Batch Cooking Planner
Batch Cooking Planner suggests how much of each menu item to batch-cook ahead of service, based on a rolling 28-day average of what actually sold (from KOT history) plus a manual busyness factor you pick for the day, and a bonus signal from today's reservation covers. It renders as a tap-to-check preparation checklist.
Overview
The plan is built from Kitchen Order Ticket (KOT) history: for each item sold in the lookback window (default 28 days), it computes the total quantity sold, divides by the number of days in the window for a daily average, and multiplies that average by your chosen "Expected Covers Factor" to get a recommended prep quantity.
The Expected Covers Factor is a simple multiplier you choose based on how busy you expect the day to be: 0.7× (Quiet), 0.85× (Below average), 1.0× (Normal), 1.2× (Busy), 1.5× (Very busy/event) or 2.0× (Banquet/full house).
Today's confirmed reservation covers are shown alongside the plan as a contextual number (a 🎟 badge) but do not automatically change the recommended quantities — the factor dropdown is the only thing that scales the numbers.
Items with no KOT sales history in the lookback window will not appear in the plan at all — there is nothing to average.
Checking off an item only marks it done on screen for the current session; there is no separate print or save action on this page.
Before You Start
- You must have the Billing feature enabled on your plan.
- The kitchen must already be using KOTs for order taking — items with no sales history in the lookback window will not generate a forecast.
Step-by-Step Guide
1 Generate today's batch cooking plan
- Open Kitchen Operations → Batch Cooking Planner — it defaults to today's date and a 1.0× (Normal) factor.
- Check the reservation covers badge at the top for context on tonight's bookings.
- Pick an Expected Covers Factor that matches how busy you expect the day to be (e.g. 1.5× for a known event) and click "Generate Plan".
2 Work through the batch-cooking checklist
- Tap an item row to mark it as prepped — the progress bar and "X/Y items prepped" counter update.
- When every item is checked, a "All items prepped! Kitchen is ready for service" banner appears.
3 Plan for a different date or busyness level
- Change the Date field and/or the Expected Covers Factor, then click "Generate Plan" again to recalculate — this re-runs the 28-day lookback ending at the new date.
Every Field & Button, Explained
| Field / Button | What it does |
|---|---|
Date | The reference date for the plan; the 28-day lookback window ends on this date, and reservation covers shown are for this date. |
Expected Covers Factor | Multiplier applied to each item's 28-day daily average to get its recommended prep quantity: 0.7×, 0.85×, 1.0×, 1.2×, 1.5× or 2.0×. |
Daily Avg | Total quantity of that item sold across the lookback window ÷ number of days in the window. |
Recommended | Daily Avg × the selected factor, rounded up to a whole number (minimum 1). |
Covers from reservations | Sum of party sizes for today's reservations at this store — shown for context only, not multiplied into the recommendation automatically. |
Tips & Best Practices
- Bump the factor up ahead of known busy dates (festivals, big reservations, events) rather than relying on the default 1.0× — the system has no automatic way to detect an unusually busy day on its own.
- If a popular item is missing from the plan, check whether it has been sold via KOT recently — items only appear once they have sales history inside the lookback window.
- Use this alongside Daily Prep Sheet: Batch Cooking Planner forecasts item-level cooking quantities from sales history, while Prep Sheet calculates raw ingredient prep from reservation covers — they answer different questions.