Before now, in Gaia a Central Kitchen (CK) production record only came from school orders. The record was created automatically, and its date always matched the delivery date. This is called the vended (unitized) workflow. To learn about that workflow, see Manage Vended (Unitized) Central Kitchen Production.
Now a CK can also plan production on its own, without waiting for orders. For example: a sub-recipe, like a sauce, can get its own line on the production record. Any line can move to an earlier Draft day. A date can have a production record even with no orders for that day. And projected inventory counts a batch that is scheduled ahead of time.
To learn how Central Kitchens work in general, see About Central Kitchens and Warehouses in Gaia.
Quick answer
Here is a short summary of what you can do.
Sub-recipes get their own line. A recipe can use another recipe as one of its ingredients. For example, a pizza recipe can use marinara sauce as an ingredient. If that sauce is set up as a Manufactured Item (something your kitchen makes and tracks in inventory), it now appears as its own line on the production record, instead of being listed only inside the pizza's ingredients.
You can move that line to an earlier date. Both the old date and the new date must still be in Draft status (not confirmed yet). To move the whole amount, drag the line to another day. To move only part of the amount, right-click the line and choose Move to date. This lets you make the sauce on Monday for a pizza that ships on Friday.
You can move any recipe, not only sub-recipes. For example, you can also move the pizza itself, not just the sauce inside it, to another Draft day. If you move a line that is tied to a delivery, Gaia locks (pins) that day: it stops updating the record automatically if the school's order changes later. You can unlock (unpin) the day, or sync it again with deliveries, at any time.
Any date can have a production record, even with no orders. This lets you set up a standing batch, for example 50 gallons of marinara sauce every Monday, with no order or menu behind it. When you open any date, you see an empty record where you can add the first item. Nothing is saved until you add something.
Inventory sees your plan, not only the finished batch. Once you schedule a batch ahead of time, Gaia's projected inventory counts it as supply that is coming soon. This means the day that needs the batch can show as covered, even before you make the batch.
Why This Matters
Different schedules. Your staff, equipment, and how much you can cook at once set your kitchen's real schedule. This schedule does not always match the delivery calendar. Before, Gaia could not show this difference: the date a food item was needed and the date it was made had to be the same.
A record for early prep work. Before, if you wanted to make something ahead of time, you had to add a manual row with no link to later demand. It did not show you how much you needed to make. Now these batches get a real record, linked to the demand behind them.
Not every kitchen just follows the menu. Before, a day with no deliveries could not have any production record at all. This was fine if you only cook today's menu, but it did not work if you also make bulk batches on your own schedule. Gaia no longer assumes this.
The Concepts, Explained
You do not need to read this section to use the feature every day. It is here to help you if a moved line does not behave the way you expect.
Sub-recipes get their own schedule
A sub-recipe only gets its own line if it is also set up as a Manufactured Item, the same setting explained in Manufactured Items vs. Sub-Recipes. Here is the difference: if your kitchen makes the component and tracks it in inventory, it gets its own batch line. If it is only an ingredient you buy, it stays inside the parent recipe's ingredient list, the same as before.
Simple prep steps do not get their own line either. For example: thawing chicken, pulling ingredients, or making a sauce fresh for one dish that you do not store. None of these get their own line.
This can happen more than one level deep. For example, pizza contains sauce, and sauce contains a spice blend. If both sauce and the spice blend are Manufactured Items, all three (pizza, sauce, and spice blend) can appear as separate lines that you can schedule. This only applies to Central Kitchens; it does not affect production records at school sites.
For example, say a line called Pizza Sauce is on Friday's record. You can drag it to Monday, or right-click it and choose Move to date. After you move it, a few things happen:
Monday's line is now the record for that batch. As long as nothing on Friday still needs sauce, Gaia will not add sauce back into Friday's totals.
If Monday's recipes later stop needing sauce, the line does not get deleted. It stays on Monday's record, and you can still move it or edit it.
Once you move a batch, it stops following live changes to its original parent recipe. If the pizza order for Friday changes after you move the sauce, the sauce amount on Monday will not update on its own. Check it yourself, the same way you would check any batch you scheduled by hand.
Moving any recipe to another day
At first, only a sub-recipe line (one not tied to a delivery) could move to another date. Gaia removed that limit. Now any line on a Draft Central Kitchen production record can move to another Draft day. This includes the main recipe line that ships on a delivery, like the pizza itself, not only the sub-recipe parts inside it. A production kitchen needs to rearrange its whole plan, not only the parts that happen to get their own line.
What happens next is different for each type of line. A sub-recipe line, like sauce, is not tied to a delivery, so moving it does not change anything else. A delivery line, like the pizza, is normally kept in sync with what schools ordered, so moving it locks (pins) that day: Gaia stops updating the record automatically from new deliveries, the same as when you edit a forecast by hand. A pinned day shows an indicator (icon). You can unpin it, or sync it again with deliveries, at any time.
Starting a record on a date with no orders
Before, a Central Kitchen production record only existed if a school's order created it. This meant a CK could only plan production connected to a specific menu day. There was no way to set up a standing batch (for example, 50 gallons of marinara sauce every Monday) that is not tied to any order or menu.
Now, when you open any date for a Central Kitchen, you see an empty production record. You can add the first item to it, and nothing is saved until you do. This covers two cases: moving a sub-recipe off its parent recipe's date onto a day with no orders, and setting up a routine batch on a day that never has deliveries. When you add a recipe, Gaia creates the record for you, in Draft status, just like any other production record. You can delete a row that you added by hand. You cannot delete a row that ships on a delivery, because that quantity is still going out to a school.
How inventory sees a planned batch
Two changes make scheduling ahead truly useful, not just visible. First, projected inventory now counts a batch you scheduled ahead as supply that is coming soon. This is the same way it already counts a vendor delivery that has not arrived yet. So Friday's pizza can show as covered as soon as you schedule Monday's sauce batch; you do not need to wait until Monday. Second, when you submit a batch that is not tied to a delivery, Gaia checks inventory based on what was Prepared, not what was Served. A batch like that does not serve anything on the day you make it, so if Gaia used Served instead, submitting the batch would add no inventory at all.
What Can Move, and When
Whether you can move a line depends on the record's status. This works the same way as editing does everywhere else in Gaia:
Both records must be Draft. If the source day or the target day has already been confirmed or submitted, Gaia blocks the move. Unconfirm the record first.
You can only move a line earlier, not later. A line can move to an earlier date, but not to a later date. The point of moving a line is to have it ready on time.
There are two ways to move a line, and only one lets you split the amount. If you drag a line to another day, the full amount moves. You cannot leave part of it behind. Or right-click the line and choose Move to date instead: this opens a dialog with a quantity field. Leave the field blank to move the full batch, or enter a number to move only part of it and leave the rest where it is. For example, right-click, choose Move to date, and enter 4 to send 4 of Friday's 10 gallons to Monday, while the other 6 stay on Friday.
Shelf life gives a warning, not a block. If a move would make a batch older than its shelf life by the day you need it, Gaia shows a warning, but you can still continue.
You cannot move a line to a different school. A move can only happen within the same Central Kitchen.