The menu

Sections, categories, items and modifiers; where each item goes when it is ordered; and how the buttons look.

How do I set up a food and drink menu on the till?

Sections down the left, coloured category buttons inside them, and items with a VAT-inclusive price. Each item carries a route saying where it goes when ordered — food to the kitchen, drinks to the bar. An existing menu can be imported from a spreadsheet rather than retyped.

How it is arranged

Four levels, and only the first two matter on day one. Sections are the tabs down the left — a new venue starts with Deli / Bar and Shop, and you can rename them or add your own. Categories are the coloured buttons inside a section. Groups split a long category into bands with headings. Items are the things you sell.

Building it

Settings → Menu, or Edit layout on the menu screen itself

1. Add the categories you want as buttons — Hot food, Drinks, Snacks, whatever your board says.
2. Add items to them with a price. Prices are what the customer pays, VAT included.
3. Set each item’s route — where it goes when it is ordered. Food to the kitchen, drinks to the bar, a chocolate bar nowhere. See Kitchen and printing.

Importing the menu you already have

Settings → Menu → Import a spreadsheet

Two hundred items typed in by hand is a bad first evening. If the venue already has its menu in a spreadsheet, CoinOp will take it.

1. Download the template. Its columns are Section, Category, Item, Price, Sends to, Department, VAT, Barcode and Cost. Only Item and Price have to be filled in.
2. Paste your menu into it and save it as CSV or an Excel workbook. The columns are found by their headings, so you can reorder them or add notes of your own.
3. Upload it and read what CoinOp says it will do — line by line, marked new, changed, already there or cannot use, with the reason.
4. Then import. Nothing changes until you press it.

Sections and categories named in the sheet that do not exist yet are created. Running the same sheet again updates prices rather than making a second copy of everything, so the spreadsheet can stay the master list if that is how the venue works.

Modifiers

A modifier group is a question asked when an item is ordered: “how would you like it”, “any extras”, “anything to leave out”. A group can be required or optional, allow one choice or several, and each choice can add to the price. Groups are made once and attached to as many items as you like, so “Sauces” is defined in one place.

What was chosen prints on the kitchen ticket and appears on the bill under the item, which is the point: the person cooking sees “no onions” without anyone shouting it across the pass.

How the buttons look

Colour is not decoration on a till — it is how somebody finds the cola button in a hurry. A category has a colour and its items inherit it; an item can override it, be made twice as wide or tall, or carry a photo.

Two sliders on the menu screen set the overall text size and tile size for that device. A 10-inch tablet on the floor and a 24-inch counter monitor want different numbers, and each device keeps its own.

Sold out, and stock

Marking an item sold out greys it on the till and refuses it rather than hiding it, so staff can tell a customer “that has gone” instead of hunting for a button that is no longer there. An item can also carry a stock count that goes down as it sells.

Shop items and passes

Anything with a price can live on the menu — cue chalk, a cap, a bottle of water. Game passes for the gaming PCs are put on the menu the same way, except CoinOp fills them in from ggLeap’s own catalogue rather than you retyping them; see Gaming PCs.