What are Combo Meals in Micros Simphony?
A combo meal consists of a menu item that combines two or more items into a group and is used by the restaurant to increase sales by bundling multiple items. Offering a lower price for the combo than ordering each item individually is also very common to promote the combos.
An example of a combo meal would be: A chicken Sandwich, Fries, and a Drink for $7
Combo meals are most commonly used in fast food restaurants, but they can be found in any type of restaurant with some creative marketing.
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Programming Combo Meals in Simphony
In order to start programming combo meals in Micros Simphony, we need to ensure we have all the required information:
- All the Combo Meals names and prices (ex: Chicken Sandwich Meal)
- All the Individual Items and prices (ex: Chicken Sandwich)
- All the available Sides and prices for upcharges (ex: medium vs large)
- All the available Drinks and prices (ex: medium and large coke)
Step 1 - Option Bits
In order to program our combo meals, we must check a few options in different modules in Simphony. I prefer to take care of these option bits in the beginning so I don’t miss any of them.
Control Parameters Option Bits
Open Control Parameters in EMC and enable option Bit #12:
12 – No Confirmation Required when Creating Combo Meals from Existing Items
Select to automatically create Combo Meals using the Auto Combo key. Deselect to show the combo meals to create.
Discounts Option Bits
For all discounts that are allowed to be used with combo meals, we must enable option bit #25:
25 – Discount Combo Meal Group Items
Select to apply the discount to Combo Meal Group items when Combo Meal Group option Allow Discounts is set.
Order Type Parameters Option Bits
In the Order Type Parameters module, select each order type, open the options and enable #5:
5 – Perform Auto Combo Recognition
Select to automatically perform Auto-Combo Recognition when a workstation operator changes the workstation to this Order Type.
Roles Option Bits
In the roles module, we can enable option bit #155 to allow an auto combo from previous round items. I recommend having this enabled at least for the managers, but in some cases, also for servers and cashiers.
155 – Authorize/Perform Automatic Combo Meal Recognition on Previous Round Menu Items
Enables employees to include previous round menu items when creating a combo meal from existing items.
Workstations Option Bits
The workstations tab contains an option bit that prevents certain workstations from performing auto combo on the fly, so it would force the operator to always press the Combo button.
There are some use cases where this is needed, but we usually keep this option disabled. It’s good to double check it.
Offline/Misc: Misc: 46 – Disable Auto Combo Items on the Fly
Select to override RVC Parameters option 58 – Auto Combo Items on the Fly option for the workstation. This option does nothing if the RVC Parameters option is deselected.
RVC Parameters Option Bits
The RVC Parameters module contains many option bits for Combo Meals. They are 51, 52, 55, 58, 62, 69. I keep all of them selected, with the exception of 69.
51 – Allow Auto Combo Meal Recognition with the “Combo” key
Select to use the Combo key with Auto Combo Meal recognition. If a complete combo meal cannot generate, the combo meal is created using the selected menu item and new items.
52 – Allow Creation of Combo Meals from Previous Round Menu Items
Select to enable Auto Combo Meal recognition to create combo meals from menu items ordered in previous rounds.
55 – Show Combo Meal Choices
Select to show a list of combo meals when attempting to create meals from the menu items already on the check. If the combo meals are assigned different priorities, the list includes only meals found with the same priority. Deselect to create the highest priority meal found.
58 – Auto Combo Items On The Fly
Select to attempt to create combo meals from menu items added to the check in the current round. The system looks for combo meals after adding each menu item. If the menu item just added is missing required condiments, the search waits until the condiments are added. Disable this feature at the workstation level by selecting 46 – Disable Auto Combo Items on the Fly.
62 – Allow Combo Meal Side Substitute Without Combo Orderer
Select to allow combo meal substitution when the replacement menu item is ordered from a non-Combo Meal Orderer page. If enabled, deselect option 10 – Keep Last Item Selected after Ordering a new Meal in the Combo Meals module for all combo meals so that combo meal side items are not accidentally substituted.
69 – Auto Combo Returned Menu Items
Select to create combo meals from returned menu items. The menu items may not auto combo in the same way as the original check, and the price may differ.
Step 2 : Configuring the Menu Item Classes
In order to make our combo meals work properly we will need new menu item classes for:
- Main Items
- Side Items
- Beverages
- Combo Meals
If you already have Menu Item Classes defined for main items, sides, and beverages, you can re-use them and just create a new “Combo Meals” class.
If you just have a general “Food” menu item class that is used for all the items, it’s best practice to create individual menu item classes.
Menu Item Classes - General Tab
In the General Tab, assign the correct item to each menu item class:
- Tax Class
- Sales Itemizer
- Discount Itemizer
- Service Charge Itemizer
- Print Class
The programming will be very similar to each other, with the exception of the itemizers for the beverages.
Menu Item Classes - Options Tab
In the options tab, I selected the following option bits: #7, 8, 12, 18, 26, 27, 30, 28, 55, and 59.
None of these option Bits are specific to Combo Meals; they are general bits enabled on most classes for food.
Option bits 47 and 60 can be used with more advanced combo meal programming, but they are not necessary if prefixes and placeholders are not used.
Menu Item Classes - Condiment Groups Tab
In the Condiment Groups tab, make sure you allow all condiments that can be used with the combo (ex: No, Add, Extra, Tomato, Onion, etc)
No other configuration is needed for the Forced Condiments, Fixed Priced Meals, and References tabs.
Step 3: Adding the Menu Items
In this next step, we will add all the menu items to the database. We will need to add:
- Main Items
- Sides
- Beverages
- Combo Meals
I recommend adding them in a separate area of the database to keep everything organized.
In my example, I have 4 main items available, 3 sides – medium and large and 3 drinks – medium and large. I also have to add the 4 Combo meals that can be created with the 4 Main Menu items.
After adding the menu item and configuring the master record (major group, family group, reporting group), we can configure the definition records.
Assign the menu item classes, main-level, and sub-level, just like with any other menu item. I chose not to use an SLU for these items, as I’m going to hardcode each button on a special “combo” screen.
In the price records tab, we will assign the prices for each individual item.
Step 4 - Adding the Combo Meal Groups
Now that we have all our menu items added, we can add our combo meal groups. These are groups that we will use to combine into a combo meal later.
The groups we will need are:
- All Sides
- All Beverages
- Individual Main Items
Open the Combo Meals Group tab and add all the groups needed. In the general tab, we only need to enable option bit #1 – Allow discounts.
In the Items Tab, we will add all the Sides (both Medium and Large). If you also have Small and Extra Large sides, be sure to add them as well. Simphony allows for 4 sizes to be defined.
Once all the Sides have been added, save and update the page. This will allow us to assign the different sizes to the auto-size modifier screen below.
You should also choose one of the sides to be the default when ordering a combo meal, I chose Medium Fries.
Finally, we will add the price upcharge for the large sides. In my case, the customers can choose a large side for $0.50 extra, so I will add that amount to the price tab for the large sides only.
For Beverages, you can add them the same way as the sides:
The main menu items will be added individually with no size or price attached:
Step 5 - Building the Combo Meals
Now that all of our groups are defined, we can build the Combo Meals. Open the Combo Meals module in EMC and add all your Combos.
In the Combo Meal configuration window, assign the name and number, and link the Manu Item Master. This item will be the combo meal menu item we added in Step 3.
In the auto combo Algorithm, I chose Best Deal for Customer. This will avoid complaints.
And for the options bits, I select #2 and 10.
2 – Allow Auto-Combo in Previous Round
Select to allow this combo meal to consider previous-round items when pressing the Auto Combo function key (660).
10 – Keep Last Item Selected after Ordering a New Meal
Select if you expect modifications to the combo meal after adding the last side, keeping the combo meal selected.
Configuring the Combo Groups
In the Combo Groups section, we need to add a Primary Item and 2 Side Items. This is where the Combo Meals are linked to the Combo Meal Groups we defined in Step 4.
For the Primary Item, we will select the Main Menu Item Group, and for the sides, we will select Sides and beverages.
We can also select the number of side items that come with each meal. So if you have a big combo which offers multiple sides and drinks, you can set it here.
Step 6 - Adding the buttons in Page Design
Now that the main configuration is complete, all we have to do is add the buttons in Page Design. I chose to hardcode the buttons because that offers a higher level of control over where all the buttons get placed, and I can control the colors individually.
The items we need to add to our page are:
- All the Combo Meals
- All the Individual Items (mains, sides and beverages)
- The Combo and UnCombo buttons
- Done Button
- Combo Size Buttons
- Combo Order SLU
Here is how I designed my screen:
Here are the functions you have to select to program the different buttons in Page Design:
- Menu Items -> Type: Menu Item -> Select Item
- Combo/UnCombo/Done – Type: Function -> Combo Meals
- Combo Size – Type: Combo Size -> Select sizes 2 and 3
- Combo SLU – Tabbed Grid Box with the “select combo sides” option selected.
Step 7 - Testing on the workstation
The final step is to test everything on the workstations.
If you would like to see a full video on how I test my combo meals, please see below:
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Combo Meals in Micros Simphony
I hope you enjoyed my article on Combo Meals and that it will be helpful when you program your system. If you have any questions, please leave them below!
4 thoughts on “Combo Meals in Micros Simphony Version 19”
Hello Michael,
first of all thanks for your tutorials!
we are currently upgrading our existing Simphony version 2.8 to 19.5.
As the jump is very big, we have decided to create a new Simpony instance.
I am in the process of creating Combo Meals, but I have the problem that both the Medium and Large inserts are displayed in the Combo Order Screen.
We didn’t have this problem in our old version….
Do you have any idea what could be causing this?
I’m not sure how this issue occurred, I’m not aware of any issued with Combos in version 19.5. Can you join the Facebook group and post some screenshots of how it looks and how you programmed it?
http://www.facebook.com/groups/simphonysupport/
Hello, Thank you very much for all this very useful information.
In my combo menu, I have a brunch with a choice of different eggs. These eggs appear on the bill and I don’t want that. how to deactivate?
You can change their print class to “Kitchen Only”