Menu Builder — Items, Modifiers & Pricing

How the menu manager is laid out

Open a menu from Restaurant Setup → Menu Builder. The screen is a ledger you scan and fix, built for someone working through a hundred items rather than admiring one:

• One row per item — checkbox, photo, name and code, then the fact columns: Price, Food cost, tax, Recipe, availability toggle, and a menu of less-common actions
• Grouped by category, with a health summary on each group header — item count, how many have no tax, how many are disabled
• Collapsed groups are one row. Nothing renders beneath a collapsed header
• Disabled items stay in place, dimmed and sorted to the bottom of their group, rather than moving to a separate list

Finding what is wrong with your menu

Missing configuration is displayed as a gap, not hidden. An item with no tax rate shows an amber No tax set chip in its row; the same for No photo and No recipe. Every gap is also a filter, inside the single Filter button, each with a live count:

A small amber dot on the Filter button means gaps exist somewhere in the menu; a number badge means a filter is currently active.

Common Tasks

How to Change an Item's Price (edit price, update menu price, change cost to customer)

Prices are edited in the row. There is no need to open the item.

Required permission: Menu management

1. Go to Restaurant Setup → Menu Builder and open the menu
2. Find the item — use the search box if the menu is long
3. Click the Price cell in the item’s row
4. Type the new price and confirm

Result: The price is saved immediately and applies at every till from the next order.

Note: Changing a price changes the item’s food cost percentage. If the item has a target, check whether it has moved Over its target.

How to Set Tax on Menu Items (add GST to menu, no tax set, tax rate, bulk tax)

Items with no tax rate sell without charging tax, which is a compliance problem rather than a cosmetic one. Fix them in bulk.

Required permission: Menu management

1. Go to Restaurant Setup → Menu Builder and open the menu
2. Open Filter and choose No tax set to list every affected item
3. Select the items — use the group header checkbox to take a whole category
4. In the bulk action bar, choose Set tax rate
5. Choose the rate, confirm whether Items are taxable and whether prices are Tax inclusive
6. Apply

Result: Every selected item is updated in one operation and the No tax set count drops.

Note: Tax inclusive decides whether the price you typed already contains tax or has tax added on top. Getting this wrong shifts your revenue by the tax rate on every sale of that item.

How to Mark an Item Unavailable (86 It) (86 an item, out of stock, sold out, temporarily unavailable)

Use this when you have run out today but the item stays on the menu.

1. Go to Restaurant Setup → Menu Builder and open the menu
2. Find the item and use the availability toggle in its row

Result: The item is Unavailable and cannot be ordered. A confirmation reads Marked unavailable. It stays on the menu, visible as temporarily off.

Note: Unavailable is not the same as disabled. Unavailable means *not today*; disabled means *no longer on this menu*. Use the next task for the latter.

How to Take an Item Off the Menu (disable item, remove from menu, retire a dish, delete menu item)

Disable an item you no longer sell but whose sales history you want to keep.

Required permission: Menu management

1. Go to Restaurant Setup → Menu Builder and open the menu
2. Open the item’s action menu in its row
3. Choose Disable Item

Result: The item leaves every ordering surface. Its row stays in the table, dimmed and sorted to the bottom of its category, and its sales history is intact.

Note: Prefer Disable Item to deleting. Deleting removes the item from reporting; disabling keeps last year’s figures comparable. Use Re-enable Item to bring it back.

How to Fix Many Items at Once (bulk edit menu, bulk actions, multi select, change many items)

Anything you would repeat more than a few times has a bulk path.

Required permission: Menu management

1. Go to Restaurant Setup → Menu Builder and open the menu
2. Select items with their checkboxes, or use a group header checkbox to take a whole category
3. The bulk action bar appears at the bottom of the screen
4. Choose the action: set tax rate, change Availability, move to another category, Disable, or delete
5. Confirm

Result: The change applies to every selected item in a single operation.

Note: Use Clear to drop the selection. The bulk bar only shows actions valid for what you have selected.

How to Switch Between Menus (change menu, another menu, archived menu, new menu)

Menus are switched from the menu name itself, not from a tab strip.

1. Click the menu name at the top of the page
2. Choose a menu from the dropdown — each shows its item count
3. Archived menus are listed in their own section
4. Use + New in the same dropdown to create a menu

Result: The table reloads with the chosen menu’s categories and items.

How to Change a Menu's Name, Code or Schedule (menu settings, menu schedule, when is this menu available, archive menu)

Everything set-once about a menu lives behind the settings gear.

Required permission: Menu management

1. Open the menu and click the settings gear
2. Under Identity, edit the Name, Code and Description
3. Under Schedule, set when the menu is available — the sheet states the consequence in a sentence so you can see what the schedule will actually do
4. Save. The Save button only activates once something has changed

Result: The menu is updated. A confirmation reads Menu settings saved.

Note: The same sheet holds Archive this menu and Delete this menu at the bottom, each with its consequence written beside it. Archive is reversible with Restore this menu; delete is only offered when the menu is empty.

How to Add a Category (menu section, add category, new section)

Categories are the groups that structure the table and the ordering screens.

Required permission: Menu management

1. Open the menu and choose Add Category
2. Enter the name
3. Save

Result: The category appears as a new group in the table and as a section on the ordering surfaces.

Note: Categories can be reordered by dragging, which sets the order customers and staff see.

How to Link a Recipe to a Menu Item (add recipe, food cost for item, no recipe, cost doctor)

A menu item with no recipe has no food cost and does not deduct stock when sold.

Required permission: Menu management

1. Open Filter and choose No recipe to find the affected items
2. Open an item and link an existing recipe, or create one
3. Use Cost doctor on the item to check the resulting cost and diagnose anything missing

Result: The item shows a Food cost figure and consumes ingredients when sold.

Note: Watch for Part-costed afterwards. A recipe with uncosted ingredients still produces a food cost figure — a flatteringly low one. See Food Cost Analysis.

Related

• Recipes — where a dish's ingredients and cost are built
• Food Cost Analysis — the cost percentage behind the column
• Restaurant POS & KDS — where the menu is actually used
• Consumer app — where photos and descriptions matter most