Open a table and the number of guests
Tap a free table to start its bill, key the number of guests when the POS asks for it, and land on the sales screen. What a tap does on every kind of table, and every message on the way. On the Windows and the Android POS.
On this page
A party sits down. You tap their table on the table screen, and the POS opens a new bill for it and takes you to the sales screen, ready for the first dish. One tap: the bill opens on the table's usual order type, and nothing is asked on the way, except the number of guests where your restaurant has asked for it.
The bill is saved on this POS at once and sent to the cloud after, so a table opens just as fast with the internet down.
Before you start
- The table must be on the table screen. It comes from the back office's Table Plan. See The table screen.
- A shift may need to be open. On a POS that sells only with a shift open, a new bill waits for one (see What if…).
- The outlet needs an order type for tables, such as Dine In. A new restaurant has one.
Open a free table
- On the table screen, tap a free table, such as T6. A free table is light grey (or the colour the back office gave it) and shows its seats: 6 seats.
- If the POS shows Number of guests, key how many and press OK. See The Number of guests pad.
- The sales screen opens on the new bill: Table T6 at the top, the order type beside it, and an empty bill.
- Tap the dishes, then press Save & Fire to send them to the kitchen. See The sales screen.
- ← Tables: back to the table screen. A bill with nothing on it is thrown away, and the table is free again at once.
- Table T6: the table, with the bill's number under it.
- Dine In: the order type the bill opened on: the table's own Default order type in the Table Plan, else the first order type that needs a table. Tap it to change it. See Order type and service type.
- The bill: empty until the first dish. The box at its top takes an item code or a barcode.
Back on the table screen with dishes on the bill, the table is green, Seated, with its guests: 1 pax, or the number keyed.
What a tap does, table by table
The colour of the table, and what this POS holds for it, decide what a tap does.
| The table | A tap |
|---|---|
| Free, or Reserved | A new bill, as above. |
| Seated or Billed, with its bill on this POS | The table window: the bill, its total, and Continue order, Print bill, Payment, Split, Reprint kitchen. See The table window. |
| Seated, its bill made by a QR order or on another POS | Bringing table T4's bill from the cloud…, then the table window. With no internet, see A taken table while the internet is down. |
| Billed, with nothing open | Clear table T4? See Clear a table. |
| In use on another POS | It says who has it, and does not open. See A table in use on another POS. |
| Faded: a decoration, or a table that is not tappable | Nothing. |
The Number of guests pad
The pad comes up only when the back office asks for it: POS Terminal Settings, the setting, Order screen, Number of guests (pax) must be keyed. See POS Terminal Settings: Order screen. Without it, nothing is asked and the bill opens with 1 guest.
- Number of guests, with the table under it: Table T6.
- The entry: empty on a free table, so a number must be keyed. On a table where a party is already seated by the cloud (a booking seated at it, say), it opens with their number in grey: OK confirms it, and the first key you press types over it.
- The keys: 0 to 9 and ⌫. Whole numbers only, from 1 to 999: the point is greyed out, and a fourth digit is not taken.
- Cancel: back to the table screen. Nothing is opened: no bill, and the table stays free.
- OK: opens the bill with that many guests. With nothing keyed, or 0, the pad stays and says Key the number of guests, 1 or more.
There is no Skip: the number must be keyed. It is asked only for a table's new bill. It is never asked again for a bill that already exists (one held here, a QR order's, another POS's), nor for a quick sale, a scan, a split or a move. A group seated from the Queue already has its number, and is not asked.
The pad takes only its own keys. A keyboard's digits and Enter are not taken, because a barcode scanner types like a keyboard: a scan made while the pad is up would key the guests by itself. Esc is Cancel.
A keyboard plugged into the tablet types on the pad: the digits, Backspace, Delete (empties it), Enter (OK) and Escape (empties it, then closes it). Back, or a tap outside the pad, is Cancel.