Is there a way to limit item or category availability depending on time of day? ex. Breakfast

[mksavage]

For online ordering, there needs to be a feature that allows restaurants to limit the availability of certain items depending on the time of day. For example, if your breakfast menu is only available until 3pm, there needs to be an option to make these items unavailable after 3pm.

[luckybolt]

Hi,

Trying to have menu items be available at only certain dayparts.  Example, breakfast items until 11 am and then lunch thereafter.  At the terminal, this is not a big deal, but online and app sales

[Valentina]

I've moved your post over to this thread, where others have expressed interest in being able to have different menus for different times of the day. Our team is working on a feature that should allow you to accomplish what you've described here, so keep your eyes peeled!

We'll be sure to post an update here in this thread as soon as we have one to share, @luckybolt.

[Valentina]

Good news, all - this feature has been built out and is ready to use!✨🎉

@Tom outlined how these new Time-Based Categories will function in this Product Update post, so head there to get started. Once you've applied specific day and time availabilities, the items shown to your customers as available for purchase will change automatically throughout the day and/or week, depending on your chosen days and hours for each category.

[LordPies]

Hi @Valentina 

Can you confirm this will allow me to limit my orders to be picked up on a specific date? 

From my quick read, it seems to say that we can now set up menus to be displayed at a certain date and time and for multiple menus. 

The way our store works, we're getting absolutely wrecked with the turnaround issue — we try to sell pies for pickup on a later date and only on that specific day. For example, If you order a blueberry pie, it will only be available for pickup on Friday. If you order a pumpkin pie, it would only be available next week saturday. 

The current setup (until this announcment), the pies are all available in 2 hour turnaround and i use modifiers to force customers to pick a date, for example "July 28th". Their email notificaitons will say "avilable in 2 hours from now". 

Are we still not able to change orders after they're placed to sync them with the app? Am I still stuck with a long complicated paper trail of updated actual pickup dates and time and work on them separately from the "Orders" section of the app which is 100% useless since it shows incorrect times and pickups?

[Joe]

Hi there, @hratchad - I can step in for Isabelle here while she is out. We will notify everyone here as soon as we have more information to share on this feature. 

Thanks for your patience!

[JenNance]

THIS IS THE BEST UPDATE I COULD HAVE ASKED FOR! ALL CAPS APPRECIATION!!!

[LordPies]

@JenNance  Until you realize that you can't sell products for pickup on a later date. 

[isabelle]

Good news ✨ I've got an update on this feature request...

We've launched Time-Based Categories for Square Online! You can learn more about it here. 

[isabelle]

Hey there! 👋

Just making sure you saw the launch of our Time-Based Categories feature.

[xyz]

We hoped to be able to limit when particular food items could be ordered during the business day.

Business hours are set for the page in ->Pickup & Delivery : Accept Pick up orders : Hours 11am-6pm Mon-Fri.
10 minute prep time
scheduled pick up allowed

Lunch Category created with food subcategories - Set pickup and delivery order window = Mon-Fri 11am-3:45pm

Dinner Category pickup and delivery order window = Mon-Fri 4pm-6pm.

I am unable to put a lunch item in my cart today for a future day of the week - I thought I was able to do that when testing previously??

This morning (Sunday - not within business hours) I was able to put a Dinner item in my cart - and after entering customer data - I could
select a pick up day from Monday - Friday and the time options were 4pm to 6pm. Which is what I wanted it to do!!

..... but......

Now (later in the day Sunday) - when I attempt to put the same item in my cart - it is NOT selectable and says "Next Available Monday 4:00pm" - I cant put the item in the cart for any day of the week to pre-order it like I could this morning.

Additionally - I created a Daily Special category with one item and left time restrictions off - presently I can add that item to the cart (today - Sunday) but the pick up times range through all operational hours of 11am-6pm.

Anyone able to implement this type of set up?

Summary:

- Lunch Items with time limits 11am-3:45pm cannot be added to cart on Sunday for future date orders.

- Dinner Items with time limits 4pm-6pm cannot be added to cart for future dates (however when testing one time this morning it did work!?)

- Menu items with no time limits can be put in cart today for future dates -  available for pick up through all business hours

thanks for input!