Specialty Drink Setup and selecting specific spirits for orders

[ELees]

I'd like to understand how I can setup specialty drink items (e.g. Old Fashioned) where I can select a specific spirit ingredient i.e. Old Forrester, Makers Mark, Woodford etc. and be able to track the usage for each.  Right now, we have Old Fashioned with 3 price grades. Well, Call and Premium, but it does not help me understand what specific spirit is used.

Am I asking for something the system is not capable of?

TIA

[ryanwanner]

Hello @ELees !

This is definitely something Square can be configured to report for you.

You have a couple of ways you could go about this.

-Create the Old Fashioned item, then create variations of the item with the different alcohol used. Your item sales report will break it down by variation relatively easily. The challenge here is that if you update your liquor inventory you'll have to go into each item to update what is available.

-Create various modifier groups with each of the types of alcohol in it. i.e. a Rum modifier group, a Tequila modifier group, etc. Then with your Old Fashioned item, price it at the well pricing, and have the different types of liquors at an upgraded price. For example, your well rum puts your Old Fashioned price at $5 price your drink there. For the Call tier liquors, if it adds $1 to the price, make each one of those modifiers at $1. If premium is $2, then each liquor is at $2. Reporting on this will be a little trickier: you'll have to pull a Modifier Sales report along with an item sales report. However, if you're handling inventory and stock levels, you can't do counts on modifiers, only Sold Outs.

So yeah, there's trade offs with each, but overall for the sake of ease of menu expansion, I recommend using modifiers.

Hope this helps!

[ELees]

thanks, Ryan. I forgot to get back to you after your response.

I was think more of Having an Old fashioned item priced at $X and then have the add-on of the specific spirit that was used i.e. Old Forrester $Y, Maker mark $Z etc.  this way I can track the number of orders of specific spirits across the board.  Right now I don't have that visibility in the well, call premium general selections for the spirits.

The modifiers sounds interesting, but I am not familiar enough with it.

Ed

[ryanwanner]

Hello again @ELees !

I definitely think Modifiers are the way to go for your situation then.

Here is a help article on modifier creation. This should help you get modifier sets set up for what you're needing.

You're correct in setting the base price of your Old Fashioned at the item level. I would set it at the well pricing. On your modifiers, have the upgraded alcohol be the difference between well and the final price.

For example, if your well Old Fashioned is $6 but with Makers the final price is $8, your Makers Mark modifier price would be set for $2. What I envision in your modifier list would be something like:

• Well at $0
• Old Forrester at $1
• Makers Mark at $2
• etc.

The main reason to set it up this way would be to not make it easy to have employee theft. If you have your Old Fashioned item set up as a $0 price point with the modifiers being where all the pricing is, an employee could feasibly ring up a drink and not use a modifier resulting in a $0 drink to the customer. Yes, there are ways to require modifiers, but I've found that I don't want to give employees any way to scam the system.

When it's time for reporting, head to Dashboard -> Reports -> Modifier Sales to look at the upcharges.

[ELees]

Thanks for the helpful hints. 

I was actually thinking of setting a base cost for the Specialty drink and then use the individual Item Price as the modifier.

For example:

Old Fashioned -

base= $2

Modifier= Marker's Mark - $6.25 total for drink = $8.25

Modifier= Woodford DBL - $8.00 total for drink = $10.25

Not sure which way would be easiest and safer.

[ryanwanner]

@ELeesEither way will work for you. I just prefer to have the lowest modifier price as the item price because even if an employee scams the system the customer is at least paying for the well alcohol. As much as I trust my employees I've found it's better to err on the side of caution.

[frelancesage]

Nope, not at all! You can use variations for this. Create a main "Old Fashioned" with the well price, then create variations for Call (with specific spirit option) and Premium (with another specific spirit option). This lets you see which call and premium options are popular! For those attending the event, consider adding a Portable Toilet Rental Service to ensure convenience and comfort for your guests.