Taking Orders

Overview

The Home screen is where you build orders. The layout has four areas:

Menu categories in the center.
Product grid on the right, showing the items in the selected category.
Current order (cart) on the left, listing what you have added.
Header along the top: the signed-in user and location (tap it for the business day options), the eatabill logo with its connection dot (tap it for Connection Info), and the brand, menu and currency box.

You add products to the cart, customize them, send them to the kitchen, and take payment — or park the order for later.

Requirements

Logged in to the POS app
The business day started — you can’t create orders before it
A finished first sync so the menu, products and prices are available

Steps

Choose the order type and channel

Tap Add New Order, then set the order type (such as Pick Up, Delivery or Dine In) and the order channel for this order.

The order type selector — Pick the order type.

The order channel selector — Pick the order channel.

Add the customer details

Next, the Add Customer Data dialog opens. Type the customer’s phone number — matching customers appear as you type — or type a new number and name to create a customer. You can also add an Order Note. What else it asks for depends on the order type:

Dine In — adds Table Number and Number of Guests.
Delivery — adds the customer’s addresses, and can’t be skipped. See Delivery Orders.
If customer data is optional for this order type, a Skip button lets you go straight to the menu. When it’s required, you must fill it in. This is set per order type in POS Admin, in the Customer data column of Order Types.

The Add Customer Data dialog for a Dine In order with Table Number and Number of Guests — For Dine In, add the table number and number of guests.

The details appear on a card at the top of the cart, with the order type, channel, and (for dine-in) the table and guests. Tap the pencil icon on the card to change the customer, address, order type, or channel later.

The Customer Data dialog opened from the cart's customer card, with order type and channel — Tap the pencil on the customer card to edit the order's details.

Browse categories and add products

Tap a category, then tap products in the grid to add them to the cart. To find a product quickly, type its name in Search in menu… at the top.

Tapping a category then products to add them to the cart — Tap a category, then tap products to add them.

Customize variants and modifiers

If an item has variants or modifiers, the item dialog opens. Choose the variant and any modifiers, then add it to the order.

The item dialog with variant options — Choose the variant.

The item dialog with modifier options — Choose any modifiers, then add the item.

Build a bundle or combo

Bundles (like a combo box) open a dialog with a group for each choice the customer makes — for example Sauces, Drinks, and Big Sandos. Each group shows how many picks it needs (such as 1 Required), and an Included group lists what comes with the bundle anyway.

A bundle dialog with Sauces, Drinks, and Big Sandos groups marked 1 Required, and an Included group — Each group shows how many picks it needs.

Tap a choice in the list on the right. Once a group has enough picks it gets a check mark and No More Allowed, and the dialog moves to the next group. Some choices cost extra — the price shows next to them and is added to the Total on the left.

If a chosen item can be customized, tap Customize next to it to pick its extras, then tap Back to … to return to the bundle.

Customizing a sandwich inside a bundle, with Extra options and prices — Customize an item inside the bundle.

Add Item stays disabled until every required group is filled. Tap it to add the bundle — the cart lists the bundle with everything inside it, including any extra charges.

A completed bundle with every group checked and Add Item enabled — All groups filled — Add Item is enabled.

The bundle in the cart with its included items and choices listed underneath — The bundle in the cart with its choices.

Tap the brand box at the top right of the header to open Brands & Menus. Choose the Brand, Menu, and Currency to sell from, then tap Save. If an order is open, a note warns that changing the menu or currency will check the items already in it — items that aren’t on the new menu may have to be removed.

The Brands & Menus dialog with Brands, Menus, and Currencies, and a warning about the active order — Choose the brand, menu, and currency.

Know the sidebar buttons

At the top of the cart sit four buttons:

New (+) — opens the New Order options (see below).
Change (⇄) — change the order’s type, channel, or menu.
Kitchen (chef hat) — send the items to the kitchen.
More (⋯) — the order actions: cancel, discount, voucher, compliment, fees, note, print, hold.

A held order shows Unhold and Cancel instead.

The New, Change, Kitchen and More buttons on the cart — The order sidebar buttons.

Send to the kitchen

Tap Kitchen to send the items. Each item shows a kitchen indicator that turns on once it’s been sent. The order stays open on the sidebar so you can keep working on it or take payment.

An item before it has been sent to the kitchen — Before sending — the kitchen indicator is off.

An item after it has been sent to the kitchen — After sending — the kitchen indicator is on.

Add more items afterwards and the order becomes Partially Sent. A yellow banner appears above the items — “Items changes need to send to kitchen or pay” — reminding you that the new items aren’t with the kitchen yet. Tap Kitchen to send just the new items, or tap Pay, which sends them automatically.

A partially sent order with the yellow items-changed banner — "Items changes need to send to kitchen or pay."

Park it or start fresh — the New button

Tap New (+) when you’re done with this order but not taking payment now. It offers:

Send To Kitchen — sends the items and moves the order to Active Orders unpaid. This is the pay-later order: the customer pays later from Active Orders.
Move to Active — parks the order in Active Orders as it is.
Hold — pauses the order.
Cancel — calls it off (with a reason).

The New Order options — Send to kitchen and move to Active — the pay-later flow.

Or take payment now

When the customer pays right away, tap Pay to go to Payment. Paying marks the order Completed — and sends the order to the kitchen even if you forgot to tap Kitchen.

If the order is still missing customer details — for example you skipped the customer step, or a dine-in order has no table number — the customer dialog pops up again when you tap Pay. Fill it in and tap Next, or tap Back to return to the order. If customer data is optional for this order type, you can continue without it.

The customer dialog shown when tapping Pay — Enter the customer's name and phone, or tap Next if optional.

Notes

Two ways to send to the kitchen: the Kitchen button keeps the order on the sidebar; New → Send To Kitchen sends it and moves it to Active Orders unpaid (pay later). Either way, paying also sends the order to the kitchen, so nothing is missed if you forget to tap Kitchen.

The app is offline-first. Orders are saved on the device and uploaded automatically when the device is back online, so you can keep taking orders even without a connection.

Troubleshooting

“Please Start A Day First”, or a User Options dialog with Start Day when you tap Add New Order? The business day isn’t open — start it, or see Business Day.

“Cannot create order outside of operating hours”? The business day isn’t open — either you backed out of starting it, or the location runs the day automatically and you’re outside its schedule. See Business Day.

‘No kitchen screen receives ”…” orders, so the kitchen did not get this order’? None of the kitchen screens is set to receive this order type. Ask a manager to turn it on in Settings → KDS, then resend the order.

“There are no Menus yet” on the Home screen, or a No Menu Added message? No menu is set up for this location, order type, or channel. Ask an administrator to assign a menu on the location, then sync the device.

A product or price looks wrong or is missing? It may have changed in the cloud. Run a sync from Syncing to refresh the menu on the device.