86 Item Countdown

The History of the 86 Item Countdown Feature

I'm not sure where the term started but if you "86" an item you take it off the menu. A lot of table service restaurants use a board located near the kitchen to write items that have been 86st for the day. Servers are expected to actually read this board and remember the items that are not available.

The problems with this are many. Not the least of which is someone has to take time to write the items down and then expect the wait staff to remember. And then when the count gets down to 1 item left you know that 2 servers are going to sell that last item.

The Need to Control the 86 Item Countdown Feature

You need a fast and accurate method of letting the wait staff know the exact number of items left and then stop servers from ordering the item after the last one is sold.

The Solution for Managing the 86 Item Countdown Feature

DirecTouch Point of Sale comes standard with the 86/Item Countdown feature. All management has to do is set the count for the items to be tracked and the system will do the rest.

Every item being tracked will have the number of items left displayed on their menu button. Each time an item is sold from any terminal in the system the number available will decrement and update on every terminal. Once an item is sold out the item will no longer allow the item to be sold.

The Benefit of Using the 86 Item Countdown Feature To You

Better communication to your wait staff means better service to your customers.

However, how about getting more than just a countdown of daily specials? How about using this feature in a bar to inventory bottled beer? Yes, you could use this same feature to inventory and count down bottle beers.

Other uses for this feature would be baked breads in a bakery/sandwich shop, pre-made salads in a fast food restaurant and tickets to a special event.

The Setup of the 86 Item Countdown Feature

This feature is automatically turned on when you install the software. Follow these steps to set up an item for countdown.

1. Enter Security Access Number
2. Click "Manager Menu"
3. Click "Menu Maintenance"
4. Click "Price and Number Available"
5. Select the item from the list and enter the number available.
6. Click "Save"
7. Click "Exit"
8. Exit back to sign on screen.
9. The item will now countdown from the number you entered.

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