Today I'll show you how to track guest count within tickets. In This case we'll choose guest count and automatically add cover items based on guest count.

First of all we'll start by creating a product for covers (couvert). You can create a new product by clicking Management > Products > Product List > Add Product link.

Click Save to store that product. Since we add that item automatically we don't need to insert that item in a screen menu. If you want to see a menu button for Cover product you can add this item to a menu from Menu List.

Ticket tags are useful for storing additional information within Tickets. We want to store guest count with tickets so we'll create a ticket tag for that. I can add a new ticket tag from Management > Settings > Ticket Tags link.

I named it as Guest Count and added 15 tags for the buttons we need. The important point is choosing numeric as Tag Type so SambaPOS can threat tags as numbers. Additionally we'll force Guest Count selection by enabling “Selection Required” setting and the button color will be red when no tag selected.

I don't need this tag on every tickets. For example I have an additional department for phone orders and while creating a ticket for delivery I don't need guest count. Enabling a ticket tag for a department is easy. From management > Settings > Departments screen I'll edit Restaurant department and add Guest Count Tag to Tag Groups list.

Now we'll have a “Guest Count” button in our tickets. Choosing a Guest Count value will do nothing other than displaying Guest Count under ticket. Now we'll configure SambaPOS to add Cover product automatically. We'll use Actions & Rules function for that. Let's start by creating a new action for adding Cover product.

Navigate to Management > Settings > Actions and create a new action.

This action will useful for adding items to a ticket. So Action type will be Add Ticket Item. When I select this action some parameters will appear. I need to choose the product which I want to add and choose a portion for it. Quantity will be the value of the Guest Count tag so instead of typing a fixed value there I'll use a variable name. Typing something inside brackets means that value will be dynamic so I'll type [Cover Quantity] there.

After saving it I'll create a Rule for Executing this action.

We need to add Cover Item when Guest Count ticket tag selected. So the Rule event will be Ticket Tag Selected. When I choose this event some conditional parameters will appear. I'll choose “Guest Count” from Tag Name constraint because I want to execute it only when “Guest Count” tag selected. Secondly I'll click Select Actions and Choose “Add Cover” action. It will create a new blue box representing the action that will execute. Do you remember the [Cover Quantity] value? Now we'll tie Cover Quantity value to Guest Count. It is simple. Expand Blue Box by clicking the arrow. You'll see [Cover Quantity] there. The Cover Quantity will be equal to [NumericValue] of Guest Count tag…

Save it and try choosing Guest Count inside ticket.

When I click “Guest Count” button available values will appear. When I click to “4” button it should add 4 Covers automatically and it should display actual Guest Count under ticket. Also the button color will turn to gray from red to visually indicate Guest Count selected.

Now I'll create some tickets and check Work Period report for Guest Count values.

As a result of this configuration Guest Count section will appear. That report shows how many times we created tickets for X guests, total amounts, total guest count and average amount for a single guest.