................................................... 213

Shifts ................................................................................................................................. 214

Employees ........................................................................................................................ 220

Jobs .................................................................................................................................. 220

Payroll Reports .................................................................................................................. 221

Scheduling .............................................................................................................................. 229

Employee Schedule .......................................................................................................... 230

Edit an Existing Schedule .................................................................................................. 231

Daily Schedule View.......................................................................................................... 232

Weekly Schedule View ...................................................................................................... 237


Time-off Requests ............................................................................................................. 240

Worksheets ....................................................................................................................... 243

Manager Schedule ............................................................................................................ 244

Scheduling Reports ........................................................................................................... 246

Staffing ................................................................................................................................... 249

Minimum Staffing .............................................................................................................. 250

Fixed Staff ......................................................................................................................... 254

Schedule Matrix ................................................................................................................ 258

Recommended .................................................................................................................. 262

Worksheets and Reports ................................................................................................... 267

Projected Data ........................................................................................................................ 268

Forecasting ....................................................................................................................... 269

Job Setup .......................................................................................................................... 279

Last Year ........................................................................................................................... 279

Manager Projections ......................................................................................................... 279

Worksheets ....................................................................................................................... 279

Reports ............................................................................................................................. 279


Before You Begin Welcome to the MenuLink Client application from Radiant Systems, Inc., previously known as

MenuLink Back Office Assistant.NET or BOA.NET.

Restaurant operators need comprehensive tools to manage costs and operations data to make good

business decisions in a timely manner. MenuLink is an internet-based solution designed to help you

automate your back office operations and reduce overall operating costs.

MenuLink, which includes inventory and recipe management, purchasing, labor management, cash

management and reporting, will take you to higher levels of profitability and efficiency by permitting

greater control of your establishment, with less work.

The MenuLink Client side application described in this manual is one part of the MenuLink family of

.NET products, which help you effectively manage your business. Other products in the MenuLink

product line include:

MenuLink Client System Management — Provides system administration tools to set up and

manage information for MenuLink Client installations across your enterprise. Robust

organizational and reporting capabilities enable you to get up-to-date information on any segment

of your business.

MenuLink Client Purchase Management — Manages purchasing, vendor, and shipping

information for your organization. Features include Central Purchasing and Vendor Bidding.

About This Guide

This guide provides you with descriptions and instructions on using MenuLink Client features. In addition

to this guide, you can also use the online help available in MenuLink Client to access the information that

you need to utilize all of the tools that MenuLink Client provides. Press F1 on your computer keyboard to

use online help.

Audience

This guide is written for retail outlet (e.g., restaurant) managers, district or corporate managers, and

system administrators who are familiar with the Windows family of operating systems. MenuLink System

Management users will also find this manual useful, as many System Management features affect the

information that MenuLink Client users see.

Purpose

The purpose of the MenuLink Client User Guide is to get you quickly familiar with the most frequently

used features in the MenuLink Client application. This guide shows you how to install MenuLink Client

software and how to use the features you use on a daily basis to manage your restaurant’s information.

Note: the MenuLink Client User Guide does not contain detailed information about every feature, screen,

and field in MenuLink Client. Also note that the examples shown in this guide are for illustrative purposes

only; the information displayed in your MenuLink Client system will be as defined by your organization.


How This Guide is Organized

This guide is organized into three main sections as follows:

This section, ‘Getting Started’ provides instructions for installing MenuLink Client and how to

log in, introduces the MenuLink Client application and main switchboard, and gives general

instructions on how to run reports.

‘Inventory’ describes the Inventory window and how to use the Purchasing, Inventory, Recipe,

Sales, and Period End features. Also included are Inventory report samples.

‘Labor’ describes the Labor window and how to use the Employee, Payroll, Scheduling, Staffing,

and Projected Data features. Also included are Labor report samples.

Note: Your System Administrator can configure and customize MenuLink Client with the System

Management tool. Therefore, you may not have access to all of the features and reports described in the

guide.


Getting Started This section gives you an overview of the MenuLink Client system, gives instructions on how to install

the MenuLink Client application, and shows you how to start and log into MenuLink Client.

MenuLink Client Overview

In MenuLink Client there are two major systems: Inventory and Labor. In Inventory, you can track your

sales, inventory, purchases and other expenses, and ultimately identify your food cost. Inventory also

collects data from your POS system to provide you a theoretical usage and food cost. There are several

variance reports that compare the theoretical information to your actual usage and food cost, and identify

the items that have the greatest variances. Other reports that are in Inventory provide you with sales

information, purchases, as well as a Profit and Loss.

Labor is used to track your employees’ hire information (including addresses, phone numbers, hire dates

and other information), track and maintain time clock information for payroll accuracy, as well as

scheduling and availability. There is also a Staffing function where you can set up your staffing matrices

to assist you in the scheduling process. The reports that are available in Labor provide you with up-to-the-

minute information including labor costs and percentages, schedules, as well as detailed time clock data.

Installing MenuLink Client

This section shows you how to install and log into the MenuLink Client application and introduces you to

the MenuLink Client Main Switchboard.

Instructions for removing the MenuLink Client application from your system are given at the end of this

guide.

You install the MenuLink Client application over a network or the Internet. A local version is available

for sites with slower internet connections. Contact your MenuLink Client Service Manager. In addition,

application updates, when available, are automatically installed. Each time you log in, the system

automatically checks for and updates the program as necessary.

System requirements and important notes

The following are system requirements for the MenuLink Client application:

Operating System:

Windows XP Pro, Service Pack 2

Windows 7 (32-bit only)

PC Platform:

Minimum: Pentium 4 + CPU, 512+ MB RAM

Internet Access:

384K Broadband connection

Notes:

.NET Framework, version 2.0 with Service Pack 2

Windows Installer 2.0+

The user that is logged in to the PC must have read/write access to the ‘/Program

Files/MenuLink’ directory. This is required to install and upgrade the MenuLink Client.

Installation program installs the .NET Framework, if it is not already installed, and Windows Installer.


You must have at least 500 Mb of disk space available on the computer that you are installing the

MenuLink Client on to install the application and download updates.

Before you install the MenuLink Client, have the following information on hand, which was provided to

you by your MenuLink Client Service Manager:

Internet location for the installation

Username and password

Installation Instructions

Your system administrator may have set up security options that require you to log into MS Windows

with Administrator privileges to install MenuLink Client. Check with your system administrator if you’re

not sure.

To Install MenuLink Client:

1. Exit all applications except Internet Explorer.

2. Using Internet Explorer, point the browser to the installation location provided by your

MenuLink Client Project Consultant.

The MenuLink Client Installation web page appears.

.

3. Click Install MenuLink Client.

If this is the first time you’ve installed MenuLink Client on this computer, a Security Alert

appears, prompting you to install and run the MenuLink Install Control. It is necessary to install

this control to proceed with the installation.


4. Click Yes to download the install control.

The Windows Installer starts up and prepares the system for installation. In a moment, the

MenuLink Client Installation Wizard appears.

5. Click Next. The License Agreement appears.

6. Review the information, and select ‘I accept the license agreement,’ if you agree to the terms.

Click Next to continue.

If you do not agree to the terms, select ‘I do not accept the license agreement,’ then click Cancel

to exit the installer.

The MenuLink Client Setup screen appears.


Depending on your computer setup, the installer may automatically display your user name and

organization name in the screen. You can keep the information displayed, or enter new

information as necessary. There are also two options at the bottom of the screen. You must select

one of them.

‘Anyone who uses this computer’ makes the MenuLink Client application available for all

users who use this computer. To choose this option, you must have system administration

rights.

‘Only for me [user name]’ makes the MenuLink Client application available only when that

user is logged onto this computer.

7. After making the desired entries and selection, click Next.

The Destination Folder screen appears. You can choose to keep the default program location or

you can click the Browse button to install the application in a location that you choose.

8. Keep the default location or choose another location, then click Next.

The Ready to Install the Application screen appears.


9. Click Next. The installer then updates the system with the application information. When the

installer has successfully installed the application, the success screen appears.

10. Click Finish to complete the installation. A new icon titled MenuLink Client appears on your

computer desktop.


Starting and Logging In to MenuLink Client

To use MenuLink, you start the application and log into the database using the username and password

provided by your system administrator or MenuLink Client Project Consultant. Each time you log in,

MenuLink Client automatically checks for program updates and installs them as necessary.

To Start and Log into MenuLink Client:

1. Start the application by double-clicking on the MenuLink Client icon on your computer desktop.

Note: You can also start MenuLink Client by choosing the application name from the Start > All

Programs menu.

MenuLink Client checks for program updates and installs them as necessary.

MenuLink automatically downloads an

update if one is available,

…or lets you know that the

program is current.


In a moment, the login screen appears.

By default, the application displays information in English. If desired, choose another language

by selecting the desired language from the drop-down menu. (The Chinese language is available;

however your system must have Chinese character fonts installed to make this selection).

2. Type your user name and password, and then click .

Note: The user name is not case sensitive, but the password is.

The MenuLink Client Main Switchboard appears, as described next.

Note: In some cases, you may see a message appear to notify you of an alert, such as a pending

transfer or that an inventory was not posted. See Transferring Inventory, Employee Maintenance,

or contact your system administrator for more information. You can view this message again at

any time by pressing F2 on the keyboard. Click OK to proceed.

Other messages that may appear while logged in to MenuLink are as follows:

Change Password

Set Security Question


Notifications for borrowed or transferred employees.

MenuLink Client Main Switchboard

For most users, when the MenuLink Client Switchboard appears after you log into MenuLink Client. The

Inventory features are available from this screen. In addition, you can access the Labor Switchboard by

clicking the Labor button or exit the application by clicking the STOP button. Your administrator can

modify preferences by user group, to make Inventory or Labor the default screen upon launching

MenuLink Client.

Selecting a Store

Before you can use any MenuLink Client features, you must first select the store you want to work with

from the drop-down list in the upper right corner of the Main Switchboard. Depending on how your

system administrator has set up your system, a store may already be selected for you or you may be able

to select from multiple locations. If you have any questions regarding which stores’ information you have

access to, contact your system administrator. Once you select a store, MenuLink Client features become

active. You’ll notice that the background on the buttons changes from gray to blue.

If MenuLink Client does not

automatically select a store,

select one from the drop-

down list.

Navigation Buttons

In most switchboards, there are a few buttons you can use to navigate between screens or exit the

program.

The Inventory button

navigates to the main

Inventory Switchboard.

The Exit to Previous

button navigates back to

the previous

switchboard.

The Labor button

navigates to the main

Labor Switchboard.

The Exit to Main

button navigates back to

the main switchboard.


The Workflow button

helps navigate through

common tasks, such as

hiring an employee.

The STOP button exits

the MenuLink

application.

Sorting and Searching for Information

Many ‘lookup’ screens in MenuLink Client display long lists of information, such as lists of employees,

menu items, or raw material items. You can use the scroll bar to the right of the screen to scroll through

the list of items. MenuLink Client also has several tools you can use to find the specific information you

are looking for.

Sorting Displayed Information

The following example shows a sample Recipes – Menu Items screen. By default, this screen displays

information sorted alphabetically by menu item name. You can change the order in which information is

displayed by clicking on the column headers. For example, you can:

Click the ‘Menu Item Name’ column header to display menu items in reverse alphabetical order.

Click the header again to return to alphabetical order.

Click the ‘Category’ column header to display menu items sorted by Category (categories are

sorted in alphabetical order). Click the header again to sort by reverse alphabetical order.

Click the ‘Menu Item ID’ column header to display menu items sorted by Menu Item ID in

ascending (least to greatest) order. Click the header again to sort by descending order.

Note: When sorting on column headers, you may need to use the scroll bar to return the display

to the top of the list.

The Recipes – Menu Items

screen displays menu items in

alphabetical order.


Click the Menu Item Name

header to display menu

items in reverse

alphabetical order.

Click the Category

header to sort by Categories

in alphabetical order.

Click Here

Click Here


Click the Menu Item ID

header to sort by Menu Item

ID number

Click Here


Searching for Information

You can search for a specific word or number by using the search function.

Locate information

using the Search option.

To Search for Information:

1. Select a search field from Search drop-down list.

Note: MenuLink Client only searches records that are in the list, even if the list is a result of

another search. For example, if you search for ‘chicken,’ and then perform another search, the

second search only looks through the items from the first search. To refresh the list to include all

items, click Show All.

The drop-down list

contains the column header names.

2. Enter the information you are looking for in the ‘for’ field and click Search.

MenuLink Client has

searched for menu item

names containing

the word ‘chicken’

3. If necessary, repeat step 2 to narrow your search further. MenuLink Client only searches the

displayed list.

4. To select an item, click anywhere in the item’s row.

5. Click Lookup to view menu ingredient details.


Viewing and Printing Reports and Worksheets

This section describes, in general, how to select, preview, and print a report or worksheet in MenuLink

Client. Report/worksheet samples and options are discussed throughout this guide in their relevant

sections.

Each switchboard in MenuLink Client has a Reports button. The Reports button provides access to the

reports and worksheets that MenuLink has developed for the Inventory System and Labor System. The

reports available from each individual switchboard (e.g., Inventory, Purchasing, Sales, etc.), are the

reports associated with that particular switchboard.

Note: To simplify the following instructions, the term ‘report’ is used. The instructions to view or print a

worksheet are the same.

When you select a report, an entry screen often appears requesting more information before generating

the report. The requested information is based on the specific report you selected. For example, daily

reports ask for a specific date. Other reports may ask for a date range or other information. After you

enter the requested information, the report is generated and previewed on screen.

To access Food Cost or Labor reports, do the following:

1. Click Reports. The report selection screen appears which lists all the available reports applicable

for the switchboard.

Choose a report from

the list. Scroll down

if necessary.

2. Select the desired report name by clicking on it.

3. Double-clicking on a report name previews the report.

4. Click one of the following buttons:

Preview the report on-screen before printing it. This option also gives you access to additional view and export options.

Send the report directly to the printer without previewing the report.


5. If the Report Parameters Setup screen appears, enter the requested information as necessary.

For example, select the time frame (Day, Date Range, Week, etc.) and enter the desired date or

period and week. Be sure to enter requested information on all tabs in the screen (Time Frame

and Sites in the following example).

6. Click OK.

If Preview was selected, the report appears on screen.

If Print was selected, the report is sent to the printer.

7. If you chose to preview the report, several options are available, as shown in the following

diagram.


Inventory Using the Inventory System, you can track your sales, inventory, purchases and other expenses, and

ultimately identify your food and other costs. MenuLink Client collects data from your POS system and

calculates both theoretical usage and actual food costs. There are several variance reports that compare

the two, and will help you identify areas that are performing well and areas needing improvement.

.

Inventory System features include the following:

Purchasing — Manage orders, invoices, vendors, and ordering history.

Inventory and Prep — View items, post inventory, perform transfers, and track spoilage.

Recipes — Manage recipe ingredients, prep lists, prep locations, and unit conversions.

Sales — Access menu item and prep item recipes, view where items are used, print ‘Table of

Weights and Measures’.

Period End — Finalize weekly numbers, export data, perform workflows, and view activity logs.

Reports — View available inventory reports.

The Inventory System Screen also has three buttons at the bottom of the screen:

Stop — This button exits the MenuLink application.

Workflow — This button gives you a list of configured workflows to run that guide you through

common processes, such as hiring a new employee or running your End of Day routine.

Labor — This button takes you to the Labor Switchboard.

MenuLink Client User Guide 23

Purchasing

The Purchasing screen contains several tools you can use to create purchase orders, track invoices, and

manage the vendors that you purchase inventory or services from.

Features in the Purchasing screen include:

Orders — Create and manage purchase orders, convert orders into invoices, and recalculate

usage per factors.

Invoices — Enter invoices for food and non-food items and track expenses.

Vendors — Manage vendor information. Your System Administrator may maintain this

information, or may enable you to add vendors to the system.

History — View the purchase history of a specific item.

Worksheet — Manage and print purchase order worksheets that can help you create purchase

orders.

Reports — View and print available purchasing reports.


Creating and Managing Orders

By using the Orders feature, you can create and manage purchase orders. With Electronic Ordering, you

can send a purchase order electronically to the vendor. If your organization uses the MenuLink Purchase

Management application, you can create and send purchase orders to your organization’s internal

purchasing department and/or warehouse. Once you create a PO for a vendor, depending on the vendor,

you may be able to send the order electronically to that vendor. Contact your MenuLink Client Service

Manager for help with these functions.

MenuLink Client can suggest or recommend an order in one of three ways: with Par Levels (also called

Build-To amounts), the Order by Forecast, or the Order by Usage per Sales factor.

Par Levels: MenuLink Client uses Par Levels, or ‘build-tos,’ to calculate the Suggested Quantity.

Par Levels are maintained by restaurant managers through the Item Lookup screen.

Order by Forecasting: Through the Sales Forecasting function, MenuLink Client calculates a

forecasted sales mix. Based on that sales mix forecast and the recipes, MenuLink Client

calculates how much product is needed and uses that information to calculate the Suggested

Quantity.

Usage Per Factor is used for new items, new store openings or items that have usage that is not

based on a specific recipe. The factor is based on the standard unit and calculates what was used

based on your prior days back, then multiplies usage by the configured usage factor.

After creating and submitting a Purchase Order, you can easily convert it into an invoice. You can then

verify what you received and the price you paid for the items. If a vendor is not able to completely fill an

order, you can create a back order if this option is enabled (see ‘Back Orders’ on page 42).

To create a purchase order, follow these steps. Some steps may or may not be needed, depending on how

your application is configured. For example, if your system administrator manages your vendors, you can

skip the ‘Create and Manage Vendors’ step.

1. Create and Manage Vendors (Managing Vendors)

2. Print and Fill out a Purchase Order Worksheet (Purchase Order Worksheets)

3. Create or Edit a Purchase Order (Create or Edit a Purchase Order)

4. Submit the Purchase Order (Submitting a Purchase Order)

5. Manage and Finalize the Invoice (Managing and Finalizing the Invoice)


Managing Vendors

The Vendors feature is where you can view and/or maintain vendor information.

Note: This feature is typically managed by administration users only. Contact your system administrator

for more information.

Vendor Selection Screen

The Vendor Selection screen appears when you click Vendors in the Purchasing Switchboard. From the

Vendor Selection screen, you can do the following:

Search for a vendor. Select ‘Vendor Name’ or ‘Vendor ID’ from the ‘Search’ drop-down list.

Enter the corresponding text in the 'for' field, then click the Search button.

Lookup (view) a vendor and modify the information. Select a Vendor Name or Vendor ID, then

click Lookup.

Create a vendor. Click New.

Delete a vendor. Select a Vendor Name or Vendor ID, then click Delete. MenuLink Client

prompts you to confirm the deletion. Keep in mind that rather that deleting a vendor, you can

exclude a vendor from view. Exclusion is recommended over deletion, since vendors have

historical information associated with them.

View other vendors in MenuLink Client by clicking on Show Excluded. Keep in mind that you

cannot order items from these vendors. Contact your system administrator for more information.


Vendors Screen

The Vendors screen is accessible from the Vendor Selection screen, when you:

Click New to create a new vendor, or

Select a vendor row, and then click Lookup.

The Vendors screen is organized into five tabs, which are described below.

Vendors Screen – General Info Tab

The General Info tab is where you define basic information about the vendor. At a minimum, you must

define the Vendor Name and Vendor ID. We recommend filling out as much information as possible

since it is viewable in many areas of the MenuLink Client. The following items have specific meaning in

MenuLink Client.

Exclude — Select this field to exclude the vendor from being viewed in MenuLink Client.

Supports Back Orders — Select this field to enable back orders to be created for this vendor

when product is temporarily unavailable.

Auto Generate Purchase Order ID — Select this field to have MenuLink Client automatically

create Purchase Order IDs for this vendor.

PDA Receiving Enabled — Select this field to use a PDA to receive orders from this vendor.

Purchase Management Fill All Orders — Select this field to enable Purchase Orders to be

filled with one button when using MenuLink Purchase Management. (This required a licensed

instance on MenuLink Purchase Management. Contact your MenuLink Client Service Manager

for more information.)

Purchase Management Modify Invoices Report — Select this report for display when filling

ordering when using MenuLink Purchase Management. (This required a licensed instance on

MenuLink Purchase Management. Contact your MenuLink Client Service Manager for more

information.)


Vendors Screen – Order/Delivery Days Tab

On this tab, enter the days that you normally order from this vendor as well as the day that the order is

normally received.

Enforce One Order per Delivery Day. This function is used in MenuLink Client to limit the number of

orders for this vendor to one per day. This feature is usually managed by administration users only.

Contact your system administrator for more information.

Default ―Schedule Delivery‖ date to next available delivery date. Use this function to automatically

cause MenuLink to use the next available delivery date as the scheduled delivery date.

Vendors Screen – Electronic Ordering Tab

Initially, only the EO Type and EO Format fields are available. When you make a

selection, the other fields automatically

appear.


Certain vendors can receive orders electronically directly from MenuLink Client rather than having to

phone or fax in the order. If you can send orders electronically to this vendor, select the EO Type from the

drop-down list. Choose the correct EO format for your vendor, and fill in the other fields that appear after

you make your selection. Contact your system administrator for more information.

Vendors Screen – Security Tab

The Security tab defines the security privileges for the Vendors feature, including establishing who has

permission to view the Vendor screen, and to make modification on the ‘Order/Delivery Days’ tab.



Vendors Screen – Custom Fields Tab

The Custom Fields tab is where you can add user-defined fields to vendor Records. These fields are

exported to the MenuLink Data Mart. Contact your system administrator for more information.

Set Prime Item

Click the Set Prime Items button, in the Vendors screen, to access the Vendor Prime Items screen. Use

this screen to review or set prime item status by vendor.

The Vendor Prime Items screen is where you can select the items you purchase from this vendor. The

Prime Item is used to identify the primary items purchased from a vendor. This configuration is critical


when you have the same vendor listed more than once for the same item because you can purchase the

item in different units from the same vendor.

Note: If the vendor is assigned only once, the prime item must still be selected.

Printing Purchase Order Worksheets

On the Purchasing Switchboard, click Worksheet to access Purchasing Worksheet Selection.

In this dialog box, the following options are available:

Condensed Worksheet — Creates a worksheet with summary information on it.

Full Worksheet — Creates a worksheet with more detailed information on it, including

spaces for making notes for order creation.

Setup Order by Vendor — Enables you to view purchase order worksheet settings.

When you select Condensed Worksheet or Full Worksheet, the Report Parameter Selection

dialog box appears. If at least one item purchased from the selected vendor is configured to order by

the Forecasting or Usage per Factor method, the dialog box provides a date range selection option for

the Suggested Order, which you can modify to suit your order needs.


Purchase Order Worksheets

To assist you with preparing purchase orders, you can create, modify or print a purchase order worksheet

for selected vendors.

Report element Description

Item Description The item name

Vendor’s Item # The vendor’s item number for the product listed in the item description.

Purchase Unit The unit by which this item is purchased (case pack)

Line # The PO Sequence number.

(Day) Req’d The required amount is what ML determines based on the selection of Par, Forecast or Usage Per factor in the ‘Order by’ field in the Item Lookup screen.

Open POs Amount that was previously ordered but hasn’t been received on an invoice yet.

Theory On-Hand The on-hand amount the system has calculated using the last full inventory plus any purchases for the week minus what was used based on the sales mix.

Actual On Hand A blank field for you to write the actual on-hand.

Suggest Order The number in this field is calculated using the quantities found in Req’d, Open POs, and Theory on Hand.

Actual Order A blank field where you can enter the quantity of the item you want to order.


Report element Description

Purchase History The last five purchases of the item. The date identifies when the item was ordered through the purchase order process. The amount indicates what was actually received.

Note: If there is a quantity but no date, this indicates that the item was not purchased through a purchase order, but was purchased through the Invoice function or Transfer function.

If you selected ‘Condensed Worksheet,’ in this instance, the actual worksheet appears as follows:

Click ‘Close’ in the report tool bar, to close the worksheet.

If all items available from the selected vendor are configured to order by the Par method, the Report

Parameter Selection dialog box provides you with single-day options. Select only one day in this

dialog box.


If you selected ‘Full Worksheet’ in this instance, the actual worksheet appears as follows:

Click ‘Close’ in the report tool bar, to close the worksheet.


Viewing Purchase Order Worksheet Settings

1. On the Purchasing Dashboard, click Worksheet.

2. Click Setup Order by Vendor to access the Vendor Selection screen.

3. Select the desired vendor and click Lookup. This opens the Setup Order by Vendor Setup screen.

This screen shows the items in the order they are displayed on

the purchase order worksheet

for the selected vendor.


Removing Items from Worksheets

To Remove an Item from the Worksheet, click the item name to select it, then click Remove Item.


Rearranging Worksheet Items

1. To rearrange the entire list alphabetically or by category, click Reorder Setup then select

Reorder by Name to put the list in alphabetical order by item name or Reorder by Category to

reorder the worksheet by category name.

2. To reorder items (change the order in which the items appear on your worksheet),

a) Click the item with the left mouse button to select it. Keep the left mouse button depressed.

In this example we

will move ‘Cheese

Slice’ to the top of the

list.

b) Continue to hold the left mouse button down, move (drag) the item to its new place in the

sequence. As you move the item up or down, a line indicates where the item will be placed.

Be sure to keep holding the mouse button down as you move the item.

Hold the left mouse

button with the item

selected for a moment

before moving the

mouse


c) Once the line is in the desired location, release the mouse button and the item appears in its

new location on the purchase order worksheet.

Once you are satisfied with the changes to the settings, click Save.

Adding Items to Worksheets

1. From the Order by Vendor Setup screen, click Add Items. The Order by Vendor Item(s) screen

appears:

2. Select the item you want to add (scroll through the list or search as necessary) then click Select. If

the item is already assigned to another prime vendor, the following message appears. If you click

Yes, the item is added the purchase order worksheet. You can then place it in the appropriate

sequence in the list.


3. If the item you would like to add to the worksheet is not on the list, click Add Vendor Item. This

takes you to the Add Vendor Item screen (below). Select the item you would like to add from the

list and click Select.

4. Next, enter the information for the new item (Vendor code, Order unit, Receive Price, Receive

Unit). Select prime item if necessary. Click Save to keep the changes, or click Cancel to discard

them.

The newly added item appears at the bottom of the list of existing items on the worksheet.


Create or Edit a Purchase Order

In the Orders menu, you can:

Place an order by vendor

Create a manual order

View (look up) and edit an existing order

Delete an order

Convert an order to invoice

Copy an existing order to a new order

Recalculate Usage Factor

Order by Vendor

You can choose the items that you wish to purchase from a selected vendor. Each item that is assigned to

the vendor (in Item Lookup or by your system administrator) appears in the Purchasing - Order by

Vendor screen. MenuLink Client calculates a suggested order based on one of three methods: Par Levels,

Order by Forecasting or a Usage Per Factor:

Par Levels — MenuLink Client uses Par Levels, or ‘build-tos,’ to calculate the Suggested

Quantity. Par Levels are maintained by restaurant managers through the Item Lookup screen.

Order by Forecasting — Through the Sales Forecasting function, MenuLink Client calculates a

forecasted sales mix. Based on that sales mix forecast and the recipes in MenuLink. MenuLink

Client then calculates how much product is needed and uses that information to calculate the

Suggested Quantity.

Usage Per Factor — Used for new items, new store openings or items that have usage that is not

based on a specific recipe. The factor is based on the standard unit and calculates what was used

based on your prior days back the multiplies usage by the configured Usage factor.

Tip: A Purchase Order Worksheet can be used as a tool to help create an accurate purchase order.


The following is an example and description of the Purchasing – Order by Vendor screen:

Field/column/button Description

Fields

Vendor Name The selected vendor the purchase order is being created for.

Vendor ID The Vendor code assigned to the Vendor.

Purchase Order ID A number that MenuLink Client automatically generates. You can change this number.

Due Date The date of delivery. The field automatically defaults to the next day. However it can be changed to any date in the future.

Memo Free-form text field where you can enter a comment regarding the order.

Columns

Order The boxes are populated with checkmarks when the number in the Actual order field is modified. This indicates the item will be ordered.

Suggested The number in this field identifies the suggested quantity that MenuLink Client has calculated.

Actual order Enter the quantity you wish to order here. You can also click Accept All to populate this column with the numbers in the Suggested Order column.

Units Displays how the item’s ordering unit is defined. This field can be edited by using Item Lookup or by contacting your system administrator.

Item #

The number in this field represents the vendor's item ID number for the item. This field can be edited by using Item Lookup or by contacting your system administrator.


Field/column/button Description

Description Identifies the item to be ordered. The items that are displayed have been assigned to the selected vendor through Item Lookup. The item must also be selected as ‘Purchase’ through the Item Lookup screen.

Required (Req’d) The amounts are calculated based on Pars, Order by Forecasting, or the Usage Per factor.

Open POs The quantity in this field identifies the amount ordered of the item on any outstanding purchase orders that have not yet been converted into an invoice.

Theory On Hand The quantity in this field identifies the on-hand amount the system has calculated using the last full inventory plus any purchases for the week minus what was used based on the sales mix.

Line #

Indicates the sequence that the items were ordered and how those items are displayed on the printed purchase order. When the item is selected in the Order column, the system assigns the number to that item. If the check box is cleared, the number is removed as well.

Buttons

You can select an entire category from the drop down menu and add all of the items in that category to the bottom of the order form.

Clicking this button removes the details from the top of the screen (Vendor Name, Vendor ID, etc) and displays the search fields so you can look for specific items. Click the button again to re-display.

Rearranges the item sequence by storage location rather than by the purchase order sequence number. The purchase order sequence number is assigned in the vendor tab of the Item Lookup screen, or in the Setup Order by Vendor option in the Purchasing- Worksheet feature.

Saves the purchase order, but does NOT electronically send it to your vendor.

Available if Order by Forecasting is used. Click this button to recalculate the suggested order quantity if forecasts or order dates have been adjusted.

Places a Check in the Order column for each item that has a suggested order quantity and copies the Suggested QTY to the Actual Order column. After Accept All has been selected, the button is replaced with the Clear All button, which reverses this process.

Previews the purchase order printout on screen, where you can choose to print a hard copy. The printed purchase order only shows those items that have a check mark in the Order column.

Adds items that are not assigned to the selected vendor.

Available only if the vendor selected has been defined as an Electronic Order Vendor. This button starts the Electronic Order process that your System Administrator has set up.


To Place an Order by Vendor:

1. From the Purchasing Switchboard, click Orders. Click Order by Vendor in the Orders dialog

box.

2. The Purchasing – Order by Vendor screen appears. MenuLink Client displays orders in

alphabetical order by vendor name.

3. If necessary, select a vendor name from the Vendor Name field.

4. Enter the correct due date in the Due Date field.

5. Set the From and To dates in the ‘Suggested Order’ area, and click ‘Recalc Suggested’ to

recalculate these values.

6. Enter quantities to be ordered in the Actual Order column, and press Enter. MenuLink Client

enters a check mark in the Order box and the cursor advances to the next item.

Tip: A quick way to create an order for all items that MenuLink Client suggests that you order is

to click Accept All. This enters check marks into all of the boxes in the Order column for the

items with suggested quantities, and inserts the suggested quantities in the Actual Order column.

You can modify the Actual Order quantities and enter or delete check marks from the Order

column. To clear all check boxes after you selected Accept All, click Clear All. This removes the

check marks from the Order column, and removes all values from the Actual Order column. If

you manually check an item row, you must also insert a value greater than zero (0) for that item

in the Actual Order column.

7. If the item is not to be ordered, press Enter on your keyboard to advance to the next item without

changing the quantity. Check marks do not appear for items that you are not ordering.

8. After all items to be ordered have been identified, click Print.

A preview of the Purchase Order appears:

9. Verify that all items that are to be ordered appear on the purchase order, then do one of the

following:

If you want to make changes to the order, click Close in the Toolbar. You will return to the

Purchasing - Order by Vendor screen, where you can make modifications to the order.

If you are ready to print the purchase order, click Print in the Toolbar.


10. Click Save to save the purchase order.

Note: You must save the Purchase Order to be able to convert it into an invoice when the order is

received.

MenuLink Client displays the Purchasing – Order by Vendor screen for the next vendor.

11. If the vendor for which you have created the order is configured for electronic ordering, click

Send Order Now.

12. Repeat steps 2-9 for each vendor you want to place an order with.


Managing Purchase Orders

You can view (look up), select, or delete any existing (unconverted) purchase order from the Order

Selection screen. This screen appears when you:

Click the Orders button in the Orders pop-up screen.

Click the Browse button when copying an order.

Click the Browse button when converting an order to invoice.

An example Order selection screen is shown next.

The Select button is

available if you clicked

on the Browse

button when copying or

converting a purchase

order.

MenuLink Client displays purchase orders whose purchase order dates are on or between the Start Date

and End Date. You can change this date range as necessary or you can change the criteria to include

closed orders by clicking Show Closed Orders.

If there is a long list of purchase orders, you can search by the following areas (click the Search Drop-

down arrow, then enter the text you want to match in the ‘for’ field):

Order ID

Order Date

Vendor Name

Due Date

Sent Date

Notes

See Searching for Information in MenuLink Client for more information on searching.

You can do the following in the Order Selection screen:

Create a new purchase order. Click New, and a blank Purchasing – Purchase Orders screen

appears.

View a purchase order. Select a row, and then click Lookup. You can make changes to the

purchase order if necessary.

Select a purchase order to copy or convert to invoice. Select a row, and click Select. (This button

is not available when you click Orders from the Orders pop-up screen.)


Delete a purchase order. Select a row, and then click Delete. MenuLink Client prompts you to

confirm that you want to delete the purchase order.

Entering a Manual Purchase Order

To Enter a New Purchase Order:

1. In the Purchasing Switchboard click Orders. In the Orders dialog box, click Orders again. The

Order Selection screen appears (below).

2. Click New to create a new order to access the Purchasing – Purchase Orders screen:


Each element of the Purchasing – Purchase Orders screen is defined below.

Element name Description

Fields/columns

Order ID A number that the system automatically generates and can be changed

Vendor The selected vendor the purchase order is being created for.

Vendor ID The Vendor Code assigned to the Vendor Name.

Open Order A check mark in this box indicates that this order is still open and will be taken into account when calculating the suggested order.

Purchase Order Date

The Date the purchase order was created.

Due Date The date of delivery. The field automatically defaults to the next day but should be changed to match the actual delivery date.

Memo Free-form text field where you can enter a comment regarding the order.

Sent Date Once the Sent check box is selected, this field is populated with the date the purchase order was submitted to the vendor.

Line # Indicates the sequence number of the items in the purchase order.

Vendor Code The number in this field represents the vendor’s item ID number for the item. The vendor’s item number assigned to the item cannot be modified in this field, but can be modified through Item Lookup.

Item Name Identifies the item to be ordered. The item must be selected as ‘Purchasable’ through Item Lookup.

Actual Quantity Identifies the quantity of the item that will be ordered.

Actual Units Identifies the case pack or how the item will be purchased.

Price Shows the price based on the Purchase Units. The price that is shown is what was used the last time the item was purchased.

Total The amount in this field shows the total monetary amount for the item selected i.e. QTY multiplied by the Price.

Total Amount Payable

The total monetary amount due to the vendor for this order (i.e., the sum of the Total column).

Buttons

Pressing this button removes the details from the top of the screen (Order ID, Vendor Name, Vendor ID, Due Date etc.) and maximizes the details of the order to make searching the order easier. Restore Details returns the details to the top of the order.

Previews the purchase order printout on screen, where you can choose to print a hard copy.

Saves the purchase order.



Available only if the vendor selected has been defined as an Electronic Order Vendor. This button starts the Electronic Order process that your System Administrator has set up.

To enter a new purchase order, continued:

3. Select the Vendor Name.

4. Enter the Purchase Order Date. This field defaults to the current date but can be changed.

5. Enter the Due Date. This field defaults to the next day but can be changed to reflect the true

delivery date.

6. To add items to the purchase order, use one of the following methods:

Using the Vendor Code field: Enter the number the vendor assigned to the item. If the item in

the Item Name field is not the correct item, this may indicate that the desired item does not

have that number assigned to it in Item Lookup.

Using the Item Name: Click the Item Name or the Vendor Code field and click to select

the drop-down selection box. Type the first few letters of the item name in the field to show

the items in the selection list that match what was entered. You can also use the scroll bar to

the right of the selection list to search the list for the item you want.

7. Click Print to print the purchase order

8. Click Save to save the purchase order.

9. If the vendor is set up for electronic ordering, click Send Order Now.

Adjusting an Existing Purchase Order

When you are viewing the Order Selection screen, click Lookup to view a selected order. The

Purchasing– Purchase Orders screen appears:


Click the Item Name or the Vendor Code field and click to access the drop-down list. Type

the first few letters of the item name in the field to show the items in the list that match. Adjust

the quantity and price as needed.

To delete an item, click the gray box to the left of the line number to highlight the line, and press

Delete on the keyboard.

To adjust the item’s quantity or price, select the Actual Quantity or Price fields and type a new

value.

Copying a Purchase Order

You can create a new purchase order by copying a previously entered purchase order, including purchase

orders that have been converted to invoices. When you use this option, you are prompted to provide a new

order and due date. All of the other information from the old purchase order appears in the new purchase

order. You can make changes or add to the new purchase order as necessary.

To Create a New Purchase Order by Copying:

1. From the Purchasing Switchboard, click Orders. Click Copy in the Orders dialog box.

The Copy Purchase Order pop-up screen appears.

2. To select a Purchase Order to copy, do one of the following:

Click in the Purchase Order ID field to select a purchase order number, or

Click to change the view to the order selection screen


Purchase orders

appear in the list with orders from

the most recent day listed first.

3. Select an order, then click Select to access the selected order in the Purchasing – Purchase

Orders screen:

4. If necessary, enter a new purchase order date or due date.

5. Click Copy.

The Purchasing – Purchase Orders screen appears. The purchase order has a new ID, purchase

date, and due date, but all other information is identical to the copied purchase order.

6. Make changes as needed, and then click Save, Print, and/or Send the order.


Submitting the Purchase Order

Electronic Ordering

If the vendor you are ordering from is set up to accept electronic orders, simply select Send Order Now

from the Purchase Orders or the Order by Vendor screen.

Manual Ordering

If you need to submit the order manually, you can print the order out (or view the order on the screen) and

follow your normal procedures.

Converting and Managing Invoices

Converting a Purchase Order into an Invoice:

1. From the Purchasing Switchboard, click Orders. Click Convert in the Orders dialog box.

The Convert PO Invoice pop-up screen appears.

2. To select a Purchase Order to convert, do one of the following:

Click in the Purchase Order ID field to select a purchase order by its number:

Click to access the Order Selection screen.


Purchase orders are displayed in

the list with oldest orders listed first.

3. Locate and select the correct Purchase Order, and click Select. The Convert PO to Invoice

dialog box returns.

4. Enter the Invoice ID from the invoice.

5. If necessary, enter a new Invoice Date and/or Delivered Date/Time.

6. After you have selected the purchase order, click convert.

The Purchasing – Invoices screen appears.

Note: If you ordered from a Commissary site and the amount shipped was less than the amount

ordered, MenuLink Client prompts you to print an exception report. Note that this report prints

directly to the printer; it does not preview on screen. See the Purchase Management User Guide

for more information.

7. Make changes as needed, then click Save and/or Print.

When you convert a purchase order to invoice, MenuLink Client displays the Purchasing – Invoices

screen. Although this screen is similar to the Purchasing – Orders screen, there are several differences, as

described below for the following the screen example.


Use the blue buttons in

the column between the Item Name

and Units columns to access the Inventory

Lookup screen.

Below is a description of the items in this screen. You can make changes to all of the information

displayed to reflect the actual delivery, unless noted otherwise below.


Fields/columns

Invoice ID During the convert process, you are prompted to enter the Invoice ID. You can change this here if needed.

Vendor The Vendor as selected in the purchase order

Vendor ID The Vendor Code assigned to the Vendor Name.

Check No. If you are paying by check, enter the check number here. This is primarily used with Liquor Vendors

Fiscal Year, Period, Week

The Fiscal information: Year, Period and Week default to the appropriate time period based on the delivery date. You cannot change the information in these fields.

Invoice Date This field defaults to the current date. If necessary, you can change the date to match the invoice date.

Due In most cases this field is left blank. However, a due date can be entered into this field if necessary

Delivered Time The date and time selected or entered in the Convert to Invoice screen (described below). Used to identify which shift the items were received for Shift Inventories. The date and time can be changed if needed

Memo Free-form text field where you can enter a comment regarding the order or invoice.


The total monetary amount due to the vendor for this order (i.e., the sum of the Total column).

Line # Indicates sequence number of the items in the invoice.

Vendor Code The number in this field represents the vendor’s item ID number for the item. The Item number that is assigned to the item cannot be modified in this field, but can be modified through Item Lookup.



Item Name Identifies the item that was ordered. The item must be selected as ‘Purchase’ through Item Lookup.

Inventory Lookup This blue button, in its own column, accesses the Inventory Lookup screen, with the selected item highlighted. You can select another item not already on the invoice, and add it to the invoice by clicking Select.

Units Identifies how the item was purchased.

Ord Qty (Ordered Quantity)

Identifies the amount of the item that was ordered. You cannot make changes to this information.

Rec Qty (Received Quantity)

The amount of the item that was received. You can change this to reflect any differences between the amounts ordered and received.

Price Shows the price based on the Purchase Units. The price that is shown is what was used the last time the item was purchased. This price can be updated it the new cost is different.

Total The total monetary amount for the item in this row.

Check This column appears with electronic orders received from the vendor, to identify items that need to be verified. Items from the electronic invoice may differ from the purchase order during conversion, in quantities or prices.

Subtotal The sum of the Total column for all the items in the invoice.

Sales Tax Enter the sales tax amount, if any, charged by the vendor for the items received.

Freight Enter the amount charged by the vendor for shipping.


The total amount owed to the vendor. The sum of the Subtotal, Sales Tax, and Freight fields. This figure should match the amount on the vendor’s invoice.

Buttons

Click this button to remove the details from the top of the screen (Invoice ID, Vendor Name, Vendor ID, Due Date etc.) and maximizes the details of the order so you can search the order easier. Restore details returns the details to the top of the invoice.

Creates a credit invoice associated with the invoice to account for items returned or not received.

Deletes a previously created credit memo, based on the current order.

Pressing this button reorders the invoice by category.

Previews the invoice printout on screen, where you can choose to print a hard copy.

Saves the invoice, without finalizing it.



Locks the invoice from future edits. This button is typically used in tandem with the MenuLink Data Mart feature.

Discards the attempt to convert the purchase order to an invoice, and any credit memo created from this attempt.

Working with Invoices

The Invoices feature is where you can track invoices that you received at the restaurant as well as

invoices you converted from purchase orders. These include food and liquor invoices as well as non-food

invoices, such as office supplies or plumbing invoices. MenuLink Client uses invoice information to track

your expenses throughout the system. For food and liquor invoices, the costs and quantities of the items

received are tracked to calculate food and beverage costs. The total amount of the non-food invoice (e.g.,

plumbing) is tracked for expense purposes and is shown on the P&L report.

When Paid Outs or Paid Ins need to be allocated through the Sales Reconcile function, the invoice screen

is where the allocation of the Paid Out or Paid In is completed.

Invoice Selection Screen

To view, modify, delete, or finalize an invoice, click Invoices on the Purchasing Switchboard. The

Invoice Selection screen appears:

MenuLink Client displays Invoices that

have Invoice Dates that are on or

between the selected Start Date and End

Date. You can change this date

range as necessary.

If there is a long list of invoices, you can search by the following areas (click the Search Drop-down

arrow, then enter the text you want to match in the ‘for’ field):

Invoice ID

Invoice Date

Delivered Time

Vendor Name


Total

In addition to these selections, filter options are available at the top of the screen, making it possible to

limit the display of invoices to the following types:

All

Final

Unfinalized

Deleting an Invoice

To delete an invoice, select the invoice and click Delete on the Invoice Selection screen. A finalized

invoice cannot be deleted.

Finalizing or Rejecting an Invoice

Once you have made any adjustments needed to an invoice, click the Finalize button on the Purchases –

Invoice screen to accept the changes. Note that once an invoice is finalized, it can no longer be edited or

deleted. If you are not ready to finalize an invoice, but would still like to save changes, you can click the

Save button and return to the invoice later.

Show Pending

Click Show Pending to view invoices that have been imported from a vendor, but are awaiting action by

the manager.

Pending Invoices are awaiting action. In this

example, the vendor has sent an invoice and the

manager has rejected it.

From the Show Pending screen, you can:

Accept an invoice to import the information into the invoice area.

Finalize the invoice to lock it, preventing subsequent edits.

Reject an invoice due to incorrect items or a rejection of the invoice.

Lookup an invoice to view the details.

Check Invalid to see if the invoice contains all necessary information.


Convert a Purchase Order into an invoice (see Converting Purchase Orders) to a pending

invoice, corresponding to the selected purchase order.

Save your changes or Exit without saving.


Credit Memos

If a vendor is unable to fulfill one or more items of an order, a Credit Memo may be created.

(Alternatively, a back order may also be created.) This feature must be activated by your system

administrator, in System Management. Once active, you can add a Credit Memo by clicking the Credit

Memo button on the Purchasing – Invoices screen to activate the Purchasing – Credit Memo screen. Only

items included on the original invoice can appear in a Credit Memo.

Note: If the Credit Memo is not active in your system, you can enter credits as an invoice with negative

quantities.

A Credit Memo attaches a line to the original

invoice, and adjusts the totals and inventory as applicable. It does not create a new invoice.

1. The Credit ID is generated by adding ‘CM’ to the invoice number. This can be edited if

necessary.

2. The Credit Date and Returned Time fields are populated with the current system date. These

fields can be edited if necessary.

3. The Item Name column only contains the items entered on the original invoice available to

create the Credit Memo.

4. The Credit QTY column only accepts negative value quantities.

5. Once the Credit Memo is adjusted, click Save to apply the changes to the invoice.

Note that a Credit Memo does not create a new invoice; it simply adds a line to the adjusted invoice to

modify the inventory and costs appropriately.

Deleting Credit Memos

To delete a Credit Memo, click Delete Credit Memo on the Purchasing – Invoices screen. This button is

only functional if the invoice has a Credit Memo and the invoice is not finalized.

Back Orders

A Back Order is a purchase order that can be created when fewer supplies are delivered than were ordered

and the vendor or commissary can promise delivery at a later date. When back orders are created,


MenuLink Client keeps track of the original purchase order, as well as all back ordered items and their

subsequent delivery.

Vendor Setup

The ability to create back orders in MenuLink Client is handled on a vendor-by-vendor basis, since some

vendors may be able to process back orders, and others may not. To enable back orders for a particular

vendor, the ‘Supports Back Orders’ check box must be selected in the General Info tab for the vendor.


Creating a Back Order

When an order is received, the purchase order is converted to invoice and the quantity of supplies that

were received is entered as described in Converting and Managing Invoices. If the quantity received is

less than the quantity ordered (and the vendor is set up to support back orders) MenuLink Client prompts

you to create a back order for the items not received.

After converting a purchase order into an Invoice, enter the Received Quantity for the appropriate items.

If the quantity entered is less that the quantity ordered, and the vendor is appropriately configured,

MenuLink Client prompts you to create a back order.

1. Click Yes to create a back order for the items.

2. If desired, print the original invoice.

3. Click Exit to Main or Exit to Previous.


Managing Back Orders

When a back order is created, MenuLink Client assigns the Order ID by keeping the original Order ID

and appending a number; for example, if the original Order ID is 12, then the Order ID of the back order

is 12-1. A back order can be managed much like a normal purchase order. You can also print the back

order and/or send the order electronically (if set up to do so).

To review a back order:

1. From the Purchasing Switchboard, click Orders.

2. In the Orders screen, click Orders.

3. In the Order Selection screen, Select the back-order, and then click Lookup.

The Order ID is the original

ID with a number

appended.

4. In the Purchasing – Purchase Orders screen, you can make changes to the order as necessary,

for example, changing the quantity ordered (the default quantity is the amount that was not

received from the original order), removing items from the order, or adding new items to the

order. Notice that ‘Back Order’ check box is selected to indicate how the purchase order was

created.


5. After reviewing the order and making any necessary changes, you can Print, Save, and/or Send

the order electronically (if set up to do so).

6. Click Close in the header to close the purchase order.

7. Click Exit to Main or Exit to Previous.

Receiving a Back Order

The procedure to receive a back order is the same as receiving a ‘regular’ purchase order. When the back

order arrives, convert the ‘back order’ purchase order to invoice and enter the quantity received as usual.

Multiple Back Orders

If you enter a received quantity in a back order that is less than what was ordered in the back order,

MenuLink Client prompts you to create a new back order just as it did with the original order. If you

choose to create another back order, MenuLink Client creates a new purchase order. The order ID of the

new order is the original ID with the next sequential number appended. For example, if the original order

is ID is 12 and the first back order ID is 12-1, then the next back order ID is 12-2.


Back Orders and Reports

Back orders are displayed in purchase order reports along with ‘regular’ purchase orders as shown in the

following examples. Remember, back order ID’s are the original ID numbers with sequential numbers

appended to them.

This example

shows an original

purchase order and

its back orders.


Recalculate the Usage Per Factor

The Recalculate Usage per Factor is where you can recalculate your usage after performing a physical

count. This can affect the recommended order quantity that MenuLink Client calculates when creating

purchase orders.

Once you have entered or changed your inventory, click Recalc Usage Factor. The following dialog box

appears where you can choose the time frame to use to recalculate the usage for ordering.

This message appears when the calculations are complete.


Viewing Purchase History

The History feature shows you information for each and every time an item purchased by your store.

Selecting the item shows every purchase of that item, in descending order, with the most recent purchase

at the top of the list. The Purchase History screen displays all purchases, transfers, and credits.

Purchase History Screen

1. On the Purchasing Switchboard, click History.

2. In the Item Name field, click to view the drop-down list.

3. Click the desired item and the entire history for that item appears. The list is in order starting

with the most recent purchase transaction.

Like other tables, you can

click on a column header to sort by that

column.

The information presented includes the following:


Fields/columns

Item Name The name of the item purchased. Select an item from the drop-down list. If you selected the item by Item ID, the name automatically appears when you make the selection.

Item ID The ID of the item purchased. This automatically appears when an Item is selected. You can also select the item ID instead of the Item name.

Date The date of purchase.

Invoice or Transfer ID

The actual invoice number or transfer number.

Vendor The vendor where the item was purchased. If the purchase was a transfer, the transferring store name appears.

Qty Quantity purchased

Units How the item was purchased.



Unit Price The price paid per Unit.

Buttons

Click Browse to view the Purchase History Selection screen. This screen displays Item Names and IDs side-by-side


Purchasing Reports

This section includes samples and descriptions of Purchasing-related reports available in MenuLink

Client. Depending on your system set-up, you may not have access to all reports and selection options

described. Contact your system administrator for more information.

For general information on how to view and print reports, as well as selecting report options, see Viewing

and Printing Reports.

To access Purchasing reports, click Reports on the Purchasing Switchboard or click Reports from the

Inventory System Switchboard.

The reports in this example may differ from those appearing in your

list. Contact your system administrator for more

information.


Cost Journal – Receiving by Vendor Report

The Cost Journal – Receiving by Vendor report lists invoices, summarized by raw material category, also

sorted by vendor.

A summary appears at the

end of the report.


Cost Journal for Accounts Payable Report

The Cost Journal for Accounts Payable report lists invoice and accounts payable information for the

report period, sorted by vendor.

A summary appears at the

end of the report.


Cost of Goods Report

The Cost of Goods report shows how much of a raw material was used over a time period, sorted by

category. This report gives valuable information for troubleshooting your actual food cost by item. You

can see the Beginning Inventory (in Units), the total purchases for the time period (in Units), and the

ending inventory (in Units). The Cost per Unit column is based on the purchases of the item for the time

period selected.

This report also gives you the actual usage in dollars by item, then subtotals it by category and the total

actual usage for all items is at the end of the report.


A grand total appears at the end of the report.

Cost of Goods in Dollars Report

The Cost of Goods in Dollars report is similar to the Cost of Goods report, except that it focuses on costs

and does not include inventory unit information.


A summary appears at the end of the report.


Cost of Goods Stacked Report

The Cost of Goods Stacked report is similar to the Cost of Goods report except that it displays multiple

store’s data on a single report stacked by store, with item, and category summaries.

If reporting on multiple sites, they

appear ‘stacked’ in the report.

Grand Totals appear at the

end of the report.


Par Levels by Day Report

The Par Levels by Day report is sorted alphabetically by vendor and lists the items purchased by category

with their par levels for each day of the week. Par levels are maintained in the Item Lookup screen.

Purchase Orders Report

The Purchase Order report lists the purchase order information, sorted by vendor.


Purchase Detail Report

The Purchase Order Detail report lists purchase order/invoice details, sorted by category.


Purchase Detail Stacked

The Purchases Detail Stacked report is similar to the Purchases in Detail report, except that it displays

store’s data on a single report stacked by store by item by category.

If reporting on multiple sites, they

appear ‘stacked’ in the report.

A grand total appears at the end of the report,

along with a list of sites and groups included in the report.


Inventory System

Click Inventory and Prep, in Main, to access the Inventory Switchboard. The Inventory Switchboard

contains several tools you can use to view and manage items, manage transfers to and from your site,

enter spoiled or wasted product, and enter and manage inventory counts.

Features in the Inventory Switchboard include:

Item Lookup — View and edit individual items.

Inventory Posting — Enter and manage current inventory levels.

Transfers — Enter and manage transfers to and from this site.

Spoil and Loss — Enter product waste to account for unusable inventory.

Worksheet — Manage and print inventory tracking worksheets that can help you record

inventory counts.

Reports — View and print inventory related reports.


Managing Inventory Items

The Inventory Lookup screen gives you access to information regarding a specific raw material item or

prep item. You can edit the settings for each item to efficiently manage your inventory.

To view the Inventory Lookup screen, click Item Lookup on the Inventory Switchboard.

Viewing and Editing Items

To view and edit an item, select an item from the table in the Inventory Lookup screen and click Lookup.

Like other tables, you can sort and search as described in Sorting and Searching for Information. Clicking

Lookup brings up the Item Lookup screen, explained in the following sections.

Item Lookup screen – General tab

The General tab shows the basic unit information about the inventory item.


Conversion Unit — is a list of all units assigned to the item. Units available can include purchase

units, inventory counting units, and recipe units. Click the drop-down arrow to view other unit

conversions for this item (e.g., purchase units or recipe units).

To Standard — is the number of Standard Units per Conversion Unit. For example, if an item’s

Conversion Unit is ‘Case=150 EA,’ and the Standard Unit is ‘Box=25 EA,’ then the To Standard

value would be 6 (25 x 6 = 150).

Standard Unit — is the unit of measure that is used for reporting purposes. Inventory and

purchases can be entered in any defined unit. However, when it is displayed on any report the

standard units are used.

Current On Hand — count is the theoretical on-hand inventory figure, measured in Standard

Units. MenuLink Client calculates this figure based on your last inventory + purchases – amount

you have sold.

Usage Per Factor — is the multiple used for calculating a recommended order quantity when the

Order by Usage Per Factor method is used. This value updates dynamically, as inventory and

purchases are entered to give the most current Usage Per Factor for the item.


Item Lookup screen – Inventory tab

The Inventory tab defines information related to the physical inventory for the item. You can select which

inventory list(s) the item should exist in, whether or not you can post a waste amount for the item, the

inventory unit(s) that you can use to count the item, and the location(s) where you can count the item.

Last Inventory Business Date — Displays the last date inventory was entered for this item.

Category Allowed Variance % — Typically set up by your systems administrator, this variance

percentage can be set to apply to the item category or at the item level.

Inventory Flags: Waste — Determines if you can enter spoilage quantities for the item on the

Spoilage and Loss screen.

Inventory Lists — Establishes the inventory cycles to which you can assign the item.

Inventory Units — Identifies the count unit upon which the quantities for this item are based, as

entered in Aloha Quick Count. These units are managed by the system administrator.

Locations — Defines the areas in which the inventory is held. The ‘Seq’ column indicates what

order the item is displayed on the list. Multiple location assignments are possible.

Item Lookup screen – Purchases tab

The Purchases tab defines the order price, par levels, ordering method, and ordering units for the item.


Current Order Price/ Current Invoice Price — Lists the most recent price associated with the

item on a purchase order. This field is typically not available for edit.

Current Invoice Price — Lists the most current price of the item entered on an invoice. This

field is typically not available for edit.

Current Order Units — Defines what unit the item is ordered by. This field is typically not

available for edit.

Current Invoice Units — Defines what unit the item is invoiced by. Typically, this is the same

unit as Current Order Units. This field is typically not available for edit.

Order By — Determines what ordering method MenuLink Client uses to calculate recommended

ordering amounts.

Par Level — is the amount that you need to have on hand until the next time you receive an

order. The Par method suggests your order by taking into account the Par Levels, open POs

and Theoretical On-Hand amount.

Forecasting — uses the Forecasted Sales Mix to calculate what is needed for the selected

days to give you the required amount needed.

Usage per Factor — is based on the standard unit and calculates what was used based on

your prior days back and then multiplies usage by the configured Usage factor.

Par Units — Determines what unit is used to define the par levels.

Par Levels — Defines the number of par units that should be considered on the day that the order

is to be submitted to a vendor.

Purchasable — Makes the item available for order. If this is cleared, most fields in this tab

cannot be edited.

Taxable — Indicates the item is taxable. This is typically defined by your System Administrator,

but can be modified by store level users. When an invoice is entered into MenuLink Client and

sales tax is entered, any items that are taxable have a portion of the sales tax amount allocated to

the item’s assigned category.


Show for all Vendors on Order by Vendor — Indicates the item will appear in the list of

purchasable items on the order by vendor add item screen for all vendors assigned to the item,

regardless of the Primary Vendor check box in the Vendors tab.

Required to Order — Indicates the item will need to be ordered every time a purchase order for

the vendor that is assigned to the item is created. This is typically managed by your system

administrator to ensure that key items are ordered.

Quantity to Order — Indicates the amount that can be ordered and is based on the Quantity to

Order Units.

Quantity to Order Units — Indicates the units by which the item is to be ordered.

Purchase Units — Identifies the unit used for ordering the item, and the unit used when

receiving the item on an invoice.

Item Lookup screen – Vendors tab

The Vendors tab defines information regarding the vendors you can order the item from.

Note: You may be restricted from editing these options. Contact your system administrator for more

information.

Vendor Name — Identifies the vendor.

Vendor Code — The vendor’s item number used to identify the item (this is not the same as the

MenuLink Client item ID).

Order Unit — Determines the unit for ordering the item from this vendor. The available units to

choose are based on what was define in the Purchase Units area of the Purchase Tab.

Receive Unit — Determines the unit for receiving the item from this vendor. The available units

to choose are based on what was define in the Purchase Units area of the Purchase Tab.

Receive Price — The price paid for the item, based on the receiving unit and is updated as

invoices are entered in MenuLink.

Price Locked — Locks the Receive Price. This is typically used if this item is purchased on a

contract and the price is not updated through the invoice screen.


PO Sequence — Defines where the item appears on the purchase order worksheet. If more than

one item has the same PO Sequence, MenuLink Client sorts the items alphabetically.

Prime Vendor — Marks this vendor as the preferred vendor for the item.

Prime Item — Designates the primary purchase units for an item from a vendor. This check box

is used to designate the preferred purchase units when there are multiple case packs available for

the same item.

Note: The system requires the prime item check box to be used even if there is only one way to purchase

an item.

Exclude/ Delete — The Delete check box is available only for vendor information you have

defined. Since making purchases from vendors is considered historical information, it is highly

recommended that you use the Excl check box (Exclude) rather than Delete.

Item Lookup screen – Cost History tab

The Cost History tab shows how the cost has changed for the item over time. MenuLink Client creates an

entry each time the purchase (invoice) price for the item changes. (To see a complete history of

purchases, see the Purchase History screen.) The User # -Name field shows the User ID and name of the

user who entered the change.


Posting Inventory

Use the Inventory Posting feature to update inventory quantities into the Inventory System. Generally,

you post inventory for different items on regularly scheduled time periods as set up by your system

administrator. Common examples include Daily (hot item), Weekly, Biweekly (every other week),

Monthly, and/or Period. In addition to posting inventory for specific item periods, you may also have

special inventory posting categories for certain items, such as meat items.

Your System Administrator has defined the type of inventory to be used. There are two inventory types

available: Location or Categories.

Inventory by Location — is where you can assign items to specific areas within the restaurant

(e.g., Cooler, Storeroom, etc). You count all the items assigned to the location and then move on

to the next location and count those items and continue until all locations have been counted.

When the inventory is posted, items that are assigned to multiple storage locations are added to

together to give a total amount of inventory for that item.

Inventory by Category — uses the category assigned to the items to determine the grouping of

the item for inventory purposes. With this inventory you enter the total on-hand amount for the

item.

After you post inventory, MenuLink Client calculates the following, as shown on various reports:

Calculate ending inventory extensions and the Dollar value for that inventory.

Calculate product usage for the time period.

Compare the actual usage with the theoretical usage and show you the items that cost you the

most because of overuse.

Calculate food and beverage costs.

All of this information can be accessed through the various Inventory Reports that your system

administrator has activated.

Preparing to Post Inventory

Before you can enter inventory, you can do the following:

Print the inventory worksheets.

Count your inventory using the printed worksheets.

Inventory Posting By Location

The procedure and screens that you view to post inventory is basically the same for each posting period or

category (e.g., Daily/Hot Item, Weekly, Meat Items, Bi-weekly, and/or Monthly), as described below.

Tip: If you make a change to item cost after posting inventory, you may need to access and resave the

existing inventory to update the inventory value. If you are making changes to an invoice that affects the

current inventory it is not necessary to resave the inventory to update the prices. However, if you make a

change to an invoice from a previous inventory cycle you must resave the inventory to update the price

for that inventory.


When you are ready to enter the quantities that you have counted for inventory, follow these steps

to post inventory in MenuLink Client.

1. On the Inventory Switchboard, click Inventory Posting.

2. In the Inventory Posting Selection screen, click the type of inventory you want to post (i.e., Shift,

Daily, Full Inventory, etc.).

This is an example only. Most likely, you will see different choices in your

Inventory Posting Selection.

3. In the Inventory Posting Selection dialog box, select the time frame for the inventory you want

to post.


This example is for weekly inventory. Depending on the

Inventory option you selected, the available

choices may be different.

4. If you are creating a new posting, enter the information in the New tab.

5. If you are updating an existing posting, select the Existing tab. Note: Your system administrator

determines the number of days prior that you will be able to make adjustments to posted

inventories. Inventories that were posted beyond the defined number of days can be viewed but

not modified.

Creating a New Inventory Posting:

From the New tab,

select the options appropriate for the time frame for the inventory posting.

Modifying or Viewing an Existing Inventory Posting:

From the Existing tab, select a date from the Inventory Type drop-

down list.

In the Select Time Frame area, enter the date or period and week that the inventory will be assigned.

Select the appropriate Inventory By

selection.

In the Select Time Frame area, enter the date or period and week that the inventory will be assigned.

Select the appropriate Inventory By

selection.


6. Click Continue.

WARNING: If an inventory exists for the period and week selected, MenuLink Client displays the

message ‗An Inventory exists for that period, write over it? YES or NO’. Verify the period

and week to make sure you entered them correctly. Click NO to exit from that inventory. If you

click YES, the inventory that exists is deleted and you will have to reenter the entire inventory.

7. In the Inventory — Posting by Location screen, enter the inventory posting quantities for each

item you counted.

To enter inventory, select

the field above the unit you are

counting and type the quantity. In

this example, we have counted one case of Cherry Pie

and 12 slices.

Tip: Use the Tab

key to quickly navigate between fields. (Shift+Tab to go backward)

Note: Blank fields are allowed.

Keep the following points in mind as you use the Inventory – Posting by Location screen:

The storage location is identified in the Description field in the top left area of the screen. To

navigate to another location within the inventory, use the navigation arrows above the unit

fields.

Click the right arrow to access the next available storage location or click the left arrow to go

back to the previous storage location. The arrows with lines take you to the first location or

the last location.

Click Skip Location, if active, to skip the current storage location from this inventory

process. Use this button when items assigned to a location are not to be included in the

inventory and will not affect your actual usage amounts. This button is typically disabled by

the administrator.

Process Advisory: If you skipped a location and want to include it on the inventory you are

currently entering, you must delete the inventory and reenter it.

Click Abandon Inventory to exit the inventory posting process without saving any quantities

entered for the current session. Inventory quantities remain the same as they were before you

started posting (i.e., as they were in Step 1).


Click a column heading to sort the worksheet contents based on the selected column, thus

taking the entire list out of the normal worksheet order. Click the column head again to

reverse the sort order. Click ‘Worksheet Sort Order’ to return the worksheet contents to its

original sort order.

If MenuLink Client is set up to do so, click Upload from PDA to enter inventory information

contained on your Personal Digital Assistant device into MenuLink Client. See Upload PDA

Inventory for more information on using a PDA to manage inventory.

The inventory items that appear are presented in the same order as the corresponding

inventory worksheet. To change the order of the items within a location, you must use the

Reorder Inventory feature.

If an item does not appear on any of your inventory worksheets or posting screens, the item

may not be set up to be counted for an inventory type or may not be assigned to a storage

location. Find the item in the Item Lookup screen and make sure that the item is selected for

an inventory type (Daily, weekly, and so on) and the item has been assigned to a storage

location.

The five Units columns to the right of the item name is where you can enter the quantity

based on the units of measure listed below that field. If the item has more than 5 counting

units assigned, the system adds an additional line below the item to display those additional

units. Inventory units can be assigned in the Inventory tab of the Item Lookup screen.

Quantities can be entered in decimal form. For example, enter a half case as ‘.5’.

When entering quantities, press the TAB key to proceed to the next field. MenuLink Client

takes you through the fields from left to right for each item. If you hold the SHIFT key and

press the TAB key it you move the cursor back one field.

When you have reached the last item in a storage location, click the right arrow above the

unit fields to access the next location. You can also use the other arrows to navigate among

storage locations as described on the previous page. Repeat Step 5 as many times as

necessary.

8. When you have entered the inventory quantities for all locations, click Save. Your system

administrator can set up alerts that indicate when your inventory is out of the expected range. If

these alerts are set up and your inventory is not within the acceptable range you may see the

following message:

Save inventory saves the inventory and ignores the alert

Edit inventory takes you back to the inventory entry screens so you can review your

inventory


Preview report brings up the Inventory and On Hand Count report. This report compares the

actual on hand count to the theoretical on hand count. The theoretical on-hand count is

calculated using the last full inventory plus any purchases for the week minus what was used

based on the sales mix.

Once you have viewed this report and you click close, MenuLink Client automatically

redirects you back to the inventory entry screen so that you can make any necessary changes.

9. View reports as desired through Reports. Samples are shown later in this chapter.


Inventory Posting by Category

Inventory by Category is essentially the same as Inventory by Location except that the raw materials are

listed by their categories instead of their physical locations. Below are some examples of Inventory by

Category. You can see that many of the same options are available.

Hot Item Inventory

Hot Item or Daily Inventory is used to track the usage of inventory items more frequently than those

inventoried through the weekly or monthly inventory process. Hot Items are critical items such as

seafood, meats, or other high-cost items. Hot Item inventories can be done daily or they can be done

multiple times during the day, such as after a shift. Once a Hot Item inventory and a sales import from

your POS system are completed, you can compare what you actually used to the theoretical usage.

Before entering Hot Item inventory, do the following:

Print the Inventory Worksheets.

If there are ‘hot’ items that should be listed in the worksheet but are not, make sure they are set

up properly as hot items. In the Item Lookup screen, make sure the box is selected next to Hot

Item Inventory for the items that you want to include on your hot item inventory.

Count your inventory using the printed worksheets.

When you are ready to enter the quantities that you have counted for your Hot Item Inventory, follow the

general procedure for posting inventory.

Note: Be sure to select the appropriate time frame in the Inventory Posting Selection dialog box.


Adding an Item to an Inventory

If you find an item that needs to be inventoried and you have already started posting your inventory you

can add the item to your inventory as follows:

1. Click Save to retain the inventory.

2. From the Inventory Switchboard, click Item Lookup.

3. Locate and select the item to be inventoried, then click Lookup.

4. Select the Inventory Tab and activate the item to be inventoried. Remember to assign an

inventory location.

5. Click Save to save the changes.

6. Click Exit to Previous to exit to the Inventory Switchboard.

7. Look Up the existing inventory.

8. The Add Item button is available at all times, as needed.

.


9. The Add Items by Location screen appears.

.

10. Select the item that you would like to add then click OK. The selected item appears as the last

item in that inventory location.

Note: You can change the order of the items after adding them.

.


Looking up a Previous Inventory

To view and make modifications to a previously saved inventory, do the following:

1. On the Inventory Switchboard, click Inventory Posting.

Note: If you have already started posting an inventory, but have not saved or abandoned it, the

Inventory Posting function takes you directly to the unfinished inventory.

2. Select the type of inventory you’re looking for (e.g., Daily, Weekly).

3. In the Inventory Posting Selection dialog box, click the Existing tab.

4. Select the inventory date from the drop-down calendar, and then click Continue.

Note: Your system administrator determines the number of days prior that you will be able to

make adjustments to posted inventories. Inventories that were posted beyond the defined number

of days can be viewed but not modified.

5. Enter inventory quantities in the Inventory Posting screen.

6. Click Save to save your changes.


Transferring Inventory

The Transfers feature is where you can enter and track inventory transfers to and from your restaurant.

Each site in the transfer process must make a corresponding, matching entry; i.e., if you make a Transfer

Out entry to transfer product from your site, the receiving site must also enter a matching Transfer In

entry for the product. This can be done by using the Accept transfer feature to accept or finalize a transfer

that has been initiated by another site. MenuLink Client considers a transfer entry without a matching

entry to be a ‘pending transfer.’ In addition, if any of the information in each corresponding transfer entry

does not match (for example, the transfer quantities do not match), MenuLink Client tags the transfer as

‘mismatched.’

Note: To ensure accuracy and to help prevent theft, all information in the corresponding transfer entries

must match exactly: the Transfer ID, Item(s), Units, Quantity, Price, and Total. If any information does

not match, the entry must be corrected by one of the sites.

If the matching entries are correctly entered and the product received, MenuLink Client deducts from

your inventory the amount of product transferred from your restaurant. When you receive a transfer of

product from another restaurant, the system adds the amount of product into your inventory. Inventory

includes transfers when calculating your theoretical inventory.

The Inventory — Transfers screen is organized into four tabs:

Field Description

Tabs

All Transfers —This Site

This tab lists all transfers (completed, pending, and mismatched) for your site that are within the start and end dates. In this tab, you can enter new transfers, lookup existing transfers, and unapproved existing transfers.

Pending — This Site

This tab lists transfers that were entered at your site, but the other (transfer) site has not made a corresponding entry yet. You can delete pending transfers in this tab.


Field Description

Pending — Other Sites

This tab lists transfers that were entered at another site, but your site has not made a corresponding entry yet. You can accept transfers from this tab.

Mismatched This tab lists transfers that have corresponding entries, but one or more items in the corresponding transfer entries do not match.

Buttons

Deletes a pending transfer.

Prevents the transfer from affecting your inventory, but does not delete the transfer. This can be useful to allow the other site to adjust the transfer before you accept it.

Accepts a transfer that has already been entered from another site. You are able to make changes if necessary.

Creates a new inventory transfer for items received from another site. If the corresponding transfer has already been entered, you should click Accept instead.

Creates a new inventory transfer for items given from another site. If the corresponding transfer has already been entered, you should click Accept instead.

Is used to view an existing inventory transfer.


Creating a Transfer Entry

The following instructions describe how to create a Transfer In or Transfer Out entry. Keep in mind

that the each site must have corresponding and identical transfers for MenuLink Client to complete them.

Note: Some transfer functionality may be limited by your system administrator. For example, you may

only have the ability to create Transfer Outs to prevent redundant transfer entries.

Note: Each transfer can only be to or from a single site; multiple sites cannot be selected.

Tip: If another site has already created a Transfer Out entry to transfer product to your site, you can

automatically create a Transfer In entry in the Pending -- Other Sites tab. See ‘Accepting a Transfer’ on

page 91.

1. On the Inventory Switchboard, click Transfers.

2. Click New Transfer In or New Transfer Out.

Select the type of

transfer you are creating.

3. In the Transfer In or Transfer Out screen, enter the transfer number in the Transfer ID field.

The number should have a maximum of 14 characters and can include letters. Note: Your system

administrator may have this field automatically populate, like in the example below.

The Transfer In screen is identical

except that the title is Transfer- In and Transferring From appears instead of

Transferring To.

4. Select a site from the Transferring To or Transferring From drop-down list.


5. If entering a Transfer In, verify and enter the Transfer Time.

6. Select the item being transferred from the Item Name drop-down list.

7. In the Units field, select the transfer units.

8. In the Qty field, enter the quantity transferred. This quantity must be based on the unit of measure

that you selected in the Units field.

9. The Price that appears is the last price paid. Depending on the security setting, this may or may

not be available for change.

10. MenuLink Client automatically calculates and fills in the Total (Price x Quantity).

11. Repeat steps 6-9 for each additional item you are transferring to or from the same site.

12. Click Save after all items have been entered for this transfer.

13. Click Print to print this transfer

Accepting a Transfer

If another site has already created a transfer entry for items being transferred to or from your site, you can

automatically create a corresponding transfer entry by accepting the transfer in the Pending - Other Sites

tab. Accepting a transfer saves time and eliminates the possibility of accidentally creating a mismatched

transfer.


To Accept a Transfer:


2. In the Inventory - Transfers screen, click the Pending -- Other Sites tab.

3. Select the transfer you want to create a matching transfer entry for, and then click Accept.

The Transfer In or Transfer Out screen appears.

The Transfer Out screen is identical except the title is Transfer- Out and

Transferring to appears instead of Transferring From

4. Verify the information in the transfer entry is correct. If it is not correct, you may adjust it here.

Note that the corresponding transfer must also be adjusted or a mismatched transfer will result.

5. Click Print to print the accepted transfer.


Deleting a Transfer

You can delete a transfer from the All Transfers -- This Site tab or from the Pending -- This site tab.

Warning: Use caution when deleting a transfer, as there is no ‘undo’ if you accidentally choose the wrong

transfer.

To Delete a Transfer:


2. Click the Pending – This Site tab

3. Select the transfer you want to delete, and then click Delete.

Note: You can only delete transfers that you have created. If a corresponding site has created an

incorrect transfer, that site is responsible for deleting or modifying it.

Mismatched Transfers

When transferring product between sites, each site must create a corresponding transfer entry. The site

shipping the product creates a Transfer Out entry and the receiving site creates a Transfer In entry. To

help ensure accuracy and deter theft, all of the information in each corresponding transfer entry must

match exactly. If any information does not match, MenuLink Client tags the transfer entry made at your

site as ‘mismatched’ and lists it in the Mismatched tab.

If the incorrect entry was made at your site, you can correct the information by selecting the entry and

clicking on the Lookup button. If the incorrect entry was made at the other site, you will need to contact

them so they can make the correction.


When you create or update a transfer entry and MenuLink Client detects that the entry is a mismatch,

MenuLink Client displays the following message. When you click OK, MenuLink Client displays the

transfer in the Mismatched tab.

Tip: You can avoid mismatched transfers by using the Accept feature in the Pending – Other Sites tab.


Entering Spoilage and Loss Information

In the Inventory – Spoilage and Loss screen, you can enter and track your waste on a daily basis. Waste

can include raw materials, prep items, as well as menu items. You can also track spoilage and loss history

for a specific item. This history shows you when the spoilage/loss was entered, who entered it, and the

quantity wasted.

The waste that you enter in Spoil and Loss does not affect your theoretical usage versus actual usage

variances that you see on most of your item use variance reports. It is used as a tool in understanding why

you have those variances. However, your system administrator can activate reports that include waste as a

separate column to show the amounts included in the calculations.

There are two types of entry screens available. The first example is the classic waste entry where you are

able to enter items and give a reason for the waste and it is managed at a store level. The second example

is similar to entering an inventory and is managed by your system administrator.

To Enter Spoil and Loss Information Example 1:

1. On the Inventory Switchboard, click Spoil and Loss.

To select an item, click a

category then select an Item

Name from the drop-down

list. Or, click the Browse

button to the right of the

drop-down list to scroll

through a list of detail

information.

2. In the Inventory – Spoilage and Loss screen, select an item type by clicking the circle next to

Menu, Prep or Raw. You can also select All to view a list of all items if you are not sure of the

category. The Waste option on the Inventory tab of Item Lookup determines if an item will

appear in these lists.

Note: Use the filter options at the top of the screen to limit the type of item displayed in the list,

All, Menu, Prep, or Raw, to make locating a specific item easier.


3. Verify the date and time the item was lost. By default, MenuLink Client displays the current date

in the Business Date field and the current time in the Time Item was lost field. The default time

and date reflect current system time and date. You can change these to reflect the actual time and

date of the loss.

4. Choose an item to waste by doing one of the following.

Select an item from the Item Name drop-down list. Items in the drop-down list match the

category selected in step 2.

Click the Browse button to access the Inventory Waste Select screen. The items

available in the screen match the category selected in step 2. Select an item, then click Select.

5. In the Enter Quantity field, enter the amount of the item that was wasted based on the

corresponding per Unit ID (the unit of measure) that can be selected to the right.

6. In the Reason field, enter a brief reason as to why the waste occurred. Note: This field, if defined

by your administrator, may have a drop-down list of possible waste reasons to choose.

7. When the information entered is correct, click Add Item to add the item to this spoilage and Loss

list.

MenuLink Client calculates and fills in the Cost Information for the waste.

8. Repeat steps 3 through 6 until all wasted items have been entered.

9. Click Save when the list is finished.

To Enter Spoil and Loss Information Example 2:

This type of spoil and loss is different from our first example in several ways:

The waste is entered in the same format as inventory.

The waste items are centrally managed by your system administrator.

Items are listed by type; raw, prep, and menu.

You are not prompted to enter a reason for the waste and the history of the item is not displayed.


To enter spoil and loss:

1. On the Inventory Switchboard, click Spoil and Loss.

2. The Inventory- Spoilage and Loss screen appears.

The Waste is divided into types: Raw items, Prep Items, and Menu Items. The type of item is

identified in the Item Type field in the top left area of the screen. To move from type to type

within the waste screen, use the navigation arrows above the Unit columns.

Click the right arrow to access the next available type or click the left arrow to go back to the

previous type. The arrows with lines take you to the first location or the last location.

If an item does not exist on any of your item types, the item may be not set up as Waste.

Contact your System Administrator to have the item added.

The five Unit columns to the right of the item name is where you can enter the quantity based

on the units of measure listed below that field. If the item has more than 5 counting units

assigned, the system adds an additional line below the item to display those additional units.

Quantities can be entered in decimal form. For example, enter a half case as ‘.5’.


As you enter each waste item a time is assigned to the item.

If you need to enter the same items a second time, click the grey box to the left of the item to

select the item. Click Copy item and a second line of the same item appears:

To enter spoilage and loss, select the field above the unit

you are counting and type in the

quantity. In this example, we have counted one case, two bags, and one

pound of fries.

Tip: Use the Tab key to quickly navigate

between fields. (Shift+Tab to go

backward)

Note: After entering a number in a field,

it cannot be left blank. (A zero can

be entered.)

3. Click Save when you have entered all of the waste items for all types.

Spoil and Loss Tips

When a Prep Item or Menu Item is selected, all of the ingredients listed in their recipes are also

wasted and will show in any of the Spoil and Loss reports.

MenuLink Client does not save waste information in the database until you click Save. If you

haven’t clicked Save yet, you can change the quantity wasted or reason by making the correction

in the Qty or Reason fields in the Spoilage and Loss grid.

If you entered the wrong amount for an item and have clicked Save, you can modify the quantity

and/or reason by going to that item’s entry in the spoil and loss detail area and making changes.

You cannot make changes to the item name or the units.

If you need to remove an item from the spoil and loss screen, click the box to the left of the time

entry to select the line and press the delete key on your keyboard.


Inventory Worksheets

You can perform the following actions with Inventory Worksheets:

Print worksheets — These worksheets, much like Purchase Order Worksheets, are useful when

counting actual inventory on hand. You can also print Waste worksheets that you can use to track

spoilage and loss before posting in MenuLink.

Reorder worksheets. -You can change the sequence that items appear in inventory worksheets,

as well as add or remove items from worksheets.

Note: This function is only available if ‘Location’ is selected as the inventory type defined by your

system administrator.

Download to PDA — If set up to do so by your system administrator, you can download

worksheets to a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

Reassign Prep Items — Assign prep items to their appropriate locations.

Working with worksheets:

1. Click Worksheet in the Inventory Switchboard.

2. In the Inventory Worksheet Selection screen, click the option you would like.

Note: ‘Download to PDA’ is only available if your

system administrator has set up this option for you.


Printing Inventory Worksheet

To print an Inventory Worksheet:

1. From the Inventory Switchboard, select the Worksheets function and click Print Worksheet.

2. In the Select Worksheet to Print screen, click the button for the inventory you are going to

count.

Note: You may see different options as

set up by your System Administrator

The selected worksheet appears on screen.

3. To print the worksheet, click the Print button on the tool bar at the top of the screen.

Click the printer icon to print the worksheet. For

explanations on other options, see

Viewing and Printing Reports.

4. To exit from the worksheets preview screen, click Close from the Reports Toolbar.

Modifying Inventory Worksheets

Use the Reorder Locations feature to sequence inventory items within a storage location on inventory

worksheets. You can also add and remove items from the lists. This can make inventory counting easier

because you can group items in the same way that you store them.

Note: Adding or removing items affects the worksheets only; the inventory items themselves remain in the

MenuLink Client database.


Warning: This message may appear if your system administrator previously maintained the sequence of

items in this location. Click Yes to assume control of the item sequence at the site level. If you select

‘Yes,’ this message appears only once.

Reordering an Inventory Worksheet

1. Click Reorder Location.

2. Click the item with the left mouse button to select it. Keep the left mouse button pressed.

In this example, we’ll change Ginger

Ale to follow Cola.

3. Continue to hold the left mouse button down, move (drag) the item to its new place in the

sequence. As you move the item up or down, a line indicates where the item will be placed. Be

sure to keep holding the mouse button down as you move the item.

Hold the left mouse button down with the

item selected for a moment before

moving the mouse

4. Once the indicator appears in the desired location, release the mouse button and the list will be

updated.

Ginger Ale now follows Cola in the

sequence.


Removing Items from an Inventory Worksheet

1. From the Inventory Switchboard, select the Worksheets function and click Reorder Inventory.

2. In the Reorder Inventory Locations screen, select the Inventory Location you want to work with

from the Location drop-down list.

In the Inventory Worksheet

Sequence field, the inventory

items assigned to the selected

location appear in their current

order.

Note: Inventory Locations can also be selected for items in the Item Lookup screen.

In the Reorder Inventory

Locations screen, you can remove items from the worksheet, add

items that are not on the list, and

change the sequence in which

items are displayed.

3. To remove an item from the location, click the item name to select it, and then click the Remove

Item button.


Adding an Item to an Inventory Worksheet

1. From the Inventory Switchboard, select the Worksheets function and click Reorder Inventory.

Select a location to add the item to.

2. Click Add Items. The Inventory Item(s) Selection screen appears.

Note: To add multiple items, hold the ‘Ctrl’ key on the keyboard, and click each item in turn until

all are selected. All selected items are added together to the Inventory Worksheet, at the bottom

of the list.

3. Select the item you would like to add (scroll through the list or search as necessary), then click

Select. The Reorder Inventory Locations screen appears with the item you added at bottom of the

list.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 as necessary to make changes to the Inventory Worksheets.

5. You can change the sequence that the items are displayed by clicking and dragging the items to a

different line in the list. See Reordering and Managing Inventory Worksheets.

6. Click Save to save the changes.

7. Click Exit to Main Switchboard or Exit to Previous as desired.

Reorder Location can re order the entire list alphabetically or by category, click Reorder Location

then select reorder by item name to put the list in alphabetical order by item name or reorder by

category to reorder the worksheet by category name.


Downloading an inventory worksheet to a PDA

If your system administrator has set up this feature, you can download an inventory worksheet to your

Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), enter the counts on your PDA, then upload the counts from the PDA to

MenuLink Client.

The feature is set up if the Download to PDA button is active in the Inventory Worksheet screen.

The Download to PDA feature

is active if your system

administrator has set up this option for you.

To download a worksheet to a PDA:

1. Connect your PDA to the computer you are using MenuLink Client on.

2. In the Inventory Worksheet Selection screen, click Download to PDA.

3. Select the worksheet you want to send to the PDA


4. Click OK to confirm the Inventory has been sent to the PDA successfully.

5. Make sure the PDA is in the cradle. Open Active Sync and select the Sync button.


6. After the sync has completed, remove the PDA from the cradle. On the main screen of the PDA

select Programs, MenuLink PDA Inventory. You are ready to begin with the Inventory process.

7. Tap the screen to begin the inventory counting process or use the built in scanner to take the

inventory.


Upload PDA Inventory

1. Once you have completed the inventory process place the PDA on the cradle to synchronize

your counts with the MenuLink.

2. Select Inventory Posting.

3. Select the Worksheet you have completed counting.

4. Select a new count to begin a new worksheet or select and existing worksheet if you have

previously began this count.

5. Select Continue.

6. Once the worksheet is open, click Upload from PDA to upload the inventory counts form the

PDA.

7. Once you have completed the upload you review the counts and click Save.


Suggested Prep

Suggested Prep is used to create a prep list for selected prep items based on forested sales, actual sales,

and actual inventory.

Preparing to use Suggested Prep

Before you can use Suggested Prep you should do the following:

Create an accurate Sales Forecast. For the system to determine how much is needed for each prep

item on the Suggested Production Worksheet, a sales forecast has to be completed for the current

week and the upcoming week. An inaccurate Sales Forecast may result in an inaccurate

Suggested Production.

Assure that the Theory on hand is accurate. The MenuLink Client calculates a theoretical on hand

inventory for each Prep Item listed in the Suggested Production. The Theory On Hand is how

much of the Prep Item should be in the restaurant based on what was on hand on the previous

day, plus what was prepped and transferred in, minus what was sold and expired.

Note: The system cannot account for wasted product, theft, differences in portioning, or

preparation that was not entered into the system. For this reason, it is important that if the user

decides not to enter an inventory prior to doing the Suggested Production that they validate that

the Theory on Hand amounts are accurate and make any necessary adjustments.

Reassign Prep Items on the Production Worksheet

1. From the Inventory screen, click Worksheets.


2. Select Reassign Prep Items.

3. Click the next to Current Prep Station to select the prep station to reassign.

4. Once the prep station is selected all of the items currently assigned appear.


5. Click the next to the New Prep Station and select the station where you would like to move

your prep items.

6. Click the grey box next to the Prep item you would like to move. Then click to move the

item from the current prep station to the new prep station or click the to move the item from

the new prep station back to the current prep station.

7. Click Save when you are finished, to save the changes.

Printing Suggested Prep Worksheet

1. From the inventory screen click Worksheets.


2. Click Print Worksheet.

3. Click Prep Worksheet.

4. Click Print, in the application header, to print all prep worksheets.


Updating Suggested Prep Amounts

1. Using the Prep worksheet, verify that the Theory on Hand amounts are correct for all Prep Items.

Remember: it is important to have an accurate Theory on Hand for the system to project the

correct prep to make.

2. If the Theory on Hand is not correct, return to the Inventory Switchboard, click Inventory

Posting, and then click Suggested Prep.

3. This opens the Production Posting Selection Dialog.


4. Select a production date from the New tab, or select a date from the Existing tab, and click

Continue. The system sets the production date to the current date by default.

5. When Continue is pressed, the Missing Count screen appears if any counts where not entered.

Click No to exit suggested production and re enter the missing counts though Look up

Existing Inventory.

Click Yes to continue the Suggested Production Screen.

6. In the Prep – Update Suggested Screen you can evaluate the Suggested Production amounts,

Adjust the On Hand amounts, Adjust the Make This amounts, and recalculate the Suggested

Make This based on any Adjusted On Hand entries.


Note: ‘Suggested Make This’ is calculated by subtracting the Theory On Hand amount (or the

Adjusted On Hand amount, if entered) for Items that have the specified Prep Item included in

their recipe. It is also affected by the percentage entered in the Max Build % by your system

administrator. Contact your system administrator for more information.

7. The Theory On Hand amount can be modified in the Suggested Production by entering a new

value in the Adjusted On Hand field for the Prep Item. This lets you quickly adjust the actual on-

hand inventory for suggested prep calculations.

Note: Entering a number in the Adjusted Theory on Hand will not adjust any posted Actual

Inventory amounts. Adjustments to Actual Inventory need to be entered through Look up Existing

Inventory.


8. Once the user enters a new amount in the Adjusted on hand or the Adjusted Make this Field

the Recalculate button becomes active.

9. Click Recalculate. A new amount is displayed in the Suggested Make This field

10. Once all of the changes are made for the first prep station, click the next to Station and

complete steps 6 through 9 above for the remaining prep stations.

11. Click Save when all of the stations are complete.


12. When you click Save, the system shows you all of the manual changes that were made to the

suggested prep and prompts the user to save the changes.

If no is selected the system returns to the Production-Update suggested screen.

If yes is selected the changes are saved and the user is prompted to print the production

Guide.

13. Click Yes to Print the Prep Worksheet.

14. The worksheet can then be posted in each of the appropriate prep stations for the staff to use to

create the items needed for the day.


Inventory Reports

This section includes samples and descriptions of Inventory-related reports available in MenuLink Client.

Depending on your system set-up, you may not have access to all reports and selection options described.




You can access Inventory reports from the Reports button on the Inventory Switchboard (Inventory

reports only, as shown in the screen example below) or from the Reports button on the Main Switchboard

(all Inventory reports).

Note that the reports listed may differ from what appears on your

list. Contact your

system administrator for more information.


Chart of Accounts Report

The Chart of Accounts report lists each Item category name, its MenuLink ID and GL account, if defined.

Food Cost- Inventory Summary Report

The Food Cost- Inventory Summary report displays item-level information related to inventory usage and

food costing, grouped by item category. For each item, it displays the beginning inventory, the purchases

and ending inventory and calculates the actual usage. It also shows theoretical and actual usage for each

item and category, expressed in units, dollars, and as a percentage of total sales. Negative values are

shown in parentheses. Total food cost figures are shown at the bottom of the report.

Food Cost Report

The Food Cost report displays theoretical and actual usage for each item category, expressed in Dollar

amounts, as well as percentage of total sales. Negative values are shown in parentheses. Total food cost

figures are shown at the bottom of the report.


Food Cost Summary Stacked Report

Like the Food Cost report, the Food Cost Summary Stacked report displays theoretical and actual usage

of inventory except that multiple sites can be compared. Only the grand totals are displayed.


Inventory Cost Check Report

The Inventory Cost Check report is a comparison of the current cost of inventory items to the previous

inventory cost and the weighted average of the purchase cost. Items are sorted by highest percent change

in descending order (highest to lowest). This report can be useful to track price changes of inventory.

Inventory Extension Report

The Inventory Extension report is a list of all raw materials on hand and their value, grouped by item

category.


Inventory Recap as Entered Report

The Inventory Recap as Entered report displays exactly how your inventory was entered into MenuLink

by location by item by counting unit. Compare this to your inventory worksheet to help find inventory

input errors.

Item Use Variance Report

The Item Use Variance report displays actual versus theoretical inventory for each item, grouped by

category, in both quantity and dollar value.


Item Use Variance Stacked report

The Item Use Variance Stacked report is similar to the Item Use Variance report, except that multiple

sites can be selected and compared.

Spoilage and Loss Report

The Spoilage and Loss report displays information on lost inventory, including item name, ID number,

who entered the loss, the quantity, and dollar value.


Stock Transfers Report

The Stock Transfers report summarizes transfers to and/ or from your site.

Theoretical Inventory Level Report

The Theoretical Inventory Level report shows the theoretical (calculated) amount of each active raw

material on hand, with price extension and grouped by category.


Top Twenty Item Usage report

The Top Twenty Item Usage report shows the 20 most over-used and 10 most under-used raw materials,

along with their associated costs. This report is great for quickly determining which items should be

recounted for accuracy, or to help adjust par level for purchase orders.


Trial Balance by Category

The Trial Balance by Category report shows the beginning inventory and ending inventory for raw items,

as well as other transactions that affect inventory such as purchases and transfers. The report also shows

associated financial values (e.g., dollar amounts).

Recipes

The Recipes screen contains several tools you can use to view and print recipes and build procedures,

track which item or items an ingredient is used in, and view reference materials for standard measuring

conventions.

Note: MenuLink uses recipes to accurately track the theoretical inventory depletion based on item sales.

When a menu item is sold, each component item in the item recipe is depleted from theoretical inventory

counts.


Features in the Recipe screen include:

Menu Items — View and print menu item recipes, build procedures, and other information.

Prep Items — View and print prep item recipes, build procedures, and other information.

Where Used — View what recipes an item is used in, and how much of the item is used in each

recipe.

Conversions — View and print a reference sheet that contains standard unit conversions used in

the industry.

Worksheets — Print a recipe worksheet that can be used to document a recipe before entering it

into the MenuLink System Management.

Reports — View and print recipe-related reports.

Menu Item Recipes

Clicking on the Menu Items button displays a list of Menu Items available in your MenuLink Client

system. From this list, you can view (look up) a Menu Item to view its recipe, as well as view build

procedures and a picture, if defined.

Note: Menu Item and Prep Item information cannot be modified in MenuLink Client. Contact your system

administrator for more information.


Viewing Menu Items and Recipes

1. On the Recipes Switchboard, click Menu Items.

The Recipes – Menu Items screen appears.

2. Select the menu item and then click Lookup. This opens the Recipes – Ingredients screen.

3. In the Recipes — Ingredients screen, the menu item recipe is displayed as well as the current

selling price, POS code and materials cost. Ingredients that begin with a P- identify the item as a

Prep Item. The screen shows the materials and quantity used, the cost of the materials, and total

cost of the menu item.


4. Click Procedures to access the step-by-step instructions for preparing the menu item (if defined).

5. Click Components to view the required utensils to make the item as well as the prep station the

item is made.

6. Click Picture to access an image of the menu item (if defined).


7. Click Nutritional Info to access the nutritional information on the menu item.

Printing Menu Item Recipes and Prep Procedures

Printing recipes or preparation procedures can assist kitchen staff, especially for new menu items.

On the Recipes Switchboard, click Menu Items.

The Recipes – Menu Items screen appears.


Click Print Recipe or Print Procedure.

Prep Item Recipes

Prep Items are items that are made at the restaurant and are not directly purchased (i.e., dressings, sauces,

batched items, etc). Typically these items are used in menu item recipes or other prep item recipes. To

distinguish prep items from menu items and raw material items, a ‘P-’ is incorporated into the name of the

prep item (e.g., P-Chicken Breast).

Clicking on the Prep Items button displays a list of Prep Items available in your MenuLink Client

system. From this list, you can view (look up) a Prep Item to view its recipe, as well as view procedures

and picture, if defined. You can also print the recipe or procedure.

Note: Menu Item and Prep Item information cannot be modified in MenuLink Client. Contact your system




Viewing Prep Items and Recipes

1. On the Recipes Switchboard, click Prep Items.

The Recipes – Prep Items screen appears.

2. Select the item and click Lookup. This opens the Recipes System – Prep Items screen.

In the Recipes System – Prep Items screen, the prep item recipe is displayed, including quantities

made and total cost of the prep item.


3. Click Procedures to access the step-by-step instructions for preparing the prep item (if defined).

4. Click Components to view the utensils needed to make item, the prep station that makes the

item, and also any sensitivities associated with the prep items.


5. Click Picture to access an image of the prep item (if defined).

Printing Prep Item Recipes and Prep Procedures

Printing recipes or preparation procedures can assist kitchen staff, especially for new prep items.

On the Recipes Switchboard, click Prep Items.

The Recipes – Prep Items screen appears.

Click Print Recipe or Print Procedure.


Items Where Used

Items Where Used shows you a list of all the prep item and menu item recipes that a selected item is

used in and the portion of that item that each recipe uses.

To view where an item is used:

1. On the Recipes Switchboard, click Where Used.

The Items Where Used screen appears.


2. Select an item and then click Lookup to display the Where Used screen.

In this screen, a list of menu item and prep item recipes that the item is assigned to is displayed

along with the portion of that raw item that is used in the recipe.

3. Click Print to print the list of items.

Conversions

The Conversions button in the Recipes Switchboard previews the Table of Weights and Measures report.

This report is useful when creating recipes because it gives you information on converting a unit of

measure to another unit of measure (e.g., gallons to ounces).

This report also gives you the weights and measures to standard bottle sizes, can sizes and pan sizes.

To Print the Table of Weights and Measures report:

1. On the Recipes Switchboard, click Conversions to access the Table of Weights and Measures

report.


2. You can read the report on-screen or print the report as you would any other report.

3. To exit the preview screen, click Close.

Recipe Worksheets

You can print a blank recipe worksheet from this screen. This worksheet is used in creating new recipes.

To Print the Recipe Worksheet:

1. On the Recipes Switchboard, click Worksheets.

A blank Recipe Worksheet appears.

2. You can print the worksheet as you would any other report.

3. To exit the preview screen, click Close.

Recipe Reports

This section includes samples and descriptions of the recipe and menu item/prep item related reports

available in MenuLink Client. Depending on your system set-up, you may not have access to all reports

and selection options described. Contact your system administrator if there is a report or option listed that

you want to use.



You can access Recipe reports from the Reports button on the Recipes Switchboard (Recipe reports only,

as shown in the screen example below) or from the Reports button on the Main Switchboard (all

Inventory reports).


Items Where Used Report

This report lists all the menu items in which an ingredient (raw item or prep item) is used. The report also

lists the portion used in the recipe as well as the food cost of the portion.


Menu Item Categories Report

This report lists all menu item categories (i.e., this report does not list prep item categories or raw item

categories) in your system, ID numbers, and GL numbers, if defined.

Menu Items by Category Report

This report lists menu items, sorted by menu item category (each category begins on a new page). If a

menu item does not have a menu item category assigned, it will not be listed in this report.

Menu Items Without PLU Codes Report

This report lists menu items that do not have Price Lookup Codes (PLU) also known as POS Codes

defined, sorted by menu item category.


PLU List Report

This report lists all menu items (sorted alphabetically) and their PLU codes, MenuLink ID, and Selling

Price.

Raw Materials in Each Item Report

This report is sorted by the Item Category then lists menu items and the raw materials that make up the

recipe. The report lists the raw material ID, cost of the raw material, and amount used in the recipe.


Recipe Card Detail Report

This is a custom report that displays all of the important information about an item in one place. The

report includes your company logo, a picture of the finished item, a list of ingredients, the procedures to

make the items, the utensils needed to prepare the item as well as any sensitivities associated with the

menu item.


Sales

The Sales screen contains several tools you can use to import POS data, enter and manage deposits, view

sales mixes, reconcile sales data, and forecast sales information.

Features in the Sales screen include:

Import — Import data from your POS or other system for MenuLink to use.

Deposits — Enter and view deposit information for your site.

Sales Mix — View individual items sales for a selected date by quantity and price.

Reconcile — Perform cashier and server checkouts, edit the sales journal, enter and track safe

counts, and manage tip share distributions.

Forecasting — Calculate future sales based on historical data to manage ordering and staffing.

Reports — View and print sales-related reports.

Entering Deposits

You can enter deposits at any time during the business day. There is no maximum number of deposits that

you can make. MenuLink Client uses the Total Deposit Amount for calculating the cash over/short

amount in the Reconcile screen.

Note: Depending on your POS system, the deposits may or may not be imported directly from your POS

You can also access the Deposit screen through the Cash Reconciliation screen.

There are two ways to enter deposits, and the method you use depends on how your system is configured.

When you click Deposits from the Sales Switchboard, match the screen with one of the following

methods (Classic, Rapid, or Rapid with Cashier Checkout). Contact your system administrator for more

information.


Entering a Deposit (Classic Method):

1. From the Sales Switchboard, click Deposits.

The Deposits screen shows any deposits that were already made for the current business day,

along with the total daily deposits amount.

In this example, one

‘demo’ deposit is complete,

and another is ready to

save.

2. In the Business Date field, select the sales date for the deposit(s) you want to enter.

3. In the Bag Number field, enter the deposit bag number. Typically, this is the number on the

bank’s deposit bag.

4. In the Amount field, enter the amount of the deposit.

5. In the Notes field, type a brief description of the deposit (ex., AM Deposit, PM Deposit, etc.).

6. Click Enter New Deposit. The deposit that was just entered is displayed in the grid below that

New Deposits fields.

7. If necessary, repeat steps 3-6 to enter additional deposits for the selected business date.

8. Click Save to save the deposits.

Tips for entering deposits:

To modify a deposit that has been entered, select the dollar amount of the deposit entered in the

Deposits for the Day area and enter the new amount. Depending on your security permissions,

you may not be able to change a deposit entered by another user.

Alternatively, you can enter a new deposit and enter a negative amount to reflect a shortage or

positive amount to show an increase in the deposits. In the Notes field, indicate the reason for this

deposit.

Your System Administrator defines how many days in the past a deposit can be added or

modified. You are not allowed to enter or modify deposits for any day that has exceeded the

number of days that were set.


Entering a Deposit (Rapid Method):

MenuLink has a ‘rapid deposit entry’ feature where you can enter and validate deposit details quickly into

a table format. Additionally, you can import data directly from imported cashier checkout data.


The Deposits screen shows any deposits that have been entered for the current business day, the

verified amount, and who has entered and verified the amounts. If you scroll right, there is also a

field to validate the amount.

Typically, a manager enters a deposit (in the deposit amount field) and drops the deposit in the

safe. An opening manager opens the deposit and enters an amount in the verified amount field,

and then enters a validated amount based on the bank deposit slip.

Note: Once a deposit has been validated, it no longer appears on this screen.

2. Enter a bag number, notes, and a deposit amount.

3. Click Save to keep your entry.

4. To verify the deposit amount, enter an amount in the verified amount field and click Save.

5. Likewise, to validate the amount, enter an amount in the validated amount field and click Save.

Note: Depending on security settings, some managers may be restricted from entering, verifying,

or validating deposits.

Entering a Deposit (Rapid Method with Cashier Checkout):

Entering a deposit using the Rapid Method as described above may give you the option to create a deposit

based on one or more cashier checkouts.


The Deposits screen shows any deposits that have been entered for the current business day, the

verified amount, and who has entered and verified the amounts. If you scroll right, there is also a

field to validate the amount.


Notice there is now a new and a lookup button.

2. To enter a new deposit, click new. This opens the Deposits screen.

3. Enter a bag number and notes.

4. Select which cashier checkout(s) to use for the deposit. This populates the total checkout and the

total deposits fields.

5. If necessary, enter an open amount to make a manual adjustment to the deposit amount.

Note: Depending on security settings, some managers may be unable to enter an open amount.


6. Click Save to keep the deposit settings.

Reconciling Sales

The Reconcile (also called Daily Sales Reconciliation, or DSR) function is primarily used to reconcile

your restaurant’s sales for a selected date. The Sales - Reconcile screen shows information that was

imported from your POS system. You may be required to enter information in certain fields based on

your company requirements. This screen also gives you access the Deposits screen as well as the

Allocation of Paid Ins and Paid Outs screen. When reconciling sales, you can access and print the Sales

Journal for Entire House report which contains all the information that is displayed in the Reconcile

screen.

Note: The instructions and screen examples shown in this section are for general reference only. This

area in MenuLink Client is customizable, and you can capture or enter information based on your

company’s particular requirements. Therefore, the screens and instructions may not exactly match the

process that you follow at your location. Contact your system administrator or company management if

you have questions on how to reconcile sales.

The Sales Journal

1. On the Sales Switchboard, click Reconcile.

2. In the Cash Reconciliation Selection, click Sales Journal.

This screen may also contain additional buttons that, when activated by your System

Administrator, give you access to the following features:

Cashier Checkout: A feature to reconcile a cashier’s sales for a specific date and shift. Cash

pulls can also be entered through this button.

Sales Journal: Accesses the Sales – Cash Reconciliation Summary screen, in which you will

find detailed summary information about sales and cash reconciliation, and ticket counts.

Safe Count: Used to audit the safe or back up bank.

Tip Share Allocation: You can use the Tip Share allocation to distribute tips among eligible

employees by shift


3. In the upper right corner of the Sales – Cash Reconciliation Summary screen, select the desired

business date.

Information available for modification

appears in green text.

4. To access detailed information on sales, discounts, and tender information, click Detail. The

Sales – Cash Reconciliation Details screen appears.

Information available for modification

appears in green text.

5. To return to the Sales - Reconcile Summary screen, click Summary.


Petty Cash Out

As part of the cash reconciliation process, you can allocate items purchased on Petty Cash Out for the

selected day to the appropriate category. This feature is similar to the invoice process. If your POS system

tracks petty cash, the Petty Cash Out field is populated during the POS Import process. For others, the

field is unlocked, and you can enter the amount directly.

1. To enter petty cash amounts, click the button next to the Petty Cash Out field.

2. In the Invoice Selection screen, click New.

3. In the Purchasing – Invoices screen, enter the invoice number, select the vendor and verify the

Invoice Date.


Use the Tab key to quickly

navigate between fields.

Tip: Click the blue box in the middle of each line for immediate access to the Inventory

Lookup screen. Use the Inventory Lookup screen to add an item to the selected line.

4. Click in the Item Name field to enter the first item. Click to view the selection list. Select the

appropriate item in the item name field.

5. If necessary, select the unit of measure for the item received in the Units field.

6. In the ‘Rec Qty’ field, enter the quantity that you received.

7. In the Price field, enter the price of the item. The price you enter here must be based on the unit

you selected in the Units field.

8. In the Total field, you can verify the total value of the item received, or you can enter the total

value and the system calculates the Price based on the Units selected.


9. Repeat steps 4 – 8 until all items have been entered.

10. Click Save, and then click Exit to Previous.

The Invoice Selection screen appears. Verify that the Total and Match fields in the lower right

corner balance leaving a difference of zero ($0.00). If there is a difference, you may need to

adjust a Paid Out, or enter in additional Paid Outs.

11. Click Exit to Previous to return to the Cash Reconciliation Summary screen.


Paid Ins

As part of the cash reconciliation process, you can allocate monies received for various items or services

(e.g., pay telephone income) with the Paid In feature. This feature is similar to Petty Cash Out. If your

POS System tracks Paid Ins, the Paid In field is populated during the POS Import process. For others, the

field is unlocked, and you can enter the amount directly.

To Manage Paid Ins:

1. In the Sales – Cash Reconciliation Summary screen, click the button next to the Paid In

field.

2. In the Invoice Selection screen, click New.

3. In the Purchasing – Invoices screen, enter the invoice number, select the vendor and verify the

Invoice Date.

4. In the field below Item Name, click to view the selection list. Select the appropriate item in

the item name field, and then press Enter on your keyboard to move to the next field.


5. In the Units field, select the unit of measure for the Paid In item.

6. In the Quantity field, enter the Negative quantity for the Paid In item then Press Enter on your

keyboard to move to the next field.

7. In the Price field, enter the price of the item. The price you enter here must be based on the unit

you selected in the Units field. Press Enter on your keyboard to move to the next field.

Note: Do not enter a negative amount in this field. If a negative amount is entered, it will distort

the weighted average cost of the item. MenuLink Client will calculate the Total as a negative

value because a negative quantity was entered in the quantity field.

8. In the Total field, you can verify the total value of the item received, or you can enter the total

value and the system calculates the Price based on the Units selected. Press Enter on your

keyboard to move to the next field.

9. Repeat steps 4 – 8 until all items are entered for this Paid In item.

10. Click Save, and then click Exit to Previous.

11. The Invoice Selection screen appears. Verify that the Total and Match fields in the lower right

corner balance leaving a difference of zero ($0.00). If there is a difference, you may need to

adjust a Paid In, or create additional Paid Ins.


Deposits

You can enter deposits as part of the cash reconciliation process. To enter deposits through the Cash

Reconciliation Summary screen:

1. Click the button to the right of the Cash Deposit field.

2. In the Deposits screen, enter the deposit(s).

3. Click Save, after entering the deposit(s).



Note: The behavior of this function is dependent upon configuration in Site Properties.


Print the Sales Journal

After you’ve verified the figures in the Cash Reconciliation Summary and Cash Reconciliation screens

(making adjustments as necessary), entered Paid Ins and Paid Outs, and entered deposits, you are ready to

print the Sales Journal.

To Print the Sales Journal:

1. On the Sales – Cash Reconciliation Summary screen, click Print.

The Sales Journal Report previews on screen.

Depending on your settings, your report

may be different from the example shown.

2. Click Print on the Reports Toolbar to print the report. When the Printer Selection box appears,

click OK.

3. To exit from the worksheet preview screen click Close on the toolbar.


Safe Count

Safe count is a feature used to audit the Safe or back up bank. If this feature is not available on your

system and you would like to use it, please contact your system administrator.

1. On the Sales Switchboard, click Reconcile.

2. In the Cash Reconciliation Selection, click Safe Count.

.

3. Enter the quantity for each of the denominations.

4. Enter the number of cash drawers.

5. Enter any notes regarding the safe count.

6. When all of the information is correct click Enter New Safe Count.

7. Click Save to save the safe count.

8. Click Print to print the Safe count.

9. Click Exit to Main to return to the main switchboard or Exit to Previous to return to the Sales

Switchboard.


Tip Share Distribution

Tip Share allocation is where you can distribute tips among eligible employees by shift. The system

distributes the tips according to the following calculation: AM/PM Tip Share $ * Job’s Distribution % =

Job Tip Share Pool. If this feature is not available on your system and you would like to use it, please

contact your system administrator

1. From the Sales Switchboard, click Reconcile.

2. In the Cash Reconciliation Selection, click Tip Share Distribution

.

3. Select Business Date.

4. Select Shift.

Note: User can not select a current or future shift or select a day beyond what is defined by your


5. Enter the Tip to be Shared for the shift selected in step 4.


6. Click Recalculate button

7. You then see that the Tip Share amount has been distributed to each employee that worked any

job code with a setup of Indirect Tips in Jobs Maintenance.

8. You can then edit the Distribution % for each job code by changing the percent in the

Distribution % fields.

Note: The Total Distribution must be 100%.

9. Recalculate button to update the employee Tip Share $.

10. Click Save.


Sales Mix

The Sales Mix screen is where you can view the number of menu items sold for that day. The information

that you see includes the POS Code, Total Sold, and Unit Price for each menu item.

Note: Generally, you cannot make modifications to the information on this screen. Contact your system


To View the Sales Mix:

1. From the Sales Switchboard, click Sales Mix.

2. Enter the desired sales date, and then click Continue.

The Sales Mix appears. To see the quantities sold, scroll through the list of menu items using the

scroll bar to the right of the list.

See Sorting and Searching for Information for more information about this screen.


Forecasting

Forecasting is a feature that predicts sales and guests for future weeks using sales data collected in the

Inventory System through the POS Import process. The system forecasts your sales and guests for each

day of the selected week using last year’s data or this year’s data. The Forecasting feature also forecasts

sales intervals (Half Hour Sales) based on the forecasted daily sales and also forecasts a Sales Mix.

The Sales and Guests forecast is used in several features including Order by Forecasting, Prep

Scheduling, and Recommended Staffing based on your Staffing matrix.

After forecasting the daily sales, MenuLink Client takes the daily sales total and calculates the sales for

each half hour of the day. MenuLink Client uses the forecasted half hour sales in the Labor Scheduling

feature to calculate staffing requirements per half hour using the staffing matrices that have been set up

through the Labor Staffing feature.

Note: More information on Forecasting can be found in the Projected Data section of this guide,

including event information and forecasting by alternate sales type.

Creating a New Forecast

To Create New Sales and Guest Forecast:

1. From the Sales Switchboard, click Forecasting.

Note: You can also access Forecasting through the Labor Switchboard by clicking Projected

Data.

2. In the Forecasting screen, enter the period number and week number to define the date range to

be forecasted.


3. In Select Data Source, choose the data that to use: Current Year or Previous Year.

4. Enter the number of weeks for Sales/Guest and Sales Mix. This defines which data MenuLink

Client will use to calculate the forecast.

5. Click New Forecast.

MenuLink Client generates the sales and guest forecast which is listed in the Forecast Daily

Amounts area.

6. This table contains the sales date and day, as well as the forecast sales. It also contains the sales

for the same date last year (LY Same Day Sales) as well as the alternate sales forecast. The

alternate sales forecast is defined by your system administrator and displays the forecast sales for

a specific area or item category for your site. In this example, we have forecast Drive Thru sales,

which helps drive recommended staffing for the Drive Thru area of the site.

7. Also shown are the number of forecast guests and the date the forecast was made.

8. To make changes to the forecasted sales and guests, you can do the following:

a) In the Forecasted Daily Amounts area, select the sales amount for the day you want to

modify, and then enter the new sales amount. You can also adjust the alternate sales

forecast.

b) For that same day, enter the new guest amount.

c) Click Reforecast Intervals.


Forecast by Average

The Forecast by Average feature shows the individual sales forecasted for each day based on information

from up to six prior weeks. You can change the sales forecast, percentage of increase (or decrease), days

to exclude from the calculation, and the weight.

To Create a Forecast by Average:

1. After the sales forecast has been calculated, click Forecast by Average.

The data in this example is not from a

‘live’ site. Your data will

contain realistic values.

2. The amount in the average column indicates what MenuLink Client calculated as the average for

those weeks. For example, the average for Tuesday was calculated as follows:

$3077+$3077+$3077+$3077 +$3077+$3077=$18463 / 6 (# of sales amounts added) = $3077

3. In the (%) Increase field, you can enter a value by which you want to increase (or decrease) the

average.

4. To exclude a sales amount from the average calculation, click the box below the sale amount to

remove the check mark.

Note: MenuLink Client may automatically exclude the high and low sales for a selected week, as

defined by your system administrator.

5. To change the weight of a sales amount used in the average calculation, enter the number that you

want to assign that sales amount in the box below the day’s sales amount.

In the following example, Tuesday’s average calculation does not include sales for the week of

12/4/07 and Wednesday’s calculation does not include sales for the week of 11/27/07.

Wednesday’s sales amount for week of 12/4/07 has been weighted at twice the weight of the

other sales days. In the % of Increase for Tuesday has been set at 10%.


Below is the calculation used to create the Sales Forecast for Tuesday.

$1675 + $1249 + $913 + $1807 + $1233 = $6877 / 5 (# of sales amounts added) = $1375

$1375 * 1.10% = $1513

Below is the calculation used to create the Sales Forecast for Wednesday.

$1348+$2012+$1508+$1905+$2166+ $2166 ($2166 was used twice because it is weighted

twice)= $1110 5/ 6 (# of sales amounts added)= $1851

6. Click Exit to Previous to return to the Forecasting screen

7. Click Save to save any changes made to the forecast.

Show Sales Mix

Use the Show Sales Mix feature to show the forecasted sales mix for the selected day.

To Create a Daily Sales Mix:

1. After the sales forecast has been calculated and saved, click Show Sales Mix.

2. To change the forecasted daily sales mix to another day in the forecast week, click the arrow to

the right of the Sales Date field and select a date.

3. Click Exit to Previous to return to the Forecast screen.


Show Intervals

Use the Show Intervals feature to view the forecasted sales and guests broken down into a predefined

interval (15 minutes, 30 minutes or 60 minutes) for the selected date.

To Create a Sales and Guest Interval Forecast:

1. After the sales forecast has been calculated and saved, click Show Intervals.

2. To change the display to another day in the forecast week, click the arrow to the right of the

Sales Date field and select a date.



Importing information from the POS System

Use the Import POS feature to transfer information from your Point of Sales system into MenuLink

Client. Depending on how your MenuLink Client system is set up, you may be able to import specific

portions of POS information into your system.

Note: Since the exact process to import information is customizable and dependent upon the type of POS

system(s) in your restaurant and the specific information you import, the following instructions are for

general information only. Contact your system administrator for instructions for your specific system.

To Import Information from your POS System:

1. From the Sales Switchboard, click Import POS.

2. In Import/Export Selection, choose the import you want to do.

Example screen. Your

MenuLink Client system

may display different options.

3. If importing by date, MenuLink Client prompts you to select a date.

4. When you click OK the following screen appears


5. When you see ‘Processing Complete – No errors Detected’ click Ok and you are redirected to

the Sales Switchboard.


Sales Reports

This section includes samples and descriptions of Sales-related reports available in MenuLink Client.





You can access Sales reports from the Reports button on the Sales Switchboard (Sales reports only, as

shown in the screen example below) or from the Reports button on the Main Switchboard (all Inventory

reports).


Forecast Sales and Guests Report

The Forecast Sales and Guests report forecasts sales and guest information based on prior sales (up to 6

weeks prior to the current date, or from the previous year).

Menu Item Contribution by Category Report

The Menu Item Contribution by Category report lists each menu item, its current food cost, and its

contribution based on sales. Ideal contribution is the gross profit derived from the sale of this item.

(Margin multiplied by the number sold)


A grand total appears at the

end of the report.

Menu Item Contribution Stacked Report

The Menu Item Contribution Stacked report is similar to the Menu Item Contribution by Category report,

except that multiple sites can be compared.

A grand total appears at the

end of the report.

Sales and Guests by Interval Report

The Sales and Guests by Interval Report shows the sales and number of guests broken down for all daily

intervals. The report also includes guest check averages for each day.


Depending on reports configured for your MenuLink Client system, you may also have additional reports

for specific dining destinations (e.g., Sales and Guest by Interval – To Go).

This example shows only an

interim segment, with

the totals section copied at the bottom.

Sales Deposit Report

The Sales Deposit report shows sales deposit amounts, dates, the name of the person who made and/or

modified the deposit, and the bag number.

Sales History by Interval Report

The Sales History by Interval report shows current and historical sales by interval, based on the time

period selected when generating the report.


In this example, the ‘Week’ time frame was

selected. The report

continues for each day of the

week (Tuesday-Sunday).

Sales Journal Report

The Sales Journal report shows sales and financial information for the selected time frame (for example,

days, weeks, period). This report can also be printed from the Cash Reconciliation screen.

Your report may differ from the

example shown, depending on your

settings.

Product Mix Report

The Product Mix report shows menu item sales mix information (quantity, price, and extension), grouped

by category for the selected time frame.


Product Mix, Daily Spreadsheet

The Product Mix, Daily Spreadsheet report shows the number of menu items sold for each day of the

week during the selected time frame.

Sales Mix Forecast Report

The Sales Mix Forecast report shows the forecasted sales mix, sorted by category, for a selected time

frame.


Sales Mix Percentage Report

The Sales Mix Percentage report lists all items sold, sorted by category, and displays the relative

percentage of unit sales for each item in each category.

Sales Mix Without Recipes Report

The Sales Mix Without Recipes report shows all items that were sold but have no recipes. Sales of items

that do not have recipes can adversely impact theoretical food cost figures.


Sales Summary Report

The Sales Summary report is a snapshot of the net sales, labor costs, and cash over/short for a selected

time frame.

Theoretical Use Based on Sales Report

The Theoretical Use Based on Sales report is a list of inventory items that should have been used based

on sales for a selected time frame.


Theoretical Use of Raw Materials Report

The Theoretical Use of Raw Materials report lists each raw item used, the items that the raw items were

used in, the amount used in the recipe, and the total use for a selected time frame. Totals are given for

each category.

Unknown Codes from POS System Report

The Unknown Codes from POS System report lists all unknown PLU codes entered in the POS that do

not have a matching code in MenuLink Client over a selected time frame. The report lists the date the

code was entered on the POS, the unknown PLU code, item name, and price.


Tip Share Distribution Report

The Tip Share Distribution report displays each of the employees with eligible job codes and their tip

share dollars. This report also has a place for the employee and the manager signature for tracking who

from each shift has picked up the tip share.


Period End

The Sales screen contains several tools you can use to export data to other applications, run workflow

scripts, see other MenuLink Client user activity, and enter overhead costs into MenuLink Client.

Features in the Period End screen include:

Close Week — The Close Week button is reserved for future use.

Export — Export data to an external system, such as a payroll system.

Workflow — Run ‘workflows,’ which can guide you through common tasks, such as hiring a

new employee or performing end-of-day procedures.

Activity Log — View the activity of other users in the MenuLink Client.

P and L — Enter accruals, allocated expenses, and budgeted expenses for an accurate picture of

your site’s financial performance.

Reports — View and print Period End-related reports.


Exporting Data

The Export feature is where you can export information from MenuLink Client to third-party applications

or systems, such as a payroll application, your POS system, or an accounting application.

Note: The exact Export options that are available in your MenuLink Client system depend on your

location’s specific configuration and the system or application you are exporting to. The information

provided in this section is only an example. Contact your system administrator for more information.

Sample Import/Export Selection screen.

Selecting an option

guides you through a process specific to the system or application.


Workflow

The Workflow feature contains scripts that are designed to walk you through a specific process, such as

hiring a new employee, running through end-of-day procedures, or borrowing an employee from another

site.

Note: The workflow options that are available in your MenuLink Client depend on your location’s

specific information processing needs. Contact your system administrator for more information.

To run a workflow, select a workflow name, click Run, and follow the on-screen prompts.

Sample Workflow

Selection screen.


Activity Log

The Activity Log displays a user’s usage of the MenuLink Client, arranged by the most recent even first.

Note: The information in this area is read-only; it cannot be modified.

For information on how to sort and search for information in this table, see Sorting and Searching for

Information.


P and L

The P and L feature is where you can enter and maintain allocation, budget line items or accruals for your

Profit and Loss (P & L) report. You can then accurately view your site’s financial performance.

Entering an Accrual

An Accrual is an amount of money that periodically accumulates for a specific purpose (such as payment

of taxes, interest, or expenses that are collected over a period of time). The items you are able to accrue

are set up by your System Administrator.

1. On the Period End screen, click P and L.

2. In the Accrual, Allocation, and Budget Entry Selection dialog box, adjust the information for the

time period you would like to enter the accrual for.

3. Click Enter Accruals.

4. In the Accrual Entry screen, select a date, enter the accrual account, enter a description of the

accrual and enter an amount of the accrual.


5. Click Save to save the entry.

Entering an Allocation

Allocations are used to enter most overhead expenses into MenuLink Client that would not be entered as

an invoice (e.g., rent, advertising, or contractors).

1. On the Period End screen, click P and L.


time period you would like to enter the allocation for.

3. Click Enter Allocations.

4. In the Allocation Entry screen, select an item and enter an amount or percentage (as set by your

system administrator).



Entering a Budget

You can enter your Budget into the system so that you can compare your actual costs to the budget

prepared by your company. The items you are able to budget are set up by your System Administrator.

1. On the Period End Switchboard, click P and L.


time period you would like to enter the budget for.

3. Click Enter Budget.

4. In the Budget Entry screen, select an item and enter an amount or percentage (as set by your

system administrator).




Period End Reports

This section includes samples and descriptions of Period End-related reports available in MenuLink





You can access Period End reports from the Reports button on the Period End Switchboard (Period End

reports only, as shown in the screen example below) or from the Reports button on the Main Switchboard

(all Inventory reports).

Note that the

Period End reports screen generally

contains other ‘miscellaneous’

reports.

Fiscal Calendar Report

The Fiscal Calendar report displays how your fiscal calendar is configured.


Profit and Loss Comparison Report

The Profit and Loss Comparison report compares this year’s profit and loss figures with last year’s for a

selected time frame. The report also includes this year’s budgeted amounts and variance, if this

information is set up in your system. The information in the report is similar to the Sales Journal report.

Report continues for

all defined expense

categories.

Profit and Loss Recap Report

The Profit and Loss Recap report shows summary P&L information for each week in a selected period as

well as totals for the period.

Profit and Loss Recap by Day Report

The Profit and Loss Recap report shows summary P&L information for day in a selected time period as

well as totals for the period.


Labor The Labor System is where you can maintain and track labor information including employee hiring,

borrowing and transferring, time clock punches, shift schedules, and employee availability. The system

can calculate the recommended labor information for scheduling, using labor matrices (e.g. ‘par levels’)

and sales forecasts. The Labor System has a wide variety of information and reports that you can use to

effectively and accurately manage labor costs.

The Labor System features include the following:

Employees — Enter and manage employee records, and borrow or transfer employees.

Payroll — Edit, or adjust shifts, and track non-worked hours (e.g. vacation, and jury duty).


Scheduling — Create new schedules, edit existing schedules, and manage employee availability.

Staffing — Manage staff recommendations for scheduling using the labor matrices.

Projected Data — Create sales and guest forecasts for upcoming weeks.

Reports — View and print available labor reports.

The Labor System also has three buttons at the bottom of the screen:

Stop — This button exits the MenuLink application.

Workflow — This button gives you a list of configured scripts to run that will guide you through

common processes, such as hiring a new employee or running your End of Day routine.

Inventory — This button takes you to the Inventory Switchboard.


Employees

The Employees screen contains several tools you can use to enter and manage employee information, and

borrow or transfer employees.

Features in the Employee screen include:

Employee Maintenance — Enter and manage employee information, including name,

emergency contact information, job codes, POS information, and other important, required data.

Employee Borrowing — Import employee information from another site to add the employee to

your site.

Payroll Export — The Payroll Export button is reserved for future use.

Employee Transfers — Transfer employee information from another site to add the employee to

your site.

Worksheets — The Worksheets button is reserved for future use.

Reports — View and print Employee-related reports.


Employee Maintenance

The Employee Maintenance feature is where you can enter and maintain employee profile information,

such as name and address, W-4 and I-9 information, and job status. You can also import a digital image of

an employee.

Important: Your administrator determines the content of the Employee Profile screen. Based on

this configuration, some tabs and fields may be unavailable in your installation.

Employee Maintenance Screen

To enter new employees or manage existing employee profile information, click Employee

Maintenance. In this screen, depending on security permissions, you can:

Create a new employee profile.

View or update an existing employee profile.

Delete an employee profile.

Buttons

Click New to enter information for a new employee.

Lookup opens the profile for the selected employee.

Delete removes the employee record from the system. Unless the employee record was created in error, we recommend deactivating the employee instead since some historical information may reference the employee.

Note: Delete can only be done by users with security permissions (i.e. administrators) and is disabled for users who do not have the permissions. Typically at the restaurant managers will only be able to change the status of the employee to inactivate them.


Employee Profile Screen – Employee Tab

The Employee tab is where you define basic information about an employee, such as the employee’s

name, address, social security number, and contact information. Any field with an asterisk next to it

requires completion before you can save the employee profile. Various fields in the Employee Profile

screen have drop-down lists from which you can select information applicable to the employee.

To verify the SSN/SIN is unique in the database, type the number in the text box, then click the

check mark button next to it. A message appears in the upper right corner of the Employee

Profile screen indicating if the number is unique.

Employee Profile Screen – Emergency Tab

The Emergency tab is used to define emergency contact information for each employee.


Employee Profile Screen – Status Tab

The Status tab describes the current employment status of the employee. For example, if the employee is

active, has been terminated, or is on a leave of absence. The available choices are determined by your



Employee Profile Screen – W-4 Form Tab

The W-4 tab is contains the employee’s W-4 information for federal, state, and local tax withholdings.

For convenience, a current W-4 form is included in the MenuLink reports. Click Print to print a

completed W-4 form for the employee.

Employee Profile Screen – I-9 Form Tab

The I-9 tab is completed with the employee’s I-9 information. Instructions for completing the I-9 Form

are available when you print an I-9 report. For convenience, a current I-9 form is also included in the

MenuLink reports. Click Print to print a completed I-9 form for the employee.


Employee Profile Screen –Jobcode Tab

The Jobcode tab defines the jobs that are assigned to the employee, the rate of pay for each job, the reason

for a change or addition, and the effective date for a new job or rate of pay. Any changes to an Employees

Job or Rate are listed under rate history.

Note: When entering the Effective Date, you must enter a date within 30 days of the current date.


Employee Profile Screen – Point of Sale Tab

The Point of Sale Tab contains information that your POS system uses for the employee. The number

entered in the ‘POS Code’ field must match the employee code in the POS.

Employee Profile Screen – Picture Tab

Use the Picture tab to import a digital image of the employee into the MenuLink Client. MenuLink

imports images in BMP, JPG, or GIF formats.

To Import an Image:

1. Click Select Picture.

2. In the Select Image File dialog box, select the image you want to import and click Open. You can

use the Windows ‘Select Image File’ dialog box to navigate to the file if needed.



Borrowing and Transferring Employees

MenuLink Client contains these two features for you to easily borrow and transfer employees into your

site from other sites. The primary difference between the two functions is that a borrowed employee

keeps their original home store, who maintains the ability to make changes to the employee profile.

Transferring an employee will actually make your site the employee’s new home site.

Employee Borrowing

With the Employee Borrowing feature, you can temporarily transfer an employee to your site. This

feature gives you the following capabilities, depending upon your user security settings:

Multiple sites can borrow the same employee.

Your user security determines your ability to borrow employees from other sites.

You may need to define job and pay rate information for the employee.

Note: You cannot make changes to other employee profile information defined at the ‘home’ store, such

as address and contact information.

The Employees Currently Borrowed screen shows employees from other stores who are currently loaned

to your store. If activated by your administrator, MenuLink sends notification to the borrowed employee’s

home site. Upon login, that site’s management team can approve or deny the borrowing of the employee.

This feature prevents using a borrowed employee until approved.

On this screen you can do the following:

Borrow an employee

Update a borrowed employee’s information

Remove an employee from the currently borrowed list

Buttons


Click NEW To borrow an employee who is not currently borrowed.

Select the employee name and click Lookup, to update a currently borrowed employee’s job information

Select an employee name, and click Delete to remove the ‘borrowed’ designation at your site. To ‘return’ an employee to the home store. Note: This does not delete the employee profile from the MenuLink Client database; it just deletes the ‘borrowed’ designation by your store.

To Borrow an Employee:

1. In the Labor screen, click Employees.

2. In the Employees screen, click Employee Borrowing.

3. In the Employees Currently Borrowed screen, click New.

The Employees Available for Borrowing screen appears, containing the employees available for

you to borrow.

4. Select the employee’s name and click Lookup. If you cannot easily find the employee, see

Sorting and Searching for Information for more details.

The Borrowed Employee Lookup screen appears. The Main tab shows basic information about

the employee. Only the home store can make changes to this tab.


5. Select the Jobcodes tab.

The Jobs tab is divided into two areas: Rates for the Current Store and Home Store Job Rates.

6. You can ether select Use Home Store Jobs/Rates or enter in new information by clicking the

Job Name field in the Rates for Current Store section. You must specify the Start Date, but

you can leave the End Date blank, if the employee is to be borrowed indefinitely.

Note: Depending on the security permissions set up by your system administrator you may not be

able to make changes to the employee’s job and pay information.

7. Select the Point of Sale tab to define information as appropriate for your POS System.

Depending on the hardware and software used in your site, these options may be different.


8. Click Save to keep your changes.

The borrowed employee enters ‘pending’ status, and a message appears indicating ‘Waiting for

Acceptance…’ in the upper right corner of the screen.

Employee Transfers

With the Employee Transfers function, you can permanently transfer an employee from another site to

your site. When transferring an employee to your site, you become the employee’s home site and can edit

the employee profile as needed. The MenuLink Client automatically tags the transferred employee as a

‘new hire’ with ‘active’ status. Your user security determines if you can transfer an employee to your site.


To Transfer an Employee to your Location:

1. In the Employees screen, click Employee Transfers.

2. From the Employee Transfer Selection screen, select the employee you want to transfer in and

click Lookup.

3. In the Employee Transfer screen, click Transfer.

Note: Fields containing asterisks are masked, and not available to

view.


4. Click Yes to continue with the transfer. Click No or Cancel to return to the Employee Transfer

screen and go back to step 2.

5. Click OK.

6. The employee profile is now transferred to your location. The system automatically sets the

status to ‘Active’ and the Employment Reason to ‘New Hire.’

7. You can then edit the employee profile as needed.

The same notification message, ‘Waiting for Acceptance…’ appears for transferred and

borrowed employees, as discussed in the following section. The home site must approve the

transfer before you can edit the employee profile.

Employee Borrowing and Transfer Notification

Employee borrowing and transfer notification can be set up by your system administrator to automatically

send notifications to the home and new sites when an employee is borrowed or transferred. The steps to

borrow or transfer an employee are very similar, though the prompts may differ slightly. In the following

example, we will borrow an employee, and the same process applies for transferred employees.

Upon borrowing an employee, you will see the following in the borrowing store:

1. Once you click Save you will see ‘Waiting for Acceptance from Home Site’ in the upper right-

hand corner of the Borrowed Employee Lookup screen.


2. On the Employees Currently Borrowed screen you will see a new column called Pending and

there is a check mark for the employee until the transfer is approved by the Home Store.

3. In the Home store, the following message appears upon logging into the system.

Click Yes to accept the borrow request, or No to deny it. Click Cancel to make a decision at a

later time.


4. Once the home store accepts the request to borrow the employee the following prompt appears at

the borrowing store:

5. Click OK. The check mark is removed from Pending and the employee can be added to the

schedule as normal.

Payroll Export

To export payroll information, see Exporting Data.

Worksheets

This buttons is reserved for new features.

Employee Reports

This section includes samples and descriptions of Employee-related reports available in MenuLink Client.





You can access Employee reports from the Employee Switchboard or from the main Labor Switchboard.

The main Labor Switchboard provides access to all reports available to you.

Note: Some of these reports are forms that employees fill out as part of the hiring process, such as a W-4

and an I-9.

Warning: Some of these reports contain sensitive employee information, such as Social Security numbers,

addresses, and birthdates. We recommend exercising caution when using these reports.


Employee Birthday List

The Employee Birthday List displays the birth dates of employees, sorted by month and date.


Employee Phone List

The Employee Phone List displays the name, primary phone number, and alternate phone number for

each employee, sorted alphabetically.

Employee Profile

The Employee Profile report displays the record of selected employee or employees.


Hire Dates Report

The Hire Dates report displays the name and hire date for each employee, sorted alphabetically by last

name.

Job Details Report

The Job Details report displays each defined job name, ID number, POS Code, and whether or not the

position can collect Tips for the job.


Employee Jobs and Rates

The Employee Jobs and Rates report displays the name of each employee, the Employee ID, Home Site

(if borrowed), POS Code, Job Description, and Pay Rate.

Employee I-9 Form (Blank)

The Employee I-9 Form (Employment Eligibility Verification) is used during the hiring process. If the

form is expired, contact your system administrator.


Employee W-4 Form (Blank)

The Employee W-4 Form (Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate) is used during the hiring

process. If the form is expired, contact your system administrator.


Payroll

The Payroll screen contains features you can use to manage the time that employees worked for payroll

purposes. If activated, you can also manage non-worked time, such as sick time or vacation time.

Features in the Payroll screen include:

Shifts — Manage the time that employees worked for payroll purposes.

Employees — Manage employee information. This is identical to the Employees screen.

Jobs — The Jobs button is reserved for future use.

Future Feature — The Future Features button is reserved for future use.


Reports — View and print Payroll-related reports.


Shifts

Use the Shifts feature to access an employee’s time clock information for a selected day. Shifts selected

from previous pay periods are not editable, based on permissions. Time clock information comes directly

from your POS System or a time and attendance device when an employee clocks in or clocks out for

their shift.

Modify and Adjust Shifts Screens

1. On the Payroll Screen, click Shifts.

The Modify Shifts screen displays a list of employees:

2. Select the date for the employee whose shift(s) you want to modify.

The Worked column indicates which employees worked on the selected day.

3. Select the name of the employee and click Lookup.

This opens the Adjust Shifts screen:


4. In the Adjust Shifts screen, you can:

Enter/Modify a shift.

Enter Non-Worked Hours by the day or week.

Enter/modify Sales and Declared Tips information.

Best practices for managing shift edits are as follows:

Edit current-day shifts in the POS.

Edit shifts for previous days in MenuLink, after the POS import is complete.

Adding a New Shift

If an employee forgets to clock in and out in the POS, you may need to add a shift for this employee.

1. In the Modify Shift screen, select the date for the shift(s) you want to add.

2. Select the employee and click Lookup. This opens the Adjust Shifts screen:


3. In the Time Clock Punches section of the Adjust Shifts screen, click the blank field under the Job

Name column and select the Job Name that the employee worked.

Note: Use the Enter or Tab Key on your keyboard to move to the next field.

4. Verify that the In Date field is correct. The date appearing here by default is the date selected in

the Modify Shifts screen.

5. Enter the time the shift began in the In Time field. When entering the time using standard time,

enter the time as a 4-digit entry and also enter A or P to indicate AM or PM. For example 3:15

PM would be entered 0315 p.

Note: You can also enter the time in Military Time (00:00 (12:00 AM, midnight) – 23:59 (11:59

PM)).

6. Verify that the Out Date is correct

7. Enter the Out Time, using the same guidelines for In Time, above.

8. Select the Punch Type by clicking to view the selection box.

9. The Hours field is auto-populated after the In and Out Times are entered.

10. Select a Reason for the edit.

Note: A reason may be required to save the adjustment.

11. The Source field is auto-populated, based on the user log-in.

12. Repeat the steps above to add additional time clock punches for the employee.


13. If your site tracks Sales and Tips information, enter or adjust the information in the Sales and

Tips section for the pay period, if the employee earns tips. This information populates as part of

the POS import. Dimmed fields are not available for editing.

14. If your site requires signed confirmation reports of payroll edits, select Print Confirmation

Report.

15. Click Save to keep your changes (and print the confirmation reports, if selected).

Modifying an Existing Shift

1. From the Modify Shift screen, select the date for the shift(s) you want to modify

2. Select the name of the employee and then click Lookup

3. Adjust the information that needs to be changed by clicking a field and selecting or typing the

correct data.

4. If your site requires signed confirmation reports of payroll edits, select Print Confirmation

Report. This may already be selected, if so configured by the administrator.

5. Click Save to keep your changes (and print the confirmation reports, (if selected).

Non-Worked by Day

Non-Worked hours are hours that need to be tracked and paid but are not included in the worked hours for

overtime calculations. Some examples of non-worked hours are sick pay, jury duty leave, and vacation

pay.

1. From the Modify Shift screen, select the date for the shift(s) you want to enter.

2. Select the employee and click Lookup.

3. Enter the Job Name, Pay Type, and Hours in the Non-Worked Hours section. The Source field

is auto-populated.



Note: Your system administrator can set up rules regarding the number of hours that can be entered for a

specific category of non-worked hours. They also set up rules regarding the number of hours that can be

used in a specific day. If there is a rule violation regarding Non-Worked hours, the Non-Worked hours

are Red. Contact your system administrator for your company’s specific HR policies.

Non-Worked by Week

1. From the Modify Shift screen, select the date for the shift(s) you want to enter.

2. Select the employee and click Lookup.

3. Click Weekly Non-Worked.

Non-Worked hours appear in red when they violate a POS import. Amounts are not included in payroll hours.


On the Weekly Non-Worked screen you can enter the non-worked hours for each day of the

week. Entries can only be made for dates that fall within the Pay Week Starting and Ending dates

at the top of the screen.

4. Enter the Job Name, Business Date, Pay Type, and Hours for the day. The Source field is auto-

populated.

5. Select the next line and repeat step 4 as many times as needed for the week.



Non-Worked by Week (Multiple Employees)

1. From the Modify Shift screen, click Weekly Non-Worked.

2. In the Employee Name field, select an employee to enter non-worked hours for.

3. Select a Job for the employee.

4. Select a Pay Type for the employee. Depending on the pay type, you may need to enter a number

of hours or a flat dollar amount.

5. Add additional employees and wages as needed.


Employees

To manage employees, see the Employees section.

Jobs

The Jobs button is reserved for future use.


Payroll Reports

This section includes samples and descriptions of Payroll-related reports available in MenuLink Client.





You can access Payroll reports from the Reports button on the Labor Screen (Payroll reports only, as

shown in the screen example below) or from the Reports button on the Main Switchboard (all Labor

reports).


Approaching Overtime Report

The Approaching Overtime report displays employees who have worked over 30, 35, and 40 hours for the

week, as well as the remaining hours they are scheduled. The report takes the hours worked and adds the

scheduled hours remaining and the result will appear in the appropriate column (i.e. 30-35 in the ‘30’

column; 35-40 in the ‘40’ )

Employee Punches Errors Report

The Employee Punches Errors report displays errors that have occurred between the MenuLink Client and

the POS System. MenuLink Client reports an error when it cannot match the Employee code entered on

the POS with a corresponding Employee code in MenuLink Client. Contact your system administrator for

more information.

Hours Worked Report

The Hours Worked report displays the regular, overtime, and double overtime hours worked for each

employee.


Payroll Checks

The Payroll Checks report displays the regular, overtime, and double overtime hours worked by each

employee for a selected time frame (typically the payroll period). This report also includes a signature

line for employees to sign when receiving a payroll check.

Payroll Hours

The Payroll Hours report displays each employee who worked during the selected time frame, their

regular, overtime, and double overtime hours worked, and employee profile information such as borrowed

store ID and hire date. The last page of the report summarizes payroll hours by job.


Time Clock Detail Report

The Time Clock Detail report displays time clock punch information (clock in/out times, dates, day of the

week), as well as regular and overtime hours worked. At the end of the report is a summary of labor totals

by job.


Time Clock Open Punches Report

The Time Clock Open Punches report displays, for the selected time frame, employees who clocked in

but did not clock out. The report shows the employee name, job, date, and clock in time, and pay rate.

Time Clock Punches

The Time Clock Punches report displays the names of employees who clocked in and out for paid

(worked) time periods, the dates and times of the time clock punches, and the source of the punch (e.g.,

POS or name of the employee who made a correction).


Time Clock Punches – All Report

The Time Clock Punches – All Report is similar to the Time Clock Punches report described above,

except that the report also includes unpaid break time punches. At the end of the report, a summary of

labor hours totals by job is shown.


Time Clock Punches Summary

The Time Clock Punches Summary report displays, for the selected time frame, the names of employees,

jobs, and hours worked.


Non-Worked Hours by Employee

The Non-Worked Hours by Employee report displays, for the selected time frame, the names of

employees, date, job name, pay type and hours allocated to that pay type.


Scheduling

The Scheduling screen contains features you can use to create new schedules, edit existing schedules, and

manage employee availability. Using the features in the Staffing screen, MenuLink Client also creates

recommended staffing levels based on sales or guest forecasts to help you schedule your labor more

efficiently.


Employee Schedule — Create a new schedule from scratch, or based on an existing schedule, for

employees for a future time period. Also available for adjusting an existing schedule, when

required.

Manager Schedule — Create a new schedule from scratch, or based on an existing schedule, for

employees for up to six weeks per schedule. Also available for adjusting an existing schedule,

when required.

Time-off Requests — Create one-time requests for time off, or establish standing time-off needs

of employees.

Forecasting — Accesses the Forecasting functions. See Projected Data for more information

about the Forecasting functions.


Reports — View and print Schedules by day or by week. Reports are also available that show the

difference between scheduled hours and hours actually worked.


Employee Schedule

With the Employee Schedule feature, you can create a new schedule from scratch or use an existing

schedule as a starting point. Use the Manager Schedule feature for employees who are managers.

To Create an employee schedule:

1. In the Scheduling screen, click Employee Schedule. This opens the Employee Schedule dialog.

2. Select one of the following options:

Use Blank Schedule to create a new schedule from scratch.

Copy Previous Schedule to use a previous schedule as the basis for a new one.

3. In the Employee Schedule dialog, select the starting date for the schedule you want to create.

Note: The date shown is the starting date of the week.

4. Select the following dates:

Select a Schedule Start Date from the calendar. This is the date on which you want the new

schedule to start.

Select a date from the Copy From Schedule Start Date drop-down list, if you are copying

from a previous schedule. Any previously created schedule will be available in the drop-

down list.

5. Click Continue, to access the Employee Schedule screen, which opens in the Daily Schedule

view.

6. The Schedule screen offers two basic view formats:

See Daily Schedule View for instructions on editing shifts in the Daily Schedule View.

See Weekly Schedule View for instructions on editing shifts in the Weekly Schedule View.

7. Modify the schedule as required, adding or removing employees, and adding or modifying shifts,

as necessary.



Edit an Existing Schedule

You can easily edit an existing schedule by entering Employee Schedule and selecting the Existing tab, in

the Employee Schedule dialog. Select the appropriate date from the Schedule Start Date calendar, and

make changes, as needed.

To Edit an Existing Schedule:

1. In the Scheduling screen, click Employee Schedule.

2. In the Employee Schedule dialog, select the Existing tab.

3. Click the arrow to access the Schedule Start Date drop-down list.

4. Select an existing schedule, as displayed in the list. Each existing schedule appears in the list,

based on its start date.

5. Modify the schedule, as required, adding or removing employees, and changing shifts, as

necessary.



Daily Schedule View

The Daily Schedule View displays each day of the week on a separate page for ease of use. In contrast

with the Weekly Schedule View, the daily view shows forecasted sales, recommended staffing, and the

variance between recommended and scheduled staffing levels per interval.

Select Group by Schedule Group to display employees assigned to the same schedule group

together, as configured in System Management.

The Forecasted Sales Total row displays the forecasted sales by the time interval set up in your

system (typically half or quarter hours). The string ‘Forecasted Sales Total’ is a hyperlink,

providing immediate access to the forecasting screen, so you can make adjustments to the sales or

guest forecasts. The forecast is created through the Forecasting function.

The Recommended row displays the staffing number recommended based on sales forecast and

the Staffing Matrix.

The Staffing + / - row displays the variance between what is scheduled and what was

recommended.

The Employee Name section lists all employees, or filters them by job code, based on your

selection in the Display Options section in the upper right corner of the screen. Use the scroll bar

at the bottom of the employee name section to expose more information about each employee and

the current schedule, such as the total, regular, and overtime hours as currently scheduled. Move

the separator bar left or right to control the amount of information visible at one time.

Note: Your selection in the Display Options section affects which employees appear on this list.

This section shows data for recommended and

actual staffing levels.

Select different weekdays here.

This section shows forecasted sales and labor metrics for the week and

selected day.

Click column heads to sort by name, job code, or data in the

column.

Access legend for meaning of colors

and notations. Filter by Employee schedule status and

Jobcodes.

Switch to Weekly

view.

Add schedule notes


The Daily and Weekly Labor Metrics displays information about the current schedule,

including total scheduled hours, scheduled overtime hours, scheduled labor dollars, and scheduled

labor dollars as a percent of forecasted sales. Your selection in the Display Options area also

affects the information displayed here.

Staffing hours +/- shows the variance between actual staffing and recommended staffing. A

positive number indicates that more hours are scheduled than recommended; a negative number

indicates that fewer hours are scheduled than recommended.

Click at the top of the screen to access the legend. The legend explains the meaning of rows

and columns that appear in different colors, and also explains other notations you may see.


Adding a Shift

1. Select the day to which you would like to add the shift from the row of tabs beneath the list of

employee names.

2. Select the Jobs and Employees you would like to see in the list in the Display Options section.

3. Locate the name of the employee to be scheduled.

4. The area to the right is where the shift will be created. Using the time line at the top of the

schedule screen, locate the time the shift will begin in this area. Schedule intervals, 15, 30, or 60

minutes, are set by the administrator.

5. Click the area that represents that time to start the shift.

6. Holding the left mouse button down, drag the mouse across to the desired end time.


7. Release the mouse button to add the new shift for the selected employee.

The new schedule bar and the employee name both appear in green to indicate that is the currently

selected shift.

In this example, we added a shift for Catherine Godard from

10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Deleting a Shift

Select the shift you want to delete by clicking inside the colored bar. The shift turns green to

indicate that it is the currently selected shift.

Press the delete button on your keyboard.

Modifying a Shift

Click on the shift, then click either end of the shift you wish to change.

The mouse cursor turns to a double-ended arrow.

Hold the left mouse button down and extend or reduce the shift by dragging the ends of the bar to

the desired start or end time.

Adding a Task to a Shift

Your system administrator can configure a set of tasks or assignments per job type that can be assigned to

employees on the schedule. These tasks can be a position, side work, routine cleaning projects, etc.

Right click the shift of the person you would like to add the task to. The Shift Detail Assignment

dialog box appears:


Note: You can access Time-off Requests directly from this dialog by clicking the ‘ Time-off Requests’

button.

Select a station to assign the employee to.

Select the task that you would like to add.

Enter a duration (in hours) and the start time for the employee to begin the task.

Click Save to keep your changes.

At the beginning of the shift you see the assigned task as well as the number of hours scheduled.

If activated by your system administrator, the assigned tasks are also displayed when the schedule

is printed.

Note: You can add a Task for a part of the shift, or for the entire shift. You can also add a Station

to an employee shift, but this change is for the entire shift.


Weekly Schedule View

The Weekly Schedule View displays each day of the week on a separate page for ease of use. In contrast

with the Daily Schedule View, the weekly view shows shifts for the entire week, but does not show

forecast sales dollars or recommended staffing.

Display Options — Select employee and jobcode types to filter the employee list as desired. Use

‘Group by Schedule Group’ to group listed employees by scheduled job codes.

Hours — The labor hours as currently scheduled for the day.

Dollars — The labor dollars currently scheduled for the day.

% Forecasted Sales — Scheduled labor % of forecast sales (example is from a ‘demo’ database).

Employee Name — Employee list, affected by sorting and filtering options. The columns to the

right of the employee's name shows total, regular, and overtime hours. Use the scroll bar at the

bottom of the Employee/Total section to view these columns.

Note: Shifts are shown in text format. If an asterisk (*) appears next to the time, the employee is

scheduled for two or more shifts for that day. An asterisk (*) appearing in any data field indicates

that the field cannot be calculated until more information is entered.

Staffing hours +/– Shows the variance between actual staffing and recommended staffing. A

positive number indicates that more hours are scheduled than recommended; a negative number

indicates that fewer hours are scheduled than recommended.

Add schedule notes here.

Access legend for meaning of colors and notations.

Use tabs to select

different weekdays.

Select employees and job codes to display here.

This groups employees by scheduled job types.

Forecast sales and labor metrics are in this section.

Individual shifts are noted, and available for modification in this section.


Adding a Shift

1. Locate the employee and day for which you would like to add a shift.

2. In the employee’s row, click the cell representing the day for which you would like to add the

shift.

3. Type in the desired shift. (ex. ‘3:00pm-8:00pm’).

Note: MenuLink may adjust the formatting of this text after you enter it. If MenuLink cannot

determine the start and end times if your entry, try using the above format.

4. Press the Enter key to insert the new shift for the selected day.


Note: You can access Time-off Requests directly from this screen by selecting it from the drop-down

menu.

Deleting a Shift

1. Locate the employee and day you would like to delete a shift for.

2. Click the dropdown for the shift, and select it from the menu.

3. Press the Delete key to remove the shift.

Modifying a Shift

1. Locate the employee and day you would like to change a shift for.

2. Click the dropdown for the shift, and select it from the menu.

3. Type the new time for the shift, using the keyboard.

4. Press Enter to make the new shift effective in the schedule.

Copying a Shift

1. Select the shift you would like to copy by clicking the dropdown for the shift.

2. Right click inside of the shift’s text and select Copy from the menu.

3. Select the shift you would like to copy to by clicking the dropdown for the shift.

4. Right click inside of the shift’s text and select Paste from the menu.


Note: You can also use the keyboard shortcuts CTRL+C to copy and CTRL+V to paste.

Adding a Task to a Shift

1. Locate the employee and day you would like add a task for.

2. Right click the shift. The Scheduled Tasks dialog appears.

3. Select a station to assign the employee to.

4. Select the task that you would like to add.

5. Enter a duration (in hours) and the start time for the employee to begin the task.


Note: Job stations are noted by a character to the left of the shift. In this example, Christina has

been assigned to the Expediter station, and an ‘E’ appears in front of her shift.



Time-off Requests

The Time-off Requests feature is used to keep track of requests for days off and employee availability.

1. In the Scheduling screen, click Time-off Requests.

2. Select the employee you would like to adjust and click lookup.

3. To add a schedule request, click Add. To adjust or delete an existing request, select the request

and click Lookup or Delete. Both actions open the Availability Setting screen:


4. Select Approved to indicate the request has been approved.

Requested time off appears in yellow on the schedule and can be overwritten in the schedule.

Approved time off appears in pink on the schedule and, depending on your system settings,

may or may not be able to be overwritten in the schedule.

5. Select the reason for the time off. The available reasons for time off are configured by your


Add comments to the comment section if desired


6. In the Dates and Times Not Available section, select All Day if the request is for the whole day,

or select Time Range if the request will affect only part of the day. Select One Day, No End

Date (continues until changed), or End Date, which reveals an end date field you can use to

define the end date..

7. Depending on the nature of the availability request, adjust the settings to enter the request into

MenuLink Client. In the Recurrence section, select the individual days to which the request is to

apply.



Worksheets

This button is reserved for new features.


Manager Schedule

Use the Manager Schedule feature to create a new schedule from scratch or use an existing schedule as a

starting point. Manager Schedule shares many capabilities and characteristics you learned using the

Employee Schedule feature. Use the Employee Schedule feature for employees other than managers.

After accessing the Manager Schedule dialog, begin in the same way as you do with an employee

schedule. Start with a blank schedule, or indicate you want to copy from a previous schedule. When

copying from a previous schedule, specify the start date for the new schedule, and select the previous

schedule you want to use from the drop-down list. The primary difference for the Manager Schedule

feature at this level is that you must specify the number of weeks for the new schedule to cover. Once

created, users with appropriate security permissions can approve manager schedules.

Click Continue to proceed to the new schedule.

Users with sufficient security permissions, such as district managers, can use the Site drop-down list to

review, modify, and approve manager schedules at sites for which they are responsible.

Print manager

schedule.

Access legend for meaning of colors and notations.

Click column heads to sort by name, job code, or data in the column.

Select ‘Approved’ to finalize each weekly schedule.

Filter by Employee schedule status and

Jobcodes.

Individual shifts are noted, and available for modification in this

section.

Daily schedules, one column per day, one

section for each week.


Use the very same procedures for adding, deleting, modifying, and copying shifts in Manager Schedule as

you use when working with Employee Schedules, Weekly View.

Use the legend to get help understanding color codes and other notations you see in the Manager

Schedule screen.

After the manager schedule is complete, and satisfactory in all aspects, mark each section as approved,

then click Save to save all changes. Click the Print icon to preview and print the new schedule, in

exactly the same way as other MenuLink reports. The printed version of the schedule includes hourly

totals for each employee for each week, and the hours each person is scheduled to work, but the color

codes and other notations seen in the Manager Scheduling feature are not available in the printed version.


Scheduling Reports

This section includes samples and descriptions of Scheduling-related reports available in MenuLink





You can access Scheduling reports from the Reports button on the Scheduling Screen (Scheduling reports

only, as shown in the screen example below) or from the Reports button on the Labor Screen (all Labor

reports).


Daily Line Bar by Employee Report

The Daily Line Bar by Employee report gives a daily view of the schedule. It shows the employee’s

name, shift, scheduled hours and Job name.

Weekly Schedule by Job Title Report

The Weekly Schedule by Job Title report shows a weekly view of the schedule sorted by job, with daily

totals at the end of the report.


Labor- Scheduled vs. Actual

The Labor- Schedules vs. Actual report compares the hours scheduled to the actual hours worked, sorted

by job code.


Staffing

The Staffing screen contains several features you can use to adjust staffing recommendations when

creating schedules.


Minimum Staff — Create the minimum staffing requirements for your site to ensure that

recommended staffing does not fall below what is required for operations, even if projected sales

fall below certain levels.

Fixed Staff — Manage recommended schedules for jobs that are not affected by volume, such as

cleaning routines, opening or closing, and management.

Schedule Matrix — Enter and manage how sales forecasts, time of day, and other factors affect

recommended staffing levels.

Recommended — Combine the settings of Minimum Staff, Fixed Staff, and the Schedule Matrix

to create a ‘Recommended Staffing’ matrix.


Reports — View and print available Staffing reports.

Note: In the following examples, the system has been configured for half hour sales. MenuLink Client can

also be set up for quarter hour increments.


Minimum Staffing

The Minimum Staffing feature lets you define the minimum staffing levels required for operations,

regardless of sales forecasts or volumes.

Note: Depending on the complexity of your operations, you can create a single minimum staff for your

entire site, or a minimum staff for each job name. These are assigned to Recommended Staffing matrices.

Adding a Minimum Staff

1. In the Staffing screen, click Minimum Staff. The Minimum Staff Selection screen appears.

2. Click New. The Staffing- Minimum screen appears.


3. Enter a name for the minimum staff level, such as ‘Crew Minimum.’

4. Select a day of the week to edit using the Select Day dropdown.

5. If you would like to copy staff levels from an existing day, select the day you would like to copy

in the Select Day to Copy dropdown. Click Copy to import the data.

6. In the Minimum column, enter the minimum number of employees that you will need for each

interval of the day.

7. Enter text in the Notes column to add comments about the reason or nature of the minimum staff.

8. Enter each day of the week as needed.


Modifying a Minimum Staff



2. Select the staff you would like to adjust and click Lookup. The Staffing- Minimum screen

appears.

3. Make the necessary changes and click Save. See Adding a Minimum Staff for reference.

Delete an Existing Minimum Staff



2. Select the staff you would like to delete and click Delete. This permanently deletes the record.


Fixed Staff

The Fixed Staff feature lets you to define fixed staffing levels for each time interval of a specific day.

Fixed Staff are required personnel that are not directly affected by sales, such as cleaning crews or regular

training staff.

Note: Depending on the complexity of your operations, you can create a single fixed staff for your entire

site, or a fixed staff for each job name. These are assigned to Recommended Staffing matrices.

Adding a Fixed Staff

1. In the Staffing screen, click Fixed Staff. The Fixed Staff Selection screen appears.

2. Click New. The Staffing- Fixed screen appears.


3. Enter a name for the fixed staff level, such as ‘Cleaning Crew.’

4. Select a day of the week to edit using the Select Day dropdown.

5. If you would like to copy an existing day, select the day you would like to copy from in the

Select Day to Copy dropdown. Click Copy to import the data.

6. In the Minimum column, enter the minimum number of employees that you will need for each

interval of the day.

7. Enter text in the Notes column to add comments about the reason or nature of the fixed staff.

8. Enter each day of the week as needed.


Modifying a Fixed Staff



2. Select the staff you would like to adjust and click Lookup. The Staffing- Fixed screen appears.

3. Make the necessary changes and click Save. See Adding a Fixed Staff for reference.

Deleting an Existing Fixed Staff



2. Select the staff you would like to delete and click Delete. This permanently deletes the record.


Schedule Matrix

The Schedule Matrix is where you can create recommended staffing levels based on guests and forecasted

sales. For each defined sales level, you can configure the number of additional employees that should be

working to handle the volume.

Note: Unlike minimum staff and fixed staff, a schedule matrix is based entirely on forecast sales or guest

volumes, and assigned to intervals in Recommended Staffing.

Adding a Schedule Matrix

1. In the Staffing screen, click Schedule Matrix. The Matrix Selection screen appears.

2. Click New. The Staffing Matrix screen appears.


3. Enter a name for the staff matrix, such as ‘Drive Thru.’

4. Select the data source. The data source is the number that ‘drives’ the matrix.

Sales Total – uses the forecasted sales to calculate the recommended staff.

Guest Total – uses forecasted guest counts to calculate the recommended staff.

5. Enter the Time Extend and the Time Move. Use these options to make amounts apply to more

than their half-hour origin. For example: With a time extend setting of 30, a Time Move setting of

–15, and a source setting of total sales, total sales from 1p-1:30p applies to 12:45p-1:45p for

calculating Recommended staff.

6. In the Amount From field, enter the low-end amount for the level.

7. In the Amount To field, enter the high-end amount for the level.

8. In the Staff Count field, enter the number of staff to recommend for the amount of sales (or

guests) that is forecasted.


Modifying a Schedule Matrix



2. Select the matrix you would like to adjust and click Lookup. The Staffing- Matrix screen

appears.

3. Make the necessary changes and click Save. See Adding a Schedule Matrix for reference.

Deleting a Schedule Matrix



2. Select the matrix you would like to delete and click Delete. This permanently deletes the record.


Recommended

The Recommended Staffing feature helps you bring all of the staffing matrices together and assign them

to each Job name. Once we have assigned the Minimum Staff, Fixed Staff, and Staff Matrix to each job

name, Recommended generates a recommended number of employees for each interval in the scheduling

process.

Adding Recommended Staffing

1. In the Staffing screen, click Recommended. The Recommended Staff- Maint. screen appears.

2. Click New. The Staffing- Recommended screen appears.


3. Select the desired Job Name.

4. Select the Minimum Staff to use to calculate the recommended staff.

5. Select the Fixed Staff to use to calculate the Recommended Staff.



6. For each interval, select a schedule matrix by clicking the matrix field.


Modifying Recommend Staffing


2. Select the matrix you would like to adjust and click Lookup. The Staffing- Matrix screen

appears.


3. Make the necessary changes and click Save. See Adding a Recommended Staffing for reference.

Deleting a Recommended Matrix


2. Select the matrix you would like to delete and press the Delete key. This permanently deletes the

record.

Note: If you do not want to delete a Matrix but you do not want it used to create the schedule, you can

check the EXCL box next to the recommended matrix and the system ignores it for the calculation of the

recommended staff.


Worksheets and Reports

These buttons are reserved for new features.


Projected Data

The Projected Data screen contains the Forecasting feature you can use to forecast sales data, sales mixes

based on sales history and future events that may affect volume.


Forecasting — Use sales history, future events, and projected growth to create sales forecasts that

will affect staffing recommendations.

Job Setup — The Job Setup button is reserved for future use.

Last Year — The Last Year button is reserved for future use.

Manager Projections — The Manager Projections button is reserved for future use.


Reports — The Reports button is reserved for future use.


Forecasting

Forecasting is a feature that projects sales and guest counts for future weeks using sales data collected in

the Inventory System through the POS Import process. The system calculates a forecast for each day of

the selected week using last year’s data or this year’s data. This feature forecasts sales and guest counts

both daily and per interval. It also forecasts sales mixes. These forecasts are used in several MenuLink

Client features including Order by Forecasting, Prep Scheduling, and recommended staffing based on

your Staffing Matrix.

Note: The following examples use a 30 minute time interval. Depending on your system settings, your

time interval may be 30 or 15 minutes in length.

Creating a New Forecast

To create new sales and guest forecast:

1. In the Projected Data Screen, click Forecasting. This opens the Forecasting screen.

Note: You can also access Forecasting through the Sales screen by clicking Forecasts.

2. In the Forecasting screen, enter the period and week number to define the date range you want to

forecast.

3. Select the Data Source.

Current Year uses recent sales history to calculate a forecast

Previous Year uses data from last year to calculate a forecast

4. Enter the number of weeks for MenuLink Client to consider when calculating the forecast, with

six (6) being the minimum number allowed. Generally, you can use the default setting. If recent

events have affected your sales – for example if summer vacation started two weeks ago – you

may want to adjust this setting.


5. Click New Forecast.

MenuLink Client generates the sales and guest forecast which are displayed in the Forecast Daily

Amounts area.

6. You can make changes to these values by selecting them and typing new values.


Forecast by Average

The Forecast by Average feature shows the individual sales forecasted for each day based on information

from up to six prior weeks. You can change the sales forecast, percentage of increase (or decrease), days

to exclude from the calculation, and the weight.

To create a forecast by average:

1. After the sales forecast has been calculated, click Forecast by Average.


Using Forecast by Average gives you the

ability to exclude specific days or

‘weight’ some days more than others.

Note: The amount in the average column indicates what MenuLink Client calculated as the

average for those weeks. For example, the average for Tuesday was calculated as follows:

($3741+$3741+$3741+$3741+$3741)/5 = $3741. Note the week of 4/5/2010 was excluded from

this calculation.

2. Enter a value in the (%) Increase column to adjust this average upwards or downwards by a

certain percentage. Enter negative values to decrease this value. For example, if you are expecting

a local convention next week, you may want to increase the forecast by 10%.

3. To exclude a sales amount from the average calculation, clear include/weight for that day.

Note: MenuLink Client may automatically exclude the high and low sales for a selected week, as

defined by your system administrator.

4. To change the weight of a sales amount used in the average calculation, enter the number that

you want to assign that sales amount in the box below the day’s sales amount. This can be useful

if a particular day had unusually large or small sales, or if you prefer to weight more recent days

higher than less recent days.

Note: Only whole numbers greater than or equal to one can be used.

5. Click Update Now to apply the changes to the forecast.



Show Sales Mix

Use the Show Sales Mix feature to show the forecasted sales mix for the selected day.

To view a daily sales mix:

1. After the sales forecast has been calculated and saved, click Show Sales Mix.

2. Select the date you would like to see from the Sales Date.


Show Intervals

Use the Show Intervals feature to view the forecasted sales and guests broken down into a predefined

interval (15 minutes, 30 minutes or 60 minutes) for the selected date.

To create a Sales and Guest Interval forecast:

1. After the sales forecast has been calculated and saved, click Show Intervals.


2. Select the date you would like to see from the Sales Date.



Events

The Events feature is used to create a forecast for a special event, such as a local convention, a special

promotion, or a sporting event.

To add an event:

1. In the Forecasting Screen, click Events.

2. In the Event Selection screen, click New. The Event Maintenance screen appears.

3. Enter the Name and ID number for the event. You can use any ID number that is not used by

another event.


4. Select the Event Type. Select Single Day for a one-time event and select Date Range for events

that take place during two or more days.

Note: If you select a single day, only the start date field is available under Event Date(s).

5. Select the forecasting method to use for the event in the Forecast is based on section.

6. Enter any notes or comments in the Comment field.

7. Click Save.

Note: You cannot adjust the sales mix before saving the event thus far.

8. Enter the expected increase or decrease in sales in the Increase/Decrease Menu Items by box in

the Menu Items Affected section.

9. Select Specific in the Menu Items Affected section, to have the event affect specific menu items

or time intervals.

Note: When Specific is selected the becomes available.

a) Click search to access the list of menu items to choose from.

b) Select the menu items to be affected.

Tip: To select multiple items, press and hold the control key and click each item to add.

c) Click Save to keep the selected items.


10. Click the search button next to Add quantity by sales interval for affected Menu Items, to

cause the event to affect specific time intervals.

1. Select the sales date to modify.

2. You can then copy the sales mix for this item from another date by selecting a date under

Select Date to Copy and clicking Copy.

3. You can also adjust individual item forecasts by time interval by selecting the quantity

and typing a new value.


11. Now that all of the criteria have been set up, click Save to save the event.

Tip: When you create your forecast for a week that contains an event the following alert appears

and displays the event name:

12. Click Ok to finish.


Forecasting by Alternate Sales Types

The MenuLink Forecast Alternate Sales feature provides the ability to create forecasts based on different

metrics than simply total sales or guest counts. This can provide more accurate information for a specific

aspect of your site, such as Front-of-House (FOH) and Back-of-House (BOH). This new forecast

separation also ties into specific Job Codes to more accurately recommend required staffing levels.

Note: If you would like to use this feature and it is not active in your system, please contact your system

administrator.

Viewing an Alternate Sales Type Forecast:

1. From the Projected Data Screen, click Forecasting.

Note: You can also access Forecasting through the Sales screen by clicking Forecasting.

2. The Alternate Sales data is shown in the 5th column. The heading of the column depends on the

sales data chosen by your administrator. In this example, we are using Drive Thru Sales.


Forecast by Average using Alternate Sales type

1. From the Forecasting screen Click Forecast by Average

2. Access the alternate sales type available by clicking the button on the right side of the

Forecasting- Calculate Average screen. The label on the button reflects the type of sales available.

Click this button to open the Forecasting- Calculate Average screen for the alternative sales type.

3. For information on making adjustments to this information, see Forecast by Average.



Job Setup

This button is reserved for future use.

Last Year


Manager Projections


Worksheets


Reports


Documents

MenuLink Client User Guide v7_3