Menu Items

Menu items are the individual products displayed on your menu boards — food, drinks, or anything else you sell.

---

Creating a Menu Item

1. Navigate to Menu Items in the sidebar.
2. Click Add Item.
3. Fill in the item details:

Field	Required	Description
Name	Yes	The item name as shown on your menu
Description	No	A short description of the item
Price	No	The base price (e.g., 8.50)
Category	Yes	Which category this item belongs to
Featured	No	Mark as a featured item for special display treatment
Active	Yes	Whether this item appears on your menu

4. Click Save.

---

Beverage-Specific Fields

For beverage establishments, Tapboard supports additional fields commonly used for beer and craft drinks:

Field	Description	Range
ABV	Alcohol By Volume percentage	0 to 100
IBU	International Bitterness Units	0 to 9999
Style	Beer style label (IPA, Stout, Lager, Pilsner, etc.)	Free text

These fields are optional and display on templates that support them (Tapboard Dark, Tapboard Light, Tapboard Lumen, Tapboard Bistro, Tapboard Industrial, and Tapboard Field). When Style is set, it renders before ABV and IBU on supported layouts.

---

Item Variations

Variations let you offer the same item in different sizes or options, each with its own price.

Examples:

• A beer available in "Pint" ($7) and "Half Pint" ($4)
• A coffee in "Small" ($3), "Medium" ($4), and "Large" ($5)

To add variations:

1. Open a menu item for editing.
2. In the Variations section, click Add Variation.
3. Enter the variation name and price.
4. Repeat for additional variations.

When an item has variations, the base price is typically left blank since pricing is per variation.

Disabling Variations

You can toggle individual variations on or off. This is useful when a size or option is temporarily unavailable. Disabled variations will not appear on your menu boards.

For POS-synced items, variation toggles are preserved across syncs. If you disable a variation, it stays disabled even after the next POS sync updates the item.

---

Item Images

You can attach an image to each menu item to make your displays more visual.

Uploading an Image (Native Items)

1. Edit the menu item.
2. Click the image upload area or drag and drop an image.
3. Supported formats: JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP.
4. Save the item.

You can also select an existing file from your Media Library instead of uploading a new one each time.

POS-Synced Images (Square)

For items that come from your Square catalog, item images are pulled in automatically during sync. If an item has one or more images attached in your Square Dashboard, the first image is used as the Tapboard item image. There is nothing to configure on the Tapboard side. Update or replace the image in Square and it will refresh on the next sync.

Where Images Appear on Screen

Item images render on layouts that include an image slot:

• One Column (Tapboard Dark, Tapboard Light) — thumbnail next to each item with rounded corners.
• Two Column / Two Column Grid (Tapboard Dark, Tapboard Light) — card image at the top of each tile.
• Four by Three Grid (Tapboard Bistro, Field, Industrial, Lumen) — image-top card per item.
• Two by Six Strip (Tapboard Bistro, Field, Industrial, Lumen) — small image alongside each strip entry.

Whether images render at all is also controlled by each template's show_images token — turn it off in Template Customization if you prefer a text-only display on a given board. Images also appear in the in-dashboard menu board preview so you can see exactly how each layout will look before publishing.

---

Searching and Filtering

The menu items list supports:

• Search — Type in the search bar to find items by name.
• Filter by Category — Select a category to show only its items.
• Filter by Status — Show active, inactive, or all items.

---

Editing a Menu Item

1. Go to Menu Items.
2. Click Edit next to the item.
3. Update any fields and click Save.

---

Deleting a Menu Item

1. Go to Menu Items.
2. Click Delete next to the item.
3. Confirm the deletion.

---

POS-Synced Items

When connected to a POS system like Square:

• Items synced from your POS are marked with a source badge (e.g., "Square").
• You can rename a POS-synced item in Tapboard. Double-click the item name in the list (or open the edit modal) and save. Your rename is stored as an override and persists across syncs, so the new name stays even after the next POS sync. An edited badge appears next to the name as a reminder, and hovering it reveals the original POS name.
• You can change the active/inactive status of a POS-synced item. Hover the status badge in the list and pick Active or Inactive — your choice is stored as an override and persists across syncs.
• You can toggle individual variations on or off for POS-synced items. These variation overrides are preserved across syncs, so a disabled variation stays disabled even after the next sync.
• You can override the price, description, and Featured flag. Edit them in the item's modal and save. Like a rename, each is stored as an override that persists across syncs, with an edited indicator showing where your value differs from the POS. To change the value everywhere instead, edit it in your POS and re-sync.
• You can set ABV, IBU, and Style manually for POS-synced items when your Square catalog has no value for those fields. Your manual entry is preserved across syncs and is only overwritten when Square actually has a value to apply.
• Category and variation pricing stay POS-managed. An item's category, and each variation's title and price, come from your POS and are read-only in Tapboard (marked POS Managed). Change them in your POS and re-sync.
• You cannot delete a POS-synced item from Tapboard. To remove one, delete it in your POS and re-sync; Tapboard will deactivate it automatically.
• To roll an item back to its POS values, open the item and click Revert to POS values (or use the revert icon in the row).
• Items removed from your POS catalog are deactivated in Tapboard after the next sync.
• On the first sync, existing local items are deactivated so that your POS catalog becomes the source of truth.

---

Plan Limits

Plan	Items per Menu	Item Images
Sampler (Free)	10	Yes
Starter	50	Yes
Pro	Unlimited	Yes
Platinum	Unlimited	Yes

Item images are available on every plan. See Billing & Subscriptions for full plan details and upgrade options.