Panel 1: Tomorrow's forecast
The first thing a manager sees: tomorrow's expected covers, dine in vs delivery split, and the 3 demand signals driving it (e.g. ‘Light rain forecast 4 to 7pm; Friday evening; cricket match 7:30pm, expect +18% on delivery, -8% on dine in compared to last Friday’). The forecast updates every 6 hours.
Panel 2: Break even for today
The day's break even number, the running revenue total, and a green/amber/red flag. Crossing break even is the single most motivating signal for a kitchen team. The panel is designed to be projector friendly so it can sit on the kitchen pass.
Panel 3: Shopping list
Tomorrow's expected covers translated into ingredient quantities, with current vendor price + mandi delta. ‘Order 18kg paneer from Vendor A, ₹360/kg (mandi -3% vs last week); 25kg onion from Vendor B, ₹38/kg (mandi +12%, consider 30kg to cover Friday surge)’.
Panel 4: Staffing plan
Tomorrow's recommended staffing by station (kitchen line, expo, FOH, cleaning) by hour. Built from forecasted covers + a labour cost target. Adjusts for known absences (the manager marks them in the morning).
Panel 5: Supply alerts
Live mandi feed flags. ‘Onion +24% in Pune APMC over 4 days. Paneer steady. Tomato falling. Basmati flat.’ Direct calls to action: lock 14-day onion contract; review menu items most exposed.
Panel 6: Action cards
A daily inbox of short, prioritised actions. ‘Review Wednesday's 3 point food cost spike: paneer over portioned’. ‘Re quote ABC Catering’s 14 March wedding (paneer +12%)’. ‘Friday evening dine in is 22% under last week; check IPL fixture overlap’.
Panel 7: Weekly P&L (auto)
By week 4 of operations the dashboard auto-builds your weekly P&L from POS + payroll + supplier invoices. Replaces the manual Saturday spreadsheet most owners never finish.
What the panels replace
Most owners spend 45 to 90 minutes every morning piecing this together: POS report, weather check, mandi WhatsApp groups, vendor calls, staffing rota. Forkcast's dashboard is the same data, pre merged and pre prioritised, in 5 minutes.