Create a menu
About menus
A menu is a specific set of menu groups and items that will appear on your POS for a certain period of the day or a certain shift. Your menus should correspond with the physical menus in your restaurant. If you have multiple menus you use throughout the day, you should have multiple menus in your Square account.
Menus serve as the central hub for managing what you sell across all channels and locations. You can control where your menu is sold across your POS, online ordering, kiosks and delivery apps (like DoorDash and Uber Eats) all from one place.
Before you begin
You have five options for menu creation all from your Square Dashboard:
Use your existing categories: This option works if you already created categories and items with Square.
Upload a file or photo of your menu: Use this option if you have an existing menu file or photo saved to your computer.
Import your menu from another platform: Transfer an existing menu from another platform like Toast or DoorDash.
Generate a custom starter menu: Answer some basic questions and create a menu using AI.
Create a menu manually: Use this option when you don’t have a catalogue in Square or on another platform and need to create new items.
After you create your menu, you can manage in-store menus across all locations from a single place in your Square Dashboard. You can also update the channel and location of individual items and customise your Point of Sale grid tiles. Updating menus only applies to menus across your Square Restaurant POS app.
Understand categories versus menus
It’s important to understand how categories and menus work together in your Square system. Categories handle the reporting, routing and internal operations, while menus handle what customers see and when they see it.
- Reporting: Organise your sales data and analytics by category (eg Food, Beverages).
- Kitchen routing: Send orders to the right printers or kitchen display systems based on category.
- Standard mode organisation: If you use standard mode (not restaurant modes), categories organise your in-store POS layout.
- Retail item management: For mixed businesses, categories continue to control retail items on Square Online Shop All template.
- Buyer-facing organisation: Control how items appear to customers on all sales channels.
- Channel visibility: Determine which items show up on POS, online ordering, kiosks and delivery apps.
- Time-based availability: Set when items are sold throughout the day.
- Location-specific offerings: Control what is available at different business locations.
Create a menu
If you already use items and categories with Square, no action is required to create your menu.
- You can still access categories for reporting and kitchen routing but, to assign categories to customer-facing channels, you’ll need to Create a menu group and edit layout.
- When creating new items from the item library, you’ll need to assign them to a menu for them to appear on customer-facing channels.
- If you want unified menu management including POS layout, consider adding a restaurant mode (quick-service, full-service or bar mode) to your account. Learn how to Create and assign modes.
- If you use the Shop All template on Square Online (which shows both restaurant and retail items), you’ll still use categories to control what items appear.
To upload an existing menu using the WoFlow integration, you will need access to your Square Dashboard and a PDF, JPG or PNG file of your existing menu.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Menus.
- Click Create a Menu > Upload a file, photo or URL of your existing menu.
- Select From my computer to import a file from your computer. Select By URL to paste a link to your menu.
- Click Continue.
- Enter a Menu name and select the Location where the menu will apply. Click Continue.
Square will send you an email when your menu is ready. Most menu builds take under 24 hours.
You can import a menu to your Square Dashboard and transfer menu data from other platforms to Square using WoFlow integration.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Menus.
- Click Create a menu > Import your menu from another platform. A WoFlow modal will appear, guiding you through the process of importing files.
- From the list, select your current platform which has your menu data
- Select how you want to import your menu, either by securely signing in or by sharing a public URL.
- Click Continue to sign in.
- Sign in to the platform which has your menu.
- Let your menu and other data be imported.
- Click Continue.
- View your menu and make any edits and then click Approve.
Use the power of AI to generate a menu to help you get started. You can then further customise the menu to your specific needs.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Menus.
- Click Create a menu > Generate a custom starter menu.
- Answer the questions on menu type, cuisine and menu size.
- Name your menu and click Continue.
- After viewing the AI-generated result, hit Continue to edit the menu further.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Menus.
- Click Create a Menu > Build your menu manually.
- Enter a name in the Menu Name field and select the location where the menu will apply.
- Click Save.
- Click Add Item to select existing items from the drop-down menu. Select Add Multiple Items to create new items and add them to the menu.
- Enter an Item Name, a Kitchen Facing Name and an Item Price.
- Click Create Items > Done to add the items to your menu.
Add menu groups to your menu
You can add additional structure to your menu by creating menu groups. A menu group, formerly known as a display group, is a group of items that can be added to more than one menu. These groups of items can help your customers navigate your menu.
Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Menus.
Select a menu > click Add Menu Group and create a new menu group or select an existing one.
Select Add image to upload an image that will be displayed on the POS grid layout for the menu group.
Select Add Items and choose the items you want within the menu group.
Click Save.
Update a menu
You can manually update a menu from your Square Dashboard, the Square Point of Sale app with full service, quick service or bar mode enabled, or from the Square Restaurant POS app.
Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Items & services (or Items & menus or Items & inventory) > Menus.
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Select one of your existing menus. From this edit page, you can:
Click the three dots and click Edit menu to change the menu name and update the locations where the menu applies.
Click Edit POS Layout to update the item grid that is displayed on your POS devices.
Click Add to add items, menu groups or modifiers to your menu.
When prompted, click Save after you apply your edits.
Update menu visibility
When updating menu visibility, you’re selecting where the menu itself should appear across your locations and sales channels. If you already use menus with Square, learn more about managing your menus across locations and sale channels.
Items within the menu will not be affected by menu updates – adjust the locations and channels for items separately.
Any updates you make to an item will apply to wherever the item appears, across all menus.
If you use Standard mode, you won’t see the POS channel option as your in-store layout is managed separately. To manage your menu on POS, consider adding a restaurant mode. Learn how to Create and assign modes.
If you use the Shop All template on Square Online (which shows both restaurant and retail items), you’ll still use categories to control what items appear.
- From your menu, click the 3 dot icon besides the menu name.
- From Edit menu details, select the locations and sales channels you’d like your menu to be visible.
- Locations: Select from all locations you’ve set up. You can assign the same menu to one, or multiple locations.
- Sales channels:
POS: Your Square Point of Sale devices (Only available if you use restaurant modes like quick-service, full-service or bar mode)
Square Online: Your online ordering website
Kiosk: Self-service kiosks
Cash App profile: Your local business profile (when available)
Delivery apps: DoorDash, Uber Eats and other delivery apps
- Click Save to apply your changes.
Set menu availability
Control when customers can order from your menu or specific groups of items.
Set hours for your menu if you want distinct menus for dayparting (eg lunch versus dinner service).
- From your menu, click the 3 dot icon.
- From your menu settings, click Hours.
- Select the days and times when customers can place orders for this menu. The menu will always be visible regardless of the hours you select, but only orderable during the time period you selected. You can create multiple time periods for the same day (like breakfast and dinner).
- Click Save to apply menu hours to your schedule.