If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Making Combos with Menu Items and Ingredients
My program allows you to enter ingredients, then build menu items using the
ingredients. It then calculates based on case cost and quantity how much it costs for the ingredient in your menu item. Then on a form it sums the calculated fields to give a total food cost for a menu item. I would like to allow users to combine multiple menu items to create a combo like a hamburger basket. The problem is that the cost for the menu item is not stored anywhere, it is simply calculated and summed when it is selected on the screen or on a report. Right now the user builds a menu item by selecting ingredients from a combo box that has my ingredients table as the record source. I am afraid I cannot do what I want to here because of a flaw in my table design, but I would appreciate many more second opinions and suggestions as to how to tackle this problem. Below I have provided my table structure for further guidance. Ingredients Middle Menu Items ing_name-----------------ing_used menu_price ing_price menu_used------------menu_item ing_qty qty-used For each record in the Middle table, the quantity is multiplied by the ingredient cost per item in a query and then summed. Thank you so much in advance for taking your time to look at this. Please let me know if there is anything more I can provide. |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Having faced a similar situation once upon a time, I inserted another level
and made a distinction between ProductItems and MenuItems. ProductItems are composed of Ingredients, just how you have MenuItems now. Things that are produced by the kitchen (i.e., available products). For example, this would include various sizes of Fries. MenuItems can be a single ProductItem or multiple ProductItems combined into a basket. It requires another recipe table just like you have between ingredients and Products, but at a higher level. MenuItems represent how the available products are presented/marketed to the customer (i.e., what the customer actually sees on the Menu). If you have 3 Fry sizes, you might have 3 possible Hamburger meal combinations: one for each Fry size. (Either that or some sort of "upsize/downsize" adjustment). Optionally, a MenuItem might also have a "quantity" of ProductItems other than 1 (i.e., a 2 hamburger for $2.00 "deal") If you are dealing with Sales prices, they would be stored only at the MenuItem level (promotional pricing like 2 for $2.00 being the best example of why). Please don't ask me about drinks. :-) Sizes are one thing. Sizes and Types (Coke, DietCoke, etc.) is something else. Our solution was based on how the client's data was already set up - which I won't tell you - and it was as good a solution as any. Not particularly elegant, but usable and as good as any alternative I could think of. HTH, -- George Nicholson Remove 'Junk' from return address. "Jace Campbell" (pleasespamthis) wrote in message ... My program allows you to enter ingredients, then build menu items using the ingredients. It then calculates based on case cost and quantity how much it costs for the ingredient in your menu item. Then on a form it sums the calculated fields to give a total food cost for a menu item. I would like to allow users to combine multiple menu items to create a combo like a hamburger basket. The problem is that the cost for the menu item is not stored anywhere, it is simply calculated and summed when it is selected on the screen or on a report. Right now the user builds a menu item by selecting ingredients from a combo box that has my ingredients table as the record source. I am afraid I cannot do what I want to here because of a flaw in my table design, but I would appreciate many more second opinions and suggestions as to how to tackle this problem. Below I have provided my table structure for further guidance. Ingredients Middle Menu Items ing_name-----------------ing_used menu_price ing_price menu_used------------menu_item ing_qty qty-used For each record in the Middle table, the quantity is multiplied by the ingredient cost per item in a query and then summed. Thank you so much in advance for taking your time to look at this. Please let me know if there is anything more I can provide. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Thank you so much George. I will begin working on adding another level
immediately. "George Nicholson" wrote: Having faced a similar situation once upon a time, I inserted another level and made a distinction between ProductItems and MenuItems. ProductItems are composed of Ingredients, just how you have MenuItems now. Things that are produced by the kitchen (i.e., available products). For example, this would include various sizes of Fries. MenuItems can be a single ProductItem or multiple ProductItems combined into a basket. It requires another recipe table just like you have between ingredients and Products, but at a higher level. MenuItems represent how the available products are presented/marketed to the customer (i.e., what the customer actually sees on the Menu). If you have 3 Fry sizes, you might have 3 possible Hamburger meal combinations: one for each Fry size. (Either that or some sort of "upsize/downsize" adjustment). Optionally, a MenuItem might also have a "quantity" of ProductItems other than 1 (i.e., a 2 hamburger for $2.00 "deal") If you are dealing with Sales prices, they would be stored only at the MenuItem level (promotional pricing like 2 for $2.00 being the best example of why). Please don't ask me about drinks. :-) Sizes are one thing. Sizes and Types (Coke, DietCoke, etc.) is something else. Our solution was based on how the client's data was already set up - which I won't tell you - and it was as good a solution as any. Not particularly elegant, but usable and as good as any alternative I could think of. HTH, -- George Nicholson Remove 'Junk' from return address. "Jace Campbell" (pleasespamthis) wrote in message ... My program allows you to enter ingredients, then build menu items using the ingredients. It then calculates based on case cost and quantity how much it costs for the ingredient in your menu item. Then on a form it sums the calculated fields to give a total food cost for a menu item. I would like to allow users to combine multiple menu items to create a combo like a hamburger basket. The problem is that the cost for the menu item is not stored anywhere, it is simply calculated and summed when it is selected on the screen or on a report. Right now the user builds a menu item by selecting ingredients from a combo box that has my ingredients table as the record source. I am afraid I cannot do what I want to here because of a flaw in my table design, but I would appreciate many more second opinions and suggestions as to how to tackle this problem. Below I have provided my table structure for further guidance. Ingredients Middle Menu Items ing_name-----------------ing_used menu_price ing_price menu_used------------menu_item ing_qty qty-used For each record in the Middle table, the quantity is multiplied by the ingredient cost per item in a query and then summed. Thank you so much in advance for taking your time to look at this. Please let me know if there is anything more I can provide. |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
I did what you said and created a new product items table and middle items
table to join the Product Items table and Menu Items tables together. I have my first query and form made where I can enter ingredients to build the Product Items. It correctly calculates on the form and all is well. On the Menu Items form and query, I am having trouble getting the form to sum all the ingredients from the Products Item to create a total for the Menu Item. In the query for the menu item form I used the chain of tables going down each level but then I used the Product Items query so I would have the calculated amount for each item. When I do this, the combo boxes on my form become locked and I cannot enter new products to the menu. I have tried calculating all of the ingredients on the menu item form all from the base level ingredients. I have made sure all of the properties are set to allow editing. I have tried to Sum the calculated fields in the menu items query. I have tried making a stored number in the Product Names table to keep up with the cost calculated in the other query. I am stuck. I've been working on this all day and have read dozens and dozens of posts. I would appreciate any ideas anyone has. I am sure I am missing something very obvious. Thank you for your help. |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Attn Sprinks- Not duplicate insert records | babs | Using Forms | 1 | December 13th, 2004 06:25 PM |