Purchasers Guide

Frequently Asked Questions

What is My Store?

My Store provides information about the catering location that you are currently ordering from. It details the physical location of the catering office, general information about the office, locations served by the catering office, hours of operation, payments accepted and ordering rules. The link to My Store is available on every page once you have selected your ordering location.

How can I repeat an order?

You can do this by using the second option on the Buyer’s home page. The home page only lists the last three events, so if you are looking to repeat an event that took place further in the past than the last three that are currently displayed, you can click on the View Your Past Orders link, and this will give you a search option by list to access the past order you are looking for, or you can search all your past events. Once you identify the event you wish to repeat, click on it, and then you can modify the event, check out or add/delete items from the copied order.

What is my Preferred Location used for?

Your Preferred Location is simply the place where you will be doing most of your ordering or the location that your profile shows as most commonly accessed.

How can I change my Preferred Location?

Changing your Preferred Location is easy. You can access it through your profile. Simply click the Your Profile button on the top navigation bar. This brings up your Personal Profile, Preferred Location and Online Wallet. Click the Update Account button under Preferred location and you are presented with a drop down listing of all available locations. Choose the location you wish to be your new Preferred Location and click Update Account.

What is My Order?

My Order is the order you have created and is currently in your shopping cart. It displays the menu items, which you have selected, as well as the Sub Total, Delivery Charge, Tax and the current Total. If an event has not been created in your current session, no Order details will be displayed.

Users will be able to perform multiple functions through the four buttons located under My Order.

View	View the order line items in detail
Checkout	Begin the process of checking out and purchasing the items selected.
New	Begin the process of creating a brand new event
Delete	Delete the current event and its associated menu items

Clicking the Place an Order button will allow you (once you have entered all the event information) to view the menu by selecting menu categories from the menu category drop down.

What are the different order statuses and how are they used?

"In Progress" - Orders that are currently being created by you. By default, once you begin filling an event or order, the event is automatically saved as “In–Progress”.

"Tentative" - Orders that are waiting to be acknowledged or "accepted" by your caterer.

"Confirmed" - Orders that have been accepted and have not been fulfilled or "flagged” as completed.

"Completed" - Past orders that have already been fulfilled.

"Declined" - Orders that have been declined or rejected.

Creating a new order and handling the current order:

If you have an order and choose to create a new order, to continue you must perform one of three actions, Delete, Save or Cancel.

Delete: Selecting delete will delete the current order and begin the process of developing a new order for submission

Save: Selecting save will store all the information of the current order and begin the process of developing a new order for submission

Cancel: Selecting cancel will stop the process of creating a new order and allow you to continue to work in your current order

How would you like to pay?

Select the preferred method via the drop down menu and then enter or select the number to be used for payment.

Order has been received?

View Print Receipt – Upon successful submission of an order, you can print a copy of the order receipt. All order details are contained in a print ready window, ready for printing.

View and modify your order and order items:

Remove a single item

Select an order to view and then select the View button in My Order. Each individual item can be removed by selecting Remove at the far right hand side of the line item.

How do I cancel an order?

Select an order to view and then select the Delete button in My Order. Another route is to select an order to view and then select the View button in My Order. Select the delete order link found below the sub-total. In both instances, you will be asked to confirm your action or to keep the event.

How do you edit a single event/order?

Select an order to view and then select the Edit this Event link in My Order. The event information will be available for modification, but it must pass the business rules for the store for the changes to be accepted.

How do you edit a single item?

Select an order to view and then select the link of the item you wish to modify. You will view the item details and you can modify the quantity ordered and/or any comments regarding the item

How do you search for a specific menu item?

You can search for a specific menu item by accessing the Search Menu icon on the top navigation. You can enter any word or phrase to search for within the menus. Please note, these are not performed across Customer menus, only the location which you have selected to place an order or your default ordering location.

Who can order?

All orders placed will be submitted to an approval manager who is a full time Customer employee.

Location Policies

Please access the My Store section for specific information about the policies for each specific location.

Order History

Your order history can be accessed in one of two ways.

One, Through the Purchaser Reports. You can run reports to view details about any order you have placed. Orders are view only and cannot be modified however.

Two, Through the View Your Events functionality. Selecting the View Your Events button on the top navigation bar, you can create a custom list of your orders based on the time frame that you have selected. Orders can be selected for modification using this search capability.

How do I change my billing information?

You can access any order which has not been fulfilled and change any of the billing information entered as long as the new information is valid.

How are credit cards handled?

At this time, credit cards cannot be used as a form of payment for a catering order. If you do wish to use a credit card, select the type of credit card or contact your local catering manager.

What is set up time?

Set up time is the time in which you would like the catering you have ordered to be ready and prepared. This can be before or after the official start of the even that is being catered for.

What is Pick up time?

Pick up time is the time in which you would like the catering items removed from your catering location.

How are taxes handled? – All catering orders are taxable and the tax rate is based on the location in which the order is being fulfilled. Tax rates for each location are found in the site’s My Store page.

What are purchaser reports used for?

Ever curious what your personal ordering habits have been? Purchaser Reports allows you to run reports on your Customer Order Summary, Customer Order Detail, Menu Summary, and transaction (payment) history. Select the report from the class/category you wish to execute and select next to configure the report criteria, sorting & output options and then click execute to run.

Purchaser Reports

Accessing the Purchaser Reports section via the top navigation menu makes the following reports available: Customer Order Summary, Customer Order Detail and Menu Summary. For each report, you will be able to query specific details, format the report and define the output.

Customer Order Summary

Produces a report that displays the high level information for orders placed. You can select from the following criteria to define the report: Event date, Order created date, Order Status and Location. Each report can be sorted as desired.

Customer Order Detail

Produces a report that displays details for orders placed. You can select from the following criteria to define the report: Event date, Order created date, Order Status and Location. Each report can be sorted as desired.

Menu Summary

Produces a report of all menu items available at a specific catering location. You can select from the following criteria to define the report: Location. Each report can be sorted as desired.

All reports can be viewed differently using two different criteria, Style and Format. Each report can be viewed in three different ways, within the browser (On Screen), a test based window with only the formatted report (Printer Ready window) and to Excel (Customer Excel).

What do I use “Order from another location” for?

“Order from another location” is for if you want to set up catering for a meeting at a location other than your Preferred Location.

How do I know if my order was received?

Once your order is received you will automatically receive an E-Mail letting you know

How do I know if there were be any changes to my order?

If there are any changes made to your order you will receive an E-Mail letting you know

Can I change or cancel an order that I have already placed?

Yes, definitely. We understand that sometimes plans change or get canceled altogether so we have made it easy to change or delete your order as you see fit. From your Catering Home Page you can click on the past event. If you don’t see it listed click the Past Orders hyperlink and use the search controls to locate the desired event. Once you have found it you can edit or delete the event entirely.

Can I save an order and come back to it at a later time?

Of course. Say you are in the middle of an order and you by mistake log your self out, you need to reboot your computer, or you just need to step away from the computer, your order is automatically saved so there is no chance of you ever losing your information and having to start all over again. The next time you log in you will find the order you had been working on listed on the home page and you can resume working on it.

What is the difference between number of servings and minimum quantity on an item?

The number of servings is how many people that item will feed, the minimum quantity is the minimum amount of that item you can order. Most of the menu items are priced per serving yet some of them have a minimum amount of people you can order them for. Take for example the Teriyaki Chicken, this item is priced per person, but you have to have a minimum of 5 people to order it.

How can I find fulfillment information on my orders?

You can find all the fulfillment information regarding your past orders by clicking the Purchaser Reports on the top navigation bar. The reports provided can answer a variety of questions regarding your ordering history and status of your orders.

How can I search a menu of items for a key term like “vegetarian”?

Food Venue makes this simple. You start by clicking on the Search Menu button on the top navigation bar. You will now be at the search page where you can type a word like “Vegetarian” into the Search Criteria box then clicking the search button. Doing so will bring up every menu item with the word Vegetarian in it. You also have the ability to search by criteria such as price range or number servings and choosing how you would like your results sorted.

How do I order an Item that is not on the menu or that is custom for an event?

Each menu section can have a Custom Item if your provider/caterer has configured the menu to allow this. Picking that item and providing specific comments on what you need, ensures that someone from the catering department will contact you to help you design the perfect item for your event. You can also use any of the special comments or instruction sections to provide information on any specials you may desire.

How can I add or edit my online wallet of payment types?

Editing your Online Wallet is a snap; you can access it thru your profile. Simply click the profile button on the top navigation bar. This brings up your Personal Profile, Preferred Location and Online Wallet. Click the Update Account button under Online Wallet and you are presented with the option to add a new cost center or payment options, or edit/delete existing ones. Once you are done click on Update Account to save you changes.

How can I get help while I am working in an order?

The top right hand corner is a box labeled “Do you need help?” and the text of this box changes with every page to make the ordering process as easy as possible. On most pages that box has a hyperlink labeled “more” and will lead you to more in-depth help about what to do.