How to build your menu

Stock → Menu keeps what you sell by category, with options, dietary tags and a recipe that works out the food cost. Your website shows it, and customers can order ahead from it.

Updated 2026-10-24

For a café, restaurant or shop: keep the menu in one place, e.g. "Latte, $4.50, Coffee, Milk: whole, oat +$0.75". Your website's menu section shows it as it is now, so a change here is on the site straight away. It is part of Stock, so Stock must be switched on. Changing the menu needs someone who manages the business.

Where

Menu in the menu for a shop, café or restaurant, or the Menu button at the top of Stock.

Add an item

1. Press Add item.
2. Type the name, a category (e.g. Coffee or Mains), the price and an optional description. Leave the price empty to show no price.
3. Pick any dietary tags, e.g. Vegetarian or Gluten-free.
4. Under Options, press Add option group for choices such as Size or Milk. Give each choice the price it adds, if any, e.g. "Large +1.00". Switch on A choice is needed and choose how many can be picked.
5. Press Save.

Use the arrows to move an item up or down. Categories appear in the order of their first item. Switch an item off to take it off the menu for a while (it leaves the website too); press Remove to delete it.

Options are shown on the menu and on the website. Nothing is ordered or charged with them: Otto has no till.

Recipes and food cost

Under Recipe, add the stock items one serving uses and how much of each, in the item's own unit, e.g. "Milk, 0.25 liter" and "Coffee beans, 0.018 kg". Positions that see money then see the food cost, the margin and the food cost as a percent of the price. The cost comes from each stock item's own cost, so changing a cost in Stock changes it here. If an ingredient has no cost in Stock, Otto says so instead of counting it as free.

Record what was made

Press Record made, type how many were made or sold (e.g. 12) and press Take off stock. Each ingredient comes off your stock as a Used movement, e.g. "Menu: 12 × Latte", so low stock and the To reorder list follow. A mistake is put right by reversing the movement in Stock → Movements. Anyone with Stock can do this.

On your website

Add the Menu (from Otto) section to a page in Website. The café or shop starter site's Menu page already has it. It shows the items that are switched on, by category, with prices, options and tags. If the menu is empty, or Stock is switched off, the section is not shown at all.

Order ahead: catering, platters and pre-orders

At the bottom of the Menu page, Order ahead gives customers a page to order from the menu for pickup.

1. Choose the Notice needed, e.g. 1 day, and the Smallest order, e.g. 50.00. Type anything to show on the page, e.g. "Pickup at the counter, 12 Main Street", and press Save.
2. Switch on Taking orders, then press Copy link to put it on your website or in an email.
3. A customer picks how many of each item, a pickup day and time, and their name and email. Only items that are switched on and have a price are listed. Choices such as oat milk go in their note.
4. Each order arrives as a draft quote in Quotes, titled "Order for pickup" with the day and time, the items as lines and the customer's note. You are told in your notices. Confirm it with the customer and bill it as usual. Nothing is charged on the page, and nothing is sent to the customer until you send it.

Quotes must be switched on for the page to take orders.

The prep list

Press Prep list at the top of the Menu page for a screen the kitchen can keep open. For the day shown it lists:

• To make: every item ordered for pickup that day, added up across orders, e.g. "Cookie box × 4".
• Tables booked: the day's reservations from Tables, with time, name, party size, table and note, and the covers confirmed.
• Each order for pickup that day, by time, with its items, the customer's note and whether its quote is confirmed yet.

Orders whose quote was declined or has expired are left out. Use the arrows or Today to change day. Nothing is printed or sent to a kitchen screen; open the page on any tablet or computer.

Good to know

• "Every option group needs a name, such as Size or Milk." Name the group or remove it.
• "Salt has no recipe yet, so there is nothing to take off stock." Add the item's ingredients first.
• "Add at least one menu item with a price before taking orders." The order page lists only priced items.
• A customer sees "The smallest order is $50.00." or "Pick a pickup time at least 24 hours from now" when the order is too small or too soon.
• A position that does not see money sees the recipe but not its cost.