Manage your menu

Set up your menu so staff can find dishes in the POS and customers can order them online. Open Menu > Menus in the Back Office . You can import an existing menu or add menus, courses, and dishes yourself.

The Menus tab shows these sections from top to bottom:

• The publish bar, which tells you when saved changes still need to reach your POS. See Publish saved menu changes.
• Menu Assistant, for importing, editing, or proofreading with AI.
• Menus and Courses, shown as cards.
• Dishes, listed by course.
• A PDF button for a printable menu.
• Settings, for dish markers, modifier sorting, printing groups, and online pricing strategies.
• An icon legend, followed by the Chowly or StreamOrder panel when you use Third-Party Ordering.

The other tabs cover Combo, Modifiers, Ingredients, Stock, and Dish Guides.

Choose how to update your menu

Use the Menu Assistant card when you have a menu file or want to describe a change:

• Import file reads a PDF, menu photo, CSV, or spreadsheet. Check the draft and choose which dishes to apply.
• Edit previews a change you describe, such as “Add lemonade to Beverages for $3.50.”
• Proofread suggests fixes to dish names and descriptions. Accept only the changes you want.

Nothing changes until you choose what to apply. See Build your menu for the steps and file limits.

Selflane saves a copy before applying changes from these tools. An owner can restore it within seven days from Owner's Portal > Data & History > Backups in the Back Office . Restoring replaces your current menu.

Understand the menu structure

For example, Spring rolls can appear under Appetizers on your Lunch menu. The same dish can appear on your Dinner menu too. Each dish has one course, so create your menus and courses before adding dishes.

Set up a menu

Make a menu for a group of dishes you sell together, such as Lunch, Dinner, or Happy Hour.

1. Scroll to Menus. Click + to add a menu, or click a menu card to change it.
2. Enter a Name customers will recognize, such as “Lunch.” Names need at least 3 characters and must be different from your other menus. Add a Description if needed.
3. If you serve it only at certain times, turn on Special Hours. Choose the Days, then click Add Hours to set a time range under Schedule. Click + beside the last range to add another, such as a second lunch window. Leave Special Hours off for an all-day menu.
4. Choose where the menu should be available:
   • Turn on Online if customers can order it from your Selflane site.
   • Turn on Third Party if you publish it through Third-Party Ordering.
   • Turn on Catering if it belongs in your online catering menu. Catering menus do not appear in the regular online menu.
   • Turn on Run out (86'd) only when you need to make the menu temporarily unavailable.
5. Click Save.

Time ranges cannot overlap. Each range must open before midnight, but it can close after midnight, such as 6 PM to 2 AM. Outside its hours, the menu still shows online, but checkout refuses its dishes unless they are also on a menu that is open. In the POS, staff need manager approval to add its dishes. Selflane POS 7.8.3 or later checks menu hours in your business’s time zone, even when an iPad is set to a different one.

Read and change a menu card

Each menu card shows the number of dishes on the menu, its description, and its days and hours when Special Hours is on. Catering menus have a Catering label.

Click a chip on the card to switch it without opening the form:

• In stock — turn off to mark the menu Run out (86'd).
• Online — turn off to remove the menu from your Selflane site.
• 3rd party — turn off to leave the menu out of Third-Party Ordering. This chip appears only when Third-Party Ordering is set up through Chowly or StreamOrder.

Drag a card by its handle to change the menu order. Click the trash icon to delete a menu. Deleting a menu used in past orders can affect your reports.

The buttons above Menus switch both the menu and course cards between one scrolling row and a wrapped grid.

Set up a course

Courses are sections such as Appetizers, Entrees, and Desserts. They help staff and customers find dishes.

1. Scroll to Courses. Click + to add a course, or click a course card to change it.
2. Enter the Name, such as “Appetizers.” Names need at least 3 characters and must be different from your other courses.
3. Choose a Classification: Food, Merchandise, Beverage, Alcohol, Service, or Retail.
4. Set P & L if you group sales for reporting. Pick Food, Beverage, Alcohol, Merchandise, Service, or Retail, or type your own group. The default is Food.
5. Add a Description if needed.
6. Turn on Online or Third Party where you want the course to appear. Use Run out (86'd) to make the whole course temporarily unavailable.
7. Click Save.

Add several courses at once

1. Click + Many in the Courses card.
2. Enter a course name, Classification, and P & L on the first row.
3. Press the down arrow key in the name field, or click + Course, to add a row.
4. Click Save.

Each name needs at least 3 characters and cannot match another course.

Read and change a course card

Each course card shows:

• The number of dishes in the course.
• The tax rates that apply to it. Inclusive rates show Inc., and rates that skip some order types show Excl. with those types. No tax in red means no active tax rate applies. See Tax Rates.
• Its classification and P & L group.

The In stock, Online, and 3rd party chips work the same way as on menu cards. Drag a card by its handle to reorder courses. Click the trash icon to delete a course. Deleting a course used in past orders can affect your reports.

Find a dish

The Dishes card lists your courses on the left. Click a course to see its dishes. Dishes with no course appear under Not Assigned. Type in the search box to find dishes by name across all courses.

Above the list, you might see:

• A warning such as “2 items missing menu assignment.” Those dishes are not on any menu.
• A progress ring that shows how many dishes in the course have a photo, with a count of dishes that have none.

Each dish row shows:

• The photo, name, and price. Open-price dishes show Open Price instead of a price. With dual pricing, the card price follows the cash price.
• The online price change in green and the third-party price change in blue. A crossed-out amount is a dish upcharge that a pricing strategy is overriding.
• Limit, when the dish has a daily limit. Once the dish sells today, it shows the number sold out of the limit, such as 3 / 10.
• Current Amount, when you track the dish’s stock.
• Dietary tags.
• In stock, Online, and 3rd party chips. Click one to switch it. A row turns red when the dish is marked Run out (86'd).
• The menus the dish is on and the printers it prints to.

Drag a row to change the dish order within the course. Click a row to open the dish.

Add a dish

Add each food or drink that customers can order. For example, add Spring rolls to the Appetizers course and the Lunch and Dinner menus.

1. Click a course in Dishes, then click +. The new dish starts in that course. If you are viewing search results, choose the course in the form.
2. Enter the customer-facing Name and Price.
3. Choose at least one menu under Menus and one Course.
4. Choose the printers that should receive the dish.
5. Click Save.

The rest of the form is optional. The fields are described below.

Names and codes

• Name — what customers see, from 2 to 50 characters.
• Kitchen Name — a shorter name or a second-language name for kitchen tickets, up to 30 characters.
• Servings — how many people the dish serves. When it is more than 1, the online menu shows the number with a people icon.
• SKU and UPC — your own product codes, if you use them.

Price

• Price — the in-store price.
• Online Upcharge — an amount added to the price for online orders from your Selflane site.
• 3rd Party Upcharge — an amount added to the price on Third-Party Ordering services.
• Open Price — staff enter the price when they ring up the dish. This locks the price fields, and the prices save as $0. Open-price dishes are not shown online.
• Priced By Weight — charges by weight. Enter a Unit of Measure, such as “lb.” In the POS, staff enter the weight and the price is the unit price times the weight. These dishes are not shown online.

An online pricing strategy replaces the matching upcharge. If you enter an upcharge for a channel that has a strategy, the form warns that it is not applied.

Menus, course, and description

• Description — more detail for customers.
• Menus — every menu the dish appears on. If you leave Menus empty, the dish does not appear on any menu.
• Course — the one course the dish belongs to.

Printing

• Printer checkboxes — the printers that receive the dish: Kitchen, Kitchen 2 to Kitchen 4, Bar, or Label.
• Print with Underline — underlines the dish on kitchen tickets, such as a burger with many modifiers.
• Printing Group — sends the dish to a printing group. This appears only after you create a group.

Availability

• Online and Third Party — where customers can order the dish.
• Run out (86'd), at the top of the form — makes the dish temporarily unavailable. It stays sold out until you turn it off.
• Tags — dietary icons for vegan, gluten, mild, medium, or hot spice, egg, nut, and dairy. They show on your online menu.
• Daily Limit — the number you expect to sell each day. When the POS reaches it, staff see that the dish is running out and need manager approval to sell more. Online orders ignore the limit. Leave it at 0 for no limit.
• Stock — see Track a dish’s stock.

Add several dishes at once

1. In Dishes, click + Many.
2. On the first row, enter the Name and Price. Choose the Course, at least one Menu, and the printers under Print.
3. Press the down arrow key in the name field, or click + Dish, to add a row. A row needs a course and a menu before you can add the next one. The new row copies the course, menus, printers, and price from the row above.
4. Drag rows to reorder them, or click the trash icon to remove one.
5. Click Save.

Each name must be unique. The new dishes are available for Third-Party Ordering.

Edit several dishes at once

Use Bulk Edit to change names and prices for every dish in a course, or to change their menus, course, printers, and Online or Third Party together.

1. In Dishes, click the course, or search for the dishes.
2. Click Bulk Edit. The dialog lists every dish shown.
3. Change any Name or Price:
   • Click the copy icon to use the price from the row above.
   • Click the undo icon, shown after you change a price, to restore the dish’s saved price.
   • Click Modify Prices to change every price by an amount or a percentage. Enter a negative number to lower prices. Prices round to the nearest cent.
   • Click Reset All Prices to restore the saved price of every dish in the list.
4. Optionally, change Menus, Online, Third Party, Course, the printers, Print with Underline, or Printing Group. Third Party appears only when Third-Party Ordering is set up through Chowly or StreamOrder.
5. Check the summary above Save. It lists what Save will change, such as 3 prices changed · Menus: +Lunch, −Dinner · applies to 24 dishes.
6. Click Save.

Saving changes only the settings you set. Everything else stays as each dish had it.

The summary counts the prices and names you changed, including prices changed with Modify Prices in rows scrolled out of view. It also names each menu or printer you add (+) or remove (−), the new course or printing group, and whether Online, Third Party, or underline turns on or off. A change to menus, printers, course, printing group, Online, Third Party, or Print with Underline applies to every dish in the list, so the summary says how many dishes that is. You can’t click Save until something changes. If you change a price back, or click a half-checked box back to half-checked, that setting no longer counts as a change.

• A menu, printer, Online, Third Party, or Print with Underline box is checked when every dish in the list has it, and half-checked when only some do. Click it to turn it on or off for every dish. Click a half-checked box until it’s half-checked again to leave it as each dish has it. Each dish keeps the menus and printers you didn’t click.
• Course and Printing Group show Keep each dish's when the dishes differ or none has one. Choose a course or printing group to apply it to every dish.

You cannot clear a printing group here. Open the dish instead.

Add a dish photo

1. In the dish row, click the photo or the empty image box.
2. Choose an image file and crop it. To look for a photo, use the link that searches Google Images for the dish’s name.
3. Upload the photo.

To remove a photo, open the same dialog and click Delete.

Choose a dish’s modifiers

1. In the dish row, click the list icon in the Actions column. The icon is green when the dish has modifiers.
2. Under Other Available Modifiers, click a modifier to add it. Use Search Modifiers to find one by its name or a choice name.
3. Drag the added modifiers to set their order. Click the trash icon to remove one from the dish.
4. Click a modifier to edit it, or click Create Modifier to make one for this dish.
5. Click Save.

The order you set here applies when Modifier Sorting is set to manual. See Set modifier sorting and Modifiers.

Add a recipe

A recipe lists the ingredients that go into one dish.

1. In the dish row, click the carrot icon. It is green when the dish has a recipe.
2. Click + Ingredient, choose the ingredient, and enter the Quantity. Quantities run from 0.01 to 1,000.
3. Repeat for each ingredient, then click Save.

Track a dish’s stock

You can track stock from the dish form after you save the dish.

1. Open the dish. Under Stock, check Track stock.
2. Enter how many you have now, then click Start tracking.

The dish then keeps a Current Amount that carries over from day to day. Tracking does not mark the dish sold out. To stop, click Stop tracking. The stock history is kept, and turning it back on asks for a new count.

Use Stock to record deliveries, counts, waste, and corrections. Sales do not reduce Current Amount yet.

Copy or delete a dish

Use Duplicate when a new dish is similar to one you already sell.

1. In Dishes, find the dish in its course or use the search box.
2. Click its copy icon in the Actions column.
3. Enter a new Name. Check the copied price, menus, course, and printers. Add a Kitchen Name if needed.
4. Click Save.

To delete a dish, click its trash icon and confirm. Deleting a dish used in past orders can affect your reports.

Download a printable menu

1. Click PDF below the Dishes card.
2. To show a card price column, check Use Card Price Upcharge. Enter the Percentage (%) to add and the Price Rounding (cents). For example, rounding of 5 rounds each card price to the nearest 5 cents.
3. Click Download.

The PDF lists each menu with its courses and dishes, including names, prices, and descriptions. It leaves out photos, modifiers, dishes marked Run out (86'd), and dishes with no course. It includes dishes that are hidden online, catering menus, and menus or courses marked Run out (86'd). Open-price dishes print at $0.00.

If you use dual pricing, the PDF shows Cash and Card columns even when Use Card Price Upcharge is off. If a dish, its course, or one of its menus has special pricing, the PDF shows the special price and the rule’s name, whatever the rule’s schedule.

Menu settings

The Settings card at the bottom of Menu > Menus holds options for the whole menu. Click Save under each section after you change it.

Add dish markers

Dish markers give staff selectable notes in the POS. You can put them above or below the modifier choices.

1. Find Dish Marker and turn on Use Marker.
2. Choose Top of modifiers or Bottom of modifiers.
3. Click + Marker and enter its name. Add a Kitchen Name if staff need a shorter kitchen label.
4. Click Save.

Set modifier sorting

Sort Modifiers sets the order of a dish’s modifiers:

• Required modifiers first, then optionals — the default.
• Manual sorting set on each dish — uses the order you set in each dish’s modifier list.

Set up printing groups

Create a printing group when you want to assign dishes to a named printer station.

1. Under Printing Groups, click + Group.
2. Enter a name and choose a printer from Select Printer.
3. Click Save.
4. Open a dish, choose its Printing Group, and click Save.

Set online pricing strategies

Use Online Pricing Strategies to raise every dish price on one channel by the same amount or percentage.

1. Click + Pricing Strategy.
2. Choose Selflane for your own online ordering, or Third Parties for Third-Party Ordering.
3. Check Use Percentage and enter a percentage from 1 to 50. Or clear it and enter an Amount in dollars.
4. Click Save.

You can add one strategy for each channel. A strategy replaces that channel’s per-dish upcharge. It does not add to it. Strategies change dish prices only, not modifier prices.

The Selflane strategy applies to orders on your Selflane website and app. QR code table orders and kiosk orders use the in-store price.

Publish saved menu changes

Save your edits, then publish them so your POS and connected marketplaces receive the menu. Saved changes aren’t held back until you publish:

• Selflane online ordering uses your saved menu right away.
• Your POS can pick up saved changes before you publish, when it restarts or when you save taxes or service charges.
• Marketplaces get menu changes when you publish.

When any channel is not up to date, a bar at the top of every Menu tab except Stock says “Your POS or marketplaces may not have your latest menu.” Otherwise it shows when you last published.

1. Click Publish menu.
2. Review each connected channel. Up to date needs nothing. Behind needs an update. Not yet published has no confirmed current publish status.
3. Select the channels to update, such as POS or Marketplaces, then click the publish button.
4. Check each result. If a channel fails, click its Retry button in the dialog.

POS includes POS screens and displays. When StreamOrder is connected, the dialog uses it for marketplace publishing instead of Chowly.

Marking a dish or modifier choice sold out reaches channels that are already up to date on its own, within a few seconds. A channel that is Behind gets the change at its next publish. If the dialog says “A sold-out change hasn’t reached this channel yet,” publish that channel. Turning a menu or course to Run out (86'd) counts as a menu change, so publish it.

POS publishing is limited to once a minute. Wait for the displayed cooldown before retrying POS. Other channels can still publish.

If no channels appear, no POS or marketplace is connected yet. If the publish status cannot load, click Retry beside the status message.

Check your menu before taking orders

If customers cannot see a dish on your regular online menu, check these settings:

• The menu, course, and dish all have Online turned on and are not marked Run out (86'd).
• The dish is assigned to that menu and course.
• The menu is not marked Catering. Catering menus appear in the catering view instead.
• The dish is not set to Open Price or Priced By Weight. Those dishes are not shown online.
• If the dish is priced at $0, it needs a required modifier with at least one priced choice to appear online.

If a dish is missing from a third-party ordering service, check Third Party on its menu, course, and dish. To turn it on for every dish in a course at once, use Bulk Edit. Then follow the sync steps.

Related links

• Build your menu — import, edit, proofread, or build a menu step by step.
• Combo — group dishes into a combo.
• Modifiers and Matrix Modifiers — offer choices with a dish.
• Ingredients and Stock — track what goes into dishes and what you have on hand.
• Dish Guides — give staff preparation instructions.
• Third-Party Ordering — control menus sent to ordering services.