FooodPosWiki

Categories

Group your dishes into categories in the back office, with a code, a name, a second-language name, a parent category, a default kitchen station, a report group, a colour and an order, and see what each one changes on the POS, the menu and the reports.

Who uses it:OwnerManagerWhere:Back office
On this page

A category groups dishes that belong together: Rice & Noodles, Main Course, Beverages, Dessert. Each dish is filed under one category, chosen on the dish itself (Items).

A category decides several things for all its dishes at once:

  • which kitchen station a dish prints to, unless the dish chooses its own;
  • under which report group its sales add up;
  • on an Auto menu, the tab the dish sits on at the POS, the kiosk and the QR page.

The page says it in its own words: categories are how the business groups items for reporting, separate from the menu layout. Where the buttons sit on the POS is the Menu Designer's job, and the Menu Designer's own tabs are also called categories: to keep the two apart, the Menu Designer's guides call these ones item categories. See Menu Designer.

Before you start

  • Anyone whose access group may view categories sees Categories in the menu. Adding, changing or deleting one needs the right to edit them. The owner's Administrator group has it. The Outlet Manager group of a new restaurant may look but not change: + New, Edit and Delete are not shown to it.
  • To give a category a default kitchen station, the station must exist. A new restaurant has two: KITCHEN (Kitchen) and BAR (Bar). They are on Room, Kitchen Stations.

Open Categories

  1. In the back office's menu, under MASTERS, click Menu, then Categories.
  2. The list opens. A new restaurant that started with sample data has four categories; one that started blank has none.
Menu, Categories: one row per category.
  1. Categories: under MASTERS, in the Menu category of the menu.
  2. Item Categories: the page's title, with the line saying what categories are for.
  3. Search…: type part of a code, a name or a second-language name. The list narrows as you type.
  4. Show inactive: also lists the categories that are switched off. They are drawn pale.
  5. + New: adds a category. See Add a category.
  6. Name: the category's name. A small square in front of it shows the category's colour, when it has one.
  7. Default station: the kitchen station its dishes print to, unless a dish chooses its own. — means none.
  8. Report group: the bigger bucket its sales add up under on the reports, such as FOOD or DRINK. — means none.
  9. Status: Active, or Inactive for a category that is switched off.
  10. Edit and Delete: change the category, or delete it. See Change, switch off or delete a category.

The Code column is the category's short code. Second name is its name in a second language, — when it has none.

Add a category

  1. Click + New. The window New Item Categorie opens. (That is how the window spells it.)
  2. Type a Code, such as NOODLE, and a Name, such as Noodles. Both are needed.
  3. Fill in the other boxes you need, as the next part explains. All of them can be changed later.
  4. Click Save. The big green SAVED shows, and the category joins the list.
The window of a category: every box of it.
  1. Code: a short code for the category, up to 20 characters. No two categories may have the same code.
  2. Name: the category's name, up to 150 characters. It is what the POS shows on an Auto menu's tab, and what the reports and the item lists call it.
  3. Second language: its name in a second language, such as Chinese, up to 150 characters. It is shown with the name, as the menu's Names on the POS setting says (see Menu settings).
  4. Parent category: puts this category under another one, as a sub-category. Here Noodles sits under Rice & Noodles. Leave it at — for a category of its own. See Categories under categories.
  5. Default kitchen station: where the dishes of this category print in the kitchen, such as KITCHEN — Kitchen or BAR — Bar. A dish that chooses its own station on its Kitchen tab prints there instead. — means the dishes print to no station unless they choose one.
  6. Report group: a bigger bucket for the reports, up to 50 characters, such as FOOD or DRINK. Item Sales can add the sales up by report group.
  7. Colour: the category's colour. Click the square to pick one, or type it as #RRGGBB. An Auto menu's tab wears it on the POS.
  8. Image URL: the address of a picture for the category, up to 500 characters. It is kept with the category. The picture on a menu's tab is not taken from here: it is that tab's own Tab picture, in the Menu Designer's Category settings.
  9. Display order: the category's place among the others, from 0 up. The lower number comes first: on an Auto menu's tabs, and in the lists that show categories in order.
  10. Active: ticked, the category is in use. Untick it to switch the category off. See below.
  11. Save: saves the category. Cancel closes the window and keeps nothing.

Categories under categories

A category can have categories under it. Rice & Noodles can hold Noodles and Rice, for example.

  • A dish is filed under one category, at whatever level.
  • On the Modifiers page, putting a group on a category By category also puts it on the categories under it. See Modifiers: Apply to items.
  • A Menu Designer category tab that fills itself from an item category can include the item categories under it. See Menu Designer: fill a category automatically.
  • An Auto menu gives every active category with dishes its own tab, sub-categories included.

Change, switch off or delete a category

  1. Click Edit on the category's row. The window Edit Item Categorie opens.
  2. Change what you need. To switch the category off, untick Active.
  3. Click Save.

A POS takes the change at its next contact with the cloud.

Switched off: the category leaves the list (tick Show inactive to see it again, pale) and an Auto menu no longer shows its tab or its dishes. Buttons placed by hand in the Menu Designer, and menu category tabs that fill themselves from it, go on showing its dishes. To stop a dish being sold, switch the dish itself off on Items, or mark it sold out for the day.

Delete: click Delete on the row. The back office asks first:

Delete "Dessert"? If it has already been used it will be deactivated instead, so existing records stay intact.

Click OK. A category that no dish, menu button or self-filling menu tab uses is deleted: the message says Deleted. A category that is still used is switched off instead, and the message says why, for example Deactivated — still used by items.

What if…