Table of Contents
Profit Chef Contents

The Contents Lists Help topics available for Profit Chef.

Product Overview

General Description

Registration Information

New in Version 1.02

File Maintenance

General File Information

Supplier File

Ingredient Group File

Ingredient File

Recipe Group File

Recipe File

Sales Mix File

Report Printing

Available Reports

Utilities

Reset Change Flags

Substitute Ingredients

Options

Print Options

Shelf Label Options

Tool Bar


General Description

Profit Chef is designed to insure that the products that a deli or restaurant sells are profitable.  When the price of an ingredient changes, the selling price of any end product that contains this ingredient is evaluated to determine if a change should be made.  For instance many recipes may contain sugar.  If the price of sugar increases the selling price of many items will need to be increased.  Also, prep time labor can be included as an ingredient in a recipe.  If wages of kitchen personnel change then the price of all the products should change.  The most labor intensive items should change the most.

Version 1.02

Author:  Keith Milligan

3745-C US Hwy. 80 West

Phenix City, AL 36867

Phone	205-298-1974 or

205-291-9712

Compuserve ID	70645,520


Registration

Registration of Profit Chef would be appreciated.  When you register you will receive a registered copy of the latest version of the program.  To register send the following information.

Your Name

Your company name

Address

Phone number

Your Compuserve ID if you have one

Version number of Profit chef that you have.

Please send to:

Keith Milligan

3745-C US Hwy 80 West

Phenix City, AL 36867

The suggested registration fee is $25.00 but use your judgment and base the amount that you send on the usefulness that you perceive.

Feel free to distribute the unregistered software to anyone that you think will use it.

Thank you for your support.


New in Version 1.02

Version 1.02 adds a few new features.

Ingredient costs are now extended to 4 decimal places.  This will require you to convert an ingredient file that you used in a prior version.  The windows program CV101102.EXE is included to perform this conversion.  Be sure to back up your data files before running this program.  If you do not have data in a previous version file you will not need to run the conversion program.

A sales mix file has been added to allow you to run a projected profitability report for your total menu based on your business's sales mix.

An ingredient substitution feature has been added to make it easier if you change the brand or supplier of an ingredient.  The ingredient substitution will replace all occurences of an ingredient in all recipes.


General File Information

There are 5 files that you must maintain when using Profit Chef.  They are:

Ingredient Group File

Ingredient File

Supplier File

Recipe Group File

Recipe File

Before you can add any ingredients you must add the suppliers that you wish to use to the supplier file and add ingredient groups to group your ingredients.

In addition to the five mandatory files there is also the optional sales mix file.  In this file you enter the number of servings that you would normally sell of recipe in a period of time.  This will enable you to run a projected profitability report for your entire menu based on your sales mix.


Supplier File

From the File Menu select Supplier File.

To add a new supplier enter a 3 letter supplier number in the supplier number box and press enter.  If that supplier is not already on file then you may enter the supplier name in the description box and press enter.  You will notice that the Add button is highlighted.  Press enter again to activate the Add button and add the item to the file.

Hint:  When adding multiple items for the same vendor, if you press the enter key in the first box of the Ingredient number the last supplier used will be displayed automatically.

To change a supplier enter the supplier number in the supplier number box and press enter.  If the supplier is on file the description will be displayed and you may change it if you wish.  Make any changes to the supplier description that you want to and press enter.  You will notice that the Update button is highlighted.  Press enter again to activate the Update button and store your changes in the supplier file.

To delete a supplier enter the supplier number in the supplier number box and press enter.  If the supplier is on file it will be displayed.  To delete the supplier hold down the Alt key and press D this will activate the Delete Button.  You will be asked to confirm the delete.  Note:  You will not be allowed to delete a suppler who has ingredients in the system.  You will have to delete the items first.

The same methods are used to make changes to all of the files used in Profit Chef.  The only file that is a little different is the Recipe file.  But more about that later.


Ingredient Group File

The ingredient group file is used to group your similar ingredients on your reports.  For example  paper supplies could be one group.  Spices could be another group.  And fresh produce could be another group.


Ingredient File

The ingredient file has several more fields than the other above files that are used by Profit Chef.

The ingredient number is entered in two parts the first part is the supplier number that you have assigned in supplier file maintenance.  The second part is an item number up to 12 digits or letters.

The description can be up to 30 characters long.

The size description is used to describe the order pack size for example "12/24 OUNCE".

For the group you can enter any valid ingredient group that you have enter using ingredient group maintenance.

Case cost is the cost for each ordered case.

Packs for inventory are the number of units in the each ordered case that you want to count by when taking inventory.  Pack Description is the description for the above inventory pack field.

Example:  A case of ketchup has 12 bottles.  If you want to inventory the ketchup by the case you would enter 1 for Packs for Inventory and CASE for Pack Description.  However if you want to inventory the ketchup by bottles then you will enter 12 for Packs for Inventory and BOTTLES for Pack Description.

Units for Recipe are the number of recipe units in each case of an ingredient.  Unit description is the description of the type of units you will measure by in your recipes.

Example:  A case of ketchup has 12 bottles and each bottle has 10 ounces in it.  If you wanted to measure ketchup by the ounce in your recipes then you would enter 120 in the Units for Recipes box and OUNCES in the Unit Description.


Recipe Group File

The recipe group file is used to group your similar recipes on your reports.  For example  pizza's could be one group.  Salads could be another group.  And desserts could be another group.


Recipe File

This is the most complex file of all because you can have up to 30 ingredients in each recipe. The fields for the recipe window are below.

Recipe Key - This can be up to 6 characters long.

Description - This can be up to 30 characters long

Group - Can be any valid recipe group that you have added to the recipe group file.  This is used to group your recipes in a logical manner.

Retail - This is the price that you think you should sell the product for.

Yields - This is the number of servings that a recipe batch would make.

Target - This is the gross profit margin that you would like to maintain.

Example:  If a recipe has a total cost of 60.00 and you want to realize 100.00 in sales for this recipe batch then you would enter a Target % of 40.  In other words, 40% of your sales would be profit ($40.00 in this case).

Maint Code - Your entry in this field determines the rules that Profit Chef uses to determine price change suggestions.  You may enter an "N" to round price suggestions to the nearest 9 cents.  You may enter a "D" to round prices to the nearest 99 cents.  Or you may enter an "M" if you do not want Profit Chef to make any suggestions for you.

Life - This is the recommended shelf life of the end product.

All the above fields are entered once for each recipe.  The fields below are repeated for each ingredient in the recipe.

V#   Ingredient# - This is the ingredient number that you entered for each ingredient number in ingredient maintenance earlier.  The first three characters are the supplier number.  For example you would enter BIL1200 if the supplier number was BIL and BIL's order number was 1200.

# Units - This is the number of units of the ingredient that are used in this recipe.

As you enter each ingredient it is moved into a grid below the entry boxes for your reference.  You can scroll up and down in the grid by using the up and down arrow keys when the cursor is in the ingredient entry boxes.

As you add ingredients you will notice that the cost and profit numbers are updated at the bottom of the display.


Sales Mix File

Data entry in this file is optional.  In the sales mix file you enter the number of servings that you would normally sell of recipe in a period of time.  This will enable you to run a projected profitability report for your entire menu based on your sales mix.


Available Reports

The following reports are available:

Ingredient Report - Prints a list of all ingredients in the system sorted by supplier and ingredient group

Order Guide - The same as the ingredient report but with different information.  This report is useful for inventory and ordering.

Suggested Retail List - This report shows all the recipe price changes that Profit Chef recommends based on the changes you have made in ingredient costs.

Price List - A complete price list showing the selling price of all of your recipes.

All Label Print - Prints a user definable shelf label for every recipe in Profit Chef.

Change Label Print - Prints a shelf label for all recipes whose price has changed.

Individual Label Print - Prints a shelf label for selected recipes.

Recipe List - Prints a detailed list of all recipes showing all ingredients used in each recipe.

Supplier List - Shows all suppliers in the Profit Chef data base.

Ingredient Group List - Gives you a list of all ingredient groups.  Ingredient groups are used to group similar ingredients on your other reports.

Recipe Group List - A list of all Recipe Groups.  Recipe groups are used to group similar recipes on your other reports.

Sales Mix Profitability - This report  uses the information stored in Profit Chef to determine how much profit you would make based on the sales mix in your business.  To run this report you must first enter your sales mix information in the sales mix file.


Reset Change Flags

This action resets the flags that are set in the recipe file when the price of an item changes.  Only items whose change flags are set will print a shelf label and be marked as a price change on the price list.


Substitute Ingredients

This utility allows you to substitute a new ingredient for an old ingredient in all of the recipes that the old ingredient is used in.

This is especially useful if you change suppliers for several items.

To use the substitution utility you enter in an old and new ingredient numbers then click the replace button to perform the substitution.


Printer Options

The first time you start Profit Chef you will need to set the printer options.  From the Options menu select Printer Options.

If you have an HP Laserjet III printer or a laser printer that is PCL5 compatible you will probably want to select that option by clicking the option button.  This will send the output directly to the LPT1 printer port and will provide the best looking reports using the printer's built in fonts and printer capabilities.  If you have any other printer you will need to select the Windows printer option button.

You will also need to select a font to use when printing reports and labels.  Click the Fonts button and you will be able to select any fixed pitch font on your printer.  The font size will depend on your personal preference but will probably work best at 7.  Be sure to select a scalable font if you want to print labels.


Shelf Label Format

A default label setup is stored in Profit Chef when you first start it up.  If you want to change the label format then you will need to perform this step.


Toolbar

This option controls whether the toolbar is visible in Profit Chef.  The toolbar provides an easy way to follow the step by step process that you would need to do weekly.  In a normal week's maintenance you would start on the left of the toolbar and work your way across.