Best approach needed for daily items

[Cooked4U]

Ok - I need the best way/approach to daily items. Since I cooked fresh daily, small batched until sold out.

I tried to upgrade temporarily to the Online Store Plus but I can only make something Available for the day which doesnt address if it didnt sell out and extends to Wed. 

Also, I set it up into categories for each day so customers can see online what is made on say a Tues until sold out.

Do I just need to turn off availablilty for everything except what is set to sell daily and into the next days based on inventory, and each day turn on what I cooked?

Seems very tedious, gotta be a better way 

[Summer2024 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Cooked4U !  Let me suggest some strategies to streamline this process. 

Efficient Daily Management Options

Quick Item Toggle Method

Square Dashboard →
Items →
Bulk Editor →
Select Daily Items →
Toggle Availability

• Create item groups by day
• Quick bulk updates
• Easy visibility control

Inventory Management

Set Low Stock Alerts:
- Set initial quantity
- Auto-disable when sold out
- Email notifications

Organization Strategies

Category Setup

Example Structure:
- Tuesday Specials
- Wednesday Specials

• Easy to manage by day
• Clear customer navigation
• Simple inventory tracking

Item Templates

• Create base items
• Duplicate for different days
• Quick quantity updates
• Easy price adjustments

Time-Saving Tips

1. Morning Setup

   • Bulk enable daily items
   • Set quantities
   • Update descriptions
   • Schedule automatic disable

2. End of Day

   • Bulk disable unsold items
   • Update next day's items
   • Review inventory
   • Plan next day

I hope this helps!

[Cooked4U]

This is great,  thank you.  It's a lot of info to dive into so I'll print it out and explore it, you're awesome 

[Summer2024]

You're too kind. I prefer to do an outline style with ~most~ of my responses so people can read and understand them better! My friend @ryanwanner has some great insight too. 

[Cooked4U]

I'm using Restaurants plus and free online store, I dont see any type of bulk editor with daily items and availability- I can see item library, i can select any items and edit 

[ryanwanner]

Hello again @Cooked4U !

I still think you're on the right track with the timed categories idea for your daily items.

For extra items, I'd agree with @TheRealChipA said in a prior thread to lean heavily on the inventory counts to manage things. You are also correct that there isn't an automatic way to move unsold items from a timed category to a visible category currently.

Here's what I'd recommend: at the end of the day, you can run reports showing what items you still have available. Once you see what's still available, which hopefully won't be much at all, what about manually adding those items to a "Limited Time Offer" style category? Since you're using the inventory counts, there shouldn't be a way to oversell the item. The LTO category can be set to always visible. That way your daily items are still shown as you need them but your leftovers (bad term, I know...) will be rotating in that LTO category. You'd only have to maintain the items that are coming in and going out of that category, which should be pretty minimal.