Launching a weekly menu with Iris

Iris can walk you through a whole weekly meal-prep launch in one place: the menu, when people can order, how they get their food, and an email to tell your customers. It takes about ten minutes the first time.

Go to Menus and choose Launch with Iris. If you'd rather use the usual screens, choose Set up by hand.

You can stop at any step with Save and finish later. Your launch waits for you under Menus → Launch with Iris, and everything you've saved so far is already on the usual screens too.

1. The menu

• What kind of menu. Choose weekly meal prep. If meal prep menus aren't turned on yet, Iris turns them on for you and tells you so. (Catering is coming to the wizard later; for now, set it up by hand.)
• Name. Customers see it, so something like "Week of October 26" works well. You can start from an earlier menu to copy its dishes.
• Dishes. Search your products, or choose Add a new dish to create one with a name, price and a code (SKU). Iris suggests a code; change it if you like.
• Prices. Your usual prices are filled in. Change any for this menu only. Owners and admins also see a rough food cost.
• Allergens and dietary tags. Type the allergens for each dish. Iris never fills these in for you, so your customers can trust them. A dish with no allergen information is flagged, and your allergen disclaimer still shows.

2. Ordering

• When people order. Choose when orders open, your order deadline, and the day or days the food goes out. Times are in your business's time zone. A delivery or pickup day can't be before the deadline.
• Pickup and delivery. For each day, choose pickup, delivery or both. Delivery appears if you have Local Delivery. If you don't have a pickup spot yet, add one right there.
• Getting paid. Iris checks whether you can take card payments. If not, set them up from Settings → B2B. You can keep going and do it before you launch.
• Shelf life. Optional: how many days each dish keeps and how to store it. These print on your batch labels.
• Preview. Your menu the way a customer sees it on their phone.

3. Telling people

• Your link. Your order link stays the same every week, so you can put it on your website, Instagram bio or a flyer. Copy it, copy a ready-made message, or share it on WhatsApp. Your email sign-up form is here too.
• Who hears about it. Pick one of three groups: everyone who agreed to your emails, people who ordered meal prep before, or people who haven't ordered in 30 days. Each shows how many people can be emailed. Only people who agreed to your emails are ever counted.
• The email. Iris drafts it with your dishes, prices, deadline and order link. Change the subject here, send yourself a test, or open the full email editor.
  • If your account has it, Ask Iris to write it suggests a subject, an opening line and a message to share, in your language and an optional tone ("cozy", "short"). Nothing changes until you choose Use this, and your dishes, prices, dates and link always come from your menu. It's written with AI, so read it before it goes out.
• When it goes out. The email goes out when orders open. A last-chance reminder, 12 hours before your deadline, goes to people who got the first email and haven't ordered. You can turn the reminder off.

If nobody has agreed to your emails yet, Iris suggests sharing your link and sign-up form instead. You can choose Launch without an email.

4. Launch

The last step shows everything at a glance and lists anything that still needs doing, with a Fix this link to the right step. When nothing is left, choose Launch my menu.

Launching:

• turns the menu on, so customers can order once orders open (straight away if that time has passed);
• schedules your email for when orders open, and the reminder if it's on.

If the email isn't ready (for example, your reply-to address isn't confirmed), nothing is launched and Iris tells you what to fix.

Nothing goes out and nobody can order before you choose Launch my menu, even if the opening time passes while you're still working on it.

Starting over

Start over removes what this launch created that nobody has ordered from yet: the menu, its schedule and the draft email. Anything with orders stays, and you can manage it from the usual screens.

After launch

Watch orders come in on the cycle page. After the deadline, plan production there and print your labels.

Running it again next week

Choose Run it again next week, after you launch or from the cycle page. Iris copies the menu, its schedule and your email, moves every date a week on, and redrafts the email with the new dates. You land on the last step with three quick options: rename the menu, change dishes, or change who gets the email. Then choose Launch my menu.

The copy stays off until you launch it: nobody can order and nothing is sent before then.