Article Contents
Introduction
To make sure your POS Mapping remains accurate, there is a "Needs Review" tab on the POS Items page.
Whenever the name of a mapped POS Item changes (based on updates made in your POS system), it gets flagged and appears here.
This is to determine if the name change requires updating the ingredients in the mapping.
In this example above, we see that the Bacardi POS Items were renamed to Casamigos Reposado, but Bacardi is mapped to them.
Note: Renaming existing buttons to sell a different product is not a recommended practice and can greatly impact the accuracy of your POS mapping. It's always easier to create new buttons in your POS for new menu items.
In some cases the change may just be formatting, for example "Draft 20oz - Budweiser", to "Budweiser - 20oz" and requires no action.
However, if the name change completely changes what is being sold, you will need to make updates to the mapping. Depending on how recently the item under the old name was being sold, this can be difficult to make sure the sales of that item apply correctly.
For this reason, we greatly discourage reusing/renaming buttons in your POS. If you are adding a new menu item, we always recommend creating a new button in your POS.
This is because:
If you reuse/recycle buttons, the history is tied to the PLU number/POS Code in your POS, not the name. If you recycle a button and change it to a new item, the system will think that you always sold the new item for all sales in the unlocked inventory period.
If you archived the POS Item in WISK, then change that button to something else in your POS and start selling a new product, the POS Item is still archived in WISK and you won't see the sales
In summary, it's always easy to create a new button in your POS for menu items. If you start renaming all your items you can make all of your POS Mapping incorrect.
Needs Review Tab
When looking at the Needs Review tab, at a glance you should be able to tell which items require a mapping update or not.
If the POS Item name and the ingredients appear to match, you can confirm the change with no further action
If the POS Item name and the ingredients don't seem like they match up, you will need to change the mapping
No Mapping Update Needed
In this example, we have a "Tall Can - Budweiser" item flagged for review.
Place your cursor over the POS Item and click the pencil icon
A message displays saying what the name of the POS Item was before, and then the new title. In this case the title was previous "Budweiser Tall Can", but changed to "Tall Can - Budweiser"
Note: For more information, click the "Sales" tab to see the sales history of the item. We can see that the name was updated in the POS from the most recent sales import
Since this change doesn't affect the ingredients, you can click the "X" button to dismiss the message
The POS Item is removed from the "Needs Review" tab
Mapping Update Needed
In this example, we have a POS Item called "Casamigos Reposado Shot" marked for review. When looking at the ingredients, we can see Bacardi 8 mapped to it. In this situation it's very likely that the POS button was renamed.
Note: The best practice is to create a new button instead of renaming existing ones.
Before making any changes to the ingredients you'll need to consider when the change was made. This determines your best course of action for maintaining your historical data (please check this section before updating mapping)
To update mapping:
Place your cursor over the POS Item and click the pencil icon
A message displays saying the POS Item name changed from "Bacardi 8 Shot" to "Casamigos Reposado Shot". This means we will need to update the ingredients since they are different products
Click the "Sales" tab to see the sales history of the item and when the change occurred. When the change occurred is important because it determines how you will update the recipe.
Important: Check the "Maintaining your Historical Data" section for tips before updating ingredients in a POS Item
On the "Edit POS Item" tab, place your cursor over the ingredient and click the blue arrow, then "Remove". The ingredient is removed from the POS Item
Add the correct ingredient(s) and click the "X" button to dismiss the message
The POS Item is removed from the "Needs Review" tab.
Maintaining Historical Sales Data
When you change the mapping of a POS Item, those changes apply to all sales of that item during unlocked inventory periods.
Before we added the inventory locking feature in March 2024, if you changed the mapping of a POS item it applied to all historical sales.
To learn more, see:
When updating the mapping for a POS Item that was renamed/recycled/reused, the best way to maintain the historical sales of the "old" item depends on how recently it was last sold.
Last Sold During Locked Inventory Period
In the example below, the item was previously sold as a "Manhattan", but then wasn't sold for about 5 months. The button was then updated to "Margarita" in July.
In this case, since the item wasn't sold for many months the historical data / variance will be maintained. The inventory period the "Manhattan" was last sold is locked.
You can update the mapping of the ingredients without issue.
However, if for any reason that inventory period were to be unlocked, the updated mapping of the Margarita would apply to the historical sales.
To learn more, see:
Last Sold During Unlocked Inventory Period
If a button is renamed, but the "old" item was last sold during an unlocked inventory period, it's harder to maintain the historical data.
Note: This is why it's always best to create a new button instead of renaming existing ones.
To maintain the historical data, you'll need to lock the closest inventory to when the change was made. If the change happened in the middle of an inventory period, you won't be able to accurately track the sales of both the "old" and "new" item for that period.
It's only after that inventory is locked you should make updates to the POS Item's mapping.
Before locking the inventory, you should also make sure that all other data is in place in your venue (sales, all invoices added).
To learn more, see:
In this example, you can see the item was last sold as "Bacardi 8 Shot" on July 4th, but then switched to "Casamigos Reposado Shot" on July 7th.
Looking at this account's inventory history, we could lock the July 8th inventory and then update the mapping to reflect the change. This way we'll get most of the sales reported correctly, but the sales from July 7th will be attributed to Bacardi 8.
In conclusion, while there are ways to mitigate the impacts of renaming a POS Item, it's always best just to create a new button if you have a new menu item.