Preparing the lunch menu for a whole week is not writing something new every day. Most venues repeat the base (a soup, a salad, two or three main dishes and a dessert) and change only part of it. That is why copying from a nearby day is a natural move. Two things in ISKA Menu determine how to do it safely: one day is copied at a time, and publishing releases the whole menu, not a single day.
Example scenario: Sunday evening
Example scenario. An invented venue offers a lunch menu from Monday to Friday. On Sunday evening the owner prepares the week: Monday is ready from last week, and Tuesday to Friday are empty. The aim is to have the whole week ready with the least writing and no wrong price at the till. The dishes and prices in the scenario are illustrative.
What copying does
There is no “copy the week” action. One day is copied at a time, and always into a day that is open on the screen. For example, you open Tuesday, in “Day settings” you choose another day in the “Add dishes from” field and press the button that names the two days: from which to which you are adding. In the list every day is written with its number of dishes, and only days that have dishes are offered.
Copying adds, it does not replace. Under the field it says that the dishes from the chosen day will be added to the open day and that nothing is deleted. A dish that is already in the day stays where it is. Nothing is saved until you press “Save the menu for …” with the name of the day: after copying you see the result on the screen and can review it.
The price is checked most carefully
After copying, one line with the result appears on the screen: how many dishes were added, for how many the price was updated, how many were already there and how many were skipped because they are not in the main menu. In the list the new dishes are marked “added”, and dishes with a changed price show the old and the new value.
This is where the most common subtlety is. A dish that is already in the open day gets the lunch price from the copied day. Often that is exactly what you want, but not always. If on Tuesday the moussaka was at a lower price and on Monday at a higher one, after copying Tuesday is at Monday’s price. Read the marked prices line by line before you save.
The safe rhythm for the week
Work day by day and do not combine the steps.
- On Tuesday, copy from Monday, the day closest to the new menu.
- Remove and replace two or three dishes: the main, the side, the dessert.
- Read the result line and the marked prices.
- Check the allergens for every new dish; they are edited at the dish itself.
- Press “Save the menu for …” and move on to Wednesday: copy from the Tuesday you have just finished.
This way, by the end of the evening every day is saved and reviewed separately.
Saved is not published, and publishing is not by day
A saved day is a draft. Guests do not see it until you publish the menu, so a mistake in the draft does not reach them. But publishing is not by day: “Publish” releases the whole menu, everything saved, including a day that you have not checked to the end.
Two rules follow from this. Do not leave an unfinished day saved when you are going to publish another change. And before “Publish”, review the draft of all days with the “Preview” button of each day, not only the last one. If during the week you need to correct one price, bear in mind that everything saved up to then goes out with it.
A day that guests already see
If the day is already in the published menu, the rule is the same, but the step is smaller: change only the dish or price you need, save and publish. Clearing the whole day is a separate action; do not do it between two other tasks.
Check before publishing
Two minutes are enough.
- Open the preview of each day on your phone, as the guest sees it.
- Check the date and that each day has the right dishes.
- Review the prices of the soup, the main dishes and the dessert.
- Check that a dish from yesterday has not been left in by accident.
- If you print the sheet for the tables, print after publishing: the print shows the current state of the day, and it may also contain unpublished changes.
A small weekly ritual
Set aside about twenty minutes on Sunday evening and prepare the whole schedule. During the week only the corrections remain: a dish that has run out or a change in price. This way the daily work is checking, not writing.
Where ISKA fits in this picture
The lunch menu is part of the Plus plan of ISKA Menu. You edit it from the portal, which also opens in the browser on a phone; changes are a draft until you publish them, and the link to the menu stays the same. Current prices are on the pricing page.
The rules above are useful even without a tool: start with the nearest day, change a little, review the prices and publish last.