Menu Evaluation

It may be difficult to understand how to work with this form so we recommend to read this chapter carefully.

This form is designed to help you to make the best decision about number of guest to invite to the reception (or other event), about reception variant and about menu cost. You can see this form in the following picture:

The main purpose of this form is to evaluate maximum number of guests that can be invited to the event for all combinations of reception variants and menu costs. You can use results of this evaluation to select optimal reception variants and menu costs. But evaluation will be sufficiently accurate only in the case when the ratio between guests with different menu types doesn't vary much when total number of guests changes. In other cases you should take into consideration significant inaccuracy of the received result.

In most cases reception variant represents place where event will be celebrated. Or it may represent a caterer that will care for reception. For example first variant of wedding reception celebration may be a home party, second variant - reception in your favourite restaurant called "Friends" and third - party organized by catering company "CNO".

Menu cost defines some cost range for menu. Usually there are two or more menu costs for each reception variants. Later you will see that set of menu costs is the same for all reception variants but each cost has different meaning for different reception variants.

Now let's discuss how to work with this form. First of all you should select from Event drop-down list event for which you want to perform evaluation.

Below drop-down list page control with three pages is located. You should enter all required information into first two pages and then go to the third page to obtain evaluation results.

In the Common Parameters page you should enter information common for all reception variants and menu costs. First of all set the value for Maximum budget expenses for food field. After that you should specify for each menu type prospective part of guests with this menu type among total number of guests. If you don't specify prospective part for some menu type it means that prospective part of guests of this menu type is zero. You can't add, edit and delete menu types in this form. You should use Menu Types form to perform these actions. In this form you can only specify prospective part for menu type. But you can't edit prospective part for Normal menu type because it is executed automatically as 100% minus sum of all other prospective parts. Note that sum of all prospective parts can't be greater than 100%.

Be carefull. If values of prospective parts depend much on total number of guests, you should not use this form to perform evaluation. Otherwise let's look at the following picture:

This picture shows how Reception Variants and Menus page looks like. On the top site of the page you can see the list of reception variants. Each variant has the following attributes:

• Reception variant name
• Fixed charges
• Additional costs per person

Fixed charges attribute specifies the sum that should be spent regardless of guest number. These charges may include expenses for rent, decorations, etc.

Additional costs per person attribute specifies the sum per person for expense items different from food.

In the bottom left corner of the form you can see Menus tree list. Topmost level of the tree represents the list of menu costs (by default it contains three predefined menu costs). Each menu cost has sublist which is the list of menu types whith value of Prospective part attribute greater than zero. All menu costs have the same list of menu types.

Note that content of Menus tree list doesn't depend on selected reception variant. All menu costs as well as menu types are common for all reception variants.

To add new menu cost click on New button above Menus tree list and enter its name in the dialog that will appear. New menu cost will be added to the list along with sublist containing the same items as sublists of other menu costs.

Now let's consider list of dishes that is located on the right of Menus tree list. Be attentive. List of dishes depends on selected reception variant. It is obvious that each reception variant must have its own list of dishes.

Each dish has the following attributes:

• Dish name
• Portion price
• Portions per person

To get an ability for managing list of dishes expand one of the topmost items in Menus tree list and select one of its child items. Set of records in Dishes list doesn't depend on item selected in Menus tree list but value of Portions per person attribute depends. If you add new dish to Dishes list it will appear for all menu types in all menu costs. Portion price of the dish is constant from menu cost to menu cost and from menu type to menu type. But number of portions per person is different for different menu types and menu costs.

For example vegetarian will not eat caviare sandwiches while fruit salad will be estimated at its true worth. Person belonging to Normal category in its term will eat caviare sandwiches and other meat dishes with great pleasure and that's why he will need less fruit salad and other vegetative dishes.

Now another example. You don't know how much expensive menu variant to select. In this case you can specify 10 portions per person for Caviare sandwich dish belonging to the Hight cost menu and Normal menu type. Then specify 2 portions per person for the same dish belonging to the Low cost menu cost and Normal menu type. And after that specify 5 portions per person for the same dish belonging to the Medium cost menu cost and Normal menu type. Perform similar actions for all other dishes. Then go to Menu Evaluation page to see the result of evaluation.

As mentioned in the previous example after entering all required information in first two pages you should go to Menu Evaluation page. In this page you will see list containing all combinations of reception variants and menu costs with maximum number of guests that each combination allows. If some combination is missing then you should return to Reception Variants and Menus page, select appropriate reception variant and menu cost, go through all menu types and dishes and specify values for Portions per person attribute.

Reports

You can't choose type or filter before creating report. Report is created just after click on Report button without displaying dialog. This report contains list containing all combinations of reception variants and menu costs with maximum number of guests that each combination allows. Report is created only for current event.