Overview

The Food Prep Report shows your kitchen what food to prepare for one event or order. It takes the quantities calculated by your Kitchen Production Formulas, combines like Prep Items, and organizes the totals by Food Prep Category.

For example, instead of making your kitchen read through every Menu Item ordered for a Classic BBQ Buffet, the report can show the total amounts needed under categories such as:

• Meats/Proteins
• Hot Sides
• Cold Sides
• Salads
• Breads
• Desserts
• Beverages

This gives your kitchen a clean food-prep sheet while keeping the important event details with the order.

When to Use the Food Prep Report

The Food Prep Report works well for buffets, bulk catering orders, and other events where the kitchen needs the total amount of each food to prepare.

For our Classic BBQ Buffet, Pulled Pork and Chicken could appear under Meats/Proteins, Mac & Cheese and Baked Beans under Hot Sides, Garden Salad under Salads, and Bread under Breads.

If Pulled Pork was included in more than one part of the order, the report would aggregate the calculated quantities into one total amount of Pulled Pork for that event. Because like Prep Items are combined, this report may not work as well when an order contains many individual boxed lunches, platters, or items with different selections. The totals tell the kitchen how much to prepare, but may not make it easy to see what belongs with each individual meal or platter.

If your kitchen organizes work by the station responsible for production, the Order Production Report may be a better fit.

How Food Prep Categories Organize the Report

Each Prep Item can be assigned to a Food Prep Category. The Food Prep Report uses those categories to group the production quantities for the event.

We recommend using the same standard categories across your Prep Items so your kitchen can move between reports easily. If a Prep Item appears under the wrong category, review the Food Prep Category assigned to that Prep Item.

See Prep Items: Guide to Creating and Editing for instructions.

Open the Food Prep Report From an Order

Use this option when you need the Food Prep Report for one specific event.

• Open the order.
• Open the Order Function drop-down menu.
• Select Food Prep Report.
• Review the event details and production quantities before printing or sharing the report with the kitchen.

Print Food Prep Reports for Several Orders

Use Print All Reports when you need an individual Food Prep Report for every order shown in the Overview tab.

• Open the Overview tab.
• Select the date or date range you need.
• Confirm the correct orders appear.
• Click Print All Reports at the bottom of the page.
• Select Food Prep Report along with any other reports you want to print.

CaterZen creates a separate Food Prep Report for each order. It does not combine all of the orders into one production total.

If you need one combined total for several orders, use the Kitchen Production Report (Legacy) or V2 Kitchen Production Report instead.

Understanding the Food Prep Report

The report includes the event information along with the calculated Prep Item quantities for that order. Your kitchen can see:

• Which event or Customer the food is for
• The event date and time
• The Prep Items required
• The total calculated quantity of each Prep Item
• The Food Prep Category where each item belongs

The report displays the results of your Kitchen Production Formulas. A quantity will not appear unless a Formula has been added to the Menu Item, package choice, or modifier that was ordered.

If a Prep Item Is Missing or Incorrect

Check the setup in this order:

• Confirm the correct Menu Item, package choice, or modifier is on the order.
• Confirm a Kitchen Production Formula is attached to that item or selection.
• Confirm the Formula points to the correct Prep Item.
• Review the Formula quantity, yield, and rounding settings.
• Confirm the Prep Item has the correct Food Prep Category.

The report can only display what the Kitchen Production Formula calculates. If the quantity is incorrect, the Formula is normally the first place to look.

Food Prep Report or Order Production Report?

Both reports show production quantities for one event:

• Use the Food Prep Report when your kitchen wants Prep Items grouped by Food Prep Category and aggregated into totals for the order.
• Use the Order Production Report when your kitchen wants production organized using the Prep Stations responsible for the work.

For a full comparison, see Choose the Right Kitchen Production Report.

Related Kitchen Production Articles

• Kitchen Production in CaterZen: How Prep Items, Formulas, and Reports Work Together
• Prep Items: Guide to Creating and Editing
• Build a Simple Menu Item Kitchen Production Formula
• Build Kitchen Production Formulas for Menu Items with Choices
• Order Production Report
• Choose the Right Kitchen Production Report

Need Help With Your Kitchen Production Setup?

If you would like help reviewing your Food Prep Categories, Kitchen Production Formulas, or reports, book a Kitchen Production session with Jill Hammett.