Prior to configuring make times, please refer to this article which provides an overview of the different make time strategies that are available within Olo Company Menu Admin.
Details on Estimated Make Time
Estimated make time is defined at the Category Level within the Menu Admin tool.
Note: Make times are required by certain POS systems, for orders to flow through successfully to a store. Brink, Qu, and Revel are three POS systems that have this requirement, where the make time should not be left at 0. In fact, Revel needs the make time to be at least 10 minutes (that is the minimum requirement). Please reach out to us if you are unsure of whether make time is a required entry for the POS you are integrated to.
Dashboard users are asked to add the time needed to prepare an individual item and the time needed to prepare five items within a given category. These two values are used in order to determine how much make time should be associated with an order given what the customer has in their order.
Prep Time needed to make:
1 item = Base
5 items = Establishes the Marginal Added Time per additional product
This is configured in the Company Menu in Dashboard. Select Edit Category on the chosen category. You can then select Estimated Make Time for the Make Time Calculation and then configure the time in minutes for 1 and 5 products.
Important note: Please make sure you add a different value for the time it takes to make 5 vs the time it takes to make 1. If it is the same value for both fields, no additional time will be added for each incremental item added after the first.
Example make times using Estimated Make Time:
1 item = 15 min
5 items = 35 min
4 additional items = 20 additional minutes = 5 minutes per additional item
This 5 minutes will extend to infinity.
Example 12 items calculation:
1 item = 15 min
+ 11 items x 5 min = 55 min
= 70 min estimate
Example 7 items calculation:
1 item = 15 min
+ 6 items x 5 min = 30 min
= 45 min estimate
Ordering from Multiple Categories
If there are items from multiple categories in the customer's basket, Olo will take the highest make time from a category and will add a nominal percentage of make time for every other category ordered to come up with the total make time for the order. Each additional category adds 5% to the time (rounded down).
Troubleshooting
If you have categories that currently have long estimated make times (i.e. 24 hours or more), you can address that by making the following adjustments:
Option 1: Adjust the make times to be shorter than store business hours
Option 2: Have stores accept orders before opening, to allow for orders with extensive make times to be received as needed. If you would like this setting adjusted, you can reach out to us!
