Beta Invitation | Restaurant Combos 🍔‌‌🍟‌

[DannyH]

Hello Seller Community!

We are thrilled to bring the much anticipated feature to Square for Restaurants — Combos! This new feature will allow you to group menu items together to be sold as one while accurately tracking inventory for each item.

Combos can help you to offer customizable bundles of menu items to increase sales and streamline service!

Requirements

You may be a good fit to participate in this Beta program if:

• You are a quick service restaurant (QSR) you have been waiting to add Combos to your menu!
• You are subscribed to Square for Restaurants Plus
• You use the Square for Restaurants Point of Sale to process payments
• You are not using Square Point of Sale to process payments
• You are not currently using Square Online

Beta Participation Expectations

• Once the start of testing is announced, test the feature!
• Share feedback via email or through Combos Beta Community group requests
• Complete beta survey approximately 2-3 weeks after start of beta testing.

Interested? 😉

If you're interested and would like to participate in this beta, click the button below, and join the Combos Beta Community group👇

Join Beta | Restaurant Combos

Note:

• You must be subscribed to Restaurants Plus to join this Beta program.

[TheRealChipA]

@DannyH I have a question about “You are not currently using Square Online.”

I have an website using Square Online, and I have an online store.  However, at the end of October we close for four months, so my Online Store will be deactivated and not accepting orders.  Will that allow me to participate in this beta?  Or is the mere fact that I have a website and inactive store enough to disqualify me?  I guess I’m asking what about Square Online will get in the way, since I won’t be wanting to use combos in my online store for now, anyway.  Thanks!

[DannyH]

@TheRealChipA 

Thanks for sharing the context! During the initial infant state of the beta, we're limiting testing to those who do not have a Square Online Store. 

We've got you accounted for, so once we can open things up -- we'll be happy to bring you in!

[PizzaDive]

I would love to be in the Beta but we do use Square Online, is there a way we can just not sell the tested combos? I wouldn't plan to sell combos online anyways, we only do them for lunch really - a drink and chips.

[DannyH]

@PizzaDive 

During the initial stage of testing, we're strictly limiting testing to those who do not use Square Online. Once we get a bit of testing completed, we'll have a better idea of our next path. 

I've got you accounted for, so once we can open things up -- we'll be happy to have you test!

[scalehouse]

Aside from typical food/drink combo, I'd be interested if this feature could work for can deposits.  For instance my brewery sells single cans, 4 packs, cases of cans and have to enter in the deposit as a separate line item (non-taxed).  To be able to make this a combo (beer taxed + Non-taxed deposit), would be huge for us and ensure all employees are properly applying the can deposit.  This would of course need to work on variations of the item.  For example 1 can+$.05, 4pack+$.20, etc, without having a separate button for each style/size. 

[iain697]

Why again is this being limited to the US Only - the rest of the world has combo's too and it seems yet another feature only restricted to the US........😡

[DannyH]

Hey @iain697 -- I totally understand the frustration! We have every intention to bring other locales into beta testing, but only when the time is right. 

Currently we're in the very early infant stages of Combos and there's quite a bit of dependencies across multiple Square products in order for this to work. Rest assured, expanding this Combos feature to all geos is top of mind for the Restaurants team though it will more than likely be in 2024. 

[Nolanryan]

Id like to join beta!

[burgerjoint1982]

Is there any update on this feature if we will be able to use it any time soon or for when we are expecting this feature to be fully implemented.

[DannyH]

Hi @burgerjoint1982! 👋

Combos is still currently in the beta stage and likely won't launch to the general public until mid-2025 (subject to change). I see that you had requested to join the Combos Beta Community group in the past. We've been unable to approve your request as there was a known issue with how sold combos were being reported to third-party accounting integrations (i.e. Quickbooks) -- and we saw that you're integrated with QB!

We're validating the fix for the third-party accounting integrations now, so we should be clear there soon! Are you still interested in beta testing Combos?

[burgerjoint1982]

Hi Danny, I fully missed this message as I'm interested in the Combo.  I see that it's about to roll out and went to see how it works on my Dash board.  I'm not sure if I understood if this is how its designed but here is a question as I see that in my case this is how I envisioned the feature.

I sell burgers and if a customer orders a cheeseburger combo I should be able to do the following from my POS:

1:  Choose cheeseburger

2:  Choose Combo or Not Combo

3:  If Combo, choose fries or Onion Rings

4:  If Combo, choose fountain drink

The way I currently see it design each combo will need to be an item rather than an option.  So it seems that on the POS I will have to have an individual item list and another with Combos.  Therefore, I will have to know if the  customer will order combo or not before choosing their meal, and if they end up changing their minds, I will have to delete the current cart item, to choose the other item.

Is my understanding correct?  If it is, it really doesn't seem designed correctly in my opinion but maybe I need to understand it more how you guys designed it and why.

Thanks for any feedback.

[burgerjoint1982]

For more context, I currently sell our combos using Modifier which works but it should not be the way to make it:

1:  Customer chooses type of Burger

2:  Modifier one:  Make it a Fry Combo, Make it an Onion Ring Combo, Make it a Fry Combo Large, Make it an Onion Ring Combo Large, Burger Only

3:  If you choose a combo then we add the drink flavor as modifier

Each modifier has its pricing included so basically its added to the item price.  ie.  If a cheeseburger is $9 and a combo is chosen, then the Make it a Fry Combo has a $4 price.  If they choose Make it an Onion Ring Combo the price would be $6, etc.

[tulanejeff]

Hi Danny,

I'm told by your team that Combos may be useful at our restaurant where we want to track quantities for bagel flavors.

We do use Square Online and are integrated with Xero for accounting. Let me know if that proves to be an issue.

Thank you,

Jeff

[TheArcticCircle]

Hi we would love to join the beta as our restaurant we are opening is a quick service restaurants and we had many combo offerings in mind. This could really help our restaurant while we are helping improve the feature through the beta testing. Thanks in advance!

[ScoopDogg]

We have been waiting for something like this. The current setup for how we have to do combo is horrible and a terrible workflow 

[Hadley]

Hi @ScoopDogg - Thank you for the feedback. Can you share a bit more about your use case for for combos and why this setup process doesn't' work well? 

[ScoopDogg]

Hello @Hadley 

Currently, we have combos like Cheeseburger, Fries, and Drink. 

If this were ordered separately:

Cheeseburger --- Routed to Kitchen printer and KDS

Fries  --- Routed to Kitchen printer and KDS--- Routed to Kitchen printer and KDS

Drink  ---- Routed to Front Staff printer and KDS

Because Cheeseburger, Fries, and Drink have to be combined into one item, we have to use modifiers that cant be routed, because the routing is done by category. 

So, this feature links current items together. I would say in theory that would alleviate that issue. 

[ChickenRacer]

Do we know if something like this is coming for retail to please? 

[lifeather]

I would love to be in the Beta for Restaurant Combos.