Start the POS
Open FooodPos on a Windows PC or an Android device, what it opens on, full screen and F11, one POS per PC, keeping an Android Main POS running, and closing the POS with Exit POS.
On this page
Every working day starts the same way: open the FooodPos app on the device. The POS opens full screen, and for a Main, Sub or Waiter POS it opens on Sign in. Nobody stays signed in from the day before: every start asks somebody to sign in.
This guide shows how to open the app on each kind of device, what it can open on, and how to close it again at night.
Before you start
- The FooodPos app is installed on the device. See Download and install the POS app.
- The device is paired. A device that has never been paired opens on Set up this POS. See Set up this POS.
- A Sub or Waiter POS whose Main POS works On your own network only needs that Main POS to be on, with FooodPos open. Start the Main POS first.
On Windows: open the POS
- Click FooodPos in the Start menu, or double-click the FooodPos icon on the desktop. The installer makes the Start menu entry, and offers the desktop icon on its last page.
- The POS opens full screen. The Windows taskbar and the window's title bar are hidden, so a stray tap cannot land on them.
- The first screen appears. For a Main, Sub or Waiter POS it is Sign in. See Sign in.
F11 takes full screen off, and on again. Use it when somebody who looks after the PC needs the taskbar or the window's X. It works on every screen, the sign-in screen and Set up this POS included. Outside full screen the window is maximised, with its title bar.
One POS per PC. FooodPos opens only once on a PC. Opening it a second time brings the window that is already open to the front. If Windows cannot find that window, a small box says so:
- The message: FooodPos is already running on this PC, perhaps behind another window or minimised.
- OK: closes the box. Nothing else happens: the POS that is already open keeps running.
On Android: open the POS
- Tap the FooodPos app on the tablet or phone.
- The POS covers the whole screen. Android's status bar at the top and its back, home and task buttons at the bottom are hidden.
- The first screen appears. For a Main, Sub or Waiter POS it is Sign in.
To reach Android's own bars for a moment (to check the Wi-Fi, for example), swipe in from the top or bottom edge of the screen. They go away again by themselves.
An Android POS also opens on Sign in when Android itself stopped the app in the background: the sign-in belongs to the run of the app it was made in.
What the POS opens on
The POS chooses its first screen by itself. The device never asks what it is: that was chosen in the back office before it was paired.
| What is true of this device | The first screen |
|---|---|
| It has never been paired, or it was unpaired | Set up this POS. See Set up this POS. |
| The back office gave its pairing to another device, or ended it | This POS is no longer paired. See This POS is no longer paired. |
| It was just paired to replace a broken Main POS | This POS replaces T01. Restore its backup copy? See Replace a broken Main POS. |
| It is a Sub or Waiter POS, just paired, and its Main POS's link is on | Connect to the Main POS, once. See Connect to the Main POS. |
| It is a kitchen display | The kitchen screen. Nobody signs in on it. |
| It is an order board or a kiosk | Its own screen. Nobody signs in on it. |
| It is a Main, Sub or Waiter POS | Sign in. |
The POS also keeps its Day mode or Night mode from the last time, and puts it on before the first screen is drawn. See Day mode and Night mode.
Every start asks somebody to sign in
Closing the POS signs everybody out. The next start always opens on Sign in, whoever was signed in before. What stays:
- The pairing. The device is still the same POS of the same outlet.
- Everything rung on it. Bills, payments and shifts are saved on the device first. Work that had not reached the cloud yet is kept on the device and goes to the cloud after the POS is opened again.
- The look, Day or Night, and the Staff code of the last person who signed in, which the sign-in screen fills in for you.
A PIN, and a password the POS already knows, work with no internet, so a POS started with the internet down still lets people sign in. See Sign in.
Keep an Android Main POS running
An Android Main POS whose Sub and Waiter POS find it on your own network must keep answering them while its screen is off. Android may stop an app in the background to save the battery, so allow FooodPos to keep running, once, on that device. The panel below is there only while the Main POS's link to its Sub and Waiter POS is on.
- Sign in on the Main POS.
- At the bottom of the table screen, tap the link part of the status bar. The panel POS linked to this Main POS opens.
- Find the line Kept running in the background:. Yes means it is already allowed: close the panel.
- If it says No: Android may stop this POS answering when its screen is off, tap Allow FooodPos to keep running.
- Android asks its own question. Allow it.
- The line now says Yes. Tap Close.
- Kept running in the background: Yes when Android lets FooodPos keep running with the screen off. No, in amber, when it may stop it.
- Allow FooodPos to keep running: opens Android's own question. Shown only while the answer is No.
- Close: closes the panel.
The rest of the panel lists the POS linked to this Main POS. See The Main POS link panel.
Close the POS at night
Close the POS with Exit POS. It is on the sign-in screen, under Sign in, and in the table screen's Settings menu (⚙). Before it closes, the POS says what closing costs.
- Press Exit POS.
- The window Exit the POS? opens. For a moment it says Checking what has not reached the cloud….
- Read what it says (see below).
- Press Exit POS to close the POS, or Stay open to go back.
- What has reached the cloud: Everything rung on this POS has reached the cloud., or how many changes have not, such as 3 changes rung on this POS have not reached the cloud yet. They are kept safely on this POS and go to the cloud the next time it is opened. Nothing is lost either way.
- On a Main POS: what the other POS lose while it is closed. Other lines may follow: how many POS are linked to it on your own network, and, from the table screen, The shift stays open. Closing the POS does not cash up the drawer; close the shift from Shift first if the day is done.
- Stay open: closes the question. The POS stays as it was.
- Exit POS: closes the POS. The next start opens on Sign in.