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How to Use Meal Course Firing

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Overview

Meal Course Firing allows your facility to organize Food & Beverage orders by meal course, such as appetizers, entrees, desserts, and drinks. Once configured, staff can add items to a check, group them by course, and choose which course to fire when the kitchen is ready to begin preparing those items.

This feature is helpful for facilities that want more control over kitchen timing, especially when guests order multiple courses at once. Staff can enter the full order up front, then fire each course separately as service progresses.

Preconditions

  • Your facility must be using foreUP Food & Beverage
  • You must have access to Settings within foreUP
  • Your Food & Beverage inventory items must be created in the Inventory module
  • Your facility should know which meal courses it wants to use, such as appetizers, drinks, entrees, or desserts

Enable Course Firing

Before meal courses can be used in Food & Beverage, Course Firing must be enabled in Settings.

  1. Log in to foreUP
  2. Use the module dropdown in the upper left corner to navigate to Settings
  3. Select Sales from the left side menu
  4. Select Food and Beverage
  5. Check the box for Use Course Firing
  7. Click Save Settings

Once this setting is saved, the Food & Beverage module can use meal courses on orders.

Tip: Enable this setting before assigning meal courses to inventory items so you can fully configure the workflow before staff begin using it.

Create Meal Courses

Meal courses define the groups that Food & Beverage items can be assigned to. Examples include appetizers, drinks, entrees, and desserts.

  1. Use the module dropdown in the upper left corner to navigate to Inventory
  2. Select the Food and Beverage tab
  3. On the right side of the page, below the search bar, select Meal Courses
  5. Add each course name that your facility wants to use
  6. Set the order priority for each course
  7. Save your changes

Understanding Order Priority

Order priority controls the sequence in which meal courses are organized. Lower numbers appear earlier in the meal course order.

For example, a facility may set appetizers and drinks to priority 0, entrees to priority 1, and desserts to priority 2. Your facility can customize these priorities to match its own service flow.

Assign Inventory Items to Meal Courses

After meal courses are created, each Food & Beverage inventory item can be assigned to a default meal course.

  1. Navigate to Inventory
  2. Select the Food and Beverage tab
  3. Open the inventory item you want to edit
  4. Select the F&B Options tab
  5. Locate the Meal Courses section
  7. Select the default meal course for that item
  8. Save your changes

For example, a burger may always be assigned to the entree course. When that item is added to an order, it will automatically appear under entrees.

Tip: You can also edit an item by selecting the Actions dropdown on the item row, then selecting Edit.

Prompt Staff to Choose a Meal Course

Some items may need to be flexible. For example, chicken wings could be served as an appetizer for one guest and as an entree for another.

To allow staff to choose the course when the item is ordered, enable Prompt Meal Course on the inventory item (seen in the screenshot above).

  1. Navigate to Inventory > Food and Beverage
  2. Open the item you want to edit
  3. Select the Food and Beverage Options tab
  4. Choose a default meal course
  5. Check the box for Prompt Meal Course
  6. Save your changes

When this item is selected in Food & Beverage, staff will be prompted to choose which meal course the item should belong to for that specific order.

Important: If Prompt Meal Course is not enabled, the item will use its assigned default meal course, and staff will not be prompted to change it during ordering.

Use Course Firing on a Check

Once Course Firing and meal courses are configured, staff can use the feature directly from the Food & Beverage module.

  1. Use the module dropdown in the upper left corner to navigate to Food and Beverage
  2. Open a table, booth, or check
  3. Add Food & Beverage items to the order
  4. If prompted, select the appropriate meal course for the item
  5. Complete any required modifiers, such as sauces, sides, temperatures, or special instructions
  6. Continue adding items to the check as needed

Items on the check will be grouped by their assigned meal course. This makes it easier for staff to review what belongs to each course before sending items to the kitchen.

Fire a Meal Course

Staff can choose which meal course to send when the kitchen is ready to begin preparing that part of the order.

  1. Open the active Food & Beverage check
  2. Review the items grouped by meal course
  3. Select Fire
  4. Choose the meal course you want to fire

The number shown next to each meal course indicates how many inventory items are currently assigned to that course on the check.

Tip: Enter the full guest order first, then fire courses as needed to help control kitchen timing and service pacing.

Bulk Edit Meal Courses

If your facility already has a large Food & Beverage inventory, you can use bulk edit to assign meal course settings to multiple items at once.

  1. Navigate to Inventory > Food and Beverage
  2. Select the checkbox next to each inventory item you want to update
  3. Select Bulk Edit
  4. Check the box next to Meal Course
  5. Select the meal course you want to assign
  6. If needed, also enable Prompt Meal Course
  7. Save the bulk edit changes

Bulk editing is useful when many items should share the same default course, such as assigning several main dishes to the entree course.

Best Practices

  • Keep meal course names simple and easy for staff to recognize
  • Use order priority to match your facility's normal service flow
  • Assign default meal courses to as many items as possible
  • Use Prompt Meal Course only for items that may reasonably belong to more than one course
  • Train staff to review course groupings before firing items
  • Use bulk edit when setting up meal courses for an existing Food & Beverage inventory

FAQ

Tip: Click a question below to expand the answer.

Do I need to turn on a setting before using Meal Course Firing? +

Yes. Course Firing must be enabled from Settings > Sales > Food and Beverage before the feature can be used.

Can an item belong to more than one meal course? +

An item has one default meal course, but you can enable Prompt Meal Course to let staff choose the course each time that item is added to an order.

What does the number next to a course mean when firing? +

The number indicates how many inventory items are currently assigned to that meal course on the check.

Can I update meal courses for several items at once? +

Yes. Use Bulk Edit from the Food & Beverage inventory list to assign meal course settings to multiple items at the same time.

Need Help?

If you have questions about setting up or using Meal Course Firing, contact the foreUP Support Team.

 

 

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