How to change your order form menu every week?

"We have a school lunch program that varies each week."- Google Docs Editors Community

Google Forms has no good way to change what's on offer from one week to the next. Copy last week's form and everyone gets a new link and you get a new response sheet. Edit it in place and you retype the choices while last week's answers sit mixed in with this week's. 22 people on Google's forum have asked how to handle a menu like that. With Neartail, you keep one form and one link: hide what you aren't offering, add what's new, and the people you send it to see only this week's list. The Sales by product report can show one week at a time, so each week's orders stay apart.

Let's start. Create your order form and follow the steps below.

1. Name your order form

On the page that opens, click Enter your form name, type your form's name and click Generate. Check the outline it suggests and click Proceed. Your form opens on the Edit tab.
Neartail's screen to name your order form, with School lunch orders typed in and the Generate button marked

2. Hide last week's items

In the EDIT tab, click an item you aren't offering this week, click the gear at the bottom of its card, open Advanced and click Hide. Another week, click Show in the same place to bring it back.
The Tomato soup product behind its settings panel, on the Advanced tab, with the Hide button marked beside Don't show this product to users

3. Add this week's items

Click Add product in the toolbar on the right, then type the item's name and price.
The School lunch orders editor with a new Mac and cheese product at $3.50 and the Add product button marked in the toolbar

4. Customers open the same link

The first time, click SHARE, click Link, click Copy and send the link to your customers. After that, you don't need a new link. They open the one they already have and see only this week's items.
The School lunch orders form on a phone with Pizza slice at $3.50, Chicken wrap at $4 and Mac and cheese at $3.50

5. Keep each week's orders apart

In ORDERS, click Sales by product. It opens on the whole year. To see one week, click the pencil, select Weekly under Select the reporting period, click Next, Next and Finish. The arrows beside the dates then move from week to week, so last week's orders stay out of this week's count.
The Sales by product report for Oct 25 to Oct 31, with the dates and the pencil marked, showing 9 Pizza slices, 7 Chicken wraps and 6 Mac and cheese, 22 in all for $80.50

Summary

When what you offer changes every week, copying a Google Form means a new link each time and editing it mixes old answers with new. With Neartail, you keep one form and one link, hide what you aren't offering and add what's new, and a weekly report keeps each week's orders apart. Create your order form and complete the steps above.

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