How to create a new Picklist

A picklist is a collection of items, which represent the goods and services you charge your guests. Picklist items are the primary way you add cost to your events, and this article explains how you can create new picklists in your Tripleseat site.

To create a new picklist, you will want to:

1. Go to Settings > Picklists > New Picklist.
   
   
2. Title this picklist and select which locations it should be available at. Click OK - On to Adding Items.
   
   
   
   ADD ITEMS
3. Scroll to the bottom of the page where there is an empty line with fields for QTY, Description, Long Description, Category, and Price. This is where you can add items to your picklist.
   
   
4. Use the Category dropdown to select what category of item you are creating.
   
   ALL Picklist items should belong to a Menu Item Category. The category of an item does two things. One, it will inform which taxes and fees will be tagged on that item (and thus will get tallied up in the Billing Widget provided there is a row dedicated to that tax or fee). Two, the sum of all items of a category will display in the Billing Widget of an event’s docs above taxes and fees.
   
   Even if you create a picklist item as a styling element (like a header), still give that a category.
   
   
   
   
5. Define the Description.
   
   This field is most commonly used to describe the goods, items, or services you sell to your guest. That could be an a la carte food item, like Ceviche or an Italian Cookie Platter, or a pre-fixe meal option such as Holiday Dinner. You can also use the description field as a styling element to differentiate themes or breaks within a menu or list of goods. For instance, you can title the description as Appetizers, Entrées, or Desserts to visually partition sections within your menu.
   
   You may use keyboard shortcuts (Helpful keyboard shortcuts) or the styling toolbar to style the text. And if you wish to copy and paste your item information from outside of Tripleseat, please consider our best practices about How to properly copy and paste into Tripleseat (i.e. documents or picklists).
   
   
   
   
6. Although not required, every item has a Long Description field that you may fill in.
   
   The Long Description field is a way for you to communicate information to some people via the documents while withholding it from others. It is most commonly used to communicate info to your Kitchen Team, but can be helpful in a variety of use cases. This article, What is the Long Description field on picklist items?, elaborates on the purpose and applications of this field.
   
   
   
   
7. Enter Price. Although not required, if you charge your guests for an item, set the price now. You may wish to define the QTY as well if you only ever sell an item in certain quantities. (E.g. 1 Rental Fee)
   
   
8. Click +Add. That will push the item up on the page. 
   
   
9. Repeat Steps 3 - 8 as needed.
   
   
10. Click Save at the bottom when finished.

Pro Tip: Does your business have it so that only certain picklists appear available to select from in certain picklist sections in your documents? If so, after you create new picklists, you will also want to update your document template so that new list of items is available where you need. This article, Why can't I see my newly created picklists when detailing an Event?, provides the instructions you need in order to perform that update.