# Bundles & Combos

A bundle is a menu item that includes choices from other items — a combo meal, a lunch special, a build-your-own platter. The customer picks, and it's priced and rung up as one item.

## Bundle or modifier?

Both let a customer choose, and picking the wrong one makes your menu harder to maintain.

**Use a modifier** for a variation of one item: size, temperature, extra cheese. See [Managing Your Menu](/menu-management).

**Use a bundle** when the customer is choosing *other menu items*: a burger combo where they pick any side and any fountain drink.

The test: if the choice is something you also sell on its own, it's a bundle.

## Building one

1. Go to **Admin → Menu** and create (or open) the item that *is* the combo — "Burger Combo".
2. Set its price. This is what the customer pays, regardless of which options they choose.
3. Add a **component** for each choice the customer makes — one for "Side", one for "Drink".
4. For each component, choose which **items** are offered.
5. Save.

A component is one decision. A combo with a side and a drink has two components; a family meal with two sides has two side components (or one that allows two picks), so the customer chooses twice.

## Pricing

The bundle's own price is what's charged. Child items keep their standalone prices for when they're sold alone, but selling them inside a bundle uses the bundle price — that's the discount that makes a combo worth buying.

If some options should cost more (a premium side, a large drink), price that difference as an upcharge on the option rather than making a second bundle.

## What the kitchen sees

Combo selections are recorded as **structured data**, not folded into a note. Every surface shows exactly what was chosen:

```
1x Burger Combo
    - Side: Fries
    - Drink: Lemonade
```

That means the [kitchen display](/kitchen-display), printed [chits and receipts](/receipt-layout), confirmation emails, and one-tap reorder all show the same picks. Modifiers on a chosen child item (extra ice, no salt) nest underneath it.

## Validation

Choices are validated when the order is placed. A customer can't submit a combo missing a required pick, or choose something you didn't offer for that component — including by editing the page. What reaches your kitchen is always a combo you actually sell.

## Tips

**Keep components short.** Four sides is a choice; fourteen is a menu inside a menu, and it slows ordering down on both the web and the register.

**Mark unavailable options unavailable.** If you're out of coleslaw, mark the coleslaw item unavailable and it stops being offered inside every bundle that includes it — no need to edit the bundles.

**Name components the way you'd say them** — "Pick a side", not "Component 1".

## Where to go next

- [Managing Your Menu](/menu-management) — items, modifiers, availability
- [Kitchen Display](/kitchen-display) — how combos appear to cooks
- [Receipt Layout](/receipt-layout) — how they print