Time-Based Menus: Lunch and Dinner Switch Automatically

Set it once, and the menu updates itself every day — no engineer required

Time-based menus let each menu category set a display window and go on and off the menu automatically: lunch, dinner, and late-night menus switch on schedule, items outside the window can't be seen or ordered, and cross-midnight windows are supported.

No Hotcakes at 10:31 — Everyone Knows the Feeling

McDonald's in Taiwan serves breakfast from 5:00 to 10:30 — at 10:30 sharp, the menu flips to the all-day lineup, and anyone craving hotcakes at 10:31 has to come back tomorrow. That "clock strikes, menu switches" mechanism used to be something only big-chain systems could do. OrderEase turns it into a single settings field in your dashboard: your shop gets the same automatic switchover, with no engineer and no daily manual toggling.

How to Set It Up

One time window per category — set once, applies every day

Set a display window on the category

Give a menu category a display start and end time — for example, business lunch 11:00–14:00, late-night 21:00–02:00. Windows are calculated in the store's timezone, and an end time earlier than the start is automatically treated as cross-midnight.

On and off the menu, automatically, daily

When the set time arrives, the category shows or hides for customers on its own. No daily manual toggling, and no "the staff forgot to switch it off" — the system is more punctual than people.

Checkout validation blocks out-of-window orders

Even if a customer added items to the cart before the switchover, the system validates again at checkout: out-of-window items are blocked with a clear message, so you never receive an order the kitchen can't make.

The Three Most Common Uses

One settings field, three business types, three answers

Business lunch special pricing

Set the lunch-set category to 11:00–14:00 and it delists itself when the window closes. No more customers ordering the lunch special at dinner — and no staff walking over to explain.

Breakfast shop stops egg crepes at 10:30

The griddle closes at 10:30: set the egg crepe and fried noodle categories to 06:00–10:30 and they vanish from the menu on the dot — no taped-up "sold out" sign at the counter.

Izakaya late-night menu

Set the late-night category to 21:00–02:00 and it displays correctly past midnight until 2 am. The night menu takes over automatically, and day-shift items can't be ordered by mistake.

POS Staff Entry Is Not Restricted

The time window only applies to the customer's QR ordering interface. Staff entering orders on the POS are unrestricted — a regular asking "save me one", staff meals, special make-up orders: if the staff judge the kitchen can make it, they can ring it up as usual. The system handles the automation; the exceptions stay with human judgment.

Example Setups

Category	Display window	What customers see
Business lunch	11:00–14:00	From 14:01 the category hides itself — no lunch specials showing up at dinner
Breakfast egg crepes	06:00–10:30	From 10:31 egg crepes can't be ordered; leftover cart items are blocked at checkout
Late-night menu	21:00–02:00	Displays correctly across midnight, delists automatically at 02:01

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I set a window that crosses midnight?

Simply set the end time earlier than the start time — for example 21:00–02:00 — and the system treats it as a cross-midnight window: it shows from 21:00 that evening and delists at 02:00 the next morning, calculated in the store's timezone. No need to split it into two windows.

Can weekdays and weekends have different menus?

Display windows currently apply the same times every day; per-weekday windows are not yet supported. Weekend-only items can be handled by toggling the category manually — switch it on before weekend service and off afterwards, one tap in the dashboard.

What happens to items in the cart at the moment of switchover?

They get blocked. At checkout, the system validates each item's window; out-of-window items cannot become an order, and the customer sees a clear message and adjusts the cart. That beats letting the order reach the kitchen and then calling to cancel — you never receive an order that can't be made.