Packages and Your F&B Menu

Momentus Elite allows you to create packages of various rooms, equipment, and services, so that you can bundle and sell these items together to simplify the experience for the client. F&B departments also have "packages" in the form of menus for buffets, plated meals, refreshment breaks, and so on. At first glance you may think that it would be best to create all your menus as packages in Elite, but depending on your needs you may prefer to create a menu as a single item. In this article we hope to help guide you to a setup that will allow your team to detail events most efficiently.

Let's start with some critical questions which will help guide you:

1. Will you ever sell the items in the package separately?
   • If yes, using a package may be an option.
   • Why? Elite Packages are built from existing inventory items, so all items in your menu must be created as separate inventory items in order to be included in the package. If you are selling the items separately they will be built in inventory and can be easily selected to create the package. If you won't be selling items outside of the package, it may be easier to create one item for the entire package.
2. Do you need to report on these items separately?
   • If yes, using a package may be an option.
   • Why? If you would like to report on each component of a menu separately (perhaps to know your most popular desserts or how many bottles of a particular wine were sold), the menu should be built as a package made up of individual items. If the menu is created as a single item, you'll only be able to report on the menu as a whole.
3. Do you need to easily customize the menu for each client?
   • If not, using a package may be an option.
   • Why? If a menu can be customized extensively or if you need to make a lot of notes, a package may not be for you. If you are making small notes on an individual item or two, packages could be an option.
4. Does each option on the menu have its own description?
   • If not, using a package may be an option.
   • Why? Packages have components which consist of several items; one item is chosen on the event. The description is on the component, not on the item. If each item needs to have its own description, we do not recommend using a package to build your menu.

Use Cases

Let's look at some typical F&B menus and see if a Elite package would be the preferred option.

Buffet

Let's start with the example of a lunch buffet. It comes with a soup, garden salad with a selection of toppings and dressings, a side salad, and a selection of three sandwiches.

This buffet could be built as a package. The package would have six components: soup, garden salad, side salad, and three sandwich components. But let's work through the questions we listed above:

1. Will you ever sell the items in the package separately? The venue offers either lunch buffets or boxed lunches. The sandwich options apply to both. Building the sandwich items once and creating packages for the lunch buffets and boxed lunches could save the venue time.
2. Do you need to report on these items separately? The venue will only report on the buffets or boxed lunches sold. We do not need separate items for reporting purposes so a package is not necessary.
3. Do you need to easily customize the menu for each client? Yes. The catering manager often makes substitutions or has notes about dietary needs or special requests. This means a package may not be the best option for day-to-day use.
4. Does each option on the menu have its own description? No. The soup, side salad, and sandwich names are descriptive and don't need further explanation. The garden salad requires a description, but that could be included on the package component.

Package or Item?

In this use case, the venue decided to create the buffet as an item with the options included in the item description. This allows their catering managers to quickly and easily customize the menu and record all necessary information without opening separate components in the package. Since the venue doesn't need to report on each element in the buffet they decided to use the option that would make day-to-day event detailing more efficient.

Menu with Item Descriptions

Our next use case is a plated dinner menu. It has options for salads, entrees, and desserts. Each item has a detailed description.

Let's work through the questions for this menu:

1. Will you ever sell the items in the package separately? Yes. Each client will build their meal from the options in this menu.
2. Do you need to report on these items separately? The venue would like to report on the items separately but it isn't critical.
3. Do you need to easily customize the menu for each client? The items are rarely customized.
4. Does each option on the menu have its own description? Yes. The description on each option is critial, especially since each entree includes its own sides.

Package or Item?

Because the catering manager needs the detailed description on each item, the venue decided to build each menu item as its own separate item and not combine the items into a package. If it had been built as a package, the description would be attached to the component instead of the item options in that component. If the items did not have their own description, building this menu as a package would have been a good option.

Bar Package

Our last use case is a bar package. In this Hosted On-Consumption Bar, there are white and red house wine selections as well as white and red premium wine selections.

Once again, let's work through the questions for this menu:

1. Will you ever sell the items in the package separately? Yes. A client may choose to serve a particular wine at their event rather than having a bar package.
2. Do you need to report on these items separately? Yes. The client is charged based on consumption, so reporting the quantity of each item is critical.
3. Do you need to easily customize the menu for each client? The items themselves are not customized.
4. Does each option on the menu have its own description? No.

Package or Item?

The Elite package feature works very well with bar packages. An item is created for each type of wine (or other drink). Each item which is an option in the bar package is then added to its own component — one component for each item. Having this as a Elite package allows the catering manager to quickly add the entire package to the function, remove any components which should not be available, and then update the package after the event with consumption numbers. The package can also include the bartender actual hours worked.

Our goal with this article is that you will have a better understanding of when a Elite package is a good solution for your F&B menu. If you would like to discuss a specific use case, please contact us.