Categories, Ingredients and those dastardly Units
You’ve got your database created, you’ve set up your database preferences, now it’s time to get into the nitty gritty of it.
The first thing we recommend is that you create your categories. Categories are basically your database’s filing cabinet. You can create as many or as few categories as you like but they are a fantastic way of sorting your data into neat, usable groups. You can create categories for food types (beef, lamb, dairy, poultry etc.) or for recipe groups (salads, sauces etc.) or even for allergen groups or specific food alerts (gluten free, lactose free, vegetarian, vegan etc.). There is no limit as to how many categories you can enter, and the more you enter, the easier it will be to find that specific type of ingredient, recipe or menu when you come to need it. If you have a vegetarian category and you need to do a vegetarian menu, you can sort your recipes by category, choose vegetarian and then only the vegetarian recipes will appear in the list for you to choose from, leaving zero chance for meaty morsels to sneak in there.
Once your categories are created, it’s time to look at ingredients.
The key to any recipe is ingredients. Get your ingredients right, then your recipes will be right. Get your recipes right and your menus and functions will be right. So, how DO you get your ingredients entered in correctly?
At this point, you have 2 options: import or enter manually. Entering your ingredients manually can take a long time depending on just how many you want or need in your database. However, it is possible to enter your ingredient information into a spreadsheet and then import them straight into your database.
Most computer users have, at one point or other, used a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Excel. We’ve found that it’s generally a lot easier for new customers to enter their ingredient data into and then import them into their Resort Software database. We actually have a template that shows the best format for your spreadsheet and includes all the fields the program must have to bring in your data accurately. Entering your ingredients onto the spreadsheet with all this information is a lot faster than creating your ingredients one by one within a Resort Software program and when you have several hundred ingredients to enter, it’s a massive time saver.
The spreadsheet will import in things such as the ingredient name, the usage unit, the purchase unit, the purchase cost, the category you want it associated with and the supplier you purchase from. All of this information is vital and the key to getting it right, is making wise decisions when it comes to your units.
Units are both friend and foe when it comes to recipe costing. If you get them right, you’re laughing but if you get them wrong, they will do your head in and create havoc with your costs. You may purchase a product by one unit and use it by another. The classic example is A10 tins of tomatoes. You might purchase a minimum of 3 tins (1 carton) so do you enter it as 1 x carton, 3 x tins or 8.90 x kilograms? It’s entirely up to you but the best way to think about it is this: how will you use the ingredient? By the tin, the kilogram or by the gram? If you use it by the kilogram or gram (or any standard unit) then enter it that way. This means the program will require less unit conversions, which means it won’t pester you for a conversion factor each time you use the ingredient. However, bear this in mind: the program will also use this unit (the usage unit) for your stock/inventory counts so if you use gram as your usage unit, you will need to do your stock count in grams too. It’s a fine line, but one you have to mark out very clearly, from the beginning.
We’ll leave it at there for now and discuss how to import your ingredient data into your database in part 3.
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