PC-FOOD II Food Costing, Inventory and Margin Management Version 9.0 User's Guide (GUIDE.TXT) CONTENTS Installation: Registered version: Refer to the printed instructions included with your distribution package. Evaluation version: Refer to the on-disk file named "INSTALL.TXT" Windows 95 User Special Information: A) PC-FOOD II and Windows 95 Print Spooling ...... 1 B) Full Screen View of PC-FOOD II in Windows ..... 1 C) Creating a desktop "shortcut" to PC-FOOD II ... 1 Product Support ............................................ 2 Overview ................................................... 3 Requirements ............................................... 4 Getting Started ............................................ 5 Operation: Cross-reference calculator setup (XRef) .......... 5 General Commands/Navigating ...................... 6 Ingredient ....................................... 7 Recipe ........................................... 8 Menu Item ........................................ 10 Menu Mix ......................................... 12 Miscellaneous .............................................. 14 Acknowledgements ........................................... 14 Page 1 WINDOWS 95 USER INFORMATION A) Print Spooling: Windows 95 contains a print spooling feature which allows an application to be "returned" to the user while printing runs in the background. You may find that PC-FOOD II will not print correctly while using this feature. Also, you may need to print from PC-FOOD II while running the program in a "full screen." You can easily switch off the print spooling feature and toggle to a full screen if you encounter a problem with printing. Follow these easy steps to switch off spooling: 1) Click Start 2) Click Settings 3) Click Printers 4) Click ONCE on the desired printer (to highlight it) 5) Click File 6) Click Properties 7) Click the Details tab 8) Click Spool Settings 9) Click "Print directly to the printer" 10) Click O.K. 11) Click O.K. (don't just close this window or the new settings will not take effect) 12) Close the Printers window You may quickly return to Spool Settings and select "Restore Defaults" to use print spooling with other programs. B) Full screen view of PC-FOOD II: To run PC-FOOD II in a full screen within Windows 95, press Alt-Enter (Press and hold the Alt key, then press the Enter key). This will "toggle" between a window and full screen. PC-FOOD II will start in the mode (window or full screen) that was active when you last quit the program. C) Create a desktop "shortcut" to the PC-FOOD II Folder: PC-FOOD II will be installed to the PC-FOOD II Program Folder which will appear in the "Programs" list within the Start Menu. To add a "shortcut" to the PC-FOOD II Folder on your desktop, do the following: 1) Start Explorer so that a portion of the desktop is visable. 2) Select C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\PC-FOOD II 3) Click once on the PC-FOOD II folder to highlight it. 4) With the RIGHT mouse button, drag the PC-FOOD II folder to the desktop, then release the mouse button. 5) Click on "Create shortcut here." 6) Now click on the PC-FOOD II Program Folder shortcut and select "View" and "Large ICONS." Page 2 PRODUCT SUPPORT Please contact us with any questions or comments: Include your version number. Registered users please include your distribution diskette serial number. Please be as specific as possible so that we may answer your question without delay. Thank you for using PC-FOOD II. 1) Electronic Mail (For fastest reply) INTERNET 76467.2213@compuserve.com CompuServe 76467,2213 2) U.S. Postal Service 3) Call us at 612-731-6822 Sorry, we do not return long-distance phone calls if you happen to miss us. Please try to use Email or Fax. 4) Fax your question(s) to us at 612-731-6822. Include your complete mailing address. We will reply via fax only to U.S. numbers. Please try EMail. You may obtain the latest shareware version of PC-FOOD II from our world wide web page at: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/schreck/ Page 3 PROGRAM OVERVIEW PC-FOOD II was developed as an easy to use alternative to high priced, complex systems. If you hate the learning curve of most software packages, you will love PC-FOOD II. Version 9.0 introduces multi-level recipes (three levels) and the "cross-reference calculator" feature which allows for input in a unit other than the defined "usage unit." With PC-FOOD II you will no longer manually calculate food cost each time ingredient costs change. Just compare invoice prices with the ingredient listing in PC-FOOD II, edit any prices that have changed, and PC-FOOD II will instantly update all calculations throughout! PC-FOOD II is very easy to use! In addition to calculating food cost (materials cost), PC-FOOD II will also maintain two required selling prices for each menu item. One selling price is based on a desired gross profit dollar amount, while the other is based on a desired gross profit percentage. Gross profit is selling price minus food cost. The "price changes" feature of PC-FOOD II will alert you to items which are outside of your pricing specifications. Pricing is an "art" not a science. PC-FOOD II is NOT capable of determining appropriate prices for you. Don't forget competition when pricing! Also, remember that gross profit must cover all operating costs and provide you with your desired profit. Don't confuse gross profit with net profit. PC-FOOD II data files include ingredients, three levels of recipes, menu items, and menu mix files. Ingredients consist of your raw materials. You define how you buy (what unit) and use ingredients. PC-FOOD II handles physical inventory by allowing you to input your on-hand quantity and extending a value at your latest cost. Recipes use ingredients or lower level recipes. Select from a pop-up sorted list of ingredients/recipes and input the quantity used. You define a "usage unit" for the recipe and tell PC-FOOD II how many of these units are in this recipe "batch." Input a batch yield to arrive at a net cost per unit. Menu items are defined similarly to recipes. A menu item may select input from level three recipes and/or directly from ingredients. Lower level recipes may also be used by easily defining the recipe as a "pass through" recipe. Input a DESIRED gross profit dollar amount and/or a DESIRED gross profit percentage and PC-FOOD II will calculate the REQUIRED prices to achieve those objectives. Another feature of PC-FOOD II is the Menu Mix function which will maintain an overall food cost, total revenue and total gross profit for one or more menu item "mixes." Page 4 REQUIREMENTS MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS: IBM or compatible "286" (AT) or compatible computer with 640K RAM, one 720K or 1.44MM 3.5" floppy drive, hard drive and a printer. PROGRAM CAPACITIES: From the Main Menu, PC-FOOD II displays the minimum number of additional items which may be added. This is the SUM of ingredients, recipes, and menu items. Please note that if an item is deleted, the counter will not release the record. Adding a new item after previously deleting an item will likewise not reduce the counter. Total capacity is dependent on available conventional memory. With 517K of RAM available, approximately 2,000 items (ingredients + recipes + menu items) may be added. Please refer to your DOS/system manual for methods to increase available conventional (640K) memory. Generally, you will gain space for one additional item for each 64 bytes freed (10 items per 1K). DISK SPACE: The Main Menu displays available disk space. Do not attempt to exceed available space! Always leave a safety margin. Unpredictable results will occur if you attempt to exceed available disk space, including loss or corruption of data. The "DAT" and "MMX" files MUST BE CONSIDERED AN INSEPARABLE SET. To begin with all new data, delete all "DAT" files and any "MMX" files. When you back-up your data, ALWAYS backup and keep files with ".DAT" and ".MMX" file extensions together as a set. These files require each other to maintain data integrity. If you modify one of the files using PC-FOOD II while one or more of the other files are unavailable, unpredictable results will occur including certain data corruption. PC-FOOD II uses the computer's system clock in several functions. If you have not set the clock, please do so. STARTING PC-FOOD II (from DOS) after installation: Change to the PCFOOD subdirectory: CD C:\PCFOOD C:\PCFOOD>PCFD STARTING PC-FOOD II (from Windows) after installation: Simply click on the "Food Cost" icon. Page 5 GETTING STARTED Please read the "OPERATION" section before starting PC-FOOD II. The most efficient method to begin the definition process is with ingredients, then recipes and finally menu items. As you work with the program, you will see that it minimizes the need to constantly go back to define new ingredients, although you may do so at any time. If you installed the DEMO data files, take a few minutes to work with and review that data. When you are ready to begin with your own data, you may simply add to or delete the demo data from PC-FOOD II (item by item) or see the REQUIREMENTS section for instructions on which files to delete from the disk. All data may be quickly edited as you setup PC-FOOD II. You may find it necessary to input partial information for an item then return to complete the item later. This can be quickly accomplished within PC-FOOD II. Recipes are not generally served as a single unit but are instead used in menu items. Pizza, bread dough, sauces, cookies, hot dish, etc., could all be defined as recipes. Menu items are the final products sold (or served) as a single unit. A single bowl of soup, an individual cookie, a sandwich, pizza, beverage, steak dinner, etc., are all menu item examples. To cost out an entire banquet, just define a menu mix file containing your selected menu items in any quantity. CROSS-REFERENCE CALCULATOR SETUP (XRef) The cross-refererence calculator allows the user to input a quantity using a unit other than the defined "usage unit." The feature is available within the individual recipe and menu item sections of PC-FOOD II when editing the usage quantity. The cross-reference setup (available at the MAIN MENU) is where the user defines the cross-references they wish to use. As an example, you might define one cup as equal to eight fluid ounces. Then, when prompted for an input in fluid ounces, just pop-up the cross-reference calculator and input the quantity in cups or any other defined cross-reference. Using this example, if 2.5 cups were input, the calculator would automatically insert 20 fluid ounces in the field. Page 6 GENERAL COMMANDS/NAVIGATING General On-line help is available whenever the F1=Help button is displayed. Data input fields and most "buttons" contain context sensitive help. Just press F1 while the cursor is located in the field or on the button. Press tab, back-tab, a directional arrow key or click, to place the cursor in the desired field or button. Mouse Tips: * The right mouse button acts as Escape, taking you back one step/screen. * One click of the left mouse button selects a button choice or locates the cursor to an input field. * Double click the left mouse button on a list choice to select/display it. * Scrollable lists (ingredients, recipes, etc.) may be navigated in many ways: - Click the up or down scroll bar pointer to move up or down in the list. - Hold down the left button and drag the scroll bar "diamond" up or down. - Click on the horizontal border immediately above or below the data in a scrollable window to move up or down. Keyboard movement keys are all fully supported and include PgUp, PgDn, Home, End, Tab, Back-Tab (shift-Tab) and the directional arrows. * Press to select a scrollable list choice. * Escape will always take you back one step/screen. * To quickly search for an item by DESCRIPTION in a scrollable listing, just press the key representing the first character of the description. You will step through the listing stopping on each item that begins with the search character. Page 7 INGREDIENT From the Ingredient Listing, you have several options: Press or double click on a list choice to go to the detailed ingredient. F2=Sort: The selected sort is automatically saved. Subsequent inserting of ingredients in recipes or menu items will use this sort. F3=New: Define a new ingredient. If you use the same ingredient in more than one "usage unit," you may want to define the same item more than once (i.e. piece & ounce, etc.) for the same description/dept/vendor. F4=Delete: You will not be able to delete an item that is used in a recipe or menu item. Do not override by changing the description from "sugar" to "peas" because every recipe or menu item that used sugar will now use peas! Use the F5=Used feature to find all uses of the ingredient. F5=Used: List all recipes and menu items that use the highlighted ingredient. F8=Export: Saves the selected fields for all ingredients to a comma delimited file. Import this data to a spreadsheet or other program for additional report generation, etc. F9=Value: Ingredients are selected in the same manner as in printing (see F10=Print). Your latest input quantity and cost is used for the calculation. F10=Print: Report choices are determined by the location of the highlight bar in the ingredient listing. To print an individual ingredient, place the highlight bar on the specific item. To print all records where department = "produce," place the highlight bar on ANY "produce" item. Likewise, to print all items where the department = "produce" AND the vendor = "GFG," place the highlight bar on ANY ingredient that is both "produce" and from "GFG." Select Item Master "M" or Inventory "I" report. The inventory report is very useful as an input form. Pencil your latest quantity and cost below each existing value on the report. Then input the data to PC-FOOD II using the same sort. Page 8 RECIPE From the Recipe Listing you have several options: Press or double click on a list choice to go to the detailed recipe. F2=Sort: Double click or press on your choice. Your sort selection is automatically saved for use each time the recipe listing is displayed. Inserting recipes in menu items will also use this recipe listing sort. F3=New: Define a new recipe. Begin the definition of a new recipe by entering at least the description, then press F6 to save. Continue with the definition by inserting ingredients (F3) or lower level recipes (F9). The source (SRC) indicator will display an "R2" for a level 2 recipe, "R1" for a level 1 recipe, or an "I" for an ingredient. Press F7 (or click F7=Edit) to move to the lower box to edit/input those fields. Recipes may contain up to 30 ingredients and/or lower level recipes in the scrollable list. Press F7 (or click F7=Edit) to move from the scrollable window to the lower box (description, dept, usage unit, gross qty, yield, notes). While in the scrollable window, press or double click to edit the usage quantity of the highlighted ingredient or recipe. Commands available at the detailed Recipe level: ----------------------------------------------------------- F3=Insert Ingredient: Select an ingredient from the scrollable listing. You may change the ingredient sort order within the ingredient listing section of PC-FOOD II. After selecting an ingredient, you will be prompted to input a usage quantity for the ingredient. Press F6 (or click F6=Save) to save the recipe with the new ingredient. The recipe will re-display with the inserted ingredient located at the highlighted bar location in the scrollable window. F7=XRef: When editing the usage quantity, select F7 to input using a different unit than the defined "usage" unit. Define up to sixteen cross-references from the MAIN MENU of PC-FOOD II. F4=Delete: Delete the ingredient/recipe that is highlighted in the scrollable window. The recipe will then re-display without the ingredient/recipe. F7=Edit: Allows access to the description, dept, usage unit, gross quantity, yield and note fields for editing. Press F1 in any field for additional help. Page 9 RECIPE (continued) Continued: Recipe Listing command options: F8=Previous: Steps backward through the recipe listing at the detail level. F9=Insert Recipe: Same as inserting an ingredient (see above). Level 1 recipes may use only ingredients. Level 2 recipes may use ingredients and/or level 1 recipes. Level 3 recipes may use ingredients and/or level 2 recipes and/or level 1 recipes. F7=XRef: When editing the usage quantity, select F7 to input using a different unit than the defined "usage" unit. Define up to sixteen cross-references from the MAIN MENU of PC-FOOD II. F10=Next: Steps forward through the recipe listing at the detail level. ----------------------------------------------------------- F4=Delete: You will not be able to delete a recipe that is used in a menu item or in another recipe. Do not override by changing the description of a recipe from "chicken soup" to "chocolate cake" because every menu item that used chicken soup will now use chocolate cake! Use the F5=Used feature to find all uses of the recipe. F5=Show Uses: List all menu items and other recipes using the selected recipe. F6=Select Recipe Level 1: Work with level 1 recipes. F7=Select Recipe Level 2: Work with level 2 recipes. F8=Select Recipe Level 3: Work with level 3 recipes. F10=Print: Report choices are determined by the location of the highlight bar in the recipe listing. To print an individual recipe, place the highlight bar on the specific item. To print all records where department = "soup" place the highlight bar on ANY "soup" item. After placing the highlight bar, press F10=Print. From the printing screen, click or press in the report selection field and choose the desired report. The current recipe sort order is used for printing all reports. Page 10 MENU ITEM From the Menu Item Listing, you have several options: Press or double click on a list choice to go to the detailed recipe. F2=Sort: Double click or press on your choice. Your sort selection is automatically saved for use each time the menu item listing is displayed. Inserting menu items in a menu mix file will also use this sort order. F3=New: Define a new menu item. Begin the definition of a menu item by entering at least the description. Then press F6 to save. Begin inserting ingredients and/or recipes. Menu items may contain up to 30 ingredients and/or recipes. The source (SRC) indicator will display an "R3" if the item is a recipe or an "I" for an ingredient. Press F7 (or click F7=Edit) to move from the scrollable window to the input fields (description, dept, selling price, desired gross profit $, desired gross profit%, notes). While in the scrollable window, press or double click to edit the usage quantity of the highlighted ingredient/recipe. Commands available at the detailed Menu Item level: ----------------------------------------------------------- F3=Insert Ingr: Select an ingredient from the scrollable listing. You will next be prompted to input a usage quantity for the ingredient. Press F6 (or click F6=Save) to save the menu item with the new ingredient. The menu item will re-display with the inserted ingredient located at the highlighted bar location in the scrollable window. The current sort order is used to display the scrollable list of ingredients. F7=XRef: When editing the usage quantity, select F7 to input using a different unit than the defined "usage" unit. Define up to sixteen cross-references from the MAIN MENU of PC-FOOD II. F4=Delete I/R: Delete the ingredient/recipe that is highlighted in the window. The menu item will then redisplay without the ingredient/recipe. F7=Edit: Access the description, dept, selling price, desired gross profit $, desired gross profit % and note fields. Press F1 in any field for additional help. F8=Previous: Steps backward through the menu item listing at the detail level. Page 11 MENU ITEM (continued) Continued: Menu Item Listing command options: F9=Insert Recipe: Same as inserting an ingredient (see above). The current recipe sort order is used to display the scrollable list of recipes. You may change the sort within the recipe section of PC-FOOD II. Only level 3 recipes are available for input to a menu item (directly). To use a lower level recipe in a menu item, first define the recipe as a "pass through" level 3 recipe. Simply define a level 3 recipe which uses one unit of the lower level recipe. F7=XRef: When editing the usage quantity, select F7 to input using a different unit than the defined "usage" unit. Define up to sixteen cross-references from the MAIN MENU of PC-FOOD II. F10=Next: Steps forward through the menu item listing at the detail level. ----------------------------------------------------------- F4=Delete: Deleting a menu item also deletes it from any and all menu mix files. PC-FOOD II does NOT warn you if a menu mix file is using the item. F9=Price changes: Display or print required price changes. PC-FOOD II does NOT recommend prices or profits. YOU must determine appropriate pricing. F10=Print: Report choices are determined by the location of the highlight bar in the menu item listing. To print an individual item, place the highlight bar on the specific item. To print all records where department = "beverage" place the highlight bar on ANY "beverage" item. After placing the highlight bar, press F10=Print. From the printing screen, click or press in the report selection field and choose the desired report. The current menu item sort order is used for printing all reports. Page 12 MENU MIX Menu mix files provide the total revenue, total food cost, and total gross profit (revenue - food cost) for a "mix" of menu items. This is extremely useful for doing "what if's" with a time period of sales or estimating for banquets, school lunch programs, etc. DON'T FORGET that gross profit must cover all other operating expenses and provide you with your desired operating profit. As you edit data throughout PC-FOOD II, all related data is updated. Changing an ingredient cost will update recipes using the ingredient, update menu items using that recipe, and update menu mix files using that menu item! Press or double click a file to select: The file will be loaded and you may edit it as desired. From the main Menu Mix screen you have two options (plus help): F3=New File: Input a file name. If the file name is valid, you will be taken directly to the edit/define menu mix screen. Commands available at the detailed Menu Mix level: ----------------------------------------------------------- Press or double click to edit the usage quantity of the highlighted menu item. F3=Insert Item: Select a menu item from the scrollable listing. You will next be prompted to input a usage quantity for the menu item. Press F6 (or click F6=Save) to save the mix file with the new menu item. The mix file will redisplay with the inserted menu item located at the highlighted bar location in the scrollable window. The current sort order is used to display the scrollable list of menu items. Change the sort within the menu item section of PC-FOOD II. F4=Delete Item: Delete the menu item that is highlighted in the scrollable window. The mix file will then redisplay without the menu item. F10=Print: Print the currently displayed menu mix file. ----------------------------------------------------------- F4=Delete File: Delete the highlighted file from the disk. Page 13 MENU MIX (continued) NOTE: The message "****** CONFIRM THIS ITEM": Each menu mix file saves the menu item description and record number of each item used. A menu item deleted from PC-FOOD II will no longer exist in a mix file. However, because menu item record numbers are "recycled," the mix file may now contain an undesired item. Press to view, then F6 to save if the item is desired. If the item is not desired, press Esc then "F4=Delete Item" to remove it. This message also appears if ANY change has been made to the menu item description. Page 14 MISCELLANEOUS DON'T MISS THESE IMPORTANT POINTS: 1) Be sure to try finding an ingredient, recipe or menu item by just pressing the key representing the first character of the description. Continue to press the key to step through the listing. 2) When using a mouse, double click to select a list choice. Single click to select a button choice or to answer a (Y / N) question. 3) The location of the highlight bar determines the selections available for printed reports in ingredients, recipes and menu items. 4) When printing, the "lines per page" may be set for fewer lines than are available per page to add additional blank lines after a page number. Do not set the "lines per page" to exceed your printer's normal lines per page (normally 66 for a dot matrix and 60 for a laser). 5) IF YOU INTEND TO EXPORT INGREDIENTS BY USING F8=EXPORT, DO NOT USE DOUBLE QUOTATIONS (") IN ANY INGREDIENT TEXT FIELD. THE DOUBLE QUOTE CHARACTER SIGNALS THE END OF A TEXT FIELD FOR MANY PROGRAMS. IMPORTING THE INGREDIENTS THAT CONTAIN DOUBLE QUOTES WITHIN A DESCRIPTION OR NOTE WILL MOST LIKELY CAUSE THE RECORD TO IMPORT INCORRECTLY TO YOUR SPREADSHEET PROGRAM. 6) A numeric field that displays a preceeding "%" sign contains a value that has overflowed the display. The value may also be negative in adddition to being too large for the display. Examine the item containing the overflow for reasonableness. PC-FOOD II was designed for food costing, not for space shuttle development. The fields should allow for display if the values are reasonable. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IBM, IBM-AT, IBM 286 are trademarks of the International Business Machines Corporation. MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, and Windows 95 are trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation.