Items: add an item (General tab)
Add a dish, a drink, a set meal or a raw material with + New item, and fill in its General tab box by box. Type, names, barcode, category, unit and its pack sizes (1 BTL = 700 ML), colour, picture, description and the switches, explained.
On this page
Every dish, drink, set meal and raw material is an item. You add one with + New item on the Items list. The item's window has several tabs; the General tab says what the item is. A new item can be saved with its General tab alone: the other tabs start with sensible answers.
Before you start
- You need Items, Edit in your back office access group.
- Make the category first, if the item needs a new one (Menu, Categories), and the unit, if you count it in stock (General Setup, Units of Measure).
- Choose a short, unique item code for each item, such as NL01. The cashier can type it at the POS.
Open a new item
- In the menu, under MASTERS, click Menu, then Items.
- Click + New item at the end of the filter line. The window New item opens on its General tab.
To change an item later, click its code in the list. Its window opens with the title Edit Nasi Lemak Ayam and the same tabs.
The General tab, box by box
Used on 32-column kitchen paper and small buttons.
7BarcodeImage
Where the picture is. Filled in by the upload above, or paste the address of a picture hosted elsewhere. It shows here, on the POS and on the QR menu.
13Shown to guests on the QR menu.
14- The tabs: General, Tax & charges, Pricing, Kitchen, Modifiers, Commission and Ingredients. A Combo / set item also has Set contents. Ingredients is there only while your plan has Stock. Each tab has its own guide; see Related guides.
- Item code: needed, up to 30 characters, different for every item. It is how the cashier, the import and the reports know the item.
- Type: what kind of item it is: Normal, Combo / set, Open price or Raw material. See The four types.
- Track stock: counts this item on the shelf: every sale takes it off, a delivery puts it on. Tick it for something you buy and sell as it is, such as a can of drink. Shown only while your plan has Stock.
- Name: needed, up to 150 letters. The POS, the bill, the kitchen ticket and the QR menu show it.
- Second language: the name in your second language, for example Chinese, up to 150 letters. See Second-language names on the POS.
- Short name: up to 50 letters, for narrow kitchen paper and small buttons. Leave it empty to use the name.
- Barcode: up to 50 characters. A scanner at the POS finds the item by it.
- Category: the category the item is filed under. — is none. The category can give the item its kitchen station and its modifier groups.
- Unit: the unit the item is counted in, such as PCS or KG. — is none. Units are made in General Setup, Units of Measure.
- Colour: click it to pick a colour. It colours the item's button, and the small square before its code in the list.
- Display order: a whole number. Lower comes first.
- Image: the item's picture. Choose a picture… takes a file; a big photograph is made smaller before it is sent. Or paste the address of a picture elsewhere. See Pictures.
- Description: a few words for guests, shown on the QR menu, up to 1,000 characters.
- Active: the item is switched on. Untick it to switch it off: it is kept for past bills, but not sold anywhere and not in the list until Inactive is ticked.
- Sell on the POS: the POS offers it. Untick it for something sold only on the QR menu.
- Show on QR menu: guests ordering by QR see it. Untick it for something sold only at the counter, such as cigarettes.
- Required Staff: the POS asks who served, as this item is added, if the POS's terminal setting asks it for items marked so.
- Save: saves the item and closes the window. The big green SAVED says it is done, and the list shows it.
The four types
| Type | Use it for | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Normal | An ordinary dish or drink | Nothing: all the tabs |
| Combo / set | A set meal made of other dishes, such as a lunch set with a drink | A Combo pricing box appears here, and a Set contents tab. Track stock is grey. Modifiers and Ingredients are grey: each dish inside the set has its own. |
| Open price | A dish whose price changes each time, such as fish by the market price | Tick Cashier keys the price on the Pricing tab too: that tick is what makes the POS ask for the price. |
| Raw material | An ingredient you buy but never sell, such as rice or chicken | It is never sold or shown on the POS. Other dishes take it off the shelf on their Ingredients tab. |
Combo pricing
For a Combo / set item, Combo pricing says how the set is priced:
- Fixed set price: the set costs its own price (on the Pricing tab), plus any upgrade a choice adds.
- Sum of the chosen parts: the set costs the prices of the dishes chosen in it, added up.
See Set contents tab.
Add a dish
- Click + New item.
- Type the Item code (NL01) and the Name (Nasi Lemak Ayam). Leave Type on Normal.
- Choose its Category. Add a Second language name if your POS or QR menu shows one.
- Choose a picture with Choose a picture…, if you have one. On a new item it waits, and is sent as soon as the item is saved.
- Click the Pricing tab and type its Base price, for example 14.90.
- Look at the Tax & charges and Kitchen tabs. Most dishes need nothing there: they follow the outlet's tax and the category's kitchen station.
- Click Save.
Every POS takes the new item at its next contact with the cloud. To see it on the POS menu, the menu must show it: an Auto menu shows it by itself, a designed menu needs a button for it. See Menu Designer.
Add a raw material
- Click + New item.
- Type the Item code (RAW-RICE) and the Name (Rice (raw)).
- Set Type to Raw material.
- Choose its Unit, for example KG: it is counted and used in that unit.
- Click Save.
You can now put it on a dish's Ingredients tab. See Ingredients tab.
Pack sizes
An item kept in stock (Track stock ticked, or a Raw material) has Pack sizes under its Unit: how one of its units turns into another, for this item alone. One whisky kept in bottles is 1 BTL = 700 ML, another 1 BTL = 1000 ML; a drink kept in cans is 1 CTN = 24 CAN.
- A recipe line in one of these units comes off this item's stock in its own unit. With 1 BTL = 700 ML, a cocktail using 30 ML takes 30/700 of a bottle. A stock document line in one of them is counted the same way.
- Each works both ways, and comes before the restaurant's conversions on Masters > Units of Measure.
- + Add a pack size opens a line already starting 1 [the item's unit] =. Type how many, choose the other unit, press Add (or Enter). Either side may be the item's own unit, as in 1 CTN = 24 CAN of an item kept in cans: choose another unit on one side and the item's unit moves to the other.
- Change opens a line again, OK keeps it; Delete takes it away.
- They are saved with the item, by its Save.
Refused on the line, in these words:
- A pack size needs a unit other than BTL, which is the item's own unit.
- A pack size must be more than 0 (up to six decimal places).
- ML already has a pack size (1 BTL = 700 ML). Change that one instead.
The item needs its Unit first. Until it has one the list says Choose the item's Unit above first: every pack size is written against it.