Avero & Toast POS
Toast is supported for Sales data and Right Now Sales data.
Avero processes and presents data from your Toast POS for your analysis and insight. This article details how to handle POS changes, make updates to this data, and handle discrepancies or problems you might encounter. For some things, such as adding meal periods or categories, you must complete the action on your side in order for it to be reflected in Avero (maybe with the help of Toast Support or IT) and for some changes, such as global category associations, you'll need to reach out to our support team.
In this article:
- About Toast POS
- Differences between Toast & Avero Reporting
- Installation & Reinstallation on Toast
- Regular Maintenance: Making Updates and Changes for Toast
- Common Problems
- Frequently Asked Questions About Toast
About Toast POS
POS Type: Cloud
Avero is proud to offer Free Installation & Reinstallation for Toast, and most POS systems.
Avero ingests sales data from Toast using a cloud integration. This means there is no server in the restaurant and nothing Avero connects to on-site, we connect to Toast's cloud and pull the data for your business. This allows for very quick connection and data capture.
Differences between Toast & Avero Reporting
This guide is to help you understand the reporting approaches of Avero compared to Toast to help you fully understand and harness your data. These are not bugs or errors but rather the data is correct and is reported with different approaches on Avero and Toast.
Avero defaults to Gross Sales, Toast defaults to Net Sales
When you first view Avero reports, you may notice sales may not match with Toast. Avero defaults to Gross Sales whereas Toast defaults to Net Sales. Viewing from gross sales allows you to view the total amount before anything is deducted. If you would like to view by Net Sales on Avero, you can select ‘Net Sales’ under ‘Metrics’ in the report generator.
Avero keeps check-level discounts at the check-level, Toast distributes the discount
Avero can track both item-level and check-level discounts. For check-level discounts, Avero does not deduct discounts from individual items but maintains them at the check level. On Toast, check-level discounts instead are distributed across all items on the check. Because of this approach, Toast item sales may appear lower due to check-level discounts. You can see check level discounts at the bottom of an item sales report.
Checks vs Orders
When you go through Avero, you will notice that we track at the check level when you drill down for details and use ‘Check Search.’ Toast on the other hand tracks it at the order level with multiple checks. You can use the check numbers from Avero to correspond with the check numbers in Toast to ensure you're looking at the correct check.
Deferred revenue will appear under service charges
When you accept deferred revenue, such as taking a deposit for a future event, it will not be added to the sales of the day the deposit was accepted. This prevents inflated sales numbers for sales that have not yet taken place.
Avero shows Toast Sales Categories as Major Categories, and Menu Groups as Minor Categories
In Toast, every item should be part of a Sales Category, and you can assign entire menus or groups to specific sales categories. This sales category routing decides where the revenue is applied (is it Food revenue or Beverage revenue, etc). In Toast, Sales Categories are optional, but without sales categories you won't know where to credit your sales!
Menu groups relate to how your items are displayed for use when ordering in the POS. As such a single item can belong to multiple 'Groups' but only one Sales Category. My Caesar Salad can belong to both the Salads and Appetizers groups but is in the Food sales category, so the revenue recorded for the sale of a Caesar salad is always going to be Food Sales.
Data Mapping of Mofifiers, Sales Categories, and Menu Groups:
- Global Category: Mapped by Avero, highest level (Food, Beverage, or Other)
- Major Category: Toast Sales Category
- Minor Category: Toast Menu Group
- Modifiers: MODIFIER
- If a Sales Category is missing, you'll see the Major Category listed as NO SALES CATEGORY (to fix this, you'll need to apply a Sales Category to the item in Toast programming)
- If a Menu Group is missing, you'll see the Minor Category listed as NO MENU GROUP (to fix this, you'll need to apply a Menu Group to the item in Toast programming)
Note that Modifiers may not appear as you expect as they are always distinct line items, read more about this here: Modifiers
Avero has even more options to help bring more specific analysis to your Toast sales data - we recommend using Custom Categories to link up items that may not be linked in your Toast system. You can create categories in Avero to track specific items or trends in sales. You won't be able to see the categories in Toast and it won't affect your regular sales reports, but gives you the option to report on categories that may not be linked for revenue purposes, but make sense to view together for operational decision-making.
Avero & Toast Labor
Toast is very easy to install and in use by many customers. If you are ready to go and take the necessary steps, you can get your data connected very quickly.
Please Note: If you change your business name or information after adding the Avero Integration, but before your installation is confirmed, it may prevent the Avero team from connecting to your data. If you change your business name of information, please remove and re-add the integration so installation may proceed.
Installing Toast Steps
Enable Avero as a Partner
Complete the Toast Integration Instructions to add Avero as a partner in your Toast Portal. You do not need to have live data to do this.
Request Installation
Request installation or reinstallation from our support team. If you are a new customer, your sales rep does this step for you. If you are an existing customer, Open a Reinstall Ticket and our support team will assist.
Check your Data
Once Avero is receiving the data transfers, we will confirm with you that the installation is complete. Log in to Avero and review your categories and data to make sure it is complete and accurate.
Regular Maintenance: Making Updates and Changes for Toast
When changes or updates are needed who is responsible? If something appears incorrect or out-of-date, how should it be updated?
Change or Add a Meal Period in Toast
Whenever meal periods in Toast are changed or updated they should be reflected in the next nightly load we pull from Toast. Note that changes reflect data going forward.
Important to note - Meal Period changes/additions will not automatically update your logbook or saved reports.
Categories & Items in Toast
Avero provides the following Global categories: Beverage, Food, Misc., Other, and Retail. The major and minor categories come from your POS. When pulling the data from Toast, there is only one category level—this is unique to Toast.
To make changes to items you'll need to update Toast - changing an item name, price, or moving it between categories.
To make changes to categories you'll need to update Toast - changing category names, updating which items are in a category, making categories more specific. Note that Toast has 'Sales Categories' and 'Menus' - Menus and groups relate to how your items are displayed for use when ordering in the POS and not to how revenue is captured and recorded. Avero's Category Sales Report does not take Menus into account, only Sales Categories.
To make changes to global categories, you'll need to open a ticket and request Avero makes the change. For example, if Appetizers are appearing under Beverage and need to be moved to Food.
When creating new Categories, they may default to Other and require a ticket to update this mapping.
To read more see: Categories
Common Problems
Cover Count Change Requests
If there is an error in the number of guests reported on a check, this can be fixed.
First, correct the check in Toast. Then, open a ticket with Avero Support and request the reload data for the date of the check you have adjusted. Avero support will load the new data and the check will be reloaded with the changed cover count.
Toast Missing Data
Missing data happens. We invest ourselves continuously into making this process faster and more reliable, but it is not, and will never be, error-proof. For Toast systems, we automatically attempt to recover data when it is missing. If you notice data is missing, open a ticket with Avero Support and we will recover it as quickly as we can.
If you are missing data from an emailed report, it may be related to the email settings, see our troubleshooting guide: Troubleshooting Email Reports with Missing or Incomplete Data
Data Discrepancies - Avero's sales data is not matching Toast
If you notice your sales data is not matching up with your Toast reports, there are three actions you need to complete:
- Make sure the data discrepancy exists in Avero by logging in and running a sales report. If you notice incorrect data in an emailed report, it may be related to email settings and not the data itself. See our troubleshooting guide: Troubleshooting Email Reports with Missing or Incomplete Data
- Review the Differences between Toast & Avero Reporting to make sure this isn't the discrepancy you are noticing.
- Run a Daily Sales Report from Toast for the date in question, Open a Data Ticket, attach the report and explain the discrepancy. Make sure to include the report, the date, and location if you have access to several, as well as any examples you can provide.
Our team investigates all data discrepancies - due to the nature of our daily data extraction a single date and single-day sales report must be provided. We cannot investigate date ranges, but it is helpful to know if the issue is recurring and you can provide multiple dates.
Frequently Asked Questions About Toast
Why don't Avero's sales look the same as my Toast reports?
See our above explanation on Differences between Toast & Avero Reporting.
Is there any information Toast doesn't send to Avero?
There are some data limitations you may notice based on what we receive from Toast.
- Transferred Check Information - Toast POS does not provide any information on Transferred Checks - this means that you will not see what was transferred on or off checks nor the checks it was transferred to or received from. This can limit Loss Prevention reporting and can cause discrepancies if checks are transferred between outlets or business days.
- Customer Name & Last 4 of CC for credit card payments - We do not display customer information even if available in Toast POS reporting
- Toast does not send us some labor data points and is not considered a supported system for Labor - notably overtime pay rates, and adjusted punches are not captured. Real time labor information is likewise not available, but real-time sales information will be available in the Avero app.
Addtionally, Toast modifiers will combine any modifier charges with the price of the item modified, and will not be reflected in Avero with their individual prices. Modifiers will all appear as $0, and any modifier charges will be applied to the individual menu items. Example: modifying a $12 TEQUILA item to be the MARGARITA cocktail with a $2 upcharge will show in Avero reporting as MARGARITA in the MODIFIER sales category with a price of $0 and a TEQUILA in the LIQUOR sales category with a price of $14. You may have a variety of prices of individual items if modification is common, and all revenue will exist in the revenue category of the base item, and no revenue will be reported for the MODIFIER category, but the Modifier Items will be displayed for your reporting and analysis.
Can I use Toast Menu Groups in Avero Reporting?
Menu Groups are automatically imported to Avero as your Minor Category, with the Toast Sales Category as Major Category.
In Toast, every item should be part of a Sales Category, and you can assign entire menus or groups to specific sales categories. This sales category routing decides where the revenue is applied (is it Food revenue or Beverage revenue, etc). In Toast, Sales Categories are optional, but without sales categories you won't know where to credit your sales!
Menu groups relate to how your items are displayed for use when ordering in the POS. As such a single item can belong to multiple 'Groups' but only one Sales Category. My Caesar Salad can belong to both the Salads and Appetizers groups but is in the Food sales category, so the revenue recorded for the sale of a Caesar salad is always going to be Food Sales.
Data Mapping of Mofifiers, Sales Categories, and Menu Groups:
- Global Category: Mapped by Avero, highest level (Food, Beverage, or Other)
- Major Category: Toast Sales Category
- Minor Category: Toast Menu Group
- Modifiers: MODIFIER
- If a Sales Category is missing, you'll see the Major Category listed as NO SALES CATEGORY (to fix this, you'll need to apply a Sales Category to the item in Toast programming)
- If a Menu Group is missing, you'll see the Minor Category listed as NO MENU GROUP (to fix this, you'll need to apply a Menu Group to the item in Toast programming)
Note that Modifiers may not appear as you expect as they are always distinct line items, read more about this here: Modifiers
Avero has even more options to help bring more specific analysis to your Toast sales data - we recommend using Custom Categories to link up items that may not be linked in your Toast system. You can create categories in Avero to track specific items or trends in sales. You won't be able to see the categories in Toast and it won't affect your regular sales reports, but gives you the option to report on categories that may not be linked for revenue purposes, but make sense to view together for operational decision-making.
Does Avero pull credit card information from my Toast system?
No. Avero pulls payment type information, such as what type of card is used and the amount of the payment from all systems. We do not have access to, collect or store, full credit card numbers, though the last four digits can be displayed to identify checks and payments. Avero will not display guest name, email address, or phone number, or other legally-protected PII (Personally Identifying Information) from your guest checks.
Why are Modifiers showing as $0 and the upcharge combined with the price of the modified item? Can I change this?
Modifiers with $ charges in the MODIFIER category in Sales reports as $0 and all of the revenue associated with applied modifiers reflected in the sales of the Item Modified (and the revenue in the SALES CATEGORY of the item sold).
See complete instructions with pictures in Toast's Knowledge Base: Creating Modifier Groups and Modifiers
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