Overview
The weekly forecasting view is used to help schools with planning for their meal service, managing related orders, and gaining insights from their historical data. It contains one or more production cards, depending on how many different programs your school supports.
A production card represents one service meal for one day, and is linked to one production record. For example, lunch will have a separate meal card than breakfast. The card is a summary of the detailed production record. It shows a list of all recipes served in the meal and indicates the current phase and the next steps to complete planning.
Phases (Lifecycle)
Forecasting
This is the step where a school manager assigns a forecast number to how many of each recipe they plan to serve. Once all recipes are forecasted, the user can confirm the forecast.
Confirming the forecast moves the production record into the next stage of its lifecycle and starts to show the inventory status for each recipe to gauge readiness to deliver the meal.
The forecast is used to calculate how much inventory is required to prepare the meal. Once confirmed, that inventory is committed to the meal.
Shopping
After confirming the forecast, you can create a Shopping list which is a collection of orders that have the products needed to fulfill the meal. The PR cards will show an inventory status that takes into account any placed upcoming orders.
Production
Printing the PR starts the process. The user can then fill the PR table by scanning the PR using the link on the Production card or by entering the values manually through the PR table.
Refer to the Production Records article for more details on PR tables and reports.
Submitted
The PR has been submitted. In this state, the PR card displays the totals and relevant documents.
Inventory Status
Each recipe and ingredient that has a confirmed forecast will show a readiness status:
Ready means you have enough inventory available on hand or you have already placed an order for this ingredient.
Insufficient means you will not have enough inventory or you have not ordered enough.
Click the status to see the detailed calculations Gaia used to arrive at the status:
Amount on hand: Inventory already in your pantry.
Transactions: Existing orders that include this ingredient and other instances where inventory will be used.
Projected: Calculated inventory amount that will be available at the end of the listed day.
Bulk and Smart Forecasts
Two options are available from the weekly Tools menu when you need to forecast across many recipes or days at once.
Bulk Update Forecasts: Apply the same forecast amount to selected recipes across multiple days and menus.
Smart Forecast: Gaia suggests forecast amounts based on your district's historical data.
Display Options
The Display menu in the top right of the weekly production view controls what appears on each production card. From this menu you can show or hide details such as Recipe Code and Recipe Name on each card.