This article was written for Volanté build: 1730 and up

This section covers the configuration of Options, Extras and Combos in the Menu Setup UI.

Options are modifiers, add-ons or supplementary information that can be included along with menu items. They are an optional component to menu programming. Using Options allow for cleaner menu item programming and reporting.

For example:

Hamburger Options: i.e. lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, etc.
Coffee Options: i.e. cream, sugar, sweetener, milk, flavors etc.

Combos are typically sets of items that, when purchased together, provide a discount, either on individual items or by combining the combo into a single grouping.

For example:

Hamburger Meal Combo: i.e. burger, fries and drink under one Combo Grouping.
Coffee Breakfast Combo: i.e. muffins, toast, and coffee will result in a Combo Discount.

Older builds of Volanté made use of tags to configure combos.

The following documentation is for a build of Volanté that is still in development. Details are subject to change.

Linking Menu Items to Options and Extras

Options and Extras are both functionally similar in their configuration, though must be edited from their respective panels.

Options – Link Options to Menu Items
Extras – Link Extras to Menu Items

Users can also select between Local and Template radio buttons to determine how Options should be configured.

Local Override – Save Options based on current settings in the local BackOffice.
Use Template – Save Template settings based on templates brought down from the HeadOffice (Enterprise Only) or Template.

Figure 2: How to save options

Linking Menu Items to Options and Extras

To add Options and Extras to Menu Items:

Select a Menu Item from the Menu Tree view.
With the Menu Item selected, drag and drop an Option or Extra of choice from the right pane to the middle pane.
- If no Options or Extras are present, follow the instructions in the next section to add them to the list.

Figure 3: How to link Menu Items to Options/Extras

Removing Options and Extras

Options and Extras can be unlinked from a Menu Item by right-clicking the respective item and selecting Remove.

Figure 4: How to remove options/extras

New/Edit Options Fields

Field Name	Description
Name	Name of the option
Alt Name	Alternate name for the Option. May be used for secondary languages if needed.
Description	Notes on the Option.
Order Id	Determine the ordering of the Option in the list.
Advanced Config	Enter InterfaceLinks for Options here for advanced configurations. For more details on Option InterfaceLinks, please see: InterfaceLink - Menu Items Alternatively, please contact Volanté Support for more details.

Add Options and Extras

To add an Option to use with a Menu Item:

Right-click the right pane.
Select Add New. A new Option will be added, with the default name: NEW GROUPING.
Fields for setting up the new Option will also be available enabled. Add information for the Option. See the table above for setting up Option fields.
Select Cancel to discard all changes and remove the item, or select Save to save the new Option.
This Option is now available for use, and can be dragged and dropped into the middle pane to apply to the current Menu Item.

Delete and Edit

Deleting and Editing options are also available by right-clicking the Options pane on the right.

Editing Options simply allows the user to edit the same fields set up in the Add Options panel.

Figure 5: Adding new options and extras

Remove Options and Extras Linked to Menu Items

In the center pane, users can right-click an Option or Extra and select Remove to remove it.

Show Items

Select the "..." dropdown box to reveal filters for items.

Select from:

Show Head Office items for download
Show items downloaded from Head Office (Enterprise Only)
Show items created locally

Figure 6: Show item filters

Setting up Options and Extras – Values

Select an item from the Menu Items pane on the left. In this example, we have used a Hamburger menu item.
If the menu item is set to REGULAR or OPTION for Combo/Options in Menu Item setup, the middle pane will be editable. Should the menu item be configured for COMBO usage, it will not be available for editing in Options/Extras.
From the OPTION Groupings pane, drag and drop one of the options available.
1. OPTION groupings are configured from the Combo/Option Groupings tab.
Enter values into the Options linked fields. For more details on configuring option links, please see: Link Menu Item Options.

Figure 7: Setting up Options / Extras

Link Options

This chart provides descriptions for each column in the Options/Extras menu.

Column Name	Description
Name	What the option-linked item is addressed as.
Order	Allows users to rearrange the appearance order of option items.
Min	The minimum number of options per category required. The default is 0, meaning there is no minimum required. If you require at least 1 option per category, change to a minimum of 1.
Common	Refers to the quantity of options that can be chosen. The default is 1, meaning that by default you select 1 of the options selected – if you set to 5 you can have up to 5 of the option selected.
Abs. Max	The maximum number of options per category required. The default is 0, meaning there is no maximum. If you require only 1 option per category be selected, change to "1".
Price Change (COMBO ONLY)	Notes the price changes applied to items. Used only in combos.

Advanced Options

Column Name	Description
Quantity Point	The Quantity Point threshold, where the price changes based on the number of options selected.
Price($)<=(QP)	The price before or at the Quantity Point threshold is reached.
Price($)> QP	The price after the Quantity Point threshold is reached.
Wings	Wings may be sold in offerings of a certain value. The price for wings may increase based on how many multiples of offerings are purchased - this value determines pricing for each additional offering of wings. For more details on how purchasing wings works in Volanté, see: Wing Screen
Wings Multiple	See above.
Interface Link	Enter InterfaceLinks for Options here for advanced configurations. For more details on Option InterfaceLinks, please see: InterfaceLink - Menu Items Alternatively, please contact Volanté Support for more details.

Combos

This section outlines combo configurations. Properly configured combos allow customers to purchase multiple items and receive a discount. This section focuses on configuring Combo Items with “Groupings”. Menu Items are placed in these Groupings, which are in turn set up to work with a Combo Item.

Price Modifiers (Discount Setup)

In previous versions of Volanté, users could only set up Combo Discounts in Discount Setup under General Setup:

General Setup > Payments & Discounts Settings > Price Modifiers > Properties

A new addition in Volanté Build 1730 and onward is the ability to configure Combos like Menu Items with Options. Combos are comparable to Options and Extras in their configuration.

Price Modifiers

Users have the ability to configure Combos like Menu Items with Options. Combos are comparable to Options and Extras in their configuration.

Workflow for Building a Combo

Plan out the Menu Items to be included in Combos.

Items that are considered Combo Items must be set to COMBO.
These are distinct from standard Menu Items, which should be left as REGULAR items. These items are used as part of a COMBO Item.

Menu Item Tab – Configure Combo Item

Under Menu Item, select a Menu Item to be designated as a Combo Item.
Navigate to the Advanced section for this Menu Item
Open the Combo/Option only drop down box. Set the item from Regular to Combo.

Figure 8: Setting up a Combo
Set the Combo Priority if necessary. If multiple combos happen to be eligible in an order, the value here indicates if a particular combo takes precedence.

NOTE: Should two combos happen to share the same Combo Priority value, they will be further prioritized based on the Combo Item’s name, in alphabetical order.
Set Detect Combo Item options. These settings determine how combos are detected and added to the transaction on the POS terminal.
- Manual detect – Users need to manually convert items into a Combo by selecting the “Combo” Action Key, available on the POS screen.
- Auto detect on total – Convert eligible ordered items into a Combo upon hitting total.
- Auto detect on add - Convert ordered items into a Combo upon eligible combo items being added to the transaction.
  
  NOTE: The previous method for setting items to auto detect needed to be set up from the System Configuration screen, on Page 6.
  A new UI revamp has deemed this unnecessary and removed these options from Page 6, as may be performed from the Menu Setup screen instead.
  Now, each item can be provided with individual each of the Detect Combo Item options.
  →
Figure 9: Options and Extras can be linked to Menu Items from each respective panel.
After setting an item as a “Combo”, users will need to configure Combo Groupings to attribute to the Item.

Combo/Option Tab - Configure Combo Groupings

Navigate to Combo/Option tab > Combos. Create a new Combo from the upper right corner by right-clicking the pane and selecting Add New. Name the Combo folder.

Figure 10: Adding a new Combo
Select the Combo you have created (i.e. Burger Combo). This will reveal the list of Menu Items that are currently present in the Burger Combo in the bottom right.
Drag a Menu Item from the Menu Items pane on the left to the combo panes anywhere on the right. This will add the item to the combo.
Figure 11: Select the combo to add Menu Items
This item will now be added to the Combos pane on the bottom right. This list indicates all items that are required for the combo to be eligible.

Figure 12: Menu Items appear on the bottom right pane after added to a Combo
Configure the Combo settings for the menu item from the middle pane. Please note that the middle pane will not be available for usage if the selected menu item is not configured for Combo usage.

Review Figure 8 and associated steps for enabling items for combos if necessary.
Disabled Enabled
The selected Soft Drink item is not configured for Combo usage.
The selected Fries menu item is configured for Combo usage
Figure 13: Shows a Menu Item disabled / enabled for Combo use
If all items in the combo are set to be usable with combos, the middle Combo pane will be available for editing (pictured above).
This interface is similar to the Options/Extras UI, where users can configure individual ordering settings for each Menu Item in the combo. Note that there are no Advanced Options as there would be in Options/Extras, and there is the addition of a Price Change column for use in combos. Review the Link Options chart for further details.

Price Change in Combos

In Price Change, write in the operator and the value to alter the price of the menu item when it is present in this combo. The operators available are the same as those present in other price modifier sections in Volanté:

Operations and values:

Equal sign (=) – Absolute value change
Blank ( ) / Addition (+) – Add value to base price.
- i.e. Both 3 and +3 will add 3 dollars to the base price
Subtract ( - ) = value from base price
% sign (following values) = denotes a percentage of the base price. Use + and - operators to discount or add percentage of base price.
- i.e. -50% discounts base item price by half.

Price Change Example

For example, a Hamburger item can exist in multiple combos.

In each combo, it is assigned a different discount value if the combo is valid (pictured below):

-3.00: Reduce the Hamburger's price by a flat value of $3
-10%: Reduce the Hamburger's price by 10%
=2: Absolute value; change the price of the Hamburger in this combo to 2.

Figure 14: How to setup a price change for Combos

Add to All, Replace All

The Add to All and Replace All buttons can be found in the bottom-right corner of both the Options and Extras tab and the Combos tab.

Figure 15: Add to All and Replace All buttons

Add to All

This option will add all Option, Extra or Combo links for a selected Division, Grouping or Category and copy these settings to all menu items within these folders.

Users will be prompted with the following message prior to doing this.

Figure 16: Confirmation message to add all items for Options/Extras/Combos

If Add to All is selected, and the associated Link being added is already present in the Menu Item, the Link will be added once more as a duplicate.

Be wary of this when adding Option Links to items all at once.

For example, a Sides Option Link is already present for a Hamburger Menu Item. The Sandwich Category consists of Vegetables, Condiments, and already has a Sides Options as well. Selecting Add to All will add Vegetables, Condiments and Sides to the Hamburger, but Sides will now appear twice.

Replace All

Selecting this button will change Option/Extra/Combo Links for all items in one Grouping (i.e. all items within a Division, Group or Category) to those of the selected Menu item.

Using the Hamburger Combo example above, if Replace All is selected, all other items in the Sandwiches Grouping will all use the same Combo Link options.

Users are prompted with a warning before this change is made.

Figure 17: Confirmation message to replace all Menu Items in Options/Extras/Combos

Price Modifiers – Old Combos

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See Also:

System Configuration - BackOffice (v7)

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