Set up Collins Pre-Orders
Collins Pre-Orders is a bolt-on that your account manager can activate for you. This feature allows you to send out online menus to your customers, from which they can:
Choose which items they like to order online.
Order on behalf of other people, ie. for a spouse or friend.
Send to the rest of their group so they too can order.
If required, pay for their items at the point of pre-ordering.
Build a menu
To start building menus, please follow the three-step process below:
Step 1: Add items
🤓Tip: Add every item that you offer, so when building different menus you can draw directly from this bank of items.
Before you can build a menu, add the individual items by following the steps below:
Click Settings, then click Sites then select your site.
Click the Pre-orders tab.
Add items from the organisation level or from the site level:
If your site's part of an organisation and you've previously added items, select Use items from organisation.
If it's an individual site, choose Use custom items and then select Add Another.
Add each item and item details individually, including the name, type, subtype, price, and description fields.
To add diet suitability and include allergies, click Show advanced.
🤓Tip: Keep the name of the item brief, like Christmas Pudding, as this represents the title of your item. You can say more about the item in the description, like Georgie Porgie’s Devonshire Christmas pudding, brandy butter served with double cream.
Click Save.
Arrange and navigate your items list
To re-arrange the list, click the drag
icon by the item and drag and drop to the desired location.
Click Save after you make any changes.
To locate pre-order items quickly, use the Name, Type and Subtype filters.
📌Note: 30 items display per page. To go to the next page, use the page numbers and arrows at the bottom.
Step 2: Add menu rules
Once you've added your items, you can set menu rules by following the below steps:
Scroll down to Pre-Order Menus then select either:
Use menus from venue group: If part of a group already has menus set up.
Use custom menus: If an individual venue needs to set up menus, then click Add Another Menu.
In the Menu template, add a menu name, eg. Christmas Menu, then a menu description.
The menu description appears at the top of the menu when customers order. Include any information you’d like them to know.
To make the menu a fixed price, select Fixed Price under the menu description.
Add the rules.
For example, two items for £35 and three for £40. These automatically display at the top of the menu, so no need to write this again in the Menu Description.
🤓Tip: For your fixed-priced menus, you can limit the number of sub-types a customer can order to one. This means a customer would not be able to order two mains instead of one starter and one main for example. If they try to order more than one starter, a new order appears on the right side of their order page.
See a detailed explanation about how the pre-order menu rules and limits work in the booking type and in the customer's booking.
Step 3: Add items to a menu
After adding your menu details and rules you can begin adding the actual items:
To create the subsections of your menu, click Add Section then enter the name.
These are usually Starter, Main, and Dessert.
Click Add an item and select your items from the drop-down list.
The drop-down list shows the first 10 items. You can use the search bar to find specific items.
If you're using organisation menus, the search list shows the custom items in the site.
To move items to the correct sub-section, click the drag
New items automatically appear in a list at the bottom.
To delete items from the menu, click the delete
icon.
This deletes the item from the menu only, not the item bank.
For fixed-price menus, to add surcharges on particular items, click Add surcharge.
If a customer selects this item, the extra cost is then added to the total amount. The customer can see there is a surcharge on particular items and it also displays in any pre-order summaries sent to the customer.
🤓Tip: Once you've created and saved the menu, you can duplicate the menu to save time. Underneath your created menus, click DUPLICATE MENU and choose which menu to copy. This creates an exact copy of an existing menu, with the title COPY OF menu name.