Focus Office: Courses Setup

Focus's Coursing feature helps Servers pace out meals by sending groups of menu items to the kitchen in bundled Courses. The Course name appearing on the kitchen ticket will communicate the desired meal timing to the kitchen staff. Popular Courses include Beverages, Appetizers, Entrees, and Desserts. For Example, all appetizer Menu Items can be pre-assigned to the Apps Course, but Servers can choose to fire off an App as a part of the Entrée Course when different meal pacing is needed. This article will demonstrate how to setup a Course through Focus Office. 

Restrictions:

The Course Display option needs to be check marked in Locations > Locations for each Location utilizing the Coursing feature. This option can only be configured using Focus Local. 

Adding the Courses

Step 1:  Log into Focus Office 

See How to Log In to Focus Office for details.

Step 2-5:  Navigate to Order Entry > Courses

• Choose a store from the store drop down menu (any store could be selected if Courses are the same across all sites)
• Select an empty Course slot

Step 6: Name the Course (up to 15 characters) & choose an image

Adding a Course identifying Check Image:

• Choose Click to Select from the Update Course window.
• Check mark the desired image & click Select.
  • To find an image, Search the store's local images directory or upload an image by browsing to the image on your PC. Once an image is uploaded, you can then search for it.
  • C1, C2, C3, & C4 are typically available in the local images directory.

Step 7:  Add to Collection

• Select New Collection or Existing Collection if a collection has already been created.
• If a New Collection is selected, add a Name and description.
• Toggle on Include Images if an image has been uploaded from your PC.
• Save
• Continue adding Courses to the existing collection, with steps 5-7, until all desired Courses have been added.

Step 8:  Publish your Collection

• For more information on publishing a collection, visit Focus Office: Publishing a Collection

Assigning Courses to Items

Once your Courses Collection has a Complete status, you can begin assigning the Courses to individual Menu Items using the steps below:

Step 9-13:  Navigate to Menu > Menu Items

• Choose a store from the store drop down menu (any store could be selected if Menu Items are the same across all sites)
• Select an existing menu item
• Choose a Course from the from the available options

Step 14:  Add to Collection

• Select New Collection or Existing Collection if a collection has already been created.
• If a New Collection is selected, add a Name and description.
• Save
• Continue assigning Courses to Menu Items and add the changes to the existing collection until all Menu Items have an assigned a Course.

Step 15:  Publish your Collection

If all sites have the same Packages and Menu Items, you could wait to Publish the Collection and add the Packages configured below to this existing Collection. 

• For more information on publishing a collection, visit Focus Office: Publishing a Collection.

Building Coursing Packages

There are 3 optional Packages that can be added to order entry to give Servers Coursing flexibility:

1. Course Review - Allows the user to assign the proper Course through the visual Course Review Window before the items are ordered.
2. Course Selection - Allows the user to manually assign a Course to the selected Menu Items in Order Entry by displaying a list of previously defined Courses. 
3. Individual Courses - Allows the user to manually assign a Course to the selected Menu Items in Order Entry with one touch of a button. e.g., Course 1, Course 2 or Beverages, Appetizers... 

Step 16-19:  Navigate to Order Entry > Packages

• Choose a store from the store drop down menu (any store could be selected if Packages are the same across all sites).
• Select an available Package slot.

Step 20: Name the Package and choose the appropriate Commands

• Course Review - Choose the Course Review Command in slot 1.
• Course Selection - Choose Course Command in slot 1. Leave the Course Option set to none.
• Individual Courses - Choose Course Command in slot 1. Set the Course Option to one of the available Courses. Repeat until each Course its own Package. Choose a Course image if desired.

Step 21:  Add to Collection

• Select New Collection or Existing Collection if a collection has already been created.
• If a New Collection is selected, add a Name and description.
• Save

Step 22:  Publish your Collection

If all sites have the same Packages, Menu Items and Printer Formats, you could wait to Publish the Collection and add the Printer Format changes to this existing Collection. 

• For more information on publishing a collection, visit Focus Office: Publishing a Collection.

Step 23: Add the Packages to Command Ribbons or Item Canvases as needed

• Packages can be added to a Command Ribbon or Item Canvas using the same methods as those outlined in Focus Office: Add/Remove Commands.

Coursing Printer Format Setup

Step 24-27:  Navigate to Printers > Remote Check Formats

• Choose a store from the store drop down menu (any store could be selected if Printer Formats are the same across all sites)
• Select an existing Printer Format

Step 28:  Choose one or both of the following Course options:

• Separate by Course - Separates each Course by a line break.
• Course/Position - Menu Items will be grouped by Courses and sorted within each Course by Position, beginning with Position 1. Use with Coursing when also using the Positions feature.

Step 29:  Add to Collection

• Select New Collection or Existing Collection if a collection has already been created.
• If a New Collection is selected, add a Name and description.
• Save

Step 30:  Publish your Collection

• For more information on publishing a collection, visit Focus Office: Publishing a Collection.

For any questions/issues regarding setting up Courses through Focus Office, please contact our support staff at [e-mail].