What a group menu is
A group menu is a menu head office keeps in the organisation library. It has a name, a note, sections and a list of dishes. Each business it is for gets its own copy, linked to the master. When head office changes the master, every copy follows.
A menu never changes a dish's allergens. Each dish on it is your business's own copy of a group dish, and its allergens come from that dish. A menu update only puts dishes on, takes them off, moves them between sections and renames things.
What head office looks after, and what stays yours
Part | Who looks after it |
|---|---|
Name and note | Head office. Locked at your business from the start |
Sections | Head office. Locked at your business from the start |
Dish list | Head office, but open by default, so you can add local specials. Head office can lock it for a brand that runs a fixed menu |
Sites and served times | You |
Page, QR code and poster | You. You publish the page, and it has its own link and QR code |
Page settings | You. You can make the page stricter, never less careful |
Your sites, served times, page and page settings are never sent from the library, and an update never changes them. Nor does an update touch your other menus.
Local specials
While the dish list is open, you can add your own dishes to a group menu. They show as Local. A local special stays on the menu, in its place, through every update from head office. Only you take it off.
If head office removes the section a local special is in, the special stays on the menu with no section
If head office locks the dish list, you can't add more specials. Those already on it stay until you take them off
New dishes wait for you
When a group menu brings a dish your business doesn't have yet, the dish arrives unconfirmed. It stays off the menu's page, your allergen page and your exports until someone here checks and confirms its allergens. A dish you already have, on another group menu or as a linked dish, keeps its own confirmation.
One group dish is one dish at your business, however many group menus list it. Confirm it once and it shows on all of them.
You can publish the menu's page before every dish is confirmed. The page lists only the confirmed ones.
The menu, and your Allergens home, show what is waiting:
Group dishes to confirm before they appear on the menu, by name, with Confirm
Removals waiting on dishes on the menu. See Confirming an allergen removal from head office
An update to acknowledge
When head office takes a dish off
The dish leaves that menu at once. Nothing waits, because no allergen changes. The dish stays on your chart with its allergens, and on every other menu it is on, your own or the group's. It is never archived, because you may still sell it.
A dish you don't serve
If your kitchen doesn't serve one of head office's dishes, choose Not served here on it in your copy of the group menu. It comes off your menu and its page, and stays off through every update. Choose Put it back at any time to return it.
Only its place on your menu changes. The dish stays on your chart and keeps following head office's updates, allergens included
Head office sees it as not served at your business
It comes back only if you put it back, or if head office takes it off the menu and later adds it again
Only the owner or a manager for the whole business can choose Not served here or Put it back. Site managers and shared devices can't, and nor can a saved change to the menu that leaves one of head office's dishes out. A site manager can still add and remove the site's own local specials.
If head office changes the menu while you have it open, saving tells you the menu changed. It shows the menu as it is now, with your unsaved changes kept, so you can check it and save again. Nothing is taken off because you saved an older copy.
Don't archive the dish for this. Archiving takes it off your chart and every page.
Updates go live at once
A change head office publishes to a group menu is live at your business straight away. You then acknowledge it within 7 days, on the web or in the app. The card lists what changed on the menu: dishes added, dishes taken off, dishes moved, and sections added, renamed or taken off. See Acknowledging a group update.
Starting a menu from the group library
Open Allergens > Menus, choose New menu, then Start from the group library.
Tick the menus you want. You only see the group menus meant for your business: those for everyone, for your brand, or for an area your sites are in. Each shows how many dishes it has and how many are new here. One you already have says In use
Pick the sites that serve it. Pick several in one go, or none for every site
Choose Add. The menu is ready, and its new dishes wait for someone here to confirm them
Set when it is served, and publish its page when you are ready
Only the owner or a manager for the whole business can start a group menu, and only into their own business. Site managers and shared devices can't.
If you already have a menu with that name
Paddl says so and asks what to do:
Keep both. Your menu stays as it is. The group's copy gets the next free name, such as Main menu 2
Link to it. Your menu follows the group's from now on. It takes head office's name, sections and dishes, and the dishes you added stay on it as local specials
If your business is at its menu limit, or the menu would take it past its dish limit, Paddl says so before anything is made.
For head office: making a group menu
You can build one in the library, or start from a menu a business already has.
In the library: open Allergens > Menus, choose New menu and build it from the library's dishes, with sections
From a business: add the business's menu to the organisation library. Its dishes join the library too, and the business's owner accepts the links, as for a dish. Its sites, served times and page stay out of the master
Then choose who it is for, and add it to businesses, picking the sites in each. The master shows each business's own parts greyed out, because they are never yours to set. The locked parts are shown at the top of the master: the name and note and the sections start locked, and the dish list starts open.
While a dish on the menu, or anything in one, has a removal waiting in the library, you confirm that first. Until then the menu can't be added to businesses or updated.
Menus for a brand
A group menu can be for everyone, for one or more brands, or for one or more areas. A menu for a brand reaches only that brand's businesses.
A business that joins the brand gets the menu then, at every site, with no page published. Its new dishes wait to be confirmed, and the owner is told
A business that leaves the brand keeps its copy, but it gets no more updates. Head office sees it as out of scope. The business can make it its own
A business that moves to another brand gets that brand's menus
Deleting a group menu, or making it your own
While head office locks any part of a group menu, which it does by default, you can't delete it. The owner can make it your own first. The link ends, and the menu keeps its sections and dishes as they are. Head office's updates stop.
Asking Paddy
In the library, ask Paddy to make a group menu from dishes already in the library, with sections. If a dish isn't in the library, Paddy names it. You confirm on a card
At a business, ask "start Worcester's menu from the Burger Shop main menu". Paddy shows the sites and the dishes new here on a card, and saves it when you confirm
On an open group menu, Paddy can add local specials. On a locked one, it tells you head office looks after the dish list