We are attempting to extract data from Toast and manage it with Power Query to streamline our order management process for catering events and holiday meal orders; the goal is to improve efficiency and eliminate errors associated with hand tallying individual orders. We have determined that 1) the reports available to us are unable to support items which have more than one modifier group or have a modifier group where the guest can select multiple modifiers and 2) the reports with complete information are only available in PDF format and are not able to be downloaded.
Because of these issues, we are unable to determine exactly what needs to be produced to fulfill orders, and we are unable to know exactly what we have sold in many instances. It has been recommended that we flatten our menu, i.e. do not use the architectural features in the software, but this would result in an extremely large number of menu items, and it would clutter the POS and degrade the on-line ordering experience.
If we leverage the architecture as is described at length in the help files, the training videos and classroom sessions, the only way to get the information we need is to print individual orders (for catering) and hand tally the items. This doesn't work with historical sales as the only report which contains accurate and complete information (Sales:Order Details) cannot be downloaded in any format.
Toast resources have acknowledged these limitations and have indicated that resolution may be months or years out.
We are curious if anyone else has encountered these limitations and have been able to work around them. We have not been able to identify a path to a solution. We must be able to automate order management given the large and increasing volume of business.
