One QR code for breakfast, lunch and dinner

Most restaurants that use QR menus end up with a small pile of them: one for breakfast, one for lunch, one for the bar, one for the specials board. Each needs its own table tent or sticker, and somebody has to remember which one goes out when.

A smart QR code does the switching for you. You print one code, and it opens the right menu for the time of day.

How it works

A Smarter QR Code points at a short link instead of straight at your menu. When someone scans it, the link checks your rules and sends them to the page that fits the moment. You decide the rules:

• 7 to 11 a.m.: the breakfast menu
• 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.: the lunch menu
• Everything else: the dinner menu

The last line is your base URL: where scans go when no rule matches. Every code has one, so a scan always lands somewhere useful.

Rules are checked from top to bottom and the first one that matches wins. You can have up to 10 rules on a code, which covers most menus with room to spare.

Set it up in a few minutes

1. Create a code and give it a name, like "Table menu".
2. Set the base URL to your dinner menu.
3. Add a time of day rule from 7:00 to 11:00 that goes to your breakfast menu.
4. Add another from 11:00 to 16:00 for lunch.
5. Use the simulator on the code's page to try a scan at 9 a.m. and at 8 p.m. and check where each one lands.

Times follow the timezone set on the rule (your business's), not the scanner's phone, so a tourist with a phone still set to another timezone gets the same menu as everyone else at the table.

Ideas that build on it

Once the time rule is in place, other rules stack on top:

• Taco Tuesday: a day-of-week rule for Tuesdays that opens the specials page. Put it above the time rules so it wins on Tuesdays.
• Happy hour: 4 to 6 p.m. goes to the drinks menu, right after lunch ends.
• Holiday hours: a date range rule from December 20 to January 2 that opens your holiday menu, then goes back to normal on its own.
• Spanish menu: a language rule that sends phones set to Spanish to your menu in Spanish. There's a whole guide on that.

Changing a menu later

Because the printed code only holds the short link, you can change where it goes at any time. New dinner menu next month? Update the link on the code's page. The table tents stay exactly where they are.

What's free and what's paid

You can create codes, build these rules and test them with the simulator for free. On the free plan, real scans go to the base URL, after a short hold page that shows where the scan is going. The $60/year plan turns the rules on for real scans, sends people straight to their menu with no hold page, and adds full scan stats so you can see which meals get the most scans.

Make your first code free, no credit card needed.