Restaurant POS with QR menu ordering and a kitchen display: a practical guide

Busy restaurants lose money in small leaks: forgotten orders, wrong bills, wasted ingredients and unclaimed delivery payouts. Here is how a modern restaurant POS closes them, from the table QR code to the kitchen screen.

A restaurant POS is not just a till. It connects the table, the kitchen, the delivery apps and the store room, so that every dish ordered is cooked, billed and costed once.

Tables and the floor plan

Start with a floor plan by hall showing each table's status. Waiters open a table, take the order and send it to the kitchen. When guests add items later, only the new items should go to the kitchen.

Kitchen display or printed KOT

Orders can go to the kitchen as a printed kitchen order ticket or on a kitchen display, grouped by station in the order placed. Cooks mark dishes ready and waiters mark them served, so nothing waits on the pass.

QR menu ordering at the table

Printable table QR cards let guests browse the menu, order, call a waiter, ask for the bill or pay online. In Hayat ERP the menu can be shown in English, Urdu or Arabic. QR ordering cuts waiting time at peak hours and frees waiters to serve.

A waiter app on the phone

The Hayat Waiter app shows tables, requests, bookings and kitchen tabs, and lets waiters order, send to the kitchen, move tables, and split or merge bills.

Split bills without arguments

Groups often want separate bills. Split by dish or equally across 2 to 20 bills, or merge open bills, with each bill paid and receipted separately.

Takeaway tokens and pickup screens

Numbered tokens per branch, tracked from preparing to ready to collected, with a public pickup screen, keep the counter calm at lunchtime. A self-order kiosk can take counter orders and payment without staff, with card payments reaching the kitchen only after approval.

Recipes and food cost

Linking dishes to recipes means each sale draws ingredients from stock, so you can see food cost and wastage instead of guessing at month-end.

Delivery partners

Orders from Foodpanda, Careem or other apps should arrive in the POS to accept and mark ready, with each partner's commission, markup and payouts tracked. Many restaurants never check whether partner payouts match their orders; this is where that check happens.

Table bookings

A daily view by time slot, an online booking page, deposits, no-shows and WhatsApp or SMS confirmations fill tables and reduce empty reserved seats.

Salons too

Salons and spas use the same POS with appointments by staff member, staff commission at checkout, an online booking page with deposits and reminders the day before. Clients choose services, a stylist or anyone, and a free time; the deposit can be none, a percentage, a minimum or the full price, and is applied at checkout. Fewer no-shows, and every visit counts towards their loyalty points.

Read more about Restaurant & salon software in Hayat ERP, or book a demo.

Frequently asked questions