Finding PLUs and Promotions

When opening the PLUs screen, this will present all existing products and promotions in a table. This table could contain hundreds, if not thousands, of products and promotions, so the system provides tools to filter this data so that you can find the product(s) that you are looking for.

Sorting and scrolling

Often, you may be able to locate the item that you are looking for by simply scrolling through the list of products. By default, the products in the table will be sorted alphabetically (A>Z) by name, so if you know the name of the product you are looking for you should be able to locate it. If you wish to change the sort order of the products in the table, you can simply click on any of the column headers. For example, you may want to sort the products based on the group they are in, or maybe you want to sort by one of the price bands. Clicking on the heading once will sort from the lowest value to the highest. Clicking on the same heading again will flip this so it now sorts from highest to lowest.

*You will notice that when the table is sorted by a column, a triangle icon is present to the right of the heading text. The triangle pointing up (point at the top, wide base at the bottom) shows that it is an ascending sort (lowest value at the top, highest at the bottom) whereas the triangle pointing down is the reverse. This image shows that the table is being sorted by name ascending.

Using the find filter

The PLU screen contains a ‘Find’ filter which can make locating the desired product easier. Entering text here will filter the products where the entered text appears anywhere in either the PLU Number, Name, or even the item’s barcode if present. For example, entering ‘App’ will locate any products where those three letters appear in that order anywhere in the name.

Filtering based on product groups

Additionally, there is a ‘Product groups’ dropdown selection available which allows you to filter products by their product group. By default, all product groups are selected, however, if you only wanted to show ‘Drinks’ items, you can make sure that this is the only group selected and then press OK. This will then show only drinks items in the grid.

Using the ‘Zero priced only’ and ‘Active only’ checkboxes

Lastly, there are two checkboxes present to the right of the product groups filter which further enable you to filter the products shown in the table, these are ‘Zero priced only’ and ‘Active only’.

Zero priced only

When checked, this will only show products where the PLU has been set as ‘Zero priced’. When products have been set as this, the system will allow this product to be sold for free if the price is set as £0.00. This essentially acts as a safeguard for when a product is intentionally to be sold for free, versus when it’s not, but a price has either not been entered or incorrectly set as £0.00. Some schools/caterers will use this for products that they want to record as part of a sale, but not actually charge the user for, such as a free side salad when they take a main meal, or maybe a filling choice on a pre-order where the item is priced on the main item.

Active only

This checkbox is selected by default, and will only show products that are active. When a product has been set as not active, it will then disappear from view. If you wanted to find this product in the future, you would need to uncheck this checkbox before it will be visible.

*Note: All the filter items work in conjunction with each other. For example, you could enter ‘app’ into the find field, select drinks from the ‘Product groups’ dropdown, and have the ‘Zero priced only’ and ‘Active only’ checkboxes selected. In this scenario, only active products that have been set as zero priced, that have the letters ‘app’ in their name and are in the ‘Drinks’ product group will be listed.