Order Flow Overview
This is an overview of how orders flow between ezCater and Lunchbox and how to successfully make menu updates. It's crucial to understand how the order flow differs depending on whether the customer makes changes to the order. Through our integration with ezCater, Lunchbox can receive new and updated orders using an authentication token (ezCater ID).
Recommended configuration
To hide ezCater orders in the Admin Dashboard until 5 minutes before they are sent to the POS, ensure the following settings:
Integrations tab or Global Order Provider: Set Order Submit Lead Delay Seconds to 300 (300 seconds = 5 minutes).
Adjustments to this timeframe can be accommodated. Note: This time should be based off of the length of time before an order that a customer can make an update to the orders. Orders made after the time of Order Ingestion cannot be edited and will need to be voided/manually entered in the POS.
Service Type > Order Handling:
The only setting that should be checked on Lunchbox:
Autosend To POS
Additionally,
This setup should only be adjusted pre-launch, if necessary.
Changes to this will not be retroactively applied.
If this setup is skipped, orders will appear in the Admin Dashboard as soon as they are accepted in the ezManage Dashboard.
As a result, steps 5 and 6 in the first example and steps 5 and 10 in the second example will not be accurate.
Enabling Auto-Send to POS immediately will prevent users from adjusting orders and will skip the Admin Held status.
Standard Order Flow
| IF A CUSTOMER DOESN'T EDIT THEIR ORDER |
|
EzCater |
| Lunchbox |
Customer places order | 1 |
|
Restaurant receives an email to accept the order | 2 |
|
Restaurant manually accepts order | 3 |
|
ezCater sends the order to LB | 4 |
|
| 5 | LB receives the order and holds it. The order is not visible in Admin dashboard* |
| 6 | LB sends the order to POS 5 minutes before due time for pickup or delivery. |
Order Flow with order modification
| IF A CUSTOMER EDITS THEIR ORDER |
|
EzCater |
| Lunchbox |
Customer places order | 1 |
|
Restaurant receives an email to accept the order | 2 |
|
Restaurant manually accepts order | 3 |
|
ezCater sends the order to LB | 4 |
|
| 5 | LB receives the order and holds it. The order is not visible in Admin dashboard* |
Customer edits the order in EZ | 6 |
|
Restaurant recieves an email to accept the order modification | 7 |
|
Restaurant manually accepts the order modification | 8 |
|
ezCater sends another accepted order to LB | 9 |
|
| 10 | LB recieves updates |
| 11 | LB cancels the initial order |
| 12 | LB creates a new order |
| 13 | LB sends the neworder to POS 5 minutes before due time for pickup or delivery |
EZCater Menu Update Requests
Please Note: Updates to your EZCater Menu may take up to 5 business days to be processed.
To request an update, please email [email protected] to schedule the change. In your email, be sure to include a list of the items you’d like to update.
Before submitting your request, please review the following menu update guidelines to ensure a smooth process.
Menu Updates After the Initial Launch
The following is a list of important things to remember when making menu updates if you have Future Orders that have not been sent to the POS.
1. Adding new items, modifiers, or OPTIONAL modifier groups
Add them and hide from POS until the launch date.
Set visibility to Dine In & EZCater on Lunchbox until the launch date.
2. Adding new required modifier groups or changing the behavior of a mod group to required on existing menu items.
You’ll need to create a new item.
If not, any orders placed before the change will fail to send to POS.
3. Removing items, modifiers, or REQUIRED OR OPTIONAL modifier groups
Hide from POS and set visibility to Dine In & EZCater only on Lunchbox.
Keep them this way until the final order for that item has been sent to POS.
If you will not have the stock on hand to fulfill the order then get in touch with the guest and send them a new quote removing the items that are no longer on the menu.
4. Updating prices
You have two options:
Option A: Update existing items
Write off tender id must be built
EZCater has a 5-day SLA for price updates.
Decide whether you’re okay with reporting mismatches in Toast before or after the EZCater update goes live.
Option B: Create new items with updated prices
Build new items in advance, hide from POS, and set them to Dine In & EZCater on Lunchbox until Go Live.
5. Updating coupons
This is required only if your menu is shared with the native menu and you have discounts that require category and item validation.
6. At Go Live:
Expose the new items to POS.
Hide the old items from POS and set them to Dine In and EZCater Only on LB