Order Execution and Actuals

Everything before execution is a plan: menus, suggested quantities, calculated raw materials. Executing the order is the moment the plan is frozen and stock is deducted. Actuals are what you record afterwards — what was really used, what was left over, and what was thrown away — so stock is corrected and the Wastage Report has real numbers.

The execution workflow#

Open the order (Core → Orders → Manage) → Execution tab. It shows the steps in order with their status:

1. Execute Order — Ready when the order is Locked; shows Lock Order first if it is still Booked.
2. Material Actuals, Item Actuals, Disposable Actuals, Itemware Returns — available after execution with inventory updated.
3. Wastage Report — available once actuals are recorded.

Changing the status requires the Edit Orders permission or an admin role.

Execute an order#

1. Make sure menus and quantities are final, then Lock Order (or change status to Locked from the Orders list).
2. On the Execution tab, decide on Update inventory (Materials, Items, Cutlery & Operational Resources):
   • Ticked — stock is deducted now for everything with inventory tracking on.
   • Unticked — the order becomes Executed without touching stock. The step then shows Update Inventory Now; click it later (e.g. after a stock count).
3. Click Execute Order.

What Neviscater does at execution:

• Calculates the material consumption of every in-house menu item (menu quantity × recipe), the item quantities per event, and cutlery/operational resources per the itemware allocation.
• Saves these as the Planned quantity on a new actuals row for each material, item and disposable.
• For tracked materials/items/cutlery/resources, deducts the planned quantity from Current Stock and logs a consumption transaction against the order.

The order is now read-only. To change the menu, use Undo execution (below) or move the status back to Booked.

Dispatch & Arrival milestones#

The Dispatch & Arrival card on the Execution tab holds two one-tap stamps for the day of the function: dispatched (the truck left) and reached venue. Tap each as it happens; the card shows who-needs-to-know status like "Dispatched 2 hours ago".

While the order is Locked, the stamps also appear on the Orders list next to the status pill — an amber truck for dispatched, a green marker for reached venue — so the office can see at a glance which functions are on the road. Once the order is Executed the icons disappear from the list (they are history by then); the Execution tab keeps the full record.

These stamps are purely informational. Nothing blocks on them — a forgotten tap never stops execution, actuals or anything else. The order must be Locked before they can be marked.

Record actuals after the function#

Do this once the leftovers have been counted. Each screen opens as a drawer from the Execution tab (or from the Orders list → Actuals).

Material Actuals#

One row per material: Material, Unit, Inv (Y if inventory tracked), Planned, Leftover, Wasted, Notes.

• Enter the Leftover (unused) quantity. Rows left at 0 are assumed to match the plan exactly.
• If you used more than planned, enter a negative leftover (e.g. -2 for 2 kg over).
• Entering a leftover ticks Wasted automatically — the leftover was thrown away and counts as wastage. Untick Wasted if you kept it; it is then credited back to stock and not counted as wastage.
• Add an optional Note (e.g. "rain, 40 guests fewer").
• Click Save Actuals.

On save, stock for tracked materials is adjusted by the difference between planned and actual (a consumption adjustment); untracked rows just record the variance.

Item Actuals#

Same idea for prepared dishes, but per event: an item served at two events has two rows and is reconciled separately. Columns: Item, Planned, Leftover, Wasted, Notes. Over-use is shown in red, under-use in green.

Disposable Actuals#

Two tables — Cutlery (disposable cutlery) and Operational Resources (packaging, napkins, gas…): Planned, Leftover, Notes. There is no Wasted tick-box: a disposable leftover is always credited back to stock and is never counted as wastage value.

Itemware Returns#

Reusable itemware — cookware, serveware, non-disposable cutlery and non-disposable operational resources — is not consumed by a function; it goes out on custody and comes back. Itemware Returns (the fourth link under Actuals) is where you count it back in and deal with what did not return. It needs the manage-inventory permission and only has rows when stock was updated at execution (otherwise the step says No actuals were generated because inventory was not updated at execution).

The drawer lists every reusable piece by section (Cookware, Serveware, Cutlery, Operational Resources) with Item, Status, Planned, Issued, Returned and Notes:

• Planned is the quantity frozen at execution. Issued starts equal to it — correct this if the truck actually took more or less than planned.
• Returned is what came back; until you save it is prefilled with the issued quantity, so one Save Returns with nothing changed closes every row as fully returned. Lower the figure on anything that is short before saving. Returned + damaged + lost exceeds the issued quantity for one of the rows means a figure is higher than what was issued.
• Status: Pending (no return saved yet), Open: N (saved, N still missing) or ✓ (everything accounted for; the tooltip shows X returned, Y written off).

Recording a return never changes stock — issued items are out on custody, not consumed. What does change stock is a write-off: on an open row click write off…, enter the quantity (defaults to what is missing), choose damaged or lost, add a reason, and click Write off. The strip previews Stock: X → Y; on save the master's stock drops by that amount (Written off. Stock reduced accordingly.) and the row closes. If the missing pieces turn up later, undo write-off on the row credits the stock back and reopens it. A return has to be recorded before a write-off — the write-off resolves what is still missing after counting things in.

The Dispatch & Arrival stamps are separate from this: marking dispatched does not fill Issued, and printing the checklist with Print columns for quantity in, out and balance gives empty boxes for a hand count, not these figures. See Cookware, Serveware, Cutlery and Operational Resources.

The ⚠ "needs updating" flag#

If you re-execute the order (undo, change the menu, execute again), the planned quantities are recalculated and rows you had already saved are marked with ⚠ — This row needs updating — plan changed since it was last saved. Your previously entered leftovers are kept but no longer trusted: open the drawer, check each flagged row and Save Actuals again. Until then the Wastage Report shows the order as Needs Update.

Undo execution#

Execution tab → Undo execution. This:

• returns the order to Locked,
• adds the deducted stock back, and
• permanently deletes every actual recorded for the order — materials, items, cutlery and operational resources.

Itemware return rows are removed too, except ones with a recorded return: those are kept, because their damage or loss write-offs have already changed stock and a broken handi does not come back when a plan is undone. The same applies when the status is moved back from Executed by any other route.

Use it when the plan itself was wrong (wrong menu or guest count). To correct only the quantities used, edit the actuals instead.

Where the numbers go#

Common questions#

The Execute button is greyed out. The order is not Locked, or you do not have the Edit Orders permission, or it is already executed. Check the status and the reason text under the step.

Wastage Report shows "Needs Update" for this order. Actuals have not been saved, or some rows carry the ⚠ flag after a re-execution. Open each actuals drawer and save.

I executed by mistake before the menu was final. Undo execution, fix the menu, Lock and Execute again.

Stock did not move. Update inventory was unticked (use Update Inventory Now), or the material/item has Track Inventory off. See Materials and Inventory.

Two chafing dishes came back broken. Where do I record that? Execution → Actuals → Itemware Returns: save the return with the real Returned figure, then write off… the missing 2 as damaged. Stock of that serveware drops by 2. See Itemware Returns.

Cookware stock went down after I saved returns. Returns alone never touch stock; a write-off on that row did. Hover the ✓ to see X returned, Y written off, and use undo write-off if it was a mistake.