Custom Category & Item Alias

Available in: Professional subscriptions only

Avero's Custom Category feature enables you to create your own item categories, regardless of how the items are mapped in the POS.  Any new categories you create are available instantly, through Avero. 

The Item Alias feature is a great way to group like items that may have slight variances in the names to one item name. This article will walk through the following:

• Custom Categories
  • Why Use a Custom Category?
  • Creating A Custom Category
  • Viewing Custom Categories
• Item Alias
  • Creating An Item Alias 

Please note: You must have the special role in Avero to create these categories. Please reach out to your organization's designated Avero admin if you need access to this role.

Custom Categories

Why use a Custom Category?

Typically, when organizing POS categories the primary concerns are how the revenue will be routed (food items should generate food revenue) and how the menus will appear/be available to report on (appetizers vs entrees within food, for example). That's great for organization but when driving your team to sell and create a complete guest experience, you may want to report on things that wouldn't be categorically linked for Revenue or Menus/PMIX. 

Running 'perfect check' reports to Drive Sales, for example, you may want to group Starters, Desserts, and Signature Cocktails but still want them in their own categories in the POS - Avero allows you to create a Custom Category to include all these things, without affecting revenue routing or menus! 

If Protecting Profit, you may want to check on only high-margin items, such as premium spirits and chicken entrees. Custom categories enables you to mix and match at will across your organization without impacting basic reporting!

Creating a Custom Category

To create a custom category, complete the following steps:

1. Navigate to Settings, and use the drop-down menu to navigate to Custom Category & Item Alias 
2. Click Add and enter your category name. 
3. Click out of the box or tap enter to save.  Then, click Next.
4. Select your business and click Next.
5. Add your preferred items and click Next. 
6. Feel free to share the category with other Avero users and click Finish.

 

Viewing & Editing Custom Categories

To run reports using your new category, complete the following steps:

1. Within the Report Generator, navigate to the Category area.
2. Select None and Custom.

To view and edit existing Custom Categories, including those shared with you by other users, go to your Settings menu and select Custom Category & Item Alias. 

Here, you can view all the Custom Categories you've created:

To edit a category, select it and click Edit:

Sharing Custom Categories 

At the end of the flow to create your Custom Category, you'll have the option to share your new Custom Category with other users in your organization! Sharing a Custom Category with other users allows them to view the category in reporting and access and edit the Custom Category, if they have access to the Custom Category special role. 

At the end of the Create or Edit flow, you can view who this Category is already shared with and share with additional users:

Any users you share your Custom Category with who have access to the Custom Category special role will be able to edit this category just as you would, including adding or removing items and sharing with additional users. 

If you choose not to share the Custom Category with any other users they won't be able to see the category in the Avero Report Generator. 

Item Alias

What is an Item Alias? When should one be used?

An Item Alias is a feature allowing users to unite differently named but same items. This is usually for corporate or group item sales analysis to account for spelling and abbreviation differences across individual locations. 

For example, a restaurant group with 10 locations may all serve the same soft drink, such as Coca Cola, but each POS Item name is a little different, with some locations naming their items "Coca Cola", some using "Coke", or some using abbreviations like "NA-Cke. 

When analyzing soft drink sales across the group, each item name would be its own line item on an item sales report and the analyst or user would have to tally these together. Item Alias creates a unifying name one can apply to each discrete menu item to link them all under one name for a multi-location or group item sales report. That way, all sales from each location would combine to a single line item of the chosen name. 

Creating An Item Alias 

In order to create an item alias, complete the following steps:

1. Navigate to Settings, and using the drop-down menu, navigate to Custom Category & Item Alias.
2. Click the Item Alias tab at the top.
3. Click Add and enter your new item name
4.  Then, select the items you want to group together

Caution: An Item Alias will change the display name of the item for all users! If a user mistakenly applies an Item Alias that is incorrect, you may confuse your fellow users. If one user applies an Item Alias of "Red Wine" to a menu item of "House Burger" users running food sales reporting may be confused why a beverage item is present!