The planner is able to monitor costs and nutrients while in the design phase. The old way of menu planning required the planner to establish the food items first, run a cost analysis, make alterations, run a nutrient analysis and make alterations again. Often the nutrient alterations affected the cost and the process required several waves of modifications. Monitoring costs and nutrients while planning streamlines the operation beautifully. A detailed production plan lays out the daily, weekly and monthly production activities.
Staff have a clear understanding of activities required for each product and each day.
An especially neat feature is the automatic recording of the various student selected reimbursable meal combinations into a database which uses this information to automatically generate the claim. Only food combinations eligible for reimbursement are recorded as such thus ensuring accurate and legitimate claim data. Knowing exactly how many students accessed each station and the number which selected each item allows for accurate and useful forecasting. The menu planner can also examine the data to determine the combinations most often selected by students and the combinations least chosen. This information provides added intelligence to the menu design process.