Point of Sale: Restaurant · Sales
The service on the till. The restaurant behind it on the same record.
The order, taken at the table, on a phone.
Sofie seats the four at table 12 from the plan, and the order is on her phone before she has the menus back. Each line has its seat, its course and its note, so the risotto with no parmesan reaches the pass as a line, not as a shout. The starters go to the kitchen when she taps, the bottle goes to the bar at the same tap, and the mains wait until she fires them. The plan shows the table as Ordered, then as Mains fired, so whoever passes knows where the table stands.
From the table plan to the posted closing, in five steps.
The table is seated
The plan shows every table with its state: free, seated, ordered, mains out, bill asked. A booking sits on its table before the guests arrive, and a walk-in is seated with one tap.
From the table plan to the posted closing, in five steps.
The plan shows every table with its state: free, seated, ordered, mains out, bill asked. A booking sits on its table before the guests arrive, and a walk-in is seated with one tap.
What a service needs.
The plan, the menu, the courses and who may void a line are yours to set.
A plan that reads the room
Rooms and terrace, tables of any size, joined for the party of eight and split back after. Every table shows its state without asking the server.
Courses and stations
Starters, mains, desserts; kitchen, bar, pastry. A line goes to its station by category, and the mains are fired when the table is ready for them.
Split bills and tips
By seat, by amount, in equal parts, or one guest paying a round. The tip is a line of its own, on the payment, in the closing.
The menu, from the back office
Prices, categories, the daily special, the dish that ran out at 21:10: edited once and on every phone at the next tap.
Roles on the till
A server takes orders and payments. A manager voids a line, applies a discount and closes the till. The rule is on the record, not on a drawer key.
The same till, for a taproom and a campsite restaurant.
What adapts: what an order is opened on (a table, a bar tab, a pitch), what a line is (a plate, a pour from a keg, a meal covered by a board), which stations the ticket goes to, how the bill is settled, and which record the closing lands on. Two businesses can run the same till and disagree on every one of those.
A microbrewery taproom
An order is a tab opened on a card at the bar, with no table and no courses. A line is a pour from a keg or a bottle from the fridge, and the sale takes litres off the keg that came out of the brewery's own batch. Takeaway six-packs are lines on the same tab at their own VAT rate, and the closing reads sales by tap.
A campsite restaurant
An order is a table charged to a pitch. A line is a plate, and the meal a half-board guest is entitled to is covered by the stay rather than paid at the table. The bill lands on the stay's account and is settled at checkout with the pitch, and the closing splits the restaurant from the shop.
What the service feeds.
The sale that closes table 12 is one record, and three modules read it. Inventory reads its lines as ingredients and pours, so stock is what is left, not what was counted on Monday. Accounting reads its closing as a journal entry, so the accountant opens the ledger, not a spreadsheet. Email Marketing reads its guest, so the person who asked for the receipt by email is on the next send.
This is the back office.
The week as the owner reads it on Monday morning: sales by service, by dish and by server, the closings and their cash differences, the dishes running out, and the payouts that landed on the bank.
A service read twice.
Eight moments of a Saturday service today, with a register, a stock sheet and the accountant's tool, and what each becomes when the sale is one record.
- Three apps (Unresolved): Order on a pad. Written at the table, walked to the till, typed again. One record: Order on the phone. Taken at the table, in the kitchen before the server turns round.
- Three apps (Unresolved): Ticket shouted. The seat note lost between the pass and the plate. One record: Ticket routed. Each line at its station with its seat and its note.
- Three apps (Unresolved): Cellar counted on Monday. The order to the supplier guessed from what looks low. One record: Stock live. Every sale takes its bottle off, the order drafts itself at par.
- Three apps (Unresolved): Closing re-keyed. The Z printed, then typed into the accountant's tool on Sunday night. One record: Closing posted. The journal entry written the moment the till closes.
- Three apps (Unresolved): Terminal apart. The card total checked against the till by hand, the payout unexplained. One record: Terminal matched. Each card payment on its bill, each payout on its bank line.
- Three apps (Unresolved): Roles on a drawer key. Whoever has the key voids the line. One record: Roles on the record. Voids, discounts and the closing by role, with a trail.
- Three apps (Unresolved): A loyalty card in a shoebox. The regular's email on a paper form. One record: A guest on the record. Receipt by email, opted in, on the next send.
- Three apps (Unresolved): Sunday night spreadsheet. Sales by dish rebuilt from six Z reports. One record: The week on a dashboard. By service, by dish, by server, read from the closings.
The restaurant register you would otherwise buy stops at the export.
A table plan with the table's state
- A spreadsheet
- No
- A restaurant POS
- Yes
- A suite module
- Yes
- Enobase
- Yes, joined and split during service
Orders taken at the table, routed by station
- A spreadsheet
- No
- A restaurant POS
- Yes
- A suite module
- Yes
- Enobase
- Yes, by seat and by course
Split bills, tips, connected terminal
- A spreadsheet
- No
- A restaurant POS
- Yes
- A suite module
- Yes
- Enobase
- Yes, with the payout matched to the bank
The sale takes ingredients off stock
- A spreadsheet
- Typed in
- A restaurant POS
- A count, per product
- A suite module
- Yes, in their inventory
- Enobase
- Yes, recipe by recipe, with the supplier order drafted
The closing lands in the ledger
- A spreadsheet
- Typed in
- A restaurant POS
- Exported to the accountant
- A suite module
- Yes, in their accounting
- Enobase
- Yes, posted as a journal entry, VAT by rate
The guest beyond a loyalty balance
- A spreadsheet
- No
- A restaurant POS
- A points balance
- A suite module
- Sometimes
- Enobase
- Yes, a record with the receipt, the visits and the sends
Time to live
- A spreadsheet
- A day
- A restaurant POS
- Weeks
- A suite module
- Months
- Enobase
- One week
| What you need | A spreadsheet | A restaurant POS | A suite module | Enobase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A table plan with the table's state | No | Yes | Yes | Yes, joined and split during service |
| Orders taken at the table, routed by station | No | Yes | Yes | Yes, by seat and by course |
| Split bills, tips, connected terminal | No | Yes | Yes | Yes, with the payout matched to the bank |
| The sale takes ingredients off stock | Typed in | A count, per product | Yes, in their inventory | Yes, recipe by recipe, with the supplier order drafted |
| The closing lands in the ledger | Typed in | Exported to the accountant | Yes, in their accounting | Yes, posted as a journal entry, VAT by rate |
| The guest beyond a loyalty balance | No | A points balance | Sometimes | Yes, a record with the receipt, the visits and the sends |
| Time to live | A day | Weeks | Months | One week |
Questions about Point of Sale: Restaurant
Yes. On its own it is the plan, the order, the kitchen ticket, the bill and the closing. Turn Inventory on and the sale takes its ingredients off stock; turn Accounting on and the closing is a journal entry.