Work backward from delivery
Start at the moment the food reaches the customer, and walk back through your week. Write down how long each step really takes, including the time you sleep.
Sample data.
The step that usually sets your cutoff is your supplier. If they need 2 days' notice, finish your totals 2 days before you need the delivery. If you shop at a store the morning you cook, you can close much later.
Leave room for one thing to go wrong. A cutoff with no slack works until the week your supplier is short, or your helper calls in sick.
There is no standard week
Here are three real weeks from kitchens on Eat Fresh Tech, with the names left out. Each one works for that kitchen.
- A closed window. Orders open Saturday night and close Wednesday at 8 pm, for delivery on Thursday. Nobody can order from Wednesday night until Saturday.
- A full week open. Orders open early Sunday and close Saturday at 4 pm, for delivery on Tuesday. That leaves a long gap between cutoff and delivery to shop and cook.
- Always open. The next menu opens the minute the last one closes, every Thursday night, for delivery on Sunday. Customers can always order something.
With a menu that rolls straight into the next, your store never really closes. So tell customers "orders for this menu close at cutoff", and they know they can still order for the week after.
Two delivery days? Give each one its own cutoff, and work backward from each. Show both on your order page, so customers can pick the one they can make.
Decide what happens to late orders
You will get the message: "Sorry, I missed it, can you squeeze me in?" Decide your answer now, while nobody is asking, and write it down.
- A hard stop is the simplest rule and the easiest to keep. It teaches customers that the cutoff is real.
- A short grace period, or yes only if you have spare meals, keeps goodwill. Say yes only to what you can really cook.
- Changes after cutoff need a rule too: a swap may be fine until you shop, but not after you have cooked.
Put your rule on your order page, and in your terms if you have them, then keep to it. If you make exceptions for the customers who ask loudest, the ones who follow the rules notice.
Help customers make the deadline
Often a missed cutoff is simple forgetting. Show the day and time on your order page. Send a reminder the day orders close, with a link straight to the menu.
Test it, then change it
Try a cutoff for four weeks. Keep a note of the late requests you get, and of the nights you were up past midnight. Then move it an hour or a day if you need to, and tell your customers before you do.
Hold the line when you run it by hand
- Set two alarms. One an hour before cutoff, to send the last reminder. One at cutoff, to close orders.
- Really close the form. A form left open collects orders you then have to refuse. Close it, and change your order page to say when the next menu opens.
- Name a backup. Give one other person access to the form, and show them the steps. You will be cooking or away on some cutoff night.
- Freeze your totals right away. Copy them as soon as orders close, as our prep list guide shows.
The Eat Fresh Tech way
Here's how we handle your order cutoff.
Each menu has a start date, an order cutoff and a delivery date. You set them to fit your week, whether that is a closed window or one menu rolling straight into the next.
- Menus open and close without you. At cutoff the order page closes, with nobody at a keyboard, and the next menu takes over when it starts.
- Next week's menu can build itself. Menu rotation repeats your latest menu or works through a set you made, and emails you if it needs a person. Customers can also see upcoming menus before they open.
- Reminders go out on your schedule. A recurring text can say "Menu closes tonight at 9 pm". Texting takes a one-time setup with us, and customers choose which texts they get.
- You won't oversell. Limited quantity shows customers what is left, and marks a meal sold out when it's gone.
Late orders are your call. Hold a hard stop and send customers to the next menu, move an order to a later menu and delivery date, or reopen a closed menu for a few minutes to take a late order.