Understanding the key components of a well-structured menu layout is helpful. We encourage you to familiarize yourself with each component and map your menu before building it in the BackOffice.
Article Contents
Categories
Categories keep your items organized on the front end (in the Register), simplifying entering orders. They also help you manage related items (products) and view reporting in the BackOffice. For example, in addition to creating buttons on the Register for speedier, more organized order entry in the FrontOffice, you can also view category-based sales reports and map categories to print at specific registers (e.g., kitchen printers).
Example categories include:
- Sandwiches
- Salads
- Wraps
- Beverages
Categories are hierarchy-based. This means that you can nest a category under a parent category. For example, you may want to have two categories (e.g., Specialty Sandwiches and Hot Sandwiches) that fall under a parent category, "Sandwiches." In this example, the hierarchy would be as follows:
- Sandwiches [parent category]
-- Specialty Sandwiches
-- Hot Sandwiches
We encourage you to make a list of all your parent and child categories/subcategories in advance before building your menu. For more information on categories and how to create categories in the BackOffice, check out the Create Categories article (with instructional video).
Departments
Unlike categories, Departments are not required to build your menu; however, if you want additional insight into your sales reports (specifically, department sales), you should set this up in advance. With Departments, you can track product and category sales by their respective department, for example, "Food," "Beverages," and "Merchandise." Note that at any time, you can assign items and categories to a department either on the item level or in bulk via the Bulk Assign Tool, which allows you to bulk assign multiple items and categories to a Department. If you're building a menu from scratch, it is a best practice to create your Departments first so that you can assign items to a Department when creating your item.
For more information on managing departments in the BackOffice, check out the Create Departments or the Bulk Assign Items to Departments articles.
Modifier Sets
Modifier Sets allow you to select from options (e.g., extra cheese) to apply to items during the checkout process.
With Modifiers Sets, you can quickly select from a pre-configured set of modifications to customize the item. Example Modifier Sets include:
- Sauces
- Dressings
- Cheeses
- Toppings (add-ons)
An essential characteristic of Modifier Sets is that you can control how users interact with the available options via the Modifier Set settings. For example, with basic settings, you can control whether modifiers are required or optional, the minimum (if required) and maximum selections allowed, and the maximum quantity that can be ordered. You can also enable conversational ordering on modifier sets to display the buttons "Add," "Extra," "No," "Lite," "Side," "Tossed," and "Only," and select which ones to display and their selection behaviors. Lastly, you can even enable split modifiers on items with two sides (or halves). The Create Modifier Sets article covers creating Modifier Sets in the BackOffice, and the Advanced Modifier Sets article covers the advanced setting configurations and how to apply and customize Modifier Sets per item (and include/omit modifiers on that item).
Items
An item, by its very nature, is basic. It has a name and a price, and from the Register, you can add it to the cart with a simple tap on the screen. However, an item can, and likely will be, more complex. It can have different variations with different pricing and multiple modifier sets with varying configurations, all intended to give you complete control of how the item is rung out in the Register. When planning your menu, take into account the following properties for an item:
- Should it be on the Speed Screen?
- What category is it assigned to? Should it be assigned to a Department for reporting purposes?
- Is it a standard-priced, unit-based, or custom-priced item?
- Are there variations of the item (e.g., small/large)? What are the price and SKU for the variants?
- Should the item be tax-inclusive or tax-exclusive?
- What modifier sets should be created for this item?
- Should this item be sent to a kitchen printer? If the category is set to print at the kitchen printer, should it be excluded (not sent to the printer)?
Check out the Create Items article for more information on creating items in the BackOffice.