For example, quick service or fast food restaurants will have two separate buttons set up: a single item (hamburger, cheeseburger, double cheeseburger, chicken sandwich, fish sandwich, etc.) and a combo item (hamburger, fries and drink). They’ll have this protocol all the way throughout their menu.

The problem with this method is that when you go to run a Product Mix Report (PMIX) to find out how much of each item you’re selling, you have to look in a lot of different places to get the data that you want.

What you’re better off doing is setting up all of your items as a la carte and then have a combo button option. The combo button will add a fixed amount, say $2.59, to the a la carte price and turn anything on your menu into a combo (with fries and a drink, for example). So, instead of having tons of buttons set up for every possible combo meal, you would only have buttons for an a la carte item and a modifier pop-up option called “Combo” that turns the a la carte item into a combo meal.

On the receipt, it appears as two different line items that equal the combo price (a la carte price + $2.59 = combo price). When you run a sales report, you will get a much clearer picture of what’s actually happening in your restaurant. It’s these little tips that make everything much easier (and profitable).

I hope you enjoyed this week’s video and I look forward to seeing you next week with another great training video to help your restaurant increase profits and operate more smoothly. Have a wonderful day.