Last updated: Nov 12, 2025, 12:31 PM
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Every menu component has an item number. These unique identifiers help keep track of individual menu components within Toast.
Why you might want to reuse or copy:
Why you might want to create new:
To reuse an item or modifier, you can:
To copy an item or modifier, you can:
Reusing an existing menu entity ("add existing") will keep the item number the same. If you add an existing burger to another menu group, the Burger and the Burger Topping modifier group will all have the same number.
This means that if any changes in name or price are made to one of these components, the changes will be made everywhere. This can be helpful when managing changes to items or modifiers as you will only need to make the change once and the updates will take effect everywhere else the same item or modifier is used.
If you want some of your menu items to appear on multiple menus (for example, items on your POS menu will also appear on your special third-party ordering menu), consider reusing those menu items so that they will remain the same for consolidated reporting and updating.
To reuse an item (add an existing item to a different menu, menu group, or subgroup):
Select Save and Publish all changes when you're done.
To reuse an existing modifier group:
To reuse an existing modifier:
In Toast, you can create a copy of an existing menu, item, menu group, or modifier that you have built in your menu. Using Copy Existing in the drop-down next to the + Add button, you may select multiple items or modifier groups to copy at the same time. Note there are two types of copies that can be made:
This means that if any changes in name or price are made to one burger, the changes will not affect the other burger. You can see in the image below, the item number for the copied burger has changed. However, if any changes are made to the toppings, the changes will be made to all burger toppings.
Copying is helpful when creating a Happy Hour menu. Simply copy your alcohol groups and utilize menu-specific pricing. That way, because you’ll be reusing the same items and modifiers from the original group, you’ll have cleaner reporting on item sales.
With a deep copy, if any changes in name or price are made to one original component (like the Cheese modifier group on the original burger), the changes will not affect any of the newly created components (the Cheese modifier group on the new burger). This applies to both items and modifier groups.
It is very important to be careful when deep copying, as duplicates of everything will be created. You can see the different item numbers in the image below. Deep copying is helpful if you're creating a dinner menu that matches your lunch menu where the portions (for inventory) are all different.
To access the Copy existing items feature from the menu manager, select the name of the menu group where you'd like your copied item to be added. Select the Advanced settings button in the top right corner of the settings panel, and then scroll down to the Items list.
If you can't find the menu/menu group/item/modifier you are trying to copy in the list, check in the items database to be sure it is not archived.
In addition, after you've saved your changes, the word "Copy" will appear after each shallow copied item and "Deep Copy" will appear after each deep copied item.
| Be careful: it is possible to create an endless loop with nested modifiers where it will endlessly ask guests or staff to make a selection. This happens when an existing modifier group is used for a nested modifier option, while the modifier nested is a modifier choice in the modifier group used to create the nested options. |
If you’d like to create a version of one or more menu groups with special pricing (for example, for third-party ordering or a happy hour menu), consider copying your menu group and applying a menu-specific price.
Learn more in this Toast Central article, .
Note that while deep copies can be created to reprice a menu item without affecting the original menu item's price, we do not recommend this configuration as it will result in duplicate items in your items database. Additionally, if the pricing method used in the original menu is not the base price, you'll be unable to convert the pricing to menu-specific pricing. For this reason, we recommend using the copy function (instead of deep copy) so that the menu group is copied but the items, modifier groups, and modifiers associated with the menu group are reused.