Menu
Use Menu to build the catalogue a restaurant outlet sells from, on the cashier and on the table ordering menu. It has two tabs, Items and Categories, and everything on it belongs to the outlet it sits under in the sidebar. A guest shop keeps its catalogue on its Products screen instead.
Categories
Categories group the items on the cashier and on the table ordering menu, so name them the way your staff think about the menu. Select New category and set:
- Name: the group's name.
- Color (optional): a hex value, for example
#E8734A. - Sort order: where the category sits among the others.
Create the categories before the items: every item belongs to one. You can only delete an empty category, so move or delete its items first.
Items
Select New item and set:
- Name: what appears on the menu, the kitchen ticket, and the bill.
- Category: the group it sells under.
- Description (optional): a short line about the item.
- Photo (optional): an image of the item.
- Price: in the outlet's currency.
- Kitchen station: Hot, Cold, Bar, Dessert, Prep, or None. This sends the line to a column on the kitchen display; an item with no station lands in the Other column.
- Prep time (minutes): how long the item takes to make. The KDS counts down from this while the line is cooking, then shows the overrun in red.
- Sort order: the item's position within its category.
- Active: turn this off to take an item off the menu. Inactive items stay on past orders.
Prep time drives the kitchen timer
A line whose item has no prep time shows elapsed time instead of a countdown, so the pass has to remember how long that dish should take. Filling in prep times is the quickest way to make the KDS more useful.
Modifier groups
Modifiers are the choices attached to an item, such as size or sides. Select Add modifier group on an item, then set:
- Group name: the question, for example "Choose a side".
- Min selections and Max selections: how many options the guest may choose. One and one make a single choice; zero and three allow up to three extras.
- Required (the guest must choose): when this is on, the cashier's modifier dialog opens before the line can be added, so a steak never reaches the kitchen without a cooking temperature.
Select Add option to add a choice. Each option has an Option name and a price adjustment in the outlet's currency. The adjustment can be positive or negative, and it feeds the line total on the cashier and the bill.
Each group collapses to a summary of whether it is required and how many selections it allows, so a long item stays readable while you edit it.
Permissions
Editing the menu needs Manage Menu. Staff with only Take Orders see the menu on the cashier screen but cannot change it. See Users and roles.