Menus

A menu is a priced, sectioned list of what you offer for a purpose: a catering menu for events, or a weekly menu for meal prep. It is built over the products you already have, so stock, recipes and costs keep working exactly as before. A menu never has its own stock or recipe; it is a way of presenting and pricing products.

Menus is switched on by you

Menus is part of your plan, but it stays hidden until you turn it on. Go to Settings → Modules, switch on Use Menus, and choose whether you do Catering, Meal prep, or both. Menus then appears in the sidebar under Orders. A business that doesn't need it never sees it.

Creating a menu

1. Open Menus and select New menu.
2. Name it and choose its kind, Catering or Meal prep. A kind is greyed out until you turn it on in Menu settings. The kind can't be changed later, because catering menus carry extra settings (lead time, guest minimums, per-person pricing).
3. Add sections (Starters, Mains, Desserts) and then add items to each. Select Add item and search for a product by name or SKU. Items can also live without a section.

Use the arrows to reorder sections, and to reorder items within a section. To put an item in a different section, remove it and add the product again under the section you want.

Duplicate copies a menu with its sections and items. The copy starts inactive so it is not offered before you've reviewed it, and every item starts available again. It's the quickest way to build next week's meal-prep menu or a seasonal catering menu.

Menu prices and price lists

Each item can carry a menu price. Leave it blank and the item is sold at the price it would normally have: the product's price, or a customer's price list.

When you do set a menu price:

• A customer's own price, or their pricing group's price for that product, still wins. A corporate account with a negotiated rate keeps it.
• Otherwise the menu price replaces your general volume prices and the product's own price. A menu price is a deliberate price for that menu, so a generic wholesale break won't undercut it.
• A customer's percentage discount applies to the menu price, as it does to any list price. It does not stack on top of a negotiated price.
• Active promotions apply to a menu price the same way they apply to any other list price.

A menu price only exists on that menu. The same product can sit at a different price on another menu, or at its everyday price elsewhere.

The 86 switch

Every item has an Available switch. Turn it off when you run out, and the item shows Sold out straight away without leaving the menu. Turn it back on when it's back. This is the only thing that marks an item sold out: Iraca does not check stock for menu items, because they're made to a plan rather than picked from a shelf.

Lead times

A catering menu has a lead time in hours, 48 by default: the notice a customer must give before the date they want it. An individual item can have its own, for example 72 hours for a tiered cake, which overrides the menu's. You'll also find Minimum guests and Minimum order on the menu's details, and Serves and Per person pricing on its items. Catering orders are checked against these: see Catering Events.

Dietary tags and allergens

Each item can carry dietary tags (vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, dairy free, nut free, halal, kosher, spicy) and an Allergen statement. ⚠️ You enter these by hand. Iraca never works them out from a recipe, because a wrong "nut free" is a safety problem, and only you know about shared equipment and substitutions.

Wherever a menu shows tags or allergen statements it also shows your allergen disclaimer. Write your own in Settings → Modules, or leave it blank to use a standard sentence in your documents' language.

Food cost

Owners and admins see a Food cost column: what the item costs to make and what percentage of its price that is, using the same costing as the batch calculator. A product with no recipe and no cost shows a dash. Members don't see this column.

Ordering from a menu

On a new order. In New Order, a sales order shows a From menu row. Pick a menu (only active menus offered to staff are listed), pick an item and select Add. The line is added at the item's menu price for that customer, with the item's name. You can still change the quantity or type over the price; a price you typed is kept when you change the quantity or the customer. An order holds items from one menu: once a menu line is on it, the picker offers only that menu. A sold-out item is shown but can't be picked.

On a quote. The quote builder has the same From menu row. When you convert that quote to an order, the order keeps its menu, and the price the customer was quoted stands even if the menu price has changed since (a negotiated customer price still wins, as always).

In the customer portal. If you offer a menu on the portal, your wholesale customers see a Menus tab beside Catalog. It shows each section with photos, dietary tags, allergen statements and your allergen disclaimer, with prices worked out for that customer. They add items to the same cart as the catalog and check out as usual, so credit limits, minimum quantities, tax and delivery behave exactly as for any portal order. A few menu rules:

• A cart can hold items from one menu only. Adding from a second menu is refused with a message, because lead times and dates differ between menus.
• An item you mark sold out after a customer added it is refused at checkout, and the cart shows it as no longer available so they can remove it.
• An item's own minimum quantity applies. A customer's own negotiated minimum still applies too; your general volume minimums do not, because the menu price replaces them.
• The portal only shows menus of a kind you've switched on in Menu settings. A menu with Portal left off in its details is never shown to customers.

Lead times

Iraca shows each item's lead time but doesn't yet stop an order for a date that is too soon. Dates and event details arrive with catering orders.

Weekly meal prep

A meal-prep menu is ordered from through a cycle: an ordering window with a cutoff and the days you deliver or hand over orders. Customers only see a meal-prep menu while its cycle is open. See Menu Cycles.

Who can do what

Owners and admins build and edit menus. Everyone else on your team can open them and read them.