This covers the new shopping flow only. For how forecasting and inventory readiness work, see About Forecasting in Gaia. For managing an order after it exists, see Managing Orders on the Order Page.
Before you start
Shopping reads confirmed production records. Days that aren't confirmed yet won't be included, so confirm your forecasts for the days you want to shop first.
1. Open the Shop dialog
On the production records page, click Smart Shopping (the basket icon). The dialog is titled Shop, and it will create and/or update orders for all confirmed production records in the window you choose.
2. Shop full week
Select the default Shop the full week option, and identical to how shopping has always worked. Gaia shops the whole visible week and automatically creates the orders needed for preparing the food on each day, assigning items to the default vendor and delivery date.
Custom window (single day, a few days, or multiple weeks): applies best for schools that are operating a full kitchen and ordering from multiple vendors. Learn more.
3. Shop a single vendor (optional)
You can shop one vendor at a time, for example milk or produce orders only before you're ready to shop your mains. Smart Shopping then only sources from that vendor, which is what you want when you are deliberately placing an order with one supplier rather than shopping everything you need.
4. Preview the orders
Click Preview orders. Nothing is ordered yet. Gaia lays out your whole shop window as a calendar: one column per day of the week, one row per week, with a card in each day for every vendor delivering that day. Two vendors on the same day means two cards stacked in that cell.
Cards start collapsed, showing the vendor and how many items are on it. Open a card to see the lines, with the item and the quantity Gaia intends to order. Internal vendors are identified.
If there's nothing to order for the window you picked, you'll see "Nothing to order for the selected window."
This preview allows you to quickly notice missing or wrong forecasts or inventory.
5. Assign to orders
When the preview looks right, click Assign to orders. Gaia writes the draft orders and shows a confirmation with the number of orders updated. From there you place and receive them the usual way (see Place and Receive an Order).
Good to know
Shopping the same days twice won't shrink your orders. If you shop a custom window that overlaps or sits inside a window you already shopped, Gaia holds the quantities an earlier shop placed and only adds or tops up. This is what makes shopping a few days at a time safe. (Shop full week is unaffected by this: a full-week re-shop still adjusts quantities up or down to match current demand, exactly as before.)
Already placed orders will not appear on the preview orders window as they can no longer be edited.
What the warnings mean
Amber triangle next to an item (late delivery): the delivery this item is on arrives after the day you need it, either because the only in-time delivery runs a little late or because you consolidated onto a date that falls after the item is needed. Check that order before sending it.
"Not added" on an item: Gaia is ordering none of this item this trip. Either you skipped its delivery and no other in-time delivery was available, or it would have landed on an order you've already sent, which can't be changed. It stays visible (greyed out) so nothing disappears without you noticing.
"Not ordered this trip": items that couldn't go on any in-time delivery in your window, usually because their only delivery day was skipped. These are listed in their own section below the calendar, gathered across every vendor. This is the only place they appear, so it is worth reading before you commit the run. Widen your window or undo the skip if you still need them.