Modifier/Tag/portion to change actual product

V5 Question
1

Hi all, I have a plan that i would love some ideas on to see if it’s a good idea. or you guys may have better logic.

We have a coffee shop and find drinks orders can get complex however we want to start recording the more ‘common’ options as unique products (not tags or portions) yet use the same single button so that there are less steps to order the standard item

for example a cappuccino may have order tags (or portions) to add vanilla, caramel and so on. but it may also have normal milk, soy or coconut milk. Instead of several menu options/heiraches I would rather have the button ‘cappuccino’ as we have now. the vast majority are just normal cappuccinos so one button press and it’s added to the bill. but if a server looks to modify and say adds vanilla i’d like the order itself to update to the ‘vanilla cappuccino’ product instead of just adding the order tag.

i’m assuming we would achieve this by some rule and action which if one order tag is selected it removes the previous order and replaces it with the predefined special order. though I feel doing this will result in a huge number of Actions specific to each variable.

does this seem like a reasonable plan?

2

It is possible and it is relatively reasonable, but I think you might be underestimating how much customization that would be.

For the purpose of discussion, first case to handle that comes to my mind is.

You add Cappuccino and then you add Order Tag Vanilla
So it becomes Vanilla Cappuccino following that logic.

So what happens know when you press Chocolate? Does it become Chocolate Vanilla Cappuccino?

So what happens if you press Chocolate first and Vanilla later? Because technically, Vanilla Chocolate Cappuccino and Chocolate Vanilla Cappuccino are not the same product :sweat_smile:

3

I thought this might be the case. I may be able to limit the options through grouping the tags and restricting number.

In the end i’m just saving the option of having extra top level buttons for variable drinks, but I think it may be just easier to do it that way.

4

I’m interested to see how others see this? Originally we would see a vanilla latte as just a latte with Vanilla added and account and track accordingly

but as we have grown i start to see this as unique product in its own right with its own recipe and it’s own stats worth tracking (just one example) hence the move away from Modifyers into its own individual product listing

5

I’ve seen some use portions for that and order tags for sizes.

6

You can do something like this [New 4.1.78] Mandatory Portion Selection (and a contest for fun) but you will have to customize it a bit to do what you need

7

When we use portions it doesn’t actually register a separate product right|? it see the portion as just a multiple of the original item selection is that correct?

I’d like the option for any of the variables to have their own barcode and tags fields and hence I think need to be unique products.

will get there!

8

No it doesnt, but I mean you can process that selection in your rules to be actual name.

Product Cappuccino
Portions

  • Normal
  • Vanilla
  • Chocolate
  • etc.

So on portion selection you actually update Cappuccino Product to be ‘Portion’ + ’ ’ + ‘Product Name’ so its
Normal Cappuccino

Or something along the line of that… As for additional options and order tags, I would probably leave it as is and use them as they are.

Interesting idea but the more I think of this the more impractical it becomes. If its the case of product names, I would just create separate products for most common combinations like Vanilla Cappuccino etc.

9

The best option will be to make it a product. You will find it very difficult to maintain in the future if you attempt to automate that.

10

Yes agreed. I’m realising the best option is to have products for each variation and set them up in a multi level menu and then just repeat the most often used options in a separate menu category or fast menu

Simple really and still allows one click selection of the most common items