Micros-Change out a Business name and menu change? 2

[intuitionsays]

My experience level with Micros is about 1 to 3.

Any suggestions on this changeover exercize? Basically the restaurant is changing name and revamping the menu somewhat. Mostly it will be a shorter menu...for now?

I need to keep my changes from affecting the front store terminals until it is time. Then of course everything has to be changed all at once. I could brute-force rename and delete previous menu items in the hours before they open. But that seems a little silly if I could be working on it now without the changes affecting the terminal screens.

I can't figure out what I'm seeing with the product database since it seems to have alchohol mixed in with sandwiches. It isn't nicely structured I think.

Also, there is some way that the corporate office tracks the store's business, how does that work and can I disable that? (Owner's request)

 

[intuitionsays]

Soooo...is this all so wrong on so many levels that no one cares to touch any of the questions?

 

[TobeThor]

Re: the name change; call the local Micros office and ask if a software re-license is necessary. You didn't mention if the place has new owners. If not, you may be able to just change the name on the guest check.

Re: the menu change, an experienced installer generally may choose to create a new DB vs using the existing. Develop the new DB on another system and just load prior to opening. That's an investment of several hours of work and typically the best route unless the new menu has very little changes. I can assure you that if have little or no experience, it'll take you 3-4 hours to accomplish what an experienced installer/programmer will get done in 1/2 hr. That's not intended to be offensive, it's just they have done it 100 times vs a DIY's one install but I don't know what your experience level is or how many POS systems you have installed or structured. The fact that you noticed the poor structure of the existing menu item file is a very good sign that you are one of the sharper tools in the shed.

Additionally, if the DB is not structured correctly, it is likely to cost the restaurant much more than if they had chosen to pay for it to be done up front. This assumes of course that the individual they pay has good experience. Paying for something doesn't guarantee quality.

Have you spoke to Micros? What was their response?

 

[intuitionsays]

Your comments are correct and astute. It makes sense how my experience level might slow things down over what someone with good experience could do. Such is life, right? One reason I asked in this expert forum.

For now, I think we are stuck with the brute-force menu change. While it would clean things to rebuild the database, everything is staying the same except for store name and menu.

This situation is not a business ownership transfer. Owners will want historical reports to help determine if they made a good or bad change. While they might be satisfied with their printed report records, you know there is much more possible with a live database.

Thanks for the "heads-up" about licensing. I'm not anxious to step in the middle of that. I think the owner could best determine if what Micros says is true, since he has the original license agreement and lawyers.

Off topic a little, but how does Micros/Sybase/Crystal Reports export .csv tables?

 

[intuitionsays]

Never mind on how to export csv. I found it in the Sybase Anywhere stuff.

Incidentally, the system is MICROS v4.1 HF2.

Would the phoning home be happening through Enterprise Office configuation?

 

[TobeThor]

While cleaning up menu item file. Print the entire menu item file out, not just a price list, but print the menu item file that contains programming info as well. This is a great reference and will help prevent or correct potential mistakes. It also shows "gaps" in the file that you can use. IE: the salads begin at #165 & end at #173, the next # is #220. My advice is to create and program menu items #200-220 for salads, using #'s 200-207 for actual salads and pre-program 208-220 as future salads. The pre-programmed items makes it very easy for end-users to add their own salads as they only need to program the name, price & SLU. As long as they keep the new salads between 200-220, they're golden (and organized). Begin the next menu category at #250 (always leave gaps between menu categories) it helps avoid the confusing menu item structure you are faced with cleaning up.

Unless the place has huge offerings, a menu item file may have starting #'s as such;
100-? Apps
150-? Soups
200-? Salads
250-? Wraps
300-? Hot Sandwich

A lot depends on the current structure of menu item #'s. Does it range from 1 to 6000? Are there large gaps? Did they separate food & liquor? Where are the forced preps located? Where are the voluntary preps located?

If the file has large gaps available I would start programming the new menu ahead of time (just don't program the SLU #'s), then at the last minute add SLU #'s to your items and remove the SLU #'s from the existing menu items.
This is really where experience helps, I hope this doesn't sound confusing. Don't forget there's usually a Misc Food button that servers can use while the system is running if you don't get every change done in time.

Also you must make yourself familiar with the employee file(this is critical). That is where privledges are assigned for each employee and you must know how to allow and disallow voids, discounts etc.

 

[intuitionsays]

Thank you so much. They have way too much stuff in their Menu Items... some used, but lots unused. Your methodology was where I was headed with ranges assigned for item types. The largest gap in numbers was between 14000 and 99999 with some smaller gaps down lower. So this menu change will go there.

SQL exported the menu item table, but it didn't seem to contain the really juicy programming stuff that might be other tables... Maybe there is a query string that would get me everything I need to document and input from the configurator?

I see the answers to your range questions, but if you really want to know I'll break them down in next post. I'm a bit busy setting up new screens for the switch over today! acck. Hope it goes smooth for me.

Thank you SO VERY much for your tutoring and advice. I'll let you know how it went.

 

[intuitionsays]

Well we managed to get about 70% of their new menu functioning in spite of bothering me with things like getting logo images changed. Because of time constraints, I was forced into the "faster results" method of renaming similar items and changing button names. I realize thats bad, but they ambushed me with their all-hands meeting while I made changes. They followed it by "showing off the new menu on terminals"... Needless to say, I didn't get much time to correct matters.

Are there any certain strategies on how to set up condiments so you don't have to program specific buttons? I'm having a lot of problems and the previous configuration just had all condiments in one group to be applied to anything ordered.

They need most of the condiments removed and I have been managing that. However, they need certain condiments automatically applied to different items with the option of specifying "hold/no" for each. This is driving me nuts, since the previous menu wasn't set up that way at all.

 

[TobeThor]

Not sure about the hold/no thing on forced condiments. Forced condiments are required when certain items are ordered (Burger = temps, Chez Burger = temps & cheese etc)
That's forced.

Voluntary condiments are just that. I used to design a "prep screen" that had ADD, NO, EXTRA, LITE buttons across the bottom of the prep screen. Each of these buttons may (or may not) trigger a different level of menu item pricing.
IE: the ADD button stayed on level one, the NO button used price level two, the EXTRA button triggered price level four, LITE triggered price level three. Take Bacon for IE:

Bacon Lvl 1 = 1.50 (ADD)
Bacon Lvl 2 = 0.00 (NO)
Bacon Lvl 3 = 1.00 (LITE)
Bacon Lvl 4 = 1.00 (EXTRA)

You just program bacon once, allow four levels of pricing and it all depends on what "Level Button" (ADD,NO,EXTRA,LITE) the server touches prior to ringing up bacon.

The trick in Misc condiments is to NOT allow a server to order a burger, then go to preps and add bacon, cheese, & mushrooms for FREE. The kitchen will make what the dupe has on it without ?. I've seen a lot of DB's that allow that and the restaurant owner doesn't even know it!

ALSO program a PASS condiment and make it part of every condiment group, this allows the servers to use it to escape a situation where you have requested a condiment group that does not exist, (the POS may request a condiment but offers no choices on the screen...you're stuck) PASS gets you out of that scenario. Plus it can be used when the servers wants to make no choice. IE: The dinner entrees ask for a starch selection, you need to allow an escape such as; NO STARCH or a PASS button. Use that technique for cheeses, sauces etc. if the customer doesn't want sauce with the Chicken tenders don't waste money by giving it to them, same goes for pickles. I think restaurants throw out 50% of the pickles they serve.

that's all for now

 

[intuitionsays]

Wow, that's sophisticated screen designing with the ADD, NO, LITE and XTRA mapping to different prices. I noticed the price mapping feature available, but wasn't sure how it could be implemented in a useful manner.

Is there is any way to pop-up non-required condiments/options automatically after the required condiments/options have been selected?

There is a big hole in preventing free additions to entrees with the Special Prep window that was inherited from before. I could disable it but it is being used for adding things that aren't programmed in. They don't seem to want everything programmed in either...so I'll just have to warn them.

 

[intuitionsays]

Anyone know how to set up "Insert Modifier" (?) functional button? I think saw somewhere that it is supposed to concatenate a modifier onto a condiment selection, but I don't know how to set it up.

They need to be able to select "Onion" and then modify it with "No" or "On side". There was a button on an old menu that said "Insert Modifier" but it didn't seem to be implemented. There was also a "Change Modifier" button next to it. Thought it worked before but I cut and pasted it to scratchpad screen. When I put it back, it didn't work anymore.

 

[intuitionsays]

Thank you so very much for your advice and words. Aside from the modifiers, I managed to get the restaurant's new menu installed and all working satisfactorily. It wasn't very fancy (a burger joint) but it has turned into a great starter project.

Today was the first day that all basic functionality was successfully implemented and working. I don't think I can express how it felt watching terminals cranking through orders like they had used it all along. Yay!!

I'm sure an experienced MICROS tech might have knocked it out in a day, but I had them limping along for no longer than 3 days. Plus I had new menu screens ready to be put in before I started taking apart their old menu. They used it for training and to get familiar with even though much of it wasn't ready yet.

Thanks again!

 

[pmegan]

Congrats on your first installation. That excitement when everything comes to life settles down after a while but never really goes away. I've done 50+ restaurants openings and it's always cool seeing all your work pay off.

The insert and change condiment buttons are set up about the same. In the touchscreen designer select your button, assign the Category as Function: Transaction, and pick either change or insert condiment from the function choices. Make sure you have a modifier SLU button on the same screen.

To test them out enter an order with some modifiers.

To use the change condiment button, Touch one of the items in the middle of the list and then hit the change condiment button. You'll see Change show up in red in the status bar. touch modifier SLU button and select the replacement item. The Change status will go away and the item you highlighted will be changed. One nice thing is that if you select a forced condiment and hit the Change button it will automatically bring up the forced condiment selections.

The insert condiment is a little different. The steps are the same up until the end, (and the status will change to Insert). The difference is that you're allowed to insert multiple condiments so the Insert status doesn't go away. You have to hit a Cancel button to get back into normal ordering mode.

Personally I wouldn't use the insert condiment button to enter No, Sub, etc... When you insert a condiment it goes below the item you selected. I'd create a separate menu item class for those items, make them condiment prefixes and hardcode a few buttons on the bottom of the SLU screen for them. This way entering the items is more like speaking, you press burger no cheese instead of burger cheese no. Also, since they're condiment prefixes they can be entered before forced preps which allows you to change price levels on the forced preps if you get as detailed as TobeThor's example.