Frequently Asked Questions about Using Profitable Recipe Manager

This list answers most common questions - use the Contact Form on the left if you have other inquiries.

Don't forget to consult the User Information Sheet that came with the programme - it's also available if you click the Help button on the yellow Home Page.

1. Why does my Order list print with Cafe Troppo at the top? I want to have our name on it.
   Cafe Troppo is a sample business that recipe manager defaults to. To change, open any recipe card listed and change "collection of" to the company name that you require. You will also have the option to include a phone number. This will automatically change every single recipe and the order list will now default to your company name.

2. How do I handle small quantities of items that come in large containers eg a 3kg can of tomatoes?

   Items that come in tins and packets, such as tomatoes, need to be entered into the Ingredient List in standard units eg by kg, oz or a portion (eg a scoop or cup), and the price calculated for that amount. If the price increases, you only have to change it there and all recipes are recalculated automatically.

   When whole cans are used in a recipe, enter the ingredient name in the Ingredient List then set the type of Unit as 'each' eg 'Tomatoes Canned Large'. When you make a tomato sauce needing 5 cans you would choose the item in the recipe and the quantity used would be 5. Or work out the price by gm or oz and enter it using that as the Unit.

3. How do I account for Australian GST or removing GST from prices.
   Because this is an international programme it does not account for different tax systems: here's how to account for the Australian GST.

   First, work out the price of your menu item without GST eg an $11 pasta includes $1 of GST, so the ex-GST price is $10. The ex-GST price of any item is 10/11 of the menu price, because GST of 10% is added to the original price when setting the menu price. A $3.30 muffin would be $3 ex-GST.

   Now use the ex-GST as the 'Menu Price' in the Recipe Manager. Once you have entered your ingredients for the recipe, the profit margin and percentage shown at the top will be the 'real' profit margin. It's important to price items without GST otherwise the profit margin is overstated.

4. I want to use the Recipe Manager at work and at home - how do I do this?
   Quite easily - copy the entire contents of the Profitable Recipe Manager folder (which is probably on the desktop) onto a CD or flash drive and then copy from that onto the other PC. Software and your recipes will be all together. Even better, keep it on a Flash or Jump Drive - tiny, cheap hard-drives the size of your thumb (from office supply companies etc) because then you can plug it in and use it at home or work. You can copy from PC to PC and Mac to Mac, but not from Mac to PC or PC to Mac.

   Note: if you put it onto the work pc and add to that it will become different to the other version, and they can't be synchronised. Hence the flash drive option may be better.

5. How do I backup the Profitable Recipe Manager?
   To save your data and back up, copy the entire Profitable Recipe Manager folder onto a CD, flash drive or hard disk. The data and the program are all together in the folder - usually on the desktop labelled Profitable Recipe Manager. If you have to reinstall it, copy this folder back onto the PC or Mac - don't install the program again from the disc as it doens't have your recipe and ingredient data.

6. Can I link Profitable Recipe Manager to a Point of Sale or Accounting System?
   Profitable Recipe Manager is designed as a low cost stand-alone system. It is not designed to integrate with the dozens of different software and hardware systems currently available. However the stocktake function of the program can be used to work out the value of weekly or monthly closing stock, and this can then be entered into your profit and loss calculations, in conjunction with purchases for the period.

7. How do I enter ingredients to calculate the price if it comes in ml?
   > Count using the same units that are in the ingredient list e.g. if you have Brandy priced by the ml, don't go entering the stock as 1.5 litres - enter it as 1500ml.
   > Calculate price for 1 ltr and then enter 0.03 for 30 ml etc

8. Is it possible to isolate ingredients to display only what is available from a given supplier?
   Yes, you can view all the products that you purchase from a supplier by going into Ingredients and then sorting it in Supplier order - click on the A-Z or Z-A button at the top.

9. I am trying to print one copy of the current Recipe, but the program keeps defaulting to recipe number 1.
   This is just a feature of how the programme handles printing - it will print the required recipe if you have other print options set correctly (see next question also).

10. The programme prints out copies of all my recipes, not just the one I want.
    When you click on Print, you are first asked in a Print Dialogue Box how many copies you want to print and what size paper etc. Choose what you want, then when you click OK you are asked if you want to print All Records or Current Record. If you are printing one recipe, choose Current Recipe. When you go to print off Stocktake or Order Lists, you should choose All Records. Don't choose a 'Page' to print, leave that as 'All' as the Recipe order is usually different to the actual page order.

11. How do I convert the Recipes into Word format? Prepare your recipes for print, and save as a PDF instead of actually printing. Then use the free service http://www.pdftoword.com/ to convert the PDF into a Word doc - they may need a little reformatting once they are in Word.

12. I have 15 different sauces that I use in other dishes, each with different ingredients. Is it possible to use a recipe within another recipe?

    Here's how to do it. Prepare a recipe for each sauce and set Units up the top as the number of portions or maybe litres. The recipe will then work out a price per portion or, say, litres (1000mls).

    Now use this price to enter a new Ingredient e.g. if a dish needs 100ml of sauce and this much costs 80c, when you do the new recipe, use this Ingredient and enter one unit in the recipe.

13. Printing ingredients in alphabetical order.
    When printing stocktake lists by department, the system does so alphabetically. However, when entering this info into the system, with list organised by department, it is not in alphabetical order.

    When in Ingredients, select the list to be sorted by Dept. When you sort it by department it will be sorted alphabetically. If you try to sort the name of the ingredient alphabetically it will though out the dept settings. So the only way to have everything alphabetically by departments is to select the dept button.

14. What is the best way to keep a record on the system of each month's stock take?
    Instead of printing paper, 'print' it as a PDF file (using a program such as Adobe Acrobat, CutePDF or pdf995). You can find these programmes at shareware sites such as www.tucows.com. This way the list is saved on the computer. If you use a Mac, when you choose Print choose the PDF button at the bottom of the dialogue box.

15. How do I copy a recipe that I want to modify?
    Use the Multiply Recipe button up the top of the Recipe but just multiply by '1' - then you can rename the new item and modify the ingredients.

16. How do I account for ingredients I split between different recipes?
    I purchase whole eggs and that is how I put them in the ingredients list. Although in some recipes I frequently use either egg whites or egg yolks. Since I save unused egg whites and yolks for use in other recipes, how do I account for this method ? You can decide if the saved part is valued at 'free', or at half the price of a whole egg. This would now have 3 ingredients - egg whole, egg white and egg yolk, with the price for 'each' you've decided on.

17. Can the programme convert from imperial to metric measurement, or vice-versa?
    I purchase my ingredients in English measurement quantities (lbs, ozs, etc.). However all my recipes are in metrics quantities (liters, grams). Will the software take care of the conversion automatically, or do I need to be consistent in how I enter the measured quantities?

    You will need to do your own conversion for litres to ozs, lbs to ozs etc and enter the correct price in your Ingredient list.

    This also applies for converting eg kgs of flour to 'scoops' or another measure. Work out the cost of the new measure eg a 'scoop' or a 'can' and enter it as a new Unit in the Ingredient list, classifying it as 'each' (rather than litres, oz etc). Then use the new Unit in your recipe eg 8 scoops of flour.

18. In the ingredients list I can view the value of stock for each item, but the total value of all of stock at the bottom of the page is showing a question mark.
    This will only happen in the old original versions of the Profitable Recipe Manager. This happens when the total value of stock is over $9,999.00. To allow you to view this in the short term, in the bottom left hand corner there is two little buttons that look like mountains. Click on the bigger mountain of the two. This will magnify the page, and you will now be able to view the total value of stock. For a long term solution to this please call Profitable Hospitality on +61 (0)3 9819 2550.

19. To transfer the program from one computer to another via CD (PC only).
    Copy the entire contents of the Profitable Recipe Manager folder onto a CD then onto the target PC. Right click on the folder and select properties. On the bottom of the menu under Attributes ensure the Read-only check box is not ticked.

20. How do I transfer my PC copy of Profitable Recipe Manager to a Mac or from Mac to PC?
    At present there's no way to transfer all the Windows Profitable Recipe Manager data directly to Mac, or vice versa. You can export the ingredient and supplier lists into a CSV file and import them across, but that does not include the actual recipe data.

    On a Mac you can run Windows software using PC 'virtualization' programs like Parallels or VMware Fusion, then copy your Profitable Recipe Manager program across and run it on Windows as usual. Or you can use Windows on the Mac using the inbuilt Basecamp. See the info from Apple at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2518

21. Why are menu items dimmed out at the top of the progam? Don't worry - all the controls you need are done with buttons on the program's home page, recipe page or ingredients page eg the New Recipe button. The dimmed out menu items were used by the programmer when building the program - everything you need is accessible.

22. A message pops up saying " The solution contains passwords which can only be provided by the developer above". What does this mean - do I need another password?
    Ignore this - it's only for the developer. Sometimes this happens when you try to open files in the Recipe Manager folder (which is full of program and data files). Just open the main Profitable Recipe Manager file and use the Ingredients, Recipe or Supplier buttons on the yellow Home page.

23. Why don't recipes re-number when I delete one? There are missing numbers on the list. The recipe number is the 'key' that connects together the recipe and the ingredients in the database system. If it was deleted or changed, it would throw out all the recipes system.

24. How do I add other costs into the recipe eg staff, electricity, rent etc?
    To add the cost of cooking staff, set up a new Ingredient called Chef Minutes or Cook Minutes - make it an 'each' item. Enter the cost for each minute of their time eg if paid $18 per hour, this would be 30c per minute. When you cost a new recipe, add this extra Ingredient, and the quantity will be the number of minutes needed to prepare it eg if it takes 20 minutes to cook, the cost will be 20 x 30c = $6. This will be added into the overall cost of the recipe and divided by the number you are making.

    To add other costs, you could do it the same way OR if they are a fixed cost, you might add a fixed amount into Unlisted Ingredients on the Recipe Card (below the main list of Ingredients). Eg you might put in $2 per recipe towards the cost of rent. As you do this the recipe starts to get more complicated, but it's an option.

25. Installing PRM on Windows XP - I receive a message saying "Not a valid WIN 32 Application"
    Copy Install EXE from CD to desktop and launch from there. Possibly a problem with some CD drive manufacturers. Failing that - Profitable Hospitality needs to post you a CD with the decompressed version and copy that to hard drive.

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