Custom drinks

A custom drink is a drink made off the menu: usually a menu drink with another spirit, sometimes one made from scratch. On the iPad, a product marked Custom drink opens a builder instead of ringing a fixed price. The builder records what the drink was based on, the spirit poured, the price and a note, so the right bottle comes off stock and the office can see what guests order off the menu.

Set up custom drinks

You need one product for the bartenders to tap — the custom drink tile — and, if you like, the builder's own price buttons.

Who can do this: admins and managers create the tile; only admins change the Custom drinks card in Settings (anyone else gets "Only admins can change venue settings.").

Create the custom drink tile

1. In the back office, go to Menu › Products and click New product, or open the product you want to use (for example "Custom cocktail").
2. Pick the Category where the tile should sit on the iPad.
3. Give it a Price (MXN). The builder offers this price when you haven't set any price buttons.
4. Turn on Custom drink: "Opens the custom drink builder on the iPad instead of ringing this price."
5. Click Create (or Save).

Set the price buttons and the from-scratch pour

1. In the back office, go to Settings › Venue › iPads and service and find the Custom drinks card.
2. Under Price buttons, type a price in Add a price and press Enter (or click away). Repeat for up to six prices. To remove one, click its ×.
3. Set From-scratch pour (ml).
4. Optional: turn on Custom drink button on the order screen.

Each change saves on its own.

• Price buttons are amounts above $0, in pesos and centavos, with no repeats. The card tells you when one doesn't fit: "That price is already a button.", "Six price buttons at most." or "Enter a price above zero, like 230 or 280.50." With six set, the field reads The row is full.
• On the iPad the tile shows "from" and your cheapest button, for example "from $230.00". With no buttons set, it shows the product's own price.
• If you have more than one custom drink product, the Custom drink button opens the first one on the menu (by category order, then product order) that isn't 86'd. If every one is 86'd, or none is in a category, the button doesn't show.

Ring up a custom drink

The builder has four steps — Based on, Base spirit, Price and Note (optional) — and shows on the right exactly what will ring up and what will come off stock. Most custom drinks take three taps: the drink, the spirit, Add.

To open it, tap the custom drink tile on the order screen (its price reads "from $…"), or the Custom drink button at the start of the category bar when your venue has turned it on. Long-pressing the tile and choosing Add with modifiers… or Add with a note… opens it too.

A menu drink with another spirit

The usual case: a guest wants the house Margarita with a different tequila.

1. Open the check and tap the custom drink tile.
2. Under Based on, tap the drink. The list shows every drink that has a recipe, with its category and price; type in Search drinks to find one fast.
3. Under Base spirit, the recipe's own bottle is already chosen ("The recipe's own bottle"). Tap Change, find the new spirit (type in Search spirits) and tap it. Each spirit shows its upcharge. The step then reads "Instead of … (recipe)", naming the recipe's bottle.
4. Under Price, the suggested price is already chosen and marked "· suggested", with the sum under it — for example "Margarita $180 + Añejo tequila $60". Tap another button to charge that instead.
5. Optional: type a note under Note (optional) — "For the ticket or the bar".
6. Check What rings up on the right: the drink's name and price, the note, and under "Comes off stock:" each bottle with its measure.
7. Tap Add $X.

A drink from scratch

1. Tap the custom drink tile. Under Based on, tap From scratch ("A style and a spirit").
2. Pick a style: Sour, Old Fashioned, Martini, Highball, Spritz, Margarita, Negroni or Other.
3. Under Base spirit, tap Choose a spirit and pick one.
4. Under Price, your cheapest price button is chosen; tap another to charge that. There's no suggested price from scratch.
5. Add a note if you need one, check What rings up and tap Add $X.

Change your mind

• To start from another drink, tap the drink you chose under Based on.
• Back returns from a list without changing anything.
• Cancel closes the builder without ringing anything up.

What rings up and what comes off stock

The line. A custom drink rings up as one line, quantity 1, at the chosen price, with the note. When the check is worked by seat, it lands on the selected seat.

Its name — on the check, the bar ticket and the receipt — is written in the iPad's language when you ring it:

• a menu drink with its own spirit: the drink's name, "Margarita";
• a menu drink with another spirit: "Margarita with Añejo tequila";
• from scratch: the style and the spirit, "Sour · Añejo tequila". With Other, the tile's own name takes the style's place.

The price.

• The suggested price is the menu drink's price plus the new bottle's upcharge. If you keep the recipe's spirit, there's no upcharge. The upcharge is the option's own price, whatever the drink pours.
• The price row holds your price buttons (or the custom product's price when you've set none) plus the suggested price when it isn't already a button, cheapest first.
• What rings up is the price you tapped; if you didn't tap one, the suggested price; from scratch, the cheapest button.
• Happy-hour prices never apply to a custom drink: the suggestion uses the menu drink's own price even during its happy hour, and a custom drink tile can't be given a happy-hour price. See Pricing.

Stock comes off when the check is paid:

• A drink based on a menu drink pours that drink's recipe, with the new spirit in place of the recipe's spirit, at the same measure.
• A drink from scratch pours its spirit at your From-scratch pour (ml): 60 ml unless you changed it.
• Comped custom drinks come off stock too; lines voided as a mistake don't.
• The What rings up preview follows the same rule.

Which line the new spirit replaces. The recipe line marked Swapped by a modifier group; without one, the spirit line with the largest pour. A recipe with neither shows "This recipe has no spirit to change." See Recipes, wells and stock.

What the builder offers.

• Drinks to start from: every active product that has a recipe with at least one line, except the custom drink products themselves, in menu order. The search matches the name, the Spanish name and the category, ignoring capitals and accents.
• Spirits: every bottle a modifier option is linked to, at that option's upcharge, plus your other active stock items in the spirit category, at no upcharge. When the drink's own brand-choice group offers the bottle, the name and upcharge come from that group; otherwise from the first modifier group that offers it. The search matches the option's name and the bottle's name.

Price buttons you change in the office reach the builder the next time it opens, and the tile's "from" price at the next sign-in.

Limits

• A custom drink can't be rebuilt after you ring it: its line has no Modifiers row. Remove it (if it hasn't been sent) or void it, and build it again. You can still change its quantity with − and +; stock then comes off that many times.
• If the builder can't load its lists, it shows "The drinks could not be loaded." Tap Retry. Whatever loaded before stays on screen.
• From scratch, with no price buttons set and a custom tile priced at $0, there's nothing to charge: "No price buttons yet — the office sets them in Settings › Venue › iPads and service." A drink based on a menu drink always has its suggested price.
• The note holds up to 200 characters.
• The builder starts from your recipes and stock items. On a plan without inventory there are none, so it can't ring up a drink.
• If the tile rings up at its own price without opening the builder, check that the product is marked Custom drink and that the iPad has the latest Barform app.

Custom drinks in the reports

Who can do this: admins and managers.

In the back office, go to Reports › Sales and pick the range. The Custom drinks section lists what the bar made off the menu, drink by drink, under "Made off the menu": Drink, Made, Sales and Average price.

• It counts paid checks whose tab was opened in the range. Voided and comped lines are left out.
• Drinks are grouped by the name they were rung up with, ignoring capitals and extra spaces.
• Sales is after the line's own discount.
• The section doesn't show when the range has no custom drinks.
• In the product lists on Today and Sales, all custom drinks count together under the custom tile's name.

Related

• Taking orders
• Modifiers and the iPad picker
• Recipes, wells and stock
• Products and categories
• Sales