Central menu

Keep one product list or menu at the head office and send it to your outlets - with prices locked or left to each outlet. Stock is never sent.

What it does

With a head office, you keep your products or menu in one place, the head office, and send them to the outlets you choose. You don't type the same product in every outlet, and a new price reaches every outlet in one step.

What can be sent:

Products, with their price, cost, barcode, HSN code, MRP, unit, picture and short code
Categories, including the extra categories a product also shows in
Variations (for example Size, or Colour and Size) and their prices
Add-ons (restaurants) and which products they belong to
GST groups and which product uses which
Combos and meal deals, with their parts and choices
Raw materials (restaurants): name, unit, category, purchase unit, low-stock level. Tick Raw materials under "What to send". A new copy in an outlet starts at 0 stock with the head office's average cost; a raw material the outlet already has keeps its own stock and cost.
Recipes (restaurants, tick Send recipes too): the ingredients of each dish, so stock comes off the same way in every outlet when Deduct ingredients by recipe is on there. Sending again replaces an outlet's own change to a sent recipe. A dish is skipped if the outlet doesn't have it or one of its raw materials yet.

Raw materials sent from the head office are linked, so stock transfers between outlets find them by themselves. A raw material with the same name and unit in the outlet is linked instead of added twice; one with the same name in a different unit is skipped (with the reason) and left as it is. Raw materials that only the outlet has are never touched.

Stock is never sent. Each outlet's stock comes from its own purchases, sales and stock transfers.

In the head office, go to Head Office › Central Menu.
Choose what to send: everything, chosen categories or chosen products.
Choose the outlets. To start with, every outlet is ticked.
Click Preview. For each outlet, Ellibo shows how many products will be new, updated, kept at the outlet's own price or skipped (with the reason).
Click Send now. A progress bar shows each outlet. Big catalogues are sent in parts, so keep the page open until it finishes. If the page closes part way, send again: it carries on safely.

Change the products in the head office as usual (Menu › Products), then send again. Only what changed is updated in the outlets.

Send to some outlets only: in the product list on the Central Menu page, use Send to on a product to choose which outlets get it. To start with, every product goes to every outlet.

Price lock or local price

Each product in the Central Menu list has a Lock price switch. It is on to start with.

Locked: the outlet sells at the head office's price, and the outlet can't change it on its product form (the form says the price is set by the head office). When you send again, the outlet's price goes back to the head office's price. Use it for a brand menu that must cost the same everywhere.
Not locked: an outlet may set its own price, for example a higher price at the airport outlet. When you send again, an outlet that kept the head office's price gets the new price; an outlet that set its own price keeps it. Everything else about the product (name, category, GST, picture) still comes from the head office.

Products an outlet already has

When an outlet joins with products of its own, Ellibo matches by name:

A product, category, variation, add-on or GST group with the same name in the outlet is linked to the head office's, not added twice. Its bills and stock stay as they are.
A product that only the outlet has stays in the outlet and keeps working. The head office doesn't remove it.
After the first match, the link is kept. If you rename a product at the head office, the outlet's product is renamed too.

Tip

Before the first send, make the names in the outlet match the head office's, for example Masala Dosa in both, not Masala Dosai in one. Then nothing is doubled.

History

The Central Menu page keeps a history of the last 50 sends: when, by whom, what was sent, to which outlets, and how many products were added, updated or skipped. When something is skipped, the reason is shown, for example a short code or barcode the outlet already uses for another product, or a dining area the outlet doesn't have.

Good to know

Products, raw materials, offers and price lists deleted at the head office are not deleted in the outlets. Delete them in the outlet if it should stop selling them.
Product pictures are shared from the head office, not copied.
A product sent from the head office can still be edited in the outlet. A locked price goes back to the head office's price on the next send.

What outlets see

Products sent from the head office look and bill like any other product.
Each outlet still sets up its own printers, kitchen stations, tables and registers.
Each outlet buys and counts its own stock.