Drafts, publishing and versions
When a change reaches guests — saving and publishing a menu, approvals, scheduled publishing and the version history.
On this page
Guests only ever see published menus. A change reaches them at one of two moments, depending on what you change: a dish changes everywhere as soon as you save it, while a menu's own changes wait until the menu is published.
A menu's status
Every menu has a status. On the menu's page it sits next to the menu's name; open it to change the status.
| Status | What guests see |
|---|---|
| Draft | Nothing yet: the menu is still being prepared. |
| In review | Nothing yet: the menu waits for someone to approve it. |
| Published | The menu, at every location that serves it. |
| Paused | Nothing, until you publish it again. |
| Archived | Nothing. It can't be edited and is no longer any location's default menu; restore it to a draft to work on it again. |
Saving and publishing
In the menu builder, your edits wait in a bar at the bottom of the page until you choose Save changes or Discard. What saving means depends on the status:
- A draft, a menu in review or a paused menu keeps the saved changes to itself. Guests see them once the menu is published.
- A published menu is live: saving publishes your changes at once, as a new version — if your role may publish it. Without that right, your changes go to a reviewer first: see Send changes to a live menu for review.
Publishing is a change of status, such as Publish now. It is offered only when nothing is left unsaved, so what you publish is what you see. Before you publish, the preview beside the builder shows the saved menu as guests will see it.
Changes that need no publishing
Some changes are not part of one menu. They reach guests as soon as you save them, in every published menu they concern:
- A dish or an add-on itself — its name, photos, prices or tags — whether you edit it under Products or open it from a menu.
- A location's choices — the menus it serves, and its overrides of dishes and settings.
- Your organization's settings.
Which of these values a guest finally sees is decided by Inheritance and overrides.
Approvals
Someone who can edit menus but not publish them — a Content editor, for example — finishes a draft and chooses Submit for review. The menu is then In review. A reviewer either chooses Approve & publish or sends it back to a draft with Reject; until then, it can be taken back with Withdraw. Changes saved while the menu is in review stay in it, so reviewers always see the latest.
Who can do this: Owner, Admin, and Content manager
Review covers a live menu's changes too: someone who can edit it but not publish it sends them to a reviewer, who approves them as the menu's next version — see Send changes to a live menu for review.
Scheduled publishing
Instead of publishing a draft or a paused menu now, you can pick a date and time on its Schedule tab, under Scheduled publication. The menu goes live on its own at that moment. A menu that is in review by then is not published: it waits for its approval. On Pro and Ultimate.
How to publish, approve and schedule step by step: Publish a menu.
Versions
Each time a menu is published — published now, approved, published on schedule, or saved while live — a version records what guests saw. History on the menu's page lists them. A version is read-only, and shows the menu itself, without any location's overrides. Publishing a menu that has not changed adds no version.
A change to a dish itself is not a version of every menu that shows it: it is listed on the dish's own Activity tab. More about the history: Menu versions.