Menu Item Separation

The Menu Item Separation selector gives the User the option to customize how Menu Items are polled and grouped from the POS. While this is unnecessary for most Organizations, Customers with multiple concepts may find this useful. The options that are included in this listing are:

• None

• Location

• Legal Entity

While 'Location' and 'Legal Entity' are viable options, they can often overwhelm your Menu Item Listing due to their naming conventions, as shown below:

• If 'Location' is selected and your Organization has 3 Locations, then the Menu Item of 'tomatoes' would appear accordingly in your Menu Items list:

  • Location 1 - Tomatoes

  • Location 2 - Tomatoes 

  • Location 3 - Tomatoes

• If 'Legal Entity' is selected and your Organization has 2 Legal Entities, then the Menu Item of 'tomatoes' would appear accordingly in your Menu Items list:

  • Legal Entity 1 - Tomatoes

  • Legal Entity 2 - Tomatoes

Each option displayed above may show the structure that works best for your Organization, but Organizations with multiple concepts may want to structure their Menu Items by concept for a more concise listing of Menu Items. 

By setting up the Location Reporting Category of 'Concept' in R365, you are essentially grouping items by the overall restaurant theme. This allows an Organization with multiple concepts across multiple Locations to have one Menu Item listed per concept rather than per Location. Therefore, if 'Concept' is selected and you have 6 Locations tied to that concept, the Menu Item of 'tomatoes' would appear accordingly in your Menu Items list:

• Pizza Concept - Tomatoes

This will drastically reduce the total amount of items listed in your Menu Items list. 

Step 1: Set up Location Reporting Categories

Navigate to System Preferences by hovering over 'Administration' in the top ribbon and clicking 'Preferences'. When System Preferences opens in a new window, open the 'Location Reporting Categories' tab. This will list up to ten different Category fields that you can use to organize your Locations. Enter 'Concept' for Category 1 and any other desired Categories before saving and closing the window.

Step 2: Update Location Records

Location records will need to be updated to show the type of concept tied to each Location. To begin, open the Location listing and double-click the first Location to open its record in a new window. 

In the Location record window, open the 'Reporting Categories' tab. You will now see the Location Reporting Categories that you created in System Preferences.

Type in the concept that you would like to organize this Location by and click 'Enter'. A prompt will appear asking if you would like to add this new concept. Click 'Yes' on this prompt and then 'Save and New' on the following prompt until all concepts are created. On the final concept, click 'Save and Close'.

All of the newly-created concepts will now appear in the Concept drop-down listing. Select the correct concept for this Location and save the record before closing. Ensure that all Location records are updated to include the correct concept.

Step 3: Update the Menu Item Separation Field

This option will change how your menu items are polled and cannot be undone. Before making this selection, ensure that all changes for relevant Locations are accurate and complete.

Return back to the 'Miscellaneous' tab of System Preferences. When you click the Menu Item Separation selector, you will find that your newly-created Location Reporting Categories are now a part of this listing. Select 'Concept' and ensure that you save and close.

When the next Daily Sales Summary is polled in, the Menu Items will now be separated by concept.

Step 4: Mark Old Menu Items as 'Inactive'

Since you have reorganized your Menu Items to be listed by concept, the previous Menu Items will remain in your database but will not be used in reports moving forward. To help differentiate them further, you can label these items as 'Inactive' so that System Users are more aware of which Menu Items should not be used. To do this, open the Menu Item listing and select the first Menu Item. 

When the record opens, click the hyperlinked field 'Category 3' to open the New Category window. Type 'Inactive' or 'Do Not Use' in the field and click 'Save and Close'. This will create a new Menu Item Category that can then be selected and saved on its record to better classify the item. Repeat this for all necessary Menu Items.