Restaurant - Preparing the Main Database
This page itemises the steps that you need to carry out in the main database to prepare it for restaurant use. After carrying out these steps, please refer
here for details about connecting tills, cash machines and hand-held devices to the server using live (direct) connections, and/or
here for details about connecting tills to the server using live-sync connections (connections that will allow the tills to continue working if the server is down, with the tills and server being synchronised when the server returns).
To carry out the work outlined on this page, log in to the server from a desktop client. Some of these steps might not be appropriate for every business and can be omitted:
- Default Customer In many restaurants, Customers' names are usually not known and sales are assigned to a generic Customer such as "Cash Sale". This Customer is given the term "Default Customer" in these web pages.
Create a record in the Contact register for the Default Customer. Tick the Customer box in the header. If you will be printing Bar Tabs and/or POS Invoices on fiscal printers, tick the Fiscal Invoices Only check box on the 'Terms' card.
You can as an option use different Default Customers on different tills. If you wish to take advantage of this option, create separate records in the Contact register for each Default Customer, each specified as described in the previous paragraph.
- Prices and VAT/Tax In many countries (e.g. in Europe), restaurant menus should show the full prices payable by the Customer i.e. the prices shown should include VAT or tax. These prices should also be shown on till displays and on printed receipts. You can achieve this by specifying in the Account Usage Restaurant setting that Base Prices include VAT or tax. This option only applies to prices in Bar Tabs, which will solely depend on this option (specifying a Price List in the Default Customer will not affect prices in Bar Tabs)
- Items Ensure the Item register is up to date with the Items that you will sell in the restaurant. If you specified that Base Prices will include VAT in the previous step, ensure that the Base Prices in the Item records include VAT.
- Payment Modes Enter Payment Modes to be used for cash and credit card payments and for movements of cash into and out of the tills (e.g. placing a cash float into a Till Drawer, and removing the day's takings from the Drawer to the back office). For the Payment Modes to be used for movements of cash, be sure to specify Back Office Accounts on flip E. Please refer here for more details.
- Currencies for Cash Payments Use the Payment Currencies setting in the POS module to list the Currencies that you will use when receiving cash payments. This setting is described here.
- Local Machines (Cash Machines, Tills and Hand-held Devices) Make a list of your cash machines, tills and hand-held devices in the Local Machines setting in the Restaurant module, creating a separate record with unique identifying code for each one. The terms "Machine", "Till" and "Device" used in this manual are interchangeable and refer to a terminal, cash till or hand-held device. You can also find the Local Machines setting in the Point of Sales and Technics modules. For a full description, please refer here.
- Till Drawers Use the Drawers setting in the Restaurant and Point of Sales modules to make a list of the Drawers in your cash machines and tills.
Usually, you will need one Drawer for each till. If you need more than one Drawer per till, select the Allow Multiple Sessions per Machine option in the POS Settings setting (step 13 below).
The Drawers setting is described here.
- Connecting Drawers to Tills and Cash Machines Connect each Drawer to a Local Machine (i.e. to a cash machine or till) by entering an opening POS Session record for each Machine/Drawer combination. Please refer here for more details about POS Sessions.
If you are not using the Allow Multiple Sessions per Machine option (i.e. if each till has a single Drawer), opening a session for each Machine/Drawer combination connects and locks the Drawers to the Machines. As a result, each Bar Tab and POS Invoice that you enter on a particular Machine will be assigned to the correct Drawer. If you do not open a session for a particular Machine/Drawer combination, Bar Tabs and POS Invoices entered on the Machine will not be assigned to a Drawer and so will not be included in the cash up routines.
If you will have tills and devices with live-sync connections to the server, you should not carry out this step now but instead you should wait until you configure those tills themselves. Please refer to the Preparing a Till or Device for Live-Sync Connection page.
The Machine/Drawer combination is usually referred to as a "Till Drawer" in this manual.
- Opening Balances for Till Drawers Enter an opening POS Balance record for each Machine/Drawer combination. The balance in each of these records should be zero, and ideally the date in each record should be the day before you first use the Machine/Drawer combination. POS Balances are described here.
- Tables Use the Tables setting in the Restaurant module to make a list of the Tables in your restaurants. The Tables setting is described here.
- Table Floor Plan An option is to allow waiters and members of bar staff to assign Bar Tabs to Tables by selecting the Tables from a floor plan known as a "Table View". If you need to use this option, refer here.
- Adding Tools and Buttons to the Bar Tab window The tools in the Bar Tab window are fully user-definable, using the POS Buttons, POS Button Groups and POS Settings settings, all in the Restaurant and Point of Sales modules. Please refer here for details.
- General Settings Use the POS Settings setting in the Restaurant and Point of Sales modules and the Restaurant Settings setting in the Restaurant module to control the behaviour of various aspects of the Restaurant module. For example, in the POS Settings setting you can specify the Customer that is to be the Default Customer, as mentioned in step 1.
- Kitchen Orders A Kitchen Order is an instruction to the kitchen to prepare the food Items that have been included in a Bar Tab. There are three methods that you can use to monitor Kitchen Orders. Please refer here for details about configuring Kitchen Orders and here for an introduction to the monitoring methods.
- Printers Connect printers to the tills or to the network.
If necessary (i.e. depending on the type of printer you are using), design the Form Template (s) that will be used to print till receipts from Bar Tabs, and connect it to the form.
Please refer to the Connecting Printers page for more details.
- Establish credit card merchant accounts and connect card readers to the tills as appropriate. Please refer to the Credit and Debit Card Payments page for details.
After you have prepared the main database, please refer to the following pages:
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