Toast Retail: Set Up Your Item Library

In this Article:

• Set Up Your Toast Retail Item Library
• Select Existing Menus for Retail: Setup Recommendations 
• Start a New Item Library 

Set Up Your Toast Retail Item Library

Once Toast Retail has been added to your account, you can access it from the left-hand navigation in Toast Web by selecting Retail. 

The first thing you’ll need to do in the Retail module is set up your item library with all of your inventory details. There are a few different approaches available, depending on what you’re starting with:

• If you already have retail items set up as a menu in Toast Web - bring those menus into Toast Retail.
• If you have an inventory spreadsheet or POS export:
  
  • If you’re working with an Onboarding Consultant (OC) -  email your spreadsheet to your OC. 
  • If you’re not working with an OC -  import items yourself using the template OR start a new item library with smart scan.
• If you don’t have an inventory spreadsheet or POS export:
  
  • If your items have barcodes - start a new item library with smart scan.
  • If you’re using Toast Retail to generate barcodes - import items yourself using the template. 

The first time you visit the Retail page, you’ll be presented with these options for building your item library: 

Regardless of how you set up your item library, here are a couple things to keep in mind:

• Once items have been created, you can link them together into bundles (e.g. gift baskets, charcuterie boards, beer flights) or alternate packages (e.g. 4-pack and single bottle). See this Toast Central article to learn more: .
• If you’re integrating with Shopify, you must have your retail items set up in both Shopify and your Toast Retail item library in order to link the inventory counts together. Learn more here: . 

 
Select Existing Menus for Retail: Setup Recommendations

If you plan to bring your menus to your item library for Toast Retail, consider these guidelines to make item management as easy as possible.

Items can be organized within the following hierarchy: Category group (aka "menus" for restaurants) > Category ("menu groups") > Subcategory ("menu subgroups") 

We recommend creating a single category group (often called “Retail” or “Market”) that contains all items with barcodes that are meant to be scanned. This would be the primary category managed in Toast Retail. Items without barcodes would be added to a different category group and then added to orders by tapping on the corresponding button on your Toast device. If a single category group contains items with and without barcodes altogether, it can be difficult to find the right items quickly. A few other recommendations to consider:

Create a hierarchy of categories (and if appropriate, subcategories) to hold items. 

• Limit this hierarchy to three levels (category group, category, subcategory). You may wish to use the word "retail" in the name (e.g. "Retail Food" or "Retail Items") to make it easier to distinguish which items are specific to retail when you're working in the menu editor in the future. 
• Name the groups based on the different categories of items you offer (beverages, pastries, prep foods, etc.).
• Limit the number of items in a category or subcategory to 1,500 items. If you try to add more than 1,500 items in a single category, they will automatically be broken up into multiple categories in Toast Retail. 

When applicable, you can set sales categories, taxes, and embedded barcode configuration at the category group (menu) level or the category (menu group) level, so those settings can be inherited by all items within the group. 

• For retail items with a different tax rate than restaurant items, you may find it easiest to group all items that need the same tax within the same category group or category. You can set the tax rate at the category group or category level so that all items inherit the same tax rate. With this setup, you won't have to configure taxes for each item, and you won't need to configure taxes each time you add new items to that category group/category. 
   

Note: All of your retail items will show in your menu editor, but only those menus that are selected in Toast Retail will show up in your item library. This is why you might have items that you can see in your menu editor, but not in Toast Retail. 

To learn more about the menu hierarchy and how to build one to meet your needs, check out this Toast Central article: .

Start a New Item Library

If you’re not using an inventory spreadsheet or a POS export, or if you prefer to start with a fresh item library, you’ll need to create your items individually in Toast Retail. 

To create a new item that doesn’t have a barcode, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to your retail item library in Toast Web by selecting Retail > Item management > Item Library.
2. Select + Add item in the top left corner.
3. Add your item details, and then select Save. 

If your items have barcodes, Toast Retail’s smart scan feature helps you expedite new item creation (pre-filling item name, brand, image, and AI-generated description) to make building your item library a much quicker process. 
 
New retail item creation with smart scan: When you scan a new barcode on your item library in Toast Web, the system will recognize that the item doesn't exist and will start a new item workflow. If a match is found for the barcode you scanned, a pop-up will appear on the item details page so you can select which information to apply to your new item. If needed, you can create new category groups and categories as you're adding items via scanning. 

Note: At this time, if you add an image for an item, it will appear on Shopify, online ordering, and kiosks, but not on your POS. Only the item name can be displayed on the POS.