Modifiers and the iPad picker

Modifier groups are the choices that go with a product: a spirit, a size, ice, a strength. You set them up in the back office and attach them to products; on the iPad, the picker offers them when the product is rung up. What a choice takes off stock is on Recipes, wells and stock.

Modifier groups and options

A group ("Whiskey", "Strength", "Ice") holds options ("Premium bourbon +$550", "Double", "No ice"). The group says how many options the guest must or may choose. Each option has a price change and, optionally, a Spanish name, a type, a linked bottle and a recipe multiplier.

Who can do this: admins and managers. The Inventory item link only matters on plans with inventory.

Create a group

1. In the back office, go to Menu › Modifiers and click New group.
2. In New modifier group, fill in:
   • Name (up to 80 characters).
   • Min select and Max select: how many options the guest must and may choose, from 0 to 20. The dialog starts at 0 and 1.
   • Required: on when the drink can't be rung up without a choice.
   • Optional: Upcharges are for a pour of ___ ml — see Pour-priced upcharges.
3. Click Create. "Group created" appears.

Then attach the group to each product that uses it: open the product in Menu › Products and tick it under Modifier groups (see Products and categories).

Add an option

1. Find the group's card and click the + in its header, beside edit and delete ("Add a modifier to …"). It's there however long the group's list is. An empty group also shows an Add modifier button inside.
2. In New modifier, fill in:
   • Name (EN) and Nombre (ES).
   • Type: optional, such as Bourbon or Rye — "Groups the option in the iPad picker, e.g. Bourbon or Rye." The field suggests the types the group already uses, so one spelling stays one type. See Option types.
   • Pours the recipe ×: optional, for an option worth more than one drink — see Options that serve several drinks.
   • Price delta (MXN): "Use a positive amount to upcharge, negative to discount."
   • Inventory item: optional. Type to find the bottle; when this option is chosen, the linked bottle comes off stock instead of the recipe's default pour. Not linked means no link.
3. Click Add. "Modifier added" appears.

Edit or delete

1. Click a group's header to open its card. Each option row shows its name, its type, its Spanish name, the linked item ("↳ …"), its price and, for an option with a multiplier, "×N".
2. Use the pencil (Edit) or the bin (Delete) on the option's row, and confirm.
3. To edit the group itself, use the pencil in its header (Edit group). To delete it, use the bin (Delete group); the question says how many products use it and will lose the option.

How groups and options work

• The card's subtitle states the rule in words: "Choose exactly 1 of 4", "Choose up to 2 of 6" or "Choose 1 to 3 of 8", then "Used by … products" (active products).
• A group needs at least Min select choices — at least one when Required is on — and takes no more than Max select. A product with a group that needs a choice can't be added without opening the picker.
• Options are listed cheapest first, then by name, so a $0 option leads its group.
• The price delta is in pesos. A negative amount is a discount.
• Types are 1 to 40 characters; an empty type means no type.
• Deleting an option or a group is permanent. Lines already rung up keep the option's name and price.
• A group with no options isn't offered on the iPad.

Option types

Options can carry a type — Bourbon, Rye, Scotch, Irish — so a long group (dozens of whiskies) is listed on the iPad under type headings, like "BOURBON · 21", instead of one long list.

1. Edit each option of the group and fill in its Type. Pick from the suggestions to keep one spelling.
2. Save. The iPad shows the headings the next time it loads the menu.

How the picker lists them:

• Types appear in the order their first option appears in your list.
• Types group regardless of capitals and accents ("bourbon" joins "Bourbon"), under the first spelling.
• Inside a type, options are in alphabetical order, ignoring capitals and accents.
• Options without a type come last, in one block after a divider.
• A group with no types at all: with 10 or more options, the list is alphabetical; with fewer, it keeps cheapest first, then by name, so bartenders' muscle memory on small groups doesn't move.
• The picker shows each option's Name (EN), whatever the iPad's language. The search also matches the Spanish name and the type.

Pour-priced upcharges

A spirit upgrade costs more in a drink that pours more of it. When a group says its upcharges are for a pour of, say, 60 ml, a drink whose recipe pours 30 ml of that spirit pays half the upcharge, and one that pours 90 ml pays one and a half — rounded to the nearest $5.

1. Set the group's prices for one standard pour, for example every whiskey's upcharge for 60 ml.
2. Type that pour in Upcharges are for a pour of (for example 60): "Drinks that pour more or less of this spirit pay in proportion. Leave empty for one flat price." Decimals and a comma are fine.
3. Make sure each drink's recipe marks its whiskey line Swapped by this group (Menu › Recipes).
4. On the iPad, the picker shows each option's price already worked out for the drink being rung up.

How the price is worked out:

• Upcharge in this drink = the option's price × (the drink's pour of the marked line ÷ the group's pour), rounded to the nearest $5, halves rounding up. The drink's pour is the marked line's quantity per serving.
• Example: an option is +$550 in a group priced for 60 ml. A drink pouring 30 ml pays $275. A drink pouring 45 ml pays $412.50, which rounds to $415. A drink pouring 90 ml pays $825.
• The price stays flat when the group has no pour, when the drink's recipe has no line marked with this group, when that line isn't measured by volume (each or grams), or when the drink pours exactly the group's pour.
• With several marked lines in one group, each choice is priced by the line it fills: the first choice by the first marked line, and so on.
• Negative amounts (discount options) scale the same way.
• The iPad writes the worked-out price into the line, so the check, the receipt, the totals and every report show the price the guest was quoted. Nothing re-prices a line later.
• A product rung up with a plain tap, without the picker, carries no upcharge.
• Changing the group's pour or a recipe changes prices for new ring-ups only.

If the pour you type isn't a number above zero: "Enter a pour in ml greater than 0."

Options that serve several drinks

Some options serve more than one drink's worth: "4 people" on an absinthe fountain, a double pitcher, a half pour. Such an option can say how many times the drink's recipe comes off stock when it's chosen, so a fountain for four takes four pours, not one.

1. In Menu › Modifiers, edit the option (or add it with the + in the group's header).
2. In Pours the recipe ×, type how many drinks' worth it serves: 4 for "4 people", 0.5 for a half pour. Leave it empty for a normal option. Its hint: "For an option that serves more than one drink's worth: "4 people" on a fountain = 4, a half pour = 0.5. Stock comes off that many times. Leave empty for a normal option."
3. Save. The option shows "×4" (for example) on the group's card.
4. If the bigger serve costs more, set the option's Price delta (MXN) too: the multiplier never changes a price.

• Allowed: a number above 0 and up to 20. Decimals are fine, and a comma works as the decimal point. Anything else shows "Enter a number above 0 and up to 20."
• When the check is paid, the line's whole recipe is multiplied — every ingredient, brand choices included — and the line's quantity multiplies on top.
• Several such options on one line multiply together: ×2 and ×0.5 make ×1.
• Comped lines come off stock; lines voided as a mistake don't.
• It works on every iPad, whatever its app version: the multiplier is applied when the check is paid.
• If voiding a payment reopens a paid check, its stock goes back, and paying it again multiplies whatever is on the check then: a ×N line added after the reopen counts, one removed doesn't.

Choose options on the iPad (the picker)

When a drink has choices, the iPad opens one sheet: the drink's house pour already picked at the top, the most-ordered options as big buttons, every option by type with its full name and price, and one search. For a standard drink the bartender only taps Add.

The picker opens when you:

• tap a product that has a group needing a choice;
• long-press any product and choose Add with modifiers… or Add with a note…;
• tap a line that hasn't been sent and then its Modifiers row. A sent line's Modifiers row is locked.

Ring up a drink with its choices

1. Tap the product. If it has a group that needs a choice, the picker opens. If all its groups are optional, the tap adds it plain; long-press › Add with modifiers… to choose.
2. The header shows the drink's name; with one group, also the group and its rule, for example "WHISKEY · CHOOSE 1".
3. House pour is already selected, with a tick: the drink's usual bottle, shown as Included or with its upcharge.
4. To change it, tap another option: under Most picked, in the list under its type, or after a search ("Search 24 bottles" when every option is linked to a bottle, otherwise "Search 24 options"; while you type, "3 of 24" shows how many match). Tapping a picked option unpicks it.
5. Optional: type an Extra charge in pesos and a note ("Extra dry, light ice, etc."). With an extra charge, the note asks "What is the charge for?" and must be filled in before you can add.
6. Tap Add · $X. The total is the drink's price plus the options' prices plus any extra charge. While one of the drink's happy-hour windows is open, the drink's price is its happy-hour price, and the header shows a small Happy hour mark beside its name (see Pricing).
7. To leave without adding, tap Cancel.

Change the options of a line not sent yet

1. Tap the line on the check, then its Modifiers row. It reads "Choose a preparation…" when the line has none.
2. The picker opens with the line's choices. Change them and tap Update · $X. The total starts from the price the line was rung at, which the update keeps — a happy-hour price included (the header then shows the mark), even after the window has closed.

How the picker decides

• House pour. For each recipe line marked Swapped by the group (in recipe order, up to the group's Max select), the option linked to that line's bottle is preselected — the cheapest, if two are. A drink whose recipe marks no line for the group, or whose bottle no option is linked to, opens with nothing preselected. When the house pour satisfies a required group, Add works straight away: a standard drink is one tap.
• Most picked. Only in groups of 10 or more options: up to six options, the house pour left out, most picked first over the last 90 service nights. Picks are counted on paid checks (voided lines aside), by the option's name and the line's quantity, so a bottle's history survives when you merge groups. Each iPad refreshes the ranking at most once an hour.
• Search. Shown when the sheet has 10 or more options in all. It matches the option's name, Spanish name or type, ignoring capitals and accents ("anejo" finds "Añejo"). While you search, groups and types with no match are hidden and Most picked steps aside; the house pour stays. With no match: "Nothing matches “…”".
• Order of the groups. A drink with several groups shows them in their order on Menu › Modifiers (the order they were created, then by name) — not the order they were ticked on the product. Groups can't be reordered by hand.
• The rule line reads "Choose 1", "Choose 1–3", "Up to 2" or "Choose at least 1", from the group's Min select, Max select and Required.
• Choosing. In a single-choice group, a new pick replaces the old one. At a multi-choice group's limit, further taps are ignored. Unpicking leaves a gap the next pick fills, so the picks keep the recipe's order: the first pick replaces the first marked line when the check is paid.
• Add is enabled when every group has at least its minimum and an extra charge, if any, has a note.
• Extra charge. It goes on the line as one more option named after the note (or "Customization"), with the amount you typed: whole pesos, up to five digits. It never counts toward Most picked.
• Merging. Adding a drink identical to an unsent line on the check — same product and price, same options, same note, same seat, no discount on the line — adds 1 to that line's quantity instead of making a new line.

Messages and limits

• "This drink was just sent to the bar — void it from the check instead." A line already sent can't be changed.
• "This check was just closed on another terminal — start a new tab." The check was settled on another iPad.
• If the iPad can't read the house-pour or most-picked data, the picker still works without them.
• Add with modifiers… is on every tile's long-press menu, even for a product with no modifier groups. The sheet then holds only the extra charge and the note.

Related

• Products and categories
• Recipes, wells and stock
• Taking orders
• Custom drinks