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Creating Non-Menu Categories for Products and Services in POS/Portal App

Kevin U
  • Updated

About Non-Menu Categories

Menu categories that exist in the MealSuite core system are automatically ported over to Touch Admin. These menu categories can then be mapped to the POS and Portal app via a food and beverages production grid (see Mapping Menu Items from MealSuite Core to the POS/Portal app). 

In addition to these menu categories, you can create categories for products and services that you manually add to be sold in the POS and Portal app. These are known as non-menu categories. For example:

  • A “Grab and Go” category for chocolate bars, chips, granola bars, etc.
  • A “Gift Card” category for gift cards.
  • An “Bar Item Offerings” category for beers, wines, mixed drinks.
  • A “Select Meal Charges” category to sell meals at a flat fee, such as a “guest meal” product, “staff meal” product, and “resident meal” product.
  • Hair, spa, exercise appointments. 

Creating a Non-Menu Category

To create a non-menu category, complete the following steps:

  1. From Touch Admin, click POS Settings > Categories. The Item Categories screen appears.
  2. Click the Add a Category button. The Add a Category screen appears.
  3. Enter or select the following:
    • Product category name - enter a name for the non-menu category.
    • Tax Assignment - a category can be assigned one or more sales taxes. When a product is checked out, then the sales taxes of the product's category is applied. Prior to assigning sales tax(es) to a category, those sales tax(es) must first be set up in POS via POS Settings > Taxes (see Configuring Sales Taxes in the POS for more information). 
    • GL account - A category can be assigned a GL account. For example, “Taxable Sales Revenue”. When a product is checked out, then the GL account of the product's category is applied. Note that GL accounts are first set up by your MealSuite CSM (customer success manager) to be available for assigning to a category (if you are a MealSuite CSM, click here for the internal article on setting up GL accounts). 
  4. If the non-menu category is to be made available for assignment to a products and services grid (i.e., a non-food category), select the This category can be applied to non-food products check box. 
    pos_service_perspective.png
  5. If the non-menu category is to be made available for assignment to a food and beverages grid, select the meal periods (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner) the category will be available from on the food and beverages grid. 
    food_beverage_grid.png
  6. If you do not want any discounts to be applied to the products in the category, select the Cannot be discounted check box.
  7. If the products in the category are to be excluded from view of the MealSuite Portal app, select the Exclude Category from Portal check box. 
  8. From the Billing Code drop-down, you can assign the category to a financial department billing code. This assigned billing code is then used on a financial export interface (i.e., Bill to Room Export Interface) to indicate what billing code a POS product is associated with. Note that billing codes are set up by your MealSuite (CSM) customer success manager (if you are a MealSuite CSM, click here for the internal article on setting up billing codes). Also note that an individual POS product can be assigned a billing code that will override the billing code set for that product's assigned category. 
  9. Click the Create Product Category button.
    • You are returned to the Item Categories screen, where the newly-created category is listed in the tabs it was assigned to: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Non Food
    • Note that there is an X button in the category row (beside the Edit button). This indicates that it is a non-menu category created in Touch Admin. Clicking the X button will allow you to delete the non-menu category from the tab it is assigned to.

      non_menu_category.png

  10. With the non-menu category created, you can now assign products to it. See Adding Products to the POS for more information.

Assigning New Product Categories to Existing Meal Plans

When a new non-menu category is created (as per above steps) and there are existing meal plans in the system, then that category is not automatically assigned to the meal plan (i.e., the meal plan will not cover the new category). If you want an existing meal plan to cover the new category, then you have to access the meal plan and make the assignment. To do so complete the following steps:

  1. In Touch Admin, select People Management > Meal Plans. The Meal Plans screen appears
  2. For the meal plan you want to edit, click its Edit button. The Edit a Meal Plan screen appears.
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the screen where the categories and meal periods (breakfast, lunch, dinner) are listed.
  4. Expand the meal periods for which the category was associated with and select the check box of the category to assign it to the meal plan.

    new_categories.png

  5. At the bottom of the screen click the Update Policy button to apply your changes.

Deleting a Non-Menu Category

Note: You cannot delete menu categories from the Touch Admin software. Menu categories are ported over from the Core system, and can be deleted from that system if your account had created the menu category. For more information and instructions, see Deleting a Menu Category (if your Account Created the Menu Category).

To delete a non-menu category:

  1. From Touch Admin, click POS Settings > Categories. The Item Categories screen appears.
  2. Click the appropriate tab from which you want to remove the non-menu category: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Non-Food. 
  3. For the non-menu category you want to delete, click its X button. A confirmation message appears. 
  4. Click OK to the confirmation message. 
  5. If the same non-menu category exists in other tabs, then repeat steps 2-4 to remove the non-menu category from the desired tabs.