Deep Copy - unattractive solution

[ejbytes]

Restaurant Professionals!

At our restaurant, Downtown, we-like-the-rest-of-the-community change our prices during EVENTS; Concerts, Convention, something that draws in the visitors. That's a big city strategy. Hotel prices are up, parking is up, everything is up. That's the way it is.

DEEP COPY - is how I strategize this effort to change "working menus" efficiently. One problem! It's UGLY and needs cleaning and it's TEDIOUS!

Dinner, Copy, [x] Deep Copy -> Hmmm. It doesn't say "(Deep Copy)" on each line item. Hmmm. Did it work? Save? Oh, SAVE, then (Deep Copy) is appended at each line item. That's not obvious, but did I read the 5000 page manual? Yes? Okay, it's identified now.

THE UGLY:
DEEP COPY prints on the customer's receipt! That's where the TEDIOUS comes into play. You now have to ask, "What do I do to keep it clean, so DEEP COPY isn't on the customer's receipt?" Oh, I now have to EDIT each line item. All 150 line items? Yeah. 

Other options to clean up DEEP COPY? NO:
Let's see, "POS", make is short for server's to ID quickly. What kitchen sees? Nope. An EDIT on every line item is now due. So, now after I "clean" the line items after a DEEP COPY. Now what? Someone comes in an add's to the menu, Copy Existing items. Oh no!  Which are parallel copies and which are DEEP COPY!? OHHHH NOOOO! I may want a mixture ob both, but...

See screenshot below: Name (what customer sees), POS (what servers see), Kitchen Name (what the chef sees).

Did I paint that scenario? I hope so. This is straight forward. Sorry software engineer, "you got some work to do!"

How to clean this, DEEP COPY, up on the software side?

• Add another input box, POS, Kitchen,  AND "What customer sees"? [x] Copy all NAMES, except "DEEP COPY TEXT"
• Change the font color on DEEP COPY: forest green, blue, cranberry red?
• Alert the Restaurant Staff User, "This is DEEP  COPY" somewhere, everywhere?
• There needs to be a distinction, because as I've lain out, "DEEP COPY" prints to customer's receipt.
• Something swift.

How much does Debugging Toa$t Tab make? I'd like to apply. 
 

[rcmck · Accepted solution]

Probably not going to want to hear this because it's a little too late, but you should pretty much never use deep copy, (it should be locked behind several "are you sure?* prompts imo)

Even in the situations where it makes sense to use it I will still usually avoid it, good news is you usually only make this mistake once. 

A better solution would be making an event menu and shallow copying the menu  then converting  to menu specific pricing to increase the prices on that menu with the price editor. https://central.toasttab.com/s/article/Building-Happy-Hour-Menus-w-Menu-Specific-Pricing-14930044457... 

[rcmck · Accepted solution]

Probably not going to want to hear this because it's a little too late, but you should pretty much never use deep copy, (it should be locked behind several "are you sure?* prompts imo)

Even in the situations where it makes sense to use it I will still usually avoid it, good news is you usually only make this mistake once. 

A better solution would be making an event menu and shallow copying the menu  then converting  to menu specific pricing to increase the prices on that menu with the price editor. https://central.toasttab.com/s/article/Building-Happy-Hour-Menus-w-Menu-Specific-Pricing-14930044457... 

[ejbytes]

Yes, we are using Happy Hour pricing. But that's 4-6pm for our location. And it works well. For special events is another thing and DEEP COPY works well... Just what I described above though. Unfortunately I'm not the only one in the menu making changes. My rant is on the development side in hopes that DEV will see it. If wishes were horses...

[ejbytes]

It turns out that when I did that exact thing under 2 years ago, it did not work. Who knows why. But I came back after hearing another shout-out and it turns out that it works as I wish it did when I first tried it. Who knows! But, gladly it works as it should and it does its job. Cheers!  

[CEFreeman · Accepted solution]

Wow, you are making your life so unnecessarily difficult and dumping a lot of duplicates into your database!  

Deep copies just makes more and more to dig through.  Ask me how I know:  I'm cleaning up a database that has had 40 (4 seasons for 10 years)  menu incarnations and a zillion managers who had no idea what they're doing, including making deep copies/duplicates.  Even my current, Techno-phobe GM thinks he can just FOH go in and add or subtract.  I am  retraining him.  I digress.

There are lots of options without  continuing to  create  more and more duplicates.  

Given our Flagship is in the Baltimore Inner Harbor, we are familiar with Banquets and Events.  Here's what I do for an Event. .

You could set a menu called Whatever Event,  or just Events. 
COPY an empty Menu Group to this menu.  (Rename it.  Set your Advanced Properties, including visibility, default print stations, taxes)
Now copy another empty Menu Group over and Rename it. Lunch? Event Lunch?  Set its properties. 
NOW, copy over the items you  want to use.  Copy, not Deep  Copy.  
Check the items' properties.  All this will overwrite inherited instructions,  so  make certain it's how you want it. (Note that modifiers will follow  your items.) 

Then, take a look the items pricing strategy for this event.  I find the new Advanced Properties functions help change things (like prices) more quickly than touching each individual item.)  Each item  should/could have "Menu Specific Pricing" chosen.
You put the base price in, then in the list put the price under Event Menu. You can do lunch,  Brunch,  Banquets, etc.   When the items are chosen from this menu, it will ring them in with that menu's prices. Go to  your regular, Food menu for example, it'll ring the base price.  You can also/or do it time specifically.   

Using the same items, rather than deep copying, lets you update/change in ONE place.  You don't need to worry about what's a deep copy or  just a copy.   Just  fill in the Item Name.  Don't try to be fancy.  My single KDS variant  is Charcuterie  Board.  I had to make that Meat & Cheese Board for the kitchen.  It blew their mind.  I don't worry about my English speaking servers for the  POS name.  It can be the same.
When you  don't have an Event happening, just uncheck Visible to POS and it won't show up on your POS anymore.  Done.. 

I have spent the last 9 months cleaning out duplicates and crazy stuff out of my DB.   We area new restaurant with the copy coming from the 1st of the group. I  almost cried.  I am down to the Items and Modifiers.  Then I won't have any dupes and and appropriate modifiers (priced or not) attached to the proper Item.   So much easier piesier. 

If you want help cleaning out all your duplicates,  I can tell you  another time how I'm doing it. Sadly, Edit Database is supposed to go away, and that is the cleanest way to view your stuff..