Optional Extras

Offer the things your customer might add (a cheese board, a wine pairing, a late-night snack) as optional extras. Each one has its own quantity and price, and stays out of the total until the customer says yes and you add it to the order. Or tick Selected by default and it starts in the total, ready for the customer to take off. An extra shows in the Optional Extras section at the end of the quote’s menu, or under its own menu header if you give it one.

What Is an Optional Extra?

Every line on a quote has a Line type:

• Normal: an ordinary line, with a quantity and price, in the total.
• Optional extra: a line you offer. It has a quantity and a price (or P.O.A), and adds nothing to the total until you add it to the order, unless you tick Selected by default (see below).
• Info only: a reference line, with no quantity, never charged, under its usual menu heading. Tick Show price to show its price beside its name for reference. See Price on Application (P.O.A) for info-only lines and P.O.A.

An optional extra is its own kind of line, not a kind of info only. Only optional extras go in the Optional Extras section: if the customer can add it, make it an optional extra.

Adding an Optional Extra

1. On the quote’s items page, add an item, or click one already on the quote, to open the Add Item (or Edit Item) window. This works for catalogue items and one-off items (Custom Items & One-Off Packages).
2. Under Line type, choose Optional extra.
3. Enter the Quantity you’re offering (for example 50 arancini) and the Price (per unit).
4. Under the price, choose Show price to show what it costs, or P.O.A if you’ll price it later.
5. Click Update (or add the item), then save the items page.

While Optional extra is chosen, the window’s total reads If added: what the line would add to the quote. The line under Line type shows which section it goes in; click the section’s name to rename it for this quote (see below).

On the items page the line shows an Optional extra badge, Offered: 50x in place of its quantity, its offered total in grey, and an Add to order button.

Selected by Default

Some extras are things most customers take, such as a welcome drink or a bread course. Tick Selected by default and the extra starts in the quote’s total. The customer sees it already ticked when they accept, and can untick it to take it off.

The tick box shows when Customers make menu choices is on for your account (Customer Menu Choices), because that’s what lets the customer untick it. With it off, an extra can still be selected by default through the API or by a package from your catalogue: it’s charged in the total, and the customer can’t untick it until you turn Customers make menu choices on.

1. Open the line’s Add Item (or Edit Item) window and choose Optional extra under Line type.
2. Enter the Quantity and the Price (per unit), and leave Show price chosen. A P.O.A extra can’t be selected by default, as there’s no price to charge yet.
3. Tick Selected by default. The line under Line type changes from “not in the total until added” to “in the total; the customer can untick it”, and the window’s total reads Line Total.
4. Click Update (or add the item), then save the items page.

On the items page the line keeps its Optional extra badge and shows its quantity, Selected by default · in total and its amount. There’s no Add to order button, because it’s already in the order.

What counts in the total. A selected-by-default extra is charged at its offered quantity from the start, so the quote’s total, tax, discounts, deposits and payment requests all include it. It’s on your dockets, run sheets, reports and invoices like any other line, unless the customer takes it off.

What the customer sees. On the quote, the small line under its price reads “Optional extra – included in total”. When they click Accept Quote, it’s listed with your other extras, already ticked.

• Left ticked, nothing changes: it stays in the total.
• Unticked, it comes out of the total, and the line above their name says what that takes off, such as “Your selections take $55.20 off including GST.” You’re told in the email, under Removed.
• I’ll choose later leaves it in the total.

Once a customer unticks it, it becomes an ordinary optional extra: out of the total, and they can tick it again until your cutoff. If you allow changes after acceptance, they can also untick it later with Choose your menu, until your cutoff or until your kitchen has ticked the line off.

To switch it off yourself, open the line and untick Selected by default. It goes back to an ordinary optional extra, out of the total.

Adding an Extra to the Order

With Customers make menu choices on, the customer can tick extras themselves when they accept the quote. If you allow changes after acceptance, they can also do it afterwards with Choose your menu until your cutoff, and untick ones they picked: see Customer Menu Choices. Otherwise, when the customer says yes (by email, a call or in person):

1. Open the quote’s items page.
2. Click Add to order on the line. Its quantity becomes the offered quantity, it leaves the Optional Extras section and it joins the total. You can still change the quantity.
3. Save the items page.

On a P.O.A extra, Add to order opens the line’s window with the price ready to fill in. Enter the price, or choose P.O.A again to keep it P.O.A on purpose.

Add to order is on the items page only, not on the order page. On an accepted quote, it’s an ordinary change: you choose whether to save a new version, as with any edit.

Extras Inside a Package

A package’s fixed dishes can be optional extras too, such as a dessert upgrade offered with every wedding package.

• In the package itself: in Items → Packages, open the package and click Edit items on the Fixed items card. Set the dish’s Line type to Optional extra, then set its per-unit price (the item’s own price to start with) and choose Show price or P.O.A. This picker is the only place to set a package extra’s price and P.O.A. Tick Selected by default here and the extra starts in the total on every quote you add the package to.
• On the Fixed items card, extras are listed in an Optional extras section of their own, last, with what each would charge: “If added: +$7.00 each” or “If added: P.O.A”. One that’s selected by default reads “Selected by default: +$7.00 each”.

• On a quote: open the package on the items page and click a dish’s Edit. The same Line type choice is there, with Price (per unit), On the quote: Show price / P.O.A and Selected by default. This works for one-off items in the package too. The package window lists every extra in an Optional extras section, last, each with its If added amount.

A package extra is never part of the package’s per-guest price. A per-guest extra follows the guest count, like any fixed dish. On the quote it appears in the Optional Extras section, or under its menu header if it has one (see below). When you add it to the order, or it’s selected by default, it stays in the package as a priced line charged on top.

Changing a package only affects quotes you add it to afterwards. Quotes you’ve already made keep their own extras and prices. See Packages.

Renaming the Section

The section is called “Optional Extras” unless you give it another name, such as “Add to Your Event” or “Extras”.

• For every quote: go to Settings → Account Details and fill in Section name on quotes in the Optional Extras section panel. Leave it blank to keep “Optional Extras”.

• For one quote: in the Add Item (or Edit Item) window, click the section’s name (with the pencil) in the line under Line type. Type the new name, then press Enter or click away (Escape cancels). It’s saved when you save the items page. Clear the name to go back to the account’s name.

How It Looks on the Quote

• Where an extra prints depends on its menu header. An extra with a Menu Header chosen on its line prints under that heading, among your other items. An extra with no menu header prints in the Optional Extras section. This is the same whether or not it’s selected by default, and for extras inside a package.
• One section at the end of the menu. The extras with no menu header appear together under the section’s name, after the rest of the menu, whatever their category. On a quote with several deliveries it’s still one section, after every delivery’s menu.
• Laid out like your other items: “50 x Arancini” with its price, “$350.00 ($7.00 each)”, or “$7.00” for one, or “P.O.A”.
• Under every extra’s price, a small line: “Optional extra – not included in total”, or “Optional extra – included in total” when it’s selected by default. It shows wherever the extra prints, so the customer can always tell it’s optional.
• Hidden quantities stay hidden. Where the quantity isn’t shown (for example a package with its quantities hidden), the extra shows its unit price, “$7.00 each”.
• Everywhere the customer looks: the standard quote, the PDF and every quote template show the section in their own style (Quote Templates).
• Not in the total, unless selected by default. An ordinary extra adds nothing to the quote’s total, in the section or under a heading. An empty section isn’t shown.

Until an extra is added to the order, it stays off your dockets, run sheets and reports. One that’s selected by default is on them from the start.

Extras already on your quotes stay where they are. An optional extra that was on a quote before menu headers started deciding where extras print keeps printing in the Optional Extras section, even if it has a menu header or you give it one later. Editing it, saving a new version of the quote or duplicating the quote doesn’t move it. Only extras you add from now on follow their menu header.

Lines Made Before Optional Extras

Before optional extras, a line went in the section by being Info only with Show in Optional Extras ticked, and sometimes Show price. Those lines still show exactly as before, and you can turn Show in Optional Extras off. New info-only lines can’t go in the section (they can still tick Show price): to offer something the customer can add, make it an optional extra.

Tips

• Use Selected by default for extras most customers take, so the total is right from the first quote and the customer only has to untick what they don’t want.
• To keep an extra with its course, give it that course’s menu header. To keep all your extras together at the end, leave the menu header blank.
• Put a set price on extras so the customer knows what to expect, or use P.O.A for ones you’ll price later.
• To offer an upgrade with every quote, make it an optional extra in the package once, and every new quote starts with it.
• Let customers add extras and pick their own dishes when they accept, or come back later: see Customer Menu Choices.