Your first sign-in

The first time you sign in, a short introduction greets you; afterwards a checklist on the overview page keeps you company. Both are tailored to your role: a kitchen manager sees something different from a facility manager, and parents see something different again.

The welcome tour

After your first sign-in a window opens with a handful of steps — six for the kitchen, four for facilities, three in the parent portal. It explains where things are and how the areas fit together.

You can:

  • page through with Next and Back,

  • jump straight into the area described via Open,

  • close it immediately with Skip or the Esc key.

The tour appears exactly once. Whether you click through it or skip it makes no difference — both count as done. That is deliberate: someone who has decided they do not need it should not be asked again at the next sign-in.

It also appears when you do not land on the overview page — for example because you jumped straight into the menu plan from an invitation email.

"First steps" on the overview

Below the header of your overview page sits a list of the things still missing before everything runs — with a progress bar and a link per item.

What it lists (kitchen)

  • Create your first recipe

  • Create a menu plan group

  • Assign a facility

  • Publish your first menu plan

  • Set up HACCP checkpoints

What it lists (facility)

  • Create your structure (groups, wards, classes)

  • Record people

  • Contract with the kitchen

  • Receive a menu plan

What it lists (parent portal)

  • Person assigned

  • Check diet form & allergens

  • Add a contact email address

The ticks appear by themselves

The key difference to similar lists in other software: a tick comes from your data, not from someone having clicked a step.

As soon as a recipe exists, "Create your first recipe" is done — even if a colleague created it, even if you took a completely different route. And the other way round: withdraw the last menu plan and the item comes back.

There is a practical reason. A list that ticks off what someone clicked can lie: it shows "done" while the tenant is empty, and after an interruption it resumes in the wrong place. Derived from the actual records it is always right — and you can spread the setup over weeks without losing your place.

When the list disappears

By itself, as soon as every item is done. In a running operation it would be nothing but noise.

If you want it gone sooner, choose Hide — for example because you deliberately work without HACCP checkpoints. Items belonging to a plan component you have not booked never appear in the first place: it would be unfair to show a task that cannot be completed.

Accessibility

The introduction is fully keyboard operable: Tab and Shift+Tab move through the buttons, Esc closes. Focus moves into the window when it opens and returns to where it was when it closes. Screen readers are given the heading and the count ("Step 2 of 6") at every step.

In the "First steps" list the state is not carried by colour alone: done is a filled check mark, open an empty ring — both additionally available as text.

If your operating system is set to "reduce motion", there is no fade-in animation.

In the demo

On demo.cateringos.de everything is already set up, so the "First steps" list is complete from the start and is not shown. You will still see the welcome tour: for the shared demo accounts it is recorded in the browser only, not on the account. That way every visitor gets the same introduction.