Set Up a Date-Specific Menu

In this Article:

• Set Up Date-Specific Menu
• Set Up Menu Availability
  
  • Day of Week & Time of Day
  • Override Regular Store Hours for the Special Day (If Needed)
  • Manage Your Regular Menu's Availability

Set Up a Date-Specific Menu

You might want to offer special menus for holidays or one-off events. It's important to know that at this time, you cannot schedule a menu to be available for only a single, specific date. Please take this into account when preparing your menus for these special occasions.

While setting a menu for a single specific date isn't directly possible, here's a method to closely manage availability for special occasion menus (like for a holiday). This approach requires careful setup of several settings:

1. First, create your special menu, but make sure it's not visible to your customers initially. This allows you to make all necessary changes and publish them internally without the menu appearing live before you're ready.
2. Once your special menu is built and ready, you must verify the following online ordering settings to ensure it can be ordered on your desired date:
   • Make sure the Scheduled Orders feature is turned ON.
   • The date range for scheduled orders must include the specific date you want this special menu to be available.
   • Your general online ordering schedule (the days of the week you accept online orders) must also permit orders on the specific day of the week your special menu is intended for.

Note: If these online ordering settings are not configured correctly, your customers will not be able to order from this special menu online.

Set Up Menu Availability for a Date-Specific Menu

Once you've set the overall date range for when your special menu can be ordered (using the Scheduled Orders settings mentioned earlier), you'll use the following settings within the menu itself and your online ordering schedule to control exactly when on that specific day(s) it's available, and how it interacts with your regular menu.

Day of Week & Time of Day for a Date-Specific Menu

• Day of the Week: In your special menu's settings, choose the specific Day(s) of the Week it should be available.
  • Example: If your special menu is for Thanksgiving (which falls on a Thursday), you would select Thursday in its availability settings.
  • Note: On pre-orders, you might worry that setting Thursday makes it available every Thursday. However, the Scheduled Order Date Range (that you configured previously) ultimately controls the overall period during which this menu can be pre-ordered or ordered. The Day of the Week setting here refines it within that date range.
• Time of Day: For pickup, if you want to offer specific pickup times for your special menu on the event day (e.g., Thanksgiving pickups only between 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.), set these exact times in the menu's Time of Day availability. This ensures orders for this menu can only be placed for these designated slots.

Override Regular Store Hours for the Special Day (If Needed)

Sometimes, your special event hours will be different from your usual online ordering hours for that particular day of the week, or you might normally be closed. In these cases, you'll use the Online Ordering Schedule Override.

• What does it do?
  • This override tells the system your actual online availability for a specific date, overriding your normal weekly schedule for just that day.
• When to use it?
  • If your special menu pickup times are outside your normal operating hours for that day.
  • If you're shortening or extending your pickup window specifically for the event.

Example:

• Your restaurant normally offers online pickup from 5:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. on Thursdays.
• For Thanksgiving Day, you only want to offer pickups from 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.
• You would create an Online Ordering Schedule Override specifically for Thanksgiving Day, setting the available hours from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

Manage Your Regular Menu's Availability

During the time your special holiday menu is active, you'll likely want to prevent customers from ordering off your regular menu.

• Adjust regular menu hours: You'll need to adjust your regular menu's availability settings so it doesn't conflict with your special menu's active times on the event day.
• When a copied regular menu might be useful:
  • If your special menu's pickup times overlap with your regular menu's usual pickup times,
  • And you plan to publish/set up this special menu availability more than a week in advance,
  • Then you might need to create a copy of your regular menu. This copied regular menu can then have its availability specifically restricted for the special event day(s) without affecting your normal weekly schedule too far out. Your original regular menu would remain unchanged for all other days.