The Unapproved Prep Items feature allows you to enter all of the information for a prep item, without making the item available for use until it has been approved.
To create an Unapproved Prep Item, fill in the fields as you would for normal Prep Items. Once saved, the item will be listed with the Unapproved Prep Items, but not with Prep Items.
To approve an item, click the Approve Prep Item button in the screen toolbar. Once the item has been approved, it will be removed from the Unapproved Prep Items list and appear in Prep Items.
Unapproved prep items can include other unapproved prep items as ingredients, but before the "parent" prep item can be approved, all of the ingredient prep items must first be approved.
You can control access to the Approve Item button through Group security.