Menus: Scheduled Price Menus — Paloma POS 2

This article is about Paloma POS 2, the new Paloma register app. It covers menus: sets of items with their own prices and names that turn on by schedule or are pinned to a sales point. You will learn how to create a menu, attach a schedule to it, how the cashier switches between menus and the catalog on the order screen, and what happens when a sales point is “pinned” to a single menu. If you’re not sure which product you have, start with “How to tell you have Paloma POS 2”.

Overview

• A menu is a set of catalog items where each line can carry its own price and display name (the “Custom” badge). For example, a “Lunch” menu with a trimmed set of dishes and special prices.
• A menu’s schedule is built from existing happy-hours rules (see “Happy Hours and Price Types”). A menu without a schedule shows as “Always active”; a menu with a schedule is active when at least one of its rules is open right now and is linked to your sales point.
• On the order screen, active menus appear as chips above the item categories. The first chip is “Catalog” (the full catalog, selected by default); the cashier opts into a menu. If no menu is active, there are no chips at all — the order screen looks the same as usual.
• A sales point can be pinned to one menu in the sales-point editor (the “Menu” field; details in “Sales Points and Workplaces”). The register then shows only that menu: the “Catalog” chip is hidden and the cashier cannot escape to the full catalog.
• Everything works offline: menus are stored on the register, and changes sync to the cloud when connected. Until a change reaches the cloud, the menu shows an “Unsynced” badge in the list.

Where to find menus

The menus list opens in two ways:

• Settings → “Back office” → “Menus” (the row’s subtitle is “Price menus active on a schedule”). The row appears after an employee signs in with their PIN.
• From the “Management” hub → the “Catalog” section → the “Menus” tile.

Access to the screen is granted by the menus view right in the employee’s access types: without it, the row and the tile are hidden and the screen does not open.

Creating a menu

1. Open the “Menus” list and tap the add button (tooltip “Add menu”) — the “New menu” screen opens.
2. Fill in “Menu name” (for example, “Lunch”) — the field is required: without it the register shows “Enter a menu name”.
3. In the “Items” section, check what goes into the menu. Items are shown as the catalog tree: a group has a select-all checkbox (which also shows partial selection), and every item has its own checkbox. The counter next to the heading shows “N selected”. If the catalog has no items yet, you’ll see “The catalog is empty” instead of the tree — create items first (see “Item Editor”).
4. If needed, give an item its own price or name: tap the tune icon next to the line (tooltip “Custom price and name”). In the sheet, fill in “Menu price” and/or “Menu display name” and tap “Apply”. The line gets the “Custom” badge. The “Reset to catalog” button restores the catalog price and name.
5. In the “Active schedule” section, decide when the menu works:
   • select nothing — the menu will show as “Always active”;
   • tap “Choose schedules” and check the rules you need in the “Schedule rules” dialog (after selecting, the section shows “N schedule rules”);
   • if there is no suitable rule yet, tap “New rule” — the happy-hours screen opens where you can create one.
6. Save the menu (the button’s tooltip is “Save menu”). On an error, the register shows “Couldn't save the menu” — try again.

If you leave the editor with unsaved edits, the register asks “Discard changes?” (“Your unsaved edits will be lost.”) — choose “Keep editing” or “Discard”.

To change a menu, tap it in the list — the “Edit menu” screen opens. The list can be filtered with the “Search menus” field.

When a menu is active

The register recomputes the active-menu set when the order screen opens and on every sync — there is no background timer, but back-office edits and schedule-window changes are picked up on their own:

• A menu without a schedule is always active.
• A menu with a schedule is active when at least one of its selected rules is open right now (date, day of week, time) and that rule is linked to your sales point. A rule linked only to another sales point does not activate the menu on this register.
• If a schedule rule was deleted, it simply stops counting. A menu whose rules were all deleted does not become “always on” — it stops appearing.

Menus on the order screen

When at least one menu is active for the sales point, a row of chips appears above the categories on the order screen (see “Quick Sale”):

• The first chip is “Catalog”: the full item catalog, selected by default.
• Then one chip per active menu. Tapping it switches the item grid to that menu’s contents with its prices and names; item search also searches within the selected menu.
• If the selected menu stops being active (its schedule window ended or it was edited in the back office), the register returns the cashier to “Catalog” automatically. Lines already added to the order are not repriced — they keep the price they were rung at.

Pinning a sales point to a menu

The sales-point editor has a “Menu” field (the default option is “No menu (full catalog)”; the helper text reads “When set, the POS shows only this menu — the base catalog is hidden.”). See “Sales Points and Workplaces” for the editor itself. When a sales point is pinned to a menu:

• the order screen shows only that menu’s chip, and the “Catalog” chip is hidden — the cashier cannot escape to the full catalog;
• the menu counts as active even outside its own schedule windows;
• if the pinned menu is deleted, the pin stops applying and the register falls back to normal schedule behavior.

Deleting a menu

In the list, tap the delete icon next to a menu (tooltip “Delete menu”). The register asks “Delete menu?” — “«Name» will be removed from this device and the cloud.” Confirm with “Delete” or back out with “Cancel”. Deletion is soft: the menu disappears from the list immediately, and the change goes to the cloud on sync. On an error, the register shows “Couldn't delete the menu”.

Common issues

• Menu chips did not appear on the order screen — no menu is currently active for your sales point. Check that a menu exists and that its schedule rules are open right now and linked to your sales point specifically.
• A menu shows “Always active” although a schedule was expected — no rule is selected for the menu. Open it, tap “Choose schedules”, and check the rules.
• The cashier is “stuck” in one menu with no “Catalog” chip — the sales point is pinned to that menu. This is an intentional restriction; to bring back the full catalog, choose “No menu (full catalog)” in the sales-point editor.
• “No menus yet” — the list is empty; no menus have been created. Tap the add button.
• “Couldn't load menus” — the list failed to load. Check the connection and open the screen again.
• “The catalog is empty” — there are no items in the catalog, so there is nothing to add to the menu. Create items in the item editor first.
• “Enter a menu name” — the required “Menu name” field is empty.
• “Couldn't save the menu” / “Couldn't delete the menu” — the operation failed. Try again; if it keeps failing, check the connection.
• “Menu not found” — the menu you are opening was already deleted or has not synced to this device yet.
• An “Unsynced” badge on a menu in the list — the change has not reached the cloud yet. This is normal offline; the badge disappears after sync.

FAQ

How is a menu different from happy hours?

Happy hours change the price of individual items in the shared catalog on a schedule. A menu is a separate set of items with its own prices and names that the cashier sees as a separate chip on the order screen (or as the only one, if the sales point is pinned). At the same time, menu schedules are the same happy-hours rules — you pick them with “Choose schedules”.

Does every menu need a schedule?

No. A menu without a schedule shows as “Always active” and is available at any time. A schedule is needed only when the menu should turn on at certain hours or days.

What does the cashier see when several menus are open at once?

All active menus appear as chips in one row: “Catalog” first, then the menus. The cashier switches between them freely; “Catalog” is selected by default.

Will an already-added line be repriced when the menu “closes”?

No. Order lines keep the price they had when they were added. When a menu stops being active, the register only switches the grid back to “Catalog”.

How do I set a menu price different from the catalog?

In the menu editor, tap the tune icon next to the item (“Custom price and name”), enter “Menu price”, and tap “Apply”. The line gets the “Custom” badge. To restore the catalog price, use “Reset to catalog”.

Why is a menu active even though its schedule already ended?

Most likely the sales point is pinned to that menu in the sales-point editor: a pinned menu works at all times, regardless of its schedule windows.

Do menus work without internet?

Yes. Menus and their schedules are stored on the register; activity is computed on the device itself. Back-office changes go to the cloud and reach other registers on sync — until then the menu shows the “Unsynced” badge.