Groups Overview

Grouping is a powerful feature of FOOD-TRAK that results in organized, effective reports and forms. Establishing an organized Group structure is the building block that allows you to take advantage of the wide range of the software’s reporting capabilities. Reports and forms make more sense and become easier to read and use when items are arranged in meaningful Groups and Categories.

Groups should be established based on the organizational needs of your operation. Taking time to determine how you want to organize information and how you want to view that information on reports is an important part of building a database.

The Group Editor is the tool used to add, delete, or edit Groups and Recipe Categories. Once established, these Groups will be available in the Item Editor. From there, items may be assigned to various Groups.

A list of your existing Groups may be printed for your examination. Click the Data Lists tab under Reports on the Main Menu and click Group Lists. Select the group for which you require a list, then submit the report.

Group Types

As they appear on the Group Editor tab, the Groups may be briefly defined as in the list below. To get a more detailed explanation of these Group types, click the blue link on the Group name.

How Cooked Category describes the predominant cooking techniques such as baked, fried, steamed, boiled, etc.

Inventory Groups are locations where items are stored, such as walk-ins, freezers, and dry storage areas. They are used to produce inventory forms that print by storage location, and also to divide up large operations into Profit Centers (Inventory Groups are individually assigned to Profit Centers). Using this type of grouping makes quicker, more accurate inventories possible because the forms follow the order in which goods are found in the operation.

Main Ingredient Category further refines the system’s search capabilities and is used for categorizing recipes by the most important ingredient in the recipe.

Menu Planning Groups can be created to categorize menus or events to assist cafeterias, caterers and other operators that use the Menu Planning function. Creating menu groups and assigning menus to these groups is necessary to the Menu Planning process.

Product Groups let you add, delete, or edit Product Groups. Product groups are yet another way to classify and categorize items that are sold and typically found on the menu. Examples include Entrees, Appetizers, Beverages, Deserts, Side Dishes, and Specials. These groups are used in the production of Menu Analysis and Contribution reports.

Profit Center Groups identify separate businesses (for tracking purposes) within a single operation. Examples might include Bar and Restaurant, or perhaps separate concession stands within a single sports arena. Profit Centers can be added, deleted, and/or modified through this function.

Recipe Categories should be set up by type of recipe, for example, Beef Entrees, Seafood Appetizers, etc. Think of these groups as convenient headings for a recipe book.

Report Groups assist in getting organized, effective reports. Typical report groups include Meat, Dairy, Seafood, Produce, Bakery, Groceries, and other raw material and prepared item categories. Usage and inventory reports make more sense and become easier to use when items are arranged into meaningful groups.

Group Editor

From the Main Menu > Database, click any of the Group types to activate the Group Editor. The Editor is used to create new Groups, Edit the qualities of existing Groups, change the Group structure, and remove unwanted Groups.

The Group Names appear in the Editor as file folders and can be individually selected by clicking them.

To create a new Group, simply click Add New.  If you are adding a new Group to an existing structure, click the Group under which you would like the new Group to appear.  On the menu that appears, enter the name of the new Group and any other information required. The additional information may be the assignment of a Profit Center or to establish the new Group as a Credit Group. The new Group will be placed beneath the selected existing Group and in the same hierarchy.

To change the Name or qualities of an existing Group, click an existing Group to select it, then click Edit. On the menu that appears, change the desired entry information and click OK. The changes take effect immediately throughout the system.

To delete an existing Group, click the Group to select it, then click Remove. The Groups beneath the deleted Group will retain their hierarchy.

Note that if you remove a Group, all associations of items with that Group will be lost, even if you create a new Group with an identical name.

Changing Group Member Position and Hierarchy

Group structures are edited in FOOD-TRAK using the arrow buttons on the right side of the Group Editor. Changing the structure of groups by giving them a hierarchy helps you reference them more easily.

Select the folder of the Group you wish to move, then