Happy Hours and Daypart Pricing That Switch Themselves

The 4pm crowd should never pay dinner prices, and the dinner rush should never get the happy-hour deal because somebody forgot to flip the menu back. Schedule your price levels once and let the clock do the switching — no hand-toggling, no honor system, no leakage.

Schedule price levels, don't announce them

• Define dayparts — breakfast, lunch, happy hour, dinner, late night — with start and end times per location so prices follow the clock automatically.
• Attach price levels to items or whole categories so a happy-hour pint rings up at the right price without a manual discount line.
• Handle the edges explicitly: checks opened before the switch keep their original prices, new items ring at the new level, and staff always see which daypart is active.

Run happy hour without babysitting it

• Limit happy-hour pricing to qualifying items and areas (bar only, patio included) so the deal lands where it drives traffic.
• Combine daypart prices with promo stacking rules so a loyalty reward on top of happy hour stays inside your margin guardrails.
• Publish the switch on kitchen and customer displays so guests see the current prices and staff never have to explain a surprise total.

Audit every price the clock set

1. Log every automatic price switch with its timestamp so end-of-day close can show exactly which checks rang under which daypart.
2. Review daypart sales mix weekly — if happy hour grows volume but not profit, retune the items or the window before it becomes permanent.
3. Test schedule changes against upcoming holidays and events so a special-hours override never collides with the regular clock.

Use Swagger UI or OpenAPI for the current price-level, daypart-schedule, and location-override shapes.