Products and categories

Your menu lives in the back office. Categories group your products, and each category is a tab on the iPad's order screen. This page covers categories, the product list, the product sheet, taking a product off the menu (86), archiving, the guest-menu switches and how your changes reach the iPads.

In the back office sidebar, Menu sits under Catalogue and opens on Categories. Its tabs are Categories, Products, Modifiers, Pricing and, on plans with inventory, Recipes.

Who can do this: admins and managers, in the back office. On the iPad, staff can only take a product off the menu and put it back (86).

Categories

On the iPad each category is a tab on the order screen, in the order of your list, and a section of the guest menu. A category has a name, an optional color, an optional printer for prep tickets and a guest-menu switch.

Create a category

1. In the back office, go to Menu › Categories and click New category.
2. Type the Name (up to 80 characters).
3. Optional: pick a Color with the swatch, or type a hex code such as #C9A227 in the box beside it. Clear removes it.
4. Optional: under Prints ticket at, pick a printer. The default is No ticket.
5. Leave Show on guest menu on, or turn it off (see Hide a category from the guest menu).
6. Click Create. "Category created" appears, and the category goes to the end of the list.

Edit a category

1. Click ··· on its row › Edit.
2. Change what you need and click Save. "Category updated" appears.

Change the order of the tabs

1. Grab the handle at the left end of a row and drag the row up or down: "Drag to reorder. Changes save automatically."
2. There's nothing else to press. If the save fails, "Reorder failed" appears and the list goes back to the old order.

On the iPad the tabs follow this order, after Favorites, which comes first whenever the venue has sales to rank.

What a category controls

• The row shows the color dot, the name, how many products the category holds (archived products aside) and, when set, the ticket printer.
• Color shows on the iPad as a small dot on the category's tab. The quantity badge of every check line from that category is tinted with it, and the guest menu shows a dot beside the section title. With no color, the tab shows a gold dot and the badges stay plain.
• Prints ticket at: when items are sent, the newly sent items of this category print a prep ticket at that printer. No ticket prints nothing. If that printer is later deactivated, the iPad says "Some items route to a deactivated printer — their ticket was not printed." The list offers your active printers from Settings › Printers.
• One name only. A category has no Spanish name: it reads the same in both iPad languages.

Hide a category from the guest menu

The Show on guest menu switch takes a whole category off the guest menu — the read-only menu guests browse from the iPad's PIN screen — while staff keep using it: "Hidden categories stay fully available on the staff grid."

1. Go to Menu › Categories and click ··· on the category › Edit.
2. Turn off Show on guest menu (turn it on to show the category again).
3. Click Save.

• New categories start with the switch on, including the ones the spreadsheet import creates.
• The guest menu lists, in category order, each category whose switch is on, and inside it only the products that are available (not 86'd) and whose own guest-menu switch is on. A category with nothing to show is left out. Each product shows its Name (EN), its price and its description.
• The staff order screen never reads this switch.

Archive a category

Archiving takes a category off the iPads and out of your category list, into an Archived list at the bottom of the page. Nothing is deleted, and its products aren't archived with it.

1. Click ··· on the category's row › Archive.
2. Confirm. The question names the category and, if it still holds products, says how many.
3. Click Archive. "Category archived" appears with Undo.

To bring it back straight away, click Undo before the notice closes. The category returns to its old place with its settings.

Restore an archived category

1. In Menu › Categories, scroll to Archived ({count}) at the bottom of the page. It only shows while some category is archived: "Off the iPads and the guest menu. Restore brings one back with its products, color, printer and guest-menu setting." Each archived category shows its color and how many products it holds.
2. Click Restore on its row. "Category restored" appears, and the category moves back into the list above, in its old place.

The Archived list is sorted by name. Categories can't be edited or reordered there: restore one first.

What happens to the archived category's products:

• On the iPad they're on no tab, not on the guest menu and not on the Out of stock (86) screen, and they print no prep ticket. The order screen's search still finds them, and they can be rung up from there.
• In Menu › Products they still show the category's name, but you can't filter by it. In the product sheet the Category box shows it as "{name} (archived)", for a product already in it. Saving keeps it there; picking another category moves the product.
• The spreadsheet import only matches live categories: a file that names an archived one creates a new category with that name.

Categories can't be deleted.

The product list

Menu › Products lists every product with its category, SKU, price and availability. You can search, filter, sort and export it, switch a product on or off the menu, and open a product to edit it.

• Find a product: type in Search name or SKU. It matches the name, the Spanish name or the SKU, anywhere in the text, ignoring capitals. Accents count: "limon" doesn't find "Limón".
• Filter: in the first list pick Active or Archived (with how many there are); in the second, All categories or one category.
• Sort: click a column title — Product, Category, Cost, Pour cost or Price. Click again to reverse. Text columns start A to Z, number columns highest first, and empty values always go last.
• See costs (plans with inventory): click Show cost. The Cost and Pour cost columns appear; click again to hide them.
• Open a product: click its row, or ··· › Edit.
• Export: set the view, category and search you want, then click Export CSV.
• Import from a spreadsheet (admins only): click Import. It opens Settings › Import; see Importing from a spreadsheet.

What the list shows:

• Each row has a thumbnail (once any product has an image), the name, a red 86'd badge when the product is off the menu, the category (or Uncategorized) and SKU, the cost columns if shown, the price, the Available switch (not in the Archived view) and a ··· menu. The list shows 50 rows per page.
• Cost is the recipe's cost per serving: each ingredient at its current cost, added up and divided by the recipe's yield, to the centavo. It shows "—" when there's no recipe.
• Pour cost is cost ÷ price as a whole percent: green up to 20%, amber up to 30%, red above. It's amber with "?" when an ingredient has no cost on file, and "—" when the price is $0. See Recipes, wells and stock.
• The export has every row of the current view, category and search — all pages, not just the one on screen — in name order, whatever the on-screen sort. Columns: Name, Spanish name, SKU, Category, Price (MXN), Available (yes/no). A value that starts with = + - or @ gets an apostrophe in front so a spreadsheet doesn't treat it as a formula.
• The category filter lists live categories only: you can't filter to Uncategorized or to an archived category.

Create or edit a product

The product sheet holds everything about one product. There's no tax field: tax is one setting for the whole venue (see Pricing).

Create a product

1. In the back office, go to Menu › Products and click New product.
2. Name (EN): required, up to 120 characters. This is the name the iPad shows.
3. Nombre (ES): optional Spanish name, up to 120 characters.
4. Description: optional.
5. Category: pick one. If you leave it on None, the product is on no iPad tab.
6. SKU: optional, up to 64 characters.
7. Price (MXN): required. Type it like 180, 180.50, 1,500.00 or 180,50; a $ sign is fine. $0 is allowed.
8. Custom drink: leave it off for an ordinary product (see Custom drinks).
9. Show on the guest menu: on to start with; turn it off to keep this product off the guest menu.
10. Image: optional. Click Choose image… and pick a PNG, JPEG or WebP file under 1 MB. A photo from a phone is usually bigger: make it smaller first.
11. Modifier groups: tick each group this product uses.
12. Click Create. "Product created" appears.

A new product is on the menu straight away, and the iPad lists it after the products already in its category.

Edit a product

1. Click its row in Menu › Products (or ··· › Edit).
2. Change what you need. When the product has an image, Image offers Replace image… and a View current image link; otherwise it says "No image yet."
3. Click Save. "Product updated" appears.

While you're editing, the sheet also has:

• Available, which reads On the menu or Off the menu. It saves at once — see Take a product off the menu (86).
• On plans with inventory, Recipe › Open the recipe, which opens the product's recipe. Save first: following the link leaves the sheet without saving.

Where each field shows up

Rules to know

• A product with no category is on no tab, not on the guest menu and prints no ticket, but the order screen's search still finds it and it can be rung up from there.
• There's no way to reorder products inside a category: the iPad shows them in the order they were added.
• Modifier groups: the list shows all your groups, ticked ones first. Saving keeps exactly the ticked ones. On the iPad the groups appear in their order on Menu › Modifiers, not the order you ticked them. With no groups yet the sheet says "No modifier groups yet — create them in the Modifiers tab."
• A price change doesn't touch lines already on checks: each line keeps the price it was rung up at.
• Once a product has a category, it can move to another category but not back to none.
• An image can be replaced but not removed. A new or replacement image has to be under 1 MB.
• Names don't have to be unique. (The spreadsheet import skips a row whose name matches a live product.)
• Messages you may see: "Enter a valid price", "Category not found", "The upload failed — try again."

Take a product off the menu (86)

Switching Available off takes a product off the menu without archiving it — when the bar runs out, for example — and switching it on puts it back. It's the same switch the iPad's Out of stock (86) screen uses.

Who can do this: admins and managers in the back office, with no PIN. On the iPad the same switch needs a manager's approval; see Taking orders.

1. In the back office, go to Menu › Products and find the product.
2. Turn Available off on its row (or in the product sheet). It saves at once; there's no Save button. If the save fails, an error appears and the switch flips back.
3. To bring the product back, turn Available on again.

• In the back office the row shows a red 86'd badge.
• On the iPad the tile stays on the order screen, greyed out with an "86" badge; tapping it does nothing, and its long-press menu offers Mark available. The guest menu hides it.
• The change reaches the iPads, usually within a second.
• Lines already on checks aren't affected. Archived products have no switch.

Archive and restore a product

Archiving takes a product off the iPads and out of the Active list without deleting it or its sales. The Archived view lists archived products, and Restore puts one back.

Archive a product

1. In Menu › Products, click ··· on the product › Archive.
2. The question warns that the product "will hide from the menu and stop accepting orders". Click Archive.
3. "Product archived" appears with Undo, which puts the product straight back.

Restore a product

1. In Menu › Products, switch the first list to Archived.
2. Click ··· on the product › Restore. "Product restored" appears.

What archiving keeps

• The product keeps its names, price, category, modifier groups, recipe, image and availability. Restore brings it back with all of them — still 86'd if it was 86'd.
• The iPads drop it from the order screen, the search, the Out of stock (86) screen and the guest menu at their next menu reload, usually within a second.
• Products can't be deleted. Past sales stay as they were.
• Products created by the TouchBistro history import arrive archived, so they're in the Archived view. See Importing your TouchBistro history.
• The spreadsheet import ignores archived products: a row with an archived product's name creates a new product instead of restoring the old one.
• If you archive a product that's on an open check, once the iPads reload the menu that line shows no name on the order screen, and bills and prep tickets print it as "Item". Its price and the check's totals don't change.
• A restored product whose category is archived comes back on no tab; only the order screen's search finds it.

Show or hide one product on the guest menu

Each product has its own Show on the guest menu switch for the menu guests browse from the iPad's PIN screen. Use it for a product that should stay off the menu inside a category guests do see, such as a house-brand bottle or a staff-only pour.

1. Open the product in Menu › Products.
2. Turn Show on the guest menu off (or back on). Its hint: "The menu guests browse from the iPad's PIN screen. Custom drinks never appear there."
3. Click Save.

• A product shows on the guest menu only when its category's switch and its own are both on, it isn't a custom drink, and it's available (not 86'd). The guest menu's search covers only what it lists.
• New products start with the switch on.
• While Custom drink is on, the switch is greyed out and shown off. Its own setting is kept and matters again if the product stops being a custom drink.
• The staff order screen never reads this switch.

How menu changes reach the iPads

Every change in Categories, Products and Modifiers — availability and bulk price changes included — reaches every paired iPad on its own, usually within a second, whether someone is signed in or the iPad is at the PIN screen. Nobody has to press anything on the iPad.

To make sure an iPad has the latest menu:

1. Check that it's connected: on the iPad, tap ··· More and look at the Sync row. The row only shows the status; it doesn't reload anything.
2. If the iPad still shows an old menu, sign out and sign back in: every sign-in reloads the menu.

• The iPad also loads the whole menu when the app starts and when it's paired.
• It keeps the open category across a reload.
• Venue settings such as the tax rate aren't part of this: the iPad reads them at sign-in.
• If the iPad can't open its live connection, menu changes reach it at the next sign-in. When a dropped connection comes back, the menu isn't reloaded on its own: a change made while it was disconnected appears with the next menu change or the next sign-in.
• Offline, the iPad keeps the menu it last loaded.
• Happy-hour prices (Menu › Pricing) ride the same reload: saving, switching or deleting one reaches the iPads within about a second. If they can't be read, the iPad keeps the ones it last loaded. See Pricing.

Related

• Modifiers and the iPad picker
• Pricing
• Recipes, wells and stock
• Guest menu
• Import from a spreadsheet