topic Re: Feature Request: Internal Name field for Items & Modifiers in Restaurant Operations

Feature Request: Internal Name field for Items & Modifiers

nick — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 19:29:25 GMT

Hello Toasters,

This is primarily a feature request, but curious if any other brands are looking for this as well. We desperately need an internal name field for menu items, mainly modifiers. We have individual modifiers that have the same name but are not identical regarding their respective recipes.

For example, the modifier Extra Chicken has different portions depending on which menu item it's being used with, Taco (4oz) or Burrito (8oz). In order for our inventory software, Restaurant365, to track depletion properly, we must have a unique Extra Chicken modifier to map to the Taco recipe, and another unique Extra Chicken modifier to map to the Burrito recipe.

Now in Restaurant365, when these modifiers are imported into the system, they're both named Extra Chicken with no way of differentiating the two. The only solution would be to rename the POS modifiers to something like Extra Chicken - Taco & Extra Chicken - Burrito, but this is not ideal as the name will display on guest receipts. This can get very messy, especially when a modifier such as No Cheese can have 5+ different portions depending on which menu item it's being used on.

Another problem with having multiple modifiers named the same thing occurs when dealing with our POS Items database. Ex. Say I create a new Burrito menu item. I try to add the Extra Chicken modifier with the correct portion for Burritos, but I'm faced with a list of modifiers all with the same Extra Chicken name. I then have to click through each of my Extra Chicken modifiers in the list to see which one is applied to other Burritos in order to determine which Extra Chicken modifier I should be adding to the new Burrito menu item.

If there were an internal name field, or even a guest facing name field, we could name our modifiers as specifically as we need to without cluttering up what the guest sees on their receipt. Currently there are only 3 name fields: Name, POS Name, Kitchen Name. A 4th name field would solve many pain points for us and make menu management a lot easier.

Wondering whether I'm alone in this struggle or not and if Toast will be implementing this in the near future.

Cheers,

Nick

Re: Feature Request: Internal Name field for Items & Modifiers

rcmck — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 20:08:27 GMT

I don't have the same issue as you but I do like to give modifier groups customer friendly names for online ordering that look better or are instructional, like Pick a Side, Choose Your Toppings, or Customize instead of something like Burger Mods that looks like they are using the internal POS online. But then when searching the menu to add existing mods they all look the same, an internal or backend only name would be very helpful here.

Re: Feature Request: Internal Name field for Items & Modifiers

nick — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 21:53:49 GMT

Exactly - this is another perfect example as to why we need either an internal or a guest facing name field.

We do this as well for mod groups on online ordering. Rather than showing the guest an "Extra Protein" mod group, they see a more inviting "Want more?" name. Luckily Olo has an internal name field, so we have full control over what our guests see vs. what we see.

Re: Feature Request: Internal Name field for Items & Modifiers

ayprasad — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 17:54:24 GMT

I agree 👍, I have been 100% in need of this. There needs to be a database-manager-friendly name, kitchen name, server (POS) name and guest-friendly name (and perhaps any integrations use the guest-friendly name, or they have access to database-friendly or guest-friendly name both depending on what type of integration it is).

Re: Feature Request: Internal Name field for Items & Modifiers

nick — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 18:27:24 GMT

Agreed!

Re: Feature Request: Internal Name field for Items & Modifiers

ns — Sun, 17 Sep 2023 14:30:09 GMT

Yea, we deal with this also, often with food, but even more often with wine:

We have an extensive wine program. We’d strongly prefer to not print bin numbers on guest receipts (or soon, display on Order and Pay), but without a dedicated guest-facing name, there isn’t a solution for us.