Catalog

The Catalog section manages everything your restaurant sells and sources — menu items, ingredients, suppliers, and automated stock tracking.

Menu Items

Add, edit, and manage all items available for sale in the POS.

Item List

Column	Description
Code	Numeric item code used for fast keyboard entry
Name	Item display name
Description	Optional description
Price	Selling price in KES
VAT	Whether VAT applies (Yes/No)
Status	Active (available for sale) or Disabled
Actions	Edit item details

Use the Search box for instant filtering. Toggle Show disabled to see items that have been deactivated.

Adding a Menu Item

Click + Add Menu Item and fill in:

• Code — numeric code for keyboard-first ordering
• Name — item name as it appears on receipts and kitchen tickets
• Price — selling price including VAT (if applicable)
• VAT — toggle off for non-vatable items (e.g., raw produce resale)
• Category — assign to a menu category for kitchen routing and reporting

Menu Code Design

Hierarchical Menu Codes

Design your codes using a mnemonic system for fast keyboard entry. A good pattern for food items is <starch><protein> using 2-digit groups:

Starch codes:

Code	Starch
10	Ugali
11	Rice
12	Chips
13	Chapati

Protein codes:

Code	Protein
10	Beef
11	Chicken Stew
12	Beans Stew
13	Fish

Combined:

Code	Item
1010	Ugali + Beef
1112	Rice + Beans Stew
1211	Chips + Chicken Stew
1313	Chapati + Fish

Waiters memorize the pattern, not individual codes. A new starch or protein only needs one new 2-digit code to create all combinations.

VAT Handling

Items marked as VAT: Yes have tax calculated automatically on receipts and fiscal invoices. Set VAT to No for:

• Raw ingredient resale (e.g., raw beef sold to customers)
• Non-vatable services
• Items already priced as tax-exclusive

Categories

Organize menu items into categories for kitchen routing and reporting.

Categories determine:

• Kitchen printer routing — items in the "Drinks" category go to the bar printer, "Food" items go to the kitchen printer
• Menu Analysis reporting — revenue breakdown by category
• POS client grouping — items organized by category in the order entry screen

Ingredients

Manage the raw inputs and supplies purchased daily — these are the items that appear in the Expenses list when cashiers record purchases.

Ingredient List

Column	Description
ID	Unique identifier
Name	Ingredient name (e.g., Beef, Potatoes, Bread)
Track Supply	Whether this ingredient is tracked in Smart Stock
Actions	Edit

Use Search for filtering. Toggle Tracked Only to show only ingredients with supply tracking enabled.

Adding Ingredients

Click + Add Ingredient to create a new ingredient. Mark Track Supply: Yes if you want it to appear in Smart Stock calculations.

Common ingredient types:

• Food supplies — Beef, Chicken, Potatoes, Rice, Vegetables
• Beverages — Soda, Juice, Water, Milk
• Operational — Detergent, Gas, Charcoal, Packaging
• Misc — Airtime, Transport, Stationery

Suppliers

Manage your vendors and suppliers.

Supplier List

Column	Description
ID	Unique identifier
Name	Supplier/vendor name
Contact	Contact person
Phone	Phone number
Tax PIN	Tax authority PIN — e.g., KRA PIN (Kenya), TIN (Uganda) — for fiscal compliance and purchase invoices
Status	Active or Disabled
Actions	Edit

Click + Add Supplier to register a new vendor. Toggle Enabled Only to filter out disabled suppliers.

Smart Stock

The Smart Stock engine automatically calculates ingredient consumption based on what was sold. It uses pattern matching rules to map menu items to their raw ingredient usage.

Requires Stock Engine Feature

Smart Stock requires the Stock Engine feature, available on the Growth plan and above, or as a feature add-on.

How It Works

1. You define rules that map menu item names to ingredients with quantities
2. When orders are placed, the engine matches each sold item against the rules
3. Consumption is calculated automatically — no manual stock counting needed

Pattern Matching

Rules use pattern matching to link menu items to ingredients. For example:

Ingredient	Pattern	Meaning
Chicken	chicken stew	Any item containing "chicken stew" uses 0.25 chickens
Rice	rice	Any item containing "rice" uses 1/11 kg of raw rice
Beans	beans|githeri	Items matching "beans" OR "githeri" use beans
Bacon	main breakfast|bacon with|fried bacon|olive best	Multiple menu items that use bacon

The pipe character (|) acts as an OR operator, matching any of the listed patterns.

Usage Report

The Usage Report view shows calculated consumption for any date range:

Each ingredient card displays:

• Ingredient name and the matching pattern
• Units consumed — total calculated usage
• Breakdown by menu item — which menu items contributed and how many were sold

Example: If 52 Andazi were sold and 4 Olive Bites (both matching the "andazi" pattern), the engine reports 56.00 units of Andazi consumed.

Views

Smart Stock offers three views:

View	Description
Tree View	Hierarchical view of ingredient rules
Node List View	Flat list of all rules with patterns
Usage Report	Calculated consumption for a date range

Adding Rules

Click + Add Node to create a new stock tracking rule:

1. Ingredient — select the ingredient to track
2. Pattern — enter the pattern to match against menu item names
3. Quantity per match — how much of the ingredient each matching item uses (e.g., 0.25 for quarter chicken)

Real-World Example

A restaurant sells "Chicken Stew with Ugali" and "Chicken Stew with Rice":

Rule	Pattern	Qty/Match	Ingredient
Chicken	chicken stew	0.25	Whole chicken
Ugali	ugali	0.11	Ugali packet (1 packet makes ~9 servings)
Rice	rice	0.09	Rice kg (1/11 kg per serving)

If 5 chicken stews are sold (2 with rice, 3 with ugali):

• Chicken: 5 × 0.25 = 1.25 whole chickens
• Rice: 2 × 0.09 = 0.18 kg rice
• Ugali: 3 × 0.11 = 0.33 packets ugali

Compare these calculated amounts against your actual purchases in the Expenses & Cash report to spot waste, theft, or over-portioning.