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WISK Bar - POS Items and Adding Recipes

How to add recipes to the items you sell in your POS to compare your sales to usage/consumption

Nick Neale avatar
Written by Nick Neale
Updated over 2 months ago

Article Contents

Introduction

When you import your sales data into WISK, it creates a POS Item in your venue for each item sold in your POS. For example, if you sell an item called “Grey Goose Single”, there is a corresponding POS Item created in WISK.

With those POS Items in your venue, the next step is to add the ingredients used every time the item is sold. This is called POS Item mapping or adding your recipes.

By mapping your POS Items, you can:

  • see your item costs

  • compare your sales to your usage/consumption

  • get real time stock estimates.

Before Mapping POS Items

Viewing POS Items

To view your POS Items on the WISK Web Portal:

  1. Click “Sales” on the left-hand menu bar, then "POS Items"

    The "POS Items" menu option is highlighted for emphasis.
  2. You’ll then see a table of all your POS Items

    The POS Items screen that displays all unmapped and mapped POS Items.

Before you start mapping your POS Items, we recommend you take the following time-saving measures:

  1. Archive any irrelevant items

  2. Add serving sizes

  3. Filter and sort your POS Items

Archiving POS Items

Depending on your POS, WISK may receive sales data for categories other than beverage. If this is the case, you can archive the POS Items of what you're not tracking.

When you archive a POS Item, it is excluded from the total sales value. For example, if WISK pulled $15000 worth of sales for both food and beverage in your venue, by archiving the food POS Items you’ll get the total beverage sales.

Otherwise, it would use the $15000 including food sales to calculate your beverage cost.

To archive POS Items:

  1. Click the checkbox beside the items you want to archive (you can multi-select)

    An arrow points to the checkbox beside a POS Item.

  2. Click “Archive” on the pop-up menu that appears

    An arrow points to the "Archive" button that appears on the window on the right of the screen

  3. Click “OK"

    An arrow points to the "OK" button to confirm the action.
  4. The selected POS Items are now archived.

Note: To restore archived POS Items, please see "Unarchiving POS Items".

Adding Serving Sizes

To help save time when adding recipes, you can create standard serving sizes. When you map a POS Item, you add the ingredient, and how much is used when the item is sold.

By having serving sizes, you select the amount of an ingredient used from a list, instead of typing in a custom amount each time.

For example, if your draft beer pints are 20oz, you can create a serving size for it.

To create a serving size:

  1. Click "Actions" then “Serving Sizes”

    The "Actions" button menu is highlighted and an arrow points to the "Serving Sizes" button on the menu.

  2. On the window that appears, click “Add serving size”

    An arrow points to the "Add serving size" button.

    Note: By default, a serving size of "One Unit" is already in your venue. This could be used for full items (wine, beer, etc.) You can click it to rename it.

  3. In the "Title" field, enter a name for the serving size (for example, shot, small wine glass, etc.)

    The "New serving size" window where you enter a title and set the measurement.

  4. Enter a quantity, then click the drop-down menu to select the unit of measurement. Fluid Ounce is selected by default.

    The title of "Double" has been entered and the quantity and unit of measurement are highlighted.

    Note: You can learn more about the available units of measurement here.

  5. After adding the measurement, click “Save” to create the serving size.

    The quantity has been set to 2 fluid ounces and an arrow points to the "Save" button.

  6. The Serving size is added and appears in your list of serving sizes.

    The new serving size "Double" appears on the list of serving sizes and is highlighted for emphasis.

    Note: You can edit serving sizes by clicking on them. You can also rearrange the order of your serving sizes by dragging and dropping. The order they appear on this screen is the order they appear on the list when mapping your POS Items.

Important: If you change a serving size, the updated measurement applies to all POS Items it is used in. You can view a history of changes to a service size by clicking on the timeline tab when editing a serving size

The Serving Size timeline shows when a measurement has been changed

Filtering and Sorting Tips

The number of unmapped items displays at the top of the POS Items page. Click the "Click here to update" button to filter the page to only show unmapped items.

A banner displays across the top of the POS Items screen showing the number of unmapped items.

If you have a large number of POS Items to map, there are a few tools you can use to prioritize mapping your top-sellers.

1) If you click the predefined filters drop-down menu, there is an option to show "Unmapped and Sold in the last 30 days".

2) There is also a reporting view called "Most Sold Last 30 Days". This sorts the POS Items from highest to lowest sales in the past 30 days so you can map the items with the highest impact first.

To apply the view:

  1. Click "Main"

  2. Click "Most Sold Last 30 Days"

    "Main" is highlighted for emphasis and an arrow points to "Most Sold Last 30 Days".

  3. The POS Items are now sorted from highest to lowest sales from the last 30 days

    The POS Items appear in the table sorted from highest to lowest sales from the last 30 days.

Mapping POS Items

Check POS Items / Modifiers

Every POS is different, and some of our integrations have options on how you want to import your data. This is important if you use a lot of modifiers.

With some integrations, modifiers can either be appended to the main item, or imported as a separate POS Item.

Before you begin, check that your POS Items have imported in a way that makes sense to you.

If a POS has options for customizing the data import, there will be instructions in its corresponding integration article:

Adding Ingredients

To map a POS Item:

  1. Click the “Ingredients” column of a POS Item

    An arrow points to the "Ingredients" column of the Vodka Martini POS Item.

  2. A window opens and displays the POS Item’s Title, POS Code, and the menu price of the item. By adding the ingredients, you'll get the total cost and cost percentage of the POS Item

    The POS Item window that shows all details.

  3. Click into the "Search for ingredient" field. Start typing the name of an ingredient, and it searches your venue's item list. Click a search result to select the item

    An arrow points to the matching search result.

    Note: If there is no matching item, you can either create a new item or batch

    If no item is found, two separate buttons "Create new item" and "Create new batch" appear.

  4. Then select the serving size. This is the amount that is used when the item is sold. You can select from the Serving Sizes you've created, or enter a custom amount. Click “Serving Size” and select an option from the drop down menu

    An arrow points to the service size to select from the drop-down menu

    Note: You will only see serving sizes matching the measurement type of the chosen ingredient. For example you won't see serving sizes that use weight for a volume-based item.

  5. If you select a preset Serving Size, the item is added to the recipe and saved automatically. If you select a custom size, you’ll enter the quantity, unit of measurement, and then click “Add”. For more information, please see "Custom Serving Sizes" below

  6. Once an item is added, you’ll see the cost of the POS Item based on the cost per unit of the ingredients, the profit, and the cost/profit percentage

    The Profit, Cost, and Percentage fields update to reflect the ingredient being added

    Note: A visual indicator also shows how each ingredient contributes to the overall cost percentage when there is more than one ingredient

  7. Continue adding ingredients if needed. You can also add any additional costs. When finished, click X to close the window, or click the arrow buttons to move onto the next POS Item. There are also keyboard shortcuts to advance:

    • PC - Ctrl + Alt + Right Arrow = Next, Ctrl + Alt + Left Arrow = Previous

    • Mac - Cmd + Option + Right Arrow = Next, Cmd + Option + Left Arrow = Previous

    The area to close or move to the next POS Item is highlighted

Note: If you modify the price of an item in your POS, the price updates in WISK the next time it's sold.

Custom Serving Sizes

As part of the Vodka Martini POS Item above, we added 0.75oz of Dry Vermouth. We didn't create a serving size for this, so it must be entered as a custom amount.

To add an ingredient with a custom serving size:

  1. Select your ingredient in the "Search for ingredient" field. The Serving Size is set to "Custom" by default

    The Dry Vermouth item has been selected.

  2. Type the quantity and select the unit of measurement

    An arrow points to the different units of measurement available in the drop-down list.

  3. Click “Add”

    The "Add" button is highlighted for emphasis.

  4. The ingredient is added to the POS Item

    The ingredient appears below the other ingredients added to the POS Item.

Other Costs

Your POS Items may have ingredients that you choose not to inventory in WISK. For example, garnishes, syrups, etc.

If you want to add the cost of those ingredients you don’t track in WISK, you can add a flat value in the "Other costs" field.

The "Other Costs" field is highlighted for emphasis.

This amount is added to the cost of the POS Item and recalculates the Profit and Cost Percentage.

A value has been entered in the "Other Costs" field and the POS Item cost updates.

Cost Alerts

To help monitor your costs, you can set alerts for when POS Items go above certain cost percentages.


To learn more, please see:

Other

Batched Cocktails

If your venue has premixed (batched) cocktails that you keep in inventory, please see:

Feature Cocktails & "Open" POS Items

It’s best if your POS Items are as specific as possible. If you have a generic “Feature Cocktail” or “Open Liquor” button, you won’t be able to map that POS Item with specific ingredients, because it'll always be different.

You’ll need to leave these items unmapped, and manually compare your consumption to sales of those items.

If there is a recurring drink that is often entered under an open category, you’ll want to create a button for it in your POS.

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