topic Re: 3rd Party menus refresh all items back in stock several times a day in Restaurant Operations

3rd Party menus refresh all items back in stock several times a day

SSWRC — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 18:19:54 GMT

We have separate menus for our 3rd Party (Uber and Doordash) and our in-house POS. Cashiers can change what's in stock on the POS but it does not affect the 3rd Party menu, which is only accessible on Toast Web by admins.

Our problem is when a cashier changes an item to Out of Stock on the Uber or Doordash tablets, it doesn't stick. The Toast 3rd Party menu refreshes and returns all items back In Stock several times a day, allowing orders for items that aren't available. There is no rhyme or reason to the refresh rate; some of our locations battle this problem daily while others won't see this problem happen for several weeks, then it starts back up again.

I can't just give the cashiers access to the 3rd Party menus on Toast Web. All locations source from the same 3rd Party menu, so if one location were to turn an item invisible, it would affect all locations.

Uber and DoorDash both tell me this is a Toast issue. How can I get Toast to STOP refreshing our 3rd Party menus? Can I not just set them to refresh when I publish a change? Or if they have to refresh daily why can't it be when we are closed? What other reason would we need it to refresh over and over again throughout the day?

Re: 3rd Party menus refresh all items back in stock several times a day

Sdaniel — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 22:28:17 GMT

Hey @SSWRC,

We also have a 3rd party menu (Door Dash), separate from our in house POS menu, but I don't believe we have encountered the issue you are having of the menu refreshing. We have a multi location build with varying pricing as well, but when it comes to setting items out of stock for our third party menu, aside from setting it out of stock on the Door Dash tablet, each of our locations has a Door Dash merchant portal log in where they can also set items out of stock. Our 3rd party menu is not visible to the POS though, and so our managers are expected to use the Door Dash tablet or the merchant portal to set items out of stock.

I am not sure if this answers your concerns, but thought I'd share what we do to manage out of stocks.

Marking an Item Out of Stock (doordash.com)

Re: 3rd Party menus refresh all items back in stock several times a day

au79teahouse — Sat, 07 Sep 2024 04:06:17 GMT

Are the 3PD menus visible on your in-house POS?

Re: 3rd Party menus refresh all items back in stock several times a day

SSWRC — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 15:02:06 GMT

No, they are only visible on back-end.

Re: 3rd Party menus refresh all items back in stock several times a day

SSWRC — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 15:03:57 GMT

Thanks for the breakdown of your process. Do you have your managers use the merchant portal AND the tablet to mark out-of-stock, or do they use one or the other?

Re: 3rd Party menus refresh all items back in stock several times a day

Sdaniel — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 17:52:58 GMT

It depends on the store and manager, but the merchant portal most often. Some of our locations currently don't have functioning tablets and we need to have them replaced. Currently I work in our IT department, but during my time as a manager in our stores, I downloaded the Door Dash merchant portal app on the store's iPad for easier access.

What is the Merchant Mobile App? (doordash.com)

Re: 3rd Party menus refresh all items back in stock several times a day

au79teahouse — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 18:54:49 GMT

It sounds like you have 3PD integration already. When you use the same menu items for both your in-store menus and 3PD menus, items should be turned off almost immediately on DD and UE if they are turned off in store. It depends on your menu setup.