Food and drink
Your café list: what you sell to people sitting in your shop. It does two jobs — it's the
menu page customers read at /menu, and it's what the
till rings up when someone buys a can of cola.
Food is never sold online. These items don't appear in the catalogue and can't be added to a web basket. They exist for the counter and the tables.
Adding an item
Press + Add an item and fill in the form.
| Field | What to put in it |
|---|---|
| Name | What it's called on the menu. "Cheese toastie", "Flat white". |
| Category | The heading it sits under on the menu page — pick one from the list. Add a dish without choosing and it lands under Food. Headings are managed in the Categories panel above: type a name and press Add category; change a heading's Name or Position in its row and press Save order & names; Delete removes a heading, and any items still under it move to Other rather than being deleted. |
| Price | What the customer pays, in your shop's currency. |
| Costs you | What the item costs you — only shown if your plan includes cost tracking. Fill it in and every one you sell at the till counts towards the gross profit on your sales report, the same as stock does. Leave it blank and those sales show up as "no cost recorded" instead. If you are VAT registered, enter the cost excluding VAT. |
| Barcode (UPC) | Optional, and worth doing for anything that comes with a barcode — a canned drink, a chocolate bar. Fill it in and the cashier can scan the item straight into the sale instead of hunting for it on screen. |
| Position in its category | Low numbers first. Leave everything at 0 and they fall in the order you added them. |
| VAT when taken away | The rate when the customer takes it away. Food eaten in is always standard-rated, and the till's Eat in / Take away switch decides which applies. Hot takeaway food, such as a toastie or a pie, is Standard rate. Most cold takeaway food, such as a sandwich, is Zero rate, but crisps, sweets, soft drinks and bottled water are always standard-rated (HMRC VAT Notice 709/1). |
| Picture | Optional. Shown beside the item on the menu page and on the till. |
| Description | Optional line under the name. "Ham, cheese, on sourdough." |
| Available | Ticked = on the menu and sellable. Untick when you run out — it stays in the list ready for tomorrow. |
Editing
Every row on the menu below is live — change a price or a name in place and press Save on that row. Delete removes the item and asks first. Untick Available rather than deleting something you'll sell again next week.
The box above the menu narrows the items as you type, and hides any category left with nothing in it.
VAT — which case are you?
- If you are VAT registered (a VAT number and its Registered from date are saved in Settings ▸ Payment ▸ Tax): the price you type here is treated as VAT-inclusive, the same as every other price in the shop, and the VAT inside each till sale appears on your VAT report. Food eaten in is standard-rated. For food taken away, the till uses the VAT when taken away rate you set on the item: hot food is standard-rated, and most cold food is zero-rated (HMRC VAT Notice 709/1). The cashier picks Eat in or Take away once per sale; it starts on Eat in. If you are unsure about a particular item, ask your accountant.
- If you are not VAT registered: no VAT is charged or recorded, and the customer simply pays the price you typed.
Worked example
"A can of cola at £1.20, scannable at the till."
Name Cola (330ml) · Category Cans · Price 1.20 ·
Barcode 5000112637922 · Sort 10 · Available ticked.
It shows under "Cans" on your menu page, and scanning the can at the till adds it to the sale.