Disclaimer: This article is for Lunchbox 2.0 customers only. If your dashboard header looks the same as below, you are in the right place:
Toast to Lunchbox 86ing Overview
This article explains how to 86 (mark as out of stock) items and modifiers when using Toast POS with Lunchbox 2.0. You’ll learn the different ways to manage item availability from your Toast devices, Toast’s backend, and the Lunchbox Admin Dashboard-and how each method works. We’ll also cover item countdowns, inventory thresholds, and a few important limitations to be aware of.
Lunchbox to Toast 86ing Fundamentals
Let's review the fundamentals of how Toast and Lunchbox 86ing works.
Important: Toast decreases the item count when an order prints to the kitchen NOT when an order injects into the POS. If an order hits the POS and does NOT print to the kitchen the item will NOT decrease its count and remain orderable on Lunchbox.
What Lunchbox Does
Lunchbox does check into Toast and looks for item counts of five or less to make the item unavailable for customer ordering.
The number 5 CAN be adjusted in Lunchbox through the use of our Low Inventory Threshold Setting. Only Lunchbox Team members can adjust this value and once adjusted it applies to ALL items in your menu.
The number 5 is automatically the number set with the integration even when this Low Inventory Threshold field is blank.
Lunchbox does check for the Out of Stock setting on a menu item in Toast and will mark the item as unable to order through the Lunchbox Platform.
86'd Item Next Day Ordering - Lunchbox does have the ability to allow for 86d items to be ordered next day. This setting needs to be set by Lunchbox and will make an item marked as out of stock in Toast, available for next day ordering. This is achieved by having a Lunchbox Team member set the allow_unavailable_item_future_orders to True ask your IPM or CSM.
Important: It is important when enabling next day out of stock items that the service types in Lunchbox are set with Hold Future Orders.
OR Toast must be configured to Do not send as soon as they are created. (This order will NOT PRINT until the order reaches the order ready time minus the prep time. Example 10-minute prep times will print 10 minutes before the order ready time.)
OR Toast must be configured to Send to the kitchen as soon as they are created, within a period of time. (These orders can be controlled using whole-hour increments. This setting will send all orders within one hour of the order ready time.)
Items can be set to disappear from the menu OR turn grey on the menu -
Items can either be removed from the menu or shown in grey when they’re out of stock. Lunchbox can display out-of-stock items in grey for the rest of the day, indicating they can’t be added to the cart. For next day and future ordering, the item will appear in full color again and can be ordered as usual. To enable this feature, a Lunchbox team member must turn on the
enable_out_of_stock_filtersetting.
What Lunchbox Does Not Do
Lunchbox does not hold an item count down in its database.
Lunchbox does not have the ability to override the Toast requirement that the order print to the kitchen to decrease an item count. To leverage the count down feature the order must print to the kitchen upon order injection.
Example: 1 customer orders for 1 PM for today and another customer ordered the same item yesterday for 2 PM today. If these orders do not print in the kitchen the item count will not decrease in Toast and the item will be orderable again until the count down reaches a threshold low enough to mark the item out of stock.
Lunchbox does not block an order from going through if the count exceeds the number set on the item in the POS.
Example 1: If there is a count of 10 in Toast. Customer has 20 items in their cart. The customer will be able to check out and Toast will go into a negative number.
Example 2: If someone is ordering on Grubhub another customer is ordering on Toast and another customer is ordering online. If all three customers check out at the same time with 5 of the same item in their cart. All three orders have the potential to go through at the same time and Toast will go into a negative number.
Example 3: If a customer has five items in their cart and a prior order took the item as out of stock while the customer is checking out. That order will go through and Toast will go into a negative number.
Important: The number available to order on an item is checked when we check, as the menu is checked from Lunchbox to Toast (typically occurs every three to five minutes) not at checkout.
Using Lunchbox to Overwrite Menu Item Availability
There are three ways to make an item locally out of stock in Lunchbox.
Supported Option 1: Mark the item or modifier as out of stock in Toast using the Toast Admin Dashboard or POS.
Supported Option 2: Marking an Item as Unavailable using the Unavailable Items Tab. This option will overwrite the menu item availability and cannot be overridden by Toast by marking the item in stock or out-of-stock.
Supported Option 3: You can make an item unavailable in the New Admin. Read more about it in this article, LB 2.0 Operate: Unavailable Items
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Marking items unavailable in Lunchbox does not mark them as out of stock in Toast POS.
When an item is manually set as unavailable from the Unavailable Items tab in the Admin dashboard, it will stay unavailable until it is manually made available again in the Admin dashboard by clicking the red Delete button. 86ing and un86ing in the POS will not reactivate a manually set unavailable item or modifier.
💡 Items manually marked as Unavailable in Lunchbox will display the user's name who marked it as out of stock, with a status of is imported from POS FALSE. Items manually marked as out of stock in the POS will not have a user email connected to it, and the is Imported from POS will display a status of TRUE.
Display Today's 86'd Menu Items for Future Ordering
This setting allows an item marked as out of stock in POS or unavailable in Lunchbox to be available for next-day or future ordering. This setting can only be adjusted by a Lunchbox Team Member.
To enable this, reach out to your Onboarding Manager or Support at [email protected], and they can help implement the feature.
To access this setting, in the left sidebar:
Select the Settings tab
Find the ordering section
Find allow_unavailable_item_future_orders
Select True
allow_unavailable_item_future_ordes = this setting allows an item that has been marked as out of stock in POS or unavailable in Lunchbox to be available for next day or future ordering. To support the feature, it's recommended to turn on Hold Future Orders in Service Types. This will prevent conflicts and possible issues with item availability in the POS if the order is sent to the POS immediately.
IMPORTANT NOTE: To support this feature, we recommend turning on Hold Future Orders in Service Types. This will prevent conflicts and possible issues with item availability in the POS if the order is sent to the POS immediately.
💡In Toast POS, Item Countdown reduces quantity when the order is fired to the Kitchen Printer or KDS. If Hold Future Orders or Hold Same Day Future Orders is disabled in Lunchbox, we recommend setting the Toast Takeout/Delivery behavior to Do Not Send when the order is created. This setting applies globally across all menus and cannot be applied per menu.
86'ing from a Toast device
A manager can '86 an item or modifier using the Quick Edit Mode from any Toast device and have the item marked as out of stock across Web, App and Order Aggregation. They no longer have to find a computer, log into Toast, and make updates to the menu in the middle of a rush when something goes out of stock.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Marking an item as in & out of stock or setting the item with a qty of 5 will mark an item as out of stock on Lunchbox. This typically takes 5 minutes to sync with Lunchbox.
💡Learn how to 86 an item in Quick Edit Mode in the following link https://central.toasttab.com/s/article/86-an-Item
Using a manager passcode, log into any Toast device.
On the Order Screen, press and hold the button of the item or modifier that is out of stock to enter Quick Edit Mode.
In the Inventory dropdown, select Out of Stock and click Done
The item you 86’d will now be unselectable with a zero in the corner
To make an 86’d item available again, select In Stock on the Quick Edit screen and click Done
86’ing from Toast’s backend
IMPORTANT NOTE: You can '86 an item or modifier from Toast’s backend instead of from a Toast device.
💡MMM users will also follow this process. Using Advanced Properties to 86 an item will only change the quantity of the item at the location being viewed.
Navigate to Menus using the navigation on the left-side of the Toast Dashboard
Select Advanced Properties
Select Inventory from the Show/Hide dropdown
From the Inventory column, type the number "0" to 86 the item.
In the screenshot below, we’re 86'ing Signature Nachos.
Select Save and Publish for the changes to take effect
To add the item back into inventory, simply delete the "0" zero in the Inventory column
💡If you have enabled future order scheduling for online orders (ordering in advance) and serve limited quantity items on your menu, Toast is unable to reserve those items for future orders. Therefore, if a guest adds a limited quantity item to their cart but another guest orders the last of that item for an ASAP order, Toast is not able to prevent the sale of the item to ensure all future orders can be fulfilled.
86'ing a modifier
You can also 86 a modifier by using the arrow next to an item to access the modifier group and adding a "0" in the Inventory column.
Item Quantity Depletion
Lunchbox now supports item countdown and controls quantity depletion. By default, menu items will remain visible until inventory hits a threshold of 5. If you need more control, an Implementation Project Manager (IPM) can configure a custom low inventory threshold (globally or locally) to automatically '86 items at the level that the client wants set.
Global Update View
To update Item availability globally, in the left sidebar
Select Menus
Under Admin Links select Edit POS Provider
Select Toast under POS Providers
Scroll down to Low Inventory Threshold and set the number
Select Update POS Provider to save the low inventory threshold
Local Update View
To update Item availability locally, in the left sidebar:
Select Integrations
Select a location
Select the POS Providers tab
Select the Toast tab
Scroll the Low Inventory Threshold input field at the bottom
Select Update Toast Config
Limitations
Updating the local or global setting will not update the quantity unless a change is made in Toast and published.
Adjusting the local or global setting can only be done by a Lunchbox Admin so reach out to your delivery manager or [email protected] to have this value updated on the Order Provider tab.
Lunchbox by default imports item and modifier availability from Toast. Lunchbox has two ways to mark an item unavailable. This typically syncs over within 3 to 5 minutes.
In Lunchbox, using the Menus Tab> Edit Menu for a Location> Menu Items>Selecting the Green Bubble to Turn It Red will not set an item as out of stock in Lunchbox.
If you attempt to do this without 86ing it in Toast, the in-stock value from Toast will set the item as available again in Lunchbox on the next menu sync.
Related Articles
Learn how to 86 an item in Quick Edit Mode in the following link or follow the steps here → ToasttabToast Central