Creating Menu Items

Menu items represent individual dishes or components of a meal that can be chosen by customers or pupils from a broader selection of options. These items are carefully crafted to appeal to various tastes and dietary preferences.

  This article will teach you...

How to create menu items and configure Pricing, Allergy information, and Dietary Information

Creating Menu Items (Video Showcase)

For step-by-step instructions on building a Menu Item, please watch the video below. Alternatively, you can find detailed written guidance in the sections following the video.

Adding Menu Item Details

  1. Go to Menus > Items and click Add [1].
  2. In the new window, you can start entering the menu item details.

    NOTE

    Fields marked with an Asterisk (*) are mandatory to create a menu item

Menu ID

The Menu ID [2] can be simple (e.g. 001) or something more advanced (e.g. VEG001), when creating a Menu ID you can use a maximum of 10 characters. The Menu ID must be unique and not replicate an already existing Menu Item ID. There will be a warning message if the Menu Item ID is already in use.

Name

The Name [3] is displayed throughout the system when making pre-orders or marking meals as taken. 
The Name field has a maximum of 50 characters.

Description

The Description [4] can be used to describe what the meal item is. It will be visible for internal usage.

Menu Type

The Menu Type [5] is used to specify if the item is a Main course, Vegetable side, Dessert, Drink or Other item. Once selected, a subtype menu will display.

Sub Type

The Sub Type [6] list contains a colour-coded selection of the different menu item subtypes, for example, menu items that contain Meat/Fish are marked as Red, and Vegetarian Menu Items are marked as green. Depending on the subtype selected, this colour will appear next to the menu item on the whiteboard.

Colours and names can be edited in Menus > Admin > Menu Item Sub Types. Sub types can not be setup during menu item import.

IMPORTANT

Assigning a menu item with the Packed lunch (Home) subtype will hide this item from meal numbers reports unless specified within the export filters.


Menu Label

The Menu Label [7] means you can use the Menu Items search filter to show only Menu Items assigned to a Menu Label e.g. Sea Food. For more information please refer to the following article.

Photo

The Photo [8] is for uploading a picture of the menu item (max size 300kb). This can help encourage children to eat healthier and make it easier for school meals for payers when English isn't their first language.

Availability

The Available [9] checkboxes must be checked to make a menu item visible to a specific Type for meal selection. If the corresponding checkbox is not ticked, the menu item will not be available for selection. 

Ingredients

The Ingredients tab allows you to specify the ingredients for each menu item. These ingredients will be available on the Parent Booking system, Whiteboard, and Tablet.

  1. Open the Ingredients Tab [1].
  2. Use the Ingredients Field [2] to specify the ingredients for the menu item. All ingredients must be separated by a comma.
  3. We recommend that all allergens be highlighted with bold, underlined, or italic text using the Text Options [3].
  4. Click Save [4].

Menu Item Pricing

After filling in the required and additional menu item information it's time to set the Meal Prices.

If the default or yearly pricing has been set up in your Cypad settings, the assigned prices will automatically apply to this menu item. The Meal Prices tab to override and assign separate charges to the menu item by entering information into the following fields:

  1. Open the Meal Prices Tab [1].

  2. Next to the Relevant Price Type [2], enter the required value you wish to charge for this item.
  3. To make an item free of charge, enter the amount value 0.00 next to the Price Type [3].
  4. Alternatively if the amount is set to Skip Pricing Level [4] this will pull the pricing information from the Year level. For more information on the meal price hierarchy please refer to the following article
    .

Adding Allergy Information

It is important to accurately record allergy and dietary information for each menu item.

  1. Open the Allergens Tab [1].
  2. A list of the 14 most common allergen types can be selected from, for a more detailed description of what each allergen covers hover the mouse over the Note Section [2] for each allergy type. Alternatively, please refer to the What are the 14 most common Allergies? article.
  3. The Allergen table has two colums to choose from. If you know the menu item contains an allergen, select the appropriate checkbox/s under the Does Contain [2] column. If the menu item might contain an allergen, select the appropriate checkbox/s under the May Contain [3] column.

Adding Diet Type Information

The Diet Type tab is used to identify Menu Items that are not safe for a student's diet type restriction. When a diet type checkbox is checked the system will restrict showing Menu Items that have not been marked as safe for the Diet Type in all Meal Selection channels (Manager App, Whiteboard, Parent Bookings and Tablet).

NOTE

The Diet Type logic is outlined in the Diet Type page,  you can also refer to the How to add allergy and dietary information to a user record article for more information.

  1. Open the Diet Type Tab [1].
  2. Check the Relevant Diet Type Checkboxes [2].

IMPORTANT

Cypad offers two methods for managing dietary requirements, Automatic Conflict and Manual Tablet-Based Management which may affect the above configurations. Please refer to the following article for more information.

Allergen and Diet Type information must also be added to a diner's record to ensure menu items are properly restricted, please refer to the following article for more information on how to do this.

What Next?

You have successfully added Details, Pricing, and Allergies and Dietary Information to the newly created menu item. To save your progress and add the item to the Cypad system, click Save [1] in the top right corner. Repeat these steps for each menu item that needs to be created.

NOTE

You can upload menu items in bulk by following the instructions in the following article.

After creating the required menu items, the next step is to assign them to a menu template. For more information, please refer to the following article.

For more information on the various configuration options for menu items which can be used to carry out different actions, please view the following article.

Was this article helpful?
0 out of 0 found this helpful