Summary
There are multiple ways to configure a public holiday surcharge in OrderMate depending on the conditions of the surcharge and the requirements of the venue. The surcharges can be automatically applied to each order in WaiterMate as the front of house team place the orders. The three main ways to achieve this are;
- Enabling an 'Ad-Hoc' daily surcharge from WaiterMate on the day of the public holiday
- Creating a 'Surcharge' which is automatically triggered for the public holiday dates
- Creating a 'Price Level' which is automatically triggered for the public holiday dates
Ad-Hoc Daily Surcharges
An automatic surcharge can be applied to all accounts by enabling the 'Daily Surcharge' feature on the day of the public holiday from WaiterMate. This method is simple and easy for venue's that want to add a surcharge to every order without having to do any prior set up.
This method would automatically apply the surcharge;
- To all accounts
- To all account types
- To the active price level and;
- For the remainder of the trading day
On the Public Holiday, the manager or owner should log into WaiterMate and;
- Select the;
- System Admin icon
- Daily Tasks tab
- Daily Surcharge/Discount icon
- Click to set up surcharge or discount icon
- Then;
- Set the Surcharge type
- Choose either Percentage or a Dollar Amount for the unit
- Add the value of the surcharge in the amount field
- Finally select the 'Ok' icon to save the change
- This surcharge will now apply to every order until the end of the day
Automatic Surcharges using Triggers
An automatic surcharge can be applied by configuring a single trigger that contains all of the public holiday dates for the year and then attaching that trigger to a surcharge. This method is suitable for venue's that want to configure the surcharges ahead of time and possibly exclude some account types from the surcharge eg Takeaway orders
This method would automatically apply the surcharge to;
- To all accounts
- Can be restricted to specific account types (such as tables)
- To the active price level
- For all of the public holidays for the year
Before the day of the Public Holiday;
Create a Composite Date Trigger
A composite trigger is a way that we can create one trigger, but build many sub triggers within it. We would do this for a public holiday so we had one public holiday trigger for the whole year, and inside that trigger we have a sub trigger for each public holiday of the year.
- Navigate to Triggers in the navigation panel in OfficeMate
- Select the New icon at the top of the screen
- Name the Trigger eg Public Holidays 2022
- Select the Type - Composite Trigger (a trigger that contains other triggers)
- Negate will reverse the logic of the trigger, so leave this field blank
- Select the Can Override field so this trigger can be manually enabled, or disabled from WaiterMate if required
- Select Any Triggers for the activation strategy so that any of the public holidays will enable this feature
Next add the Sub Triggers
- Select the Add icon below the Sub-Triggers box
- Name the Trigger eg Australia Day 2022
- Select the Type - Date Trigger
- Select the Can Override field so this trigger can be manually enabled, or disabled from WaiterMate if required
- Set the Start and End dates for the public holiday
- Set the Start and End Times if required (leave as 12.00AM - 12.00AM if this should be for the whole day)
- Select the Green Tick to finalise
- Repeat this step for all for the public holiday dates required
Create a Composite Account Type Trigger
Often venues would like to charge the public holiday surcharge for dine in, but not pass this on to delivery or takeaway orders. This can be achieved by creating another composite trigger containing all of the account types that need the surcharge and attaching this to the surcharge along with the composite date trigger that we created in the earlier step.
- Navigate to Triggers in the navigation panel in OfficeMate
- Select the New icon at the top of the screen
- Name the Trigger eg Dine in
- Select the Type - Composite Trigger (a trigger that contains other triggers)
- Negate will reverse the logic of the trigger, so leave this field blank
- Select the Can Override field so this trigger can be manually enabled, or disabled from WaiterMate if required
- Select Any Triggers for the activation strategy so that any of the account types will enable this feature
Next add the Sub Triggers
- Select the Add icon below the Sub-Triggers box
- Name the Trigger eg Table Account
- Select the Type - Account Type Trigger
- Select the Can Override field so this trigger can be manually enabled, or disabled from WaiterMate if required
- Select the Account Type eg TABLE
- Select the Green Tick to finalise
- Repeat this step for all for the account types required
*If there is only one account type that needs to be configured, an Account Type trigger can be used in place of a composite trigger
Create a Surcharge
The final step is to create the surcharge and add the triggers to it so that it will automatically be applied on the public holidays.
- Navigate to surcharges in the navigation panel in OfficeMate
- Using the filters at the top of the screen, change the unit type to percentage amount
- Select the 'New' icon at the top of the screen, then;
- Name the surcharge eg. Public Holiday
- Set the percentage eg 15%
- Leave the cap amount blank
- Make sure the level is 'All'
- Set the trigger activation strategy to 'All'
- Select the Triggers field and;
- Untick the default trigger
- Add the composite date trigger created earlier ie. Public Holiday 2022
- Add the composite account type trigger ie. Dine In
- Tick the automatic field
- Tick the displayable field
- Leave the sequence as the lowest number (or 0)
- This surcharge will now apply to every dine in order for all of the public holidays
Surcharges using a Price Level
An automatic surcharge can be applied using a price level for more complex menus and requirements. This method is suitable for venue's that want to configure the surcharges ahead of time, possibly exclude some account types eg Takeaway orders, not charge a surcharge on top of other price levels ie. Sunday Price level and/or exclude some items from the surcharge ie. Retail items
This method could apply the surcharge to:
- All Accounts
- Replace the active price level
- Can be restricted to specific Account Types (such as tables)
- Can exclude specific menu items
- For all of the public holidays for the year
Before the day of the Public Holiday;
Create a Price Level
To use this method, first create the price level, add the triggers to it and determine the prices.
- Navigate to Price Levels in the navigation panel in OfficeMate
- Select the 'New' icon from the top of the screen
- Enter the name for the price levels eg. Public Holiday Surcharge
- Select 'Show on Receipt'
- Do not select 'Default Level'
- Select 'All Triggers' for Trigger Activation Strategy
- Select the Add icon below the Triggers box
- Add the composite date triggers created in the earlier steps
- Add the composite account triggers created in the earlier steps
Next complete the Auto fill out prices fields
- Select the main price level as the 'Reference Price Level' ie. Menu
- Enter the desired Surcharge amount in the 'Percentage To Apply' field ie. 15
- In the Rules to Apply section, select the 'Replicate All Prices'
- Select the Green Tick to finalise
- Next Select the Update Prices icon from the top of the screen (this will add the prices to the price level)
- Make sure that the sequence of the price level is the highest number. This will mean that another price level would not be active before this one, on the public holidays
Edit the Item Prices
Individual items can now be excluded or changed in this price level by either removing the price or by adding a new price to the items manually.
- Navigate to Items in the navigation panel in OfficeMate
- Select the Item Prices tab from the top of the screen
- Remove or Update any prices in the Public Holiday price level
