What are menu templates and how do you use them?
If you're wondering what menu templates are for and how to use them, the answer is simple: in tspoonlab, these tools work as timeless models or "bases" designed to plan, standardize, and budget your business's gastronomic offer (such as banquets, caterings, or special menus) without tying them to a specific calendar day. With a single click, you can budget and later generate a menu for a wedding, a corporate breakfast, or a hotel buffet. Note that assigning a day of the week does not set a calendar date: the template stays a reusable model, and the exact date is only defined when you generate the event's menu.
Video: how to create and use a menu template
Below is a video tutorial where you can visually review how to create, configure calculation rules, and generate dated menus from your templates in tspoonlab.
Step by step: creating a menu template
To start creating a menu template in tspoonlab, go to the main menu, open the "Offer" block, and click "Menus". Click the three-dot dropdown menu in the search bar on the left of the screen and select "New template".
Enter the name of your model template (e.g. "Corporate banquet") in "Menu" and complete the control fields on the record according to your establishment's needs:
Alternative name: Secondary internal label to organize your templates in the system's general listings.
Day of the week: A specific selector that lets you assign this menu model to a fixed day of the weekly calendar (for example, setting the template exclusively for "Tuesdays").
Menu type: Classification of the nature of the base service (Buffet, banquet, daily menu, or catering).
Business line: The profit center the offer will be booked to (restaurant, events, or delivery service).
Shift: The time of day when production is carried out.
Quantity: Base calculation volume (we recommend keeping it fixed at 1 Pax, or the minimum your business needs to provide that service).
Cost limit: Maximum raw-material budget allowed per guest, so the system triggers an alert if your recipe costings exceed that profitability threshold.
Weekly: Checkbox to mark this template as a recurring menu or production cycle that repeats on a fixed basis every week.
Finish by clicking "Accept" to officially generate the menu template record.
In the "Elaboraciones" section within the menu record, click the dropdown menu and select "Edit".
You can edit the "Starters", "Mains", and "Desserts" sections, or keep them, if they apply to your menu. Click "Products" and select the options for each section.
Select whether the option is:
All included: The guest consumes absolutely every dish listed in the section. The system calculates the cost by directly summing all items included in that group.
Choose one: The customer picks a single option from all those available in the section. The system calculates a simple arithmetic average of the dishes and visually shows you which option is the cheapest and which is the most expensive.
Choose one (with %): The guest picks a single dish from the section. The system calculates a weighted average based strictly on the popularity or real sales-success percentage you assign to each dish.
Choose several: The customer can pick several options within the section, respecting the exact number of dishes you allow. The cost is obtained by averaging the available dishes and multiplying it by the number of allowed choices.
Choose several (with %): The guest is allowed to pick several options within the group. The system determines the cost using the consumption percentages configured for each dish.
Choose several repeating: The customer can pick several options within the set limit and has the option to repeat the same dish within their choice. The cost adjusts automatically to reflect the financial impact of consuming the same product more than once.
Choose several repeating (with %): The guest can pick several options and repeat the same dish. tspoonlab processes each dish's proportional impact by multiplying it by the number of allowed choices and cross-referencing it with your estimated popularity percentages to ensure an exact financial reflection.
Save the layout changes by clicking the "Accept" button.
Now you have your template ready to later generate dated menus every time a customer books this service.
📌 Note: You can edit the dishes, ingredients, and distribution percentages of your template at any time from the dropdown menu of the "Elaboraciones" section. Changes apply immediately to the new events you generate from it.
How do you generate a dated menu from a menu template in tspoonlab?
Applying a menu template in tspoonlab to turn it into a real event is an immediate process that lets you clone your base template to transform it into a real event.
Go to "Offer" and then the "Menus" module, locate in the left panel the base model you want to use, and click on it.
In the top bar of the record, click the "Generate menu from template" button.
In the pop-up form, enter the final service name (e.g. "Corporate banquet 06/22"), select the exact date of the event on the calendar (so the system freezes that day's costs). Then click the checkbox to include the menu categories you want and enter the number of actual guests (Pax) for each category.
You can expand the categories and leave out any of the dishes selected in the template.
Click the "Accept" button. Once you confirm, the software closes the pop-up window and automatically takes you to the record of the independent dated menu.
You now have your menu, generated from a menu template, ready to coordinate your checklists by station and download the exact order sheet for your suppliers.
💡 Tip: When designing a template for banquets or caterings, we recommend recording the base quantity strictly as 1 Pax (one guest). This creates a clean mathematical ratio that helps the system scale purchases exactly.
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