Meal Orders
Who this guide is for: the Odoo administrator who installs and configures Meal Orders, the
meal manager (kitchen or general-affairs lead) who approves orders and reads the reports, the
office staff who place meal orders for employees, and HR officers who decide who takes part in
the meal programme.
Overview
Meal Orders lets a company order meals for many employees at once and know exactly what the
meals cost over time. Staff create an order for a day and a meal type, add the employees (or whole
departments) and guests who will eat, and send it to the kitchen or supplier. The meal manager then
approves or refuses it, which fixes the number of meals. Every approved order feeds an analysis
report by employee, department, meal type, month and kitchen.
How an order moves
- Draft - the person ordering prepares the order and presses Confirm.
- Confirmed - the order waits for the meal manager, who presses Approve or Refuse.
When the person who confirms is the responsible person of the chosen internal kitchen (or the
chosen external vendor), the order is approved straight away.
- Approved by Kitchen or Refused by Kitchen - the final answer of the kitchen. A confirmed
or approved order can still be cancelled, and a cancelled order can be set back to draft.
| Role |
What they do |
Access right to assign |
| Administrator |
Installs the module, sets the employee meal price and gives each person an access right. |
Administration / Settings |
| Meal orderer |
Creates, confirms and cancels meal orders; sees the list of meals served to each employee. |
HR Meal / User |
| Meal manager |
Everything the meal orderer does, plus approving or refusing orders, defining meal types and
kitchens, and reading the analysis report. |
HR Meal / Administrator |
| HR officer |
Chooses which employees take part in the meal programme and sees each employee's meal count. |
Employees / Officer: Manage all employees |
| Employee |
Sees the meals ordered for himself or herself under Meal Order Details. |
Any internal user |
Setup (for the Administrator)
Install the module
- Open Apps.
- Search for Meal Orders.
- Press Install. The required apps (Time Off, Employees and the Viindoo base apps) are
installed with it.
Give each person an access right
Open Settings > Users & Companies > Users, open a user and, in the HR Meal line of the
access rights, choose User for meal orderers or Administrator for meal managers. The
Administrator right includes the User right.
Set the employee meal price (optional)
- Open HR Meal > Configuration > Settings.
- Under Meal Price, tick Set Employee Price and enter the Employee Price.
- Press Save.
With this option on, an employee pays at most this amount per meal (or the price of the meal type
when that is lower), and the company pays the rest. With it off, the employee amount equals the full
price of the meal.
Meal manager: prepare the catalogue
The meal manager defines the choices that orderers pick from. Open HR Meal > Configuration.
Create a meal type
- Open Meal Type and press New, or open an existing type.
- Enter the Title (for example Lunch for Office), the Scheduled Hour at which the meal is
served and the Price of one meal.
- Use the Description to remind orderers of the ordering deadline, for example "order before
10:00".
Create a kitchen
Open Kitchen, press New, enter the Title and choose the Responsible person. A
Main Kitchen is provided. At least one kitchen must exist, because orders from the internal
kitchen need one.
HR officer: choose who takes part
Open the employee form and, in the Meals group, tick or untick Order Meal. An employee who is
not ticked is skipped when an order loads employees in bulk. The Meals button on the same form
shows how many approved meals the employee has had and opens the detail.
Meal orderer: place an order
Create and confirm a meal order
- Open HR Meal > Meal Orders > Draft Orders and press New.
- Choose the Meal Type, the Scheduled Date and the Scheduled Hour (filled from the meal
type).
- Choose the Meal Order Source: Internal (then pick the Kitchen to Order) or
External (then pick the Vendor).
- Add the people who will eat:
- Set Mass Load/Clear to All Employees to add every employee of the company, or
Clear All to empty the list.
- Pick a Department to add all its members, sub-departments included.
- Or press Add a line under Order Details and pick an Employee.
- Add guests in the Clients column of a line, next to the employee in charge of them.
- Check the Quantity and prices of each line and the totals under the list.
- Press Confirm.
Employees who do not have Order Meal ticked, and employees on approved time off at the meal
time, are not added automatically. An employee cannot be registered twice for the same meal.
Follow your orders
Draft, cancelled and refused orders are under Meal Orders > Draft Orders. Confirmed and approved
orders are under Meal Orders > Meal Orders. Press Cancel on a confirmed or approved order
that is no longer needed (cancelling an approved order is reserved to the meal manager), then
Set to Draft if you want to correct and resend it.
Meal manager: approve orders
- Open HR Meal > Meal Orders > Meal Orders and open a confirmed order.
- Check the date, hour, kitchen or vendor and the lines.
- Press Approve to fix the number of meals, or Refuse to turn the order down. The
Approved By and Approved Date show who answered and when.
Meal manager: read the analysis
Open HR Meal > Reports > Meal Orders Analysis. The table counts the Ordered Quantity by meal
type and month. Expand a row or column, change the measures, or filter on Confirmed or
Approved, and group by Employee, Department, Meal Type or Meal Month to see
when meals are ordered, how many each kitchen must prepare and how the cost evolves.
Employee: see your meals
Open HR Meal > Meal Orders > Meal Order Details to list the meals ordered for you. You cannot
change them.
Troubleshooting
- No kitchen found when starting an order: the default kitchen was deleted. Create a kitchen
under HR Meal > Configuration > Kitchen.
- You must select a meal type first: pick the Meal Type before loading employees or a
department.
- You cannot register more than one meal for the same employee at the same time: the employee is
already on another order for that date and hour; remove the line or change the schedule.
- Only users with Manager Access Right can approve meal orders: ask the Administrator for the
HR Meal / Administrator access right.
- No Reports or Configuration menu: these are shown to meal managers only.
FAQ
Can I order for guests? Yes. Add the guests in the Clients column of the line of the
employee in charge.
Who pays for the meal? By default the employee pays the price of the meal. With Set Employee
Price on, the employee pays up to the amount set there and the company pays the difference.
Can an order be approved without the meal manager? Yes, when the person confirming the order is
the responsible person of the chosen internal kitchen or the chosen external vendor.