A cafe POS system for the morning rush and the pre-order line

The line is five deep. Two guests are texting you an order for pickup. The barista is writing names on cups and trying to remember who asked for oat milk.

A cafe does not need a complicated system. It needs the walk-in order and the pre-order to land in the same place, with a name and a time on each.

Regulars order from the train. They open your link, pick their drink and pastry, choose 8:10 for tomorrow or today, and pay. No app and no account.

You choose how long a slot is, from 10 minutes to an hour, and how many orders one slot holds. When 8:10 is full, it closes on the site and guests pick 8:20. That is what keeps the rush from landing all at once.

On the kitchen app, staff tap Counter. They tap the items, add a note to any item, and type the guest's name, which prints on the ticket. A phone number is optional, so tick No phone number when someone just wants a coffee.

Staff choose Cash or Card and tap Send to kitchen. The order lands in the Walk-in lane on the kitchen screen at once, next to your online orders.

A latte is never just a latte. Each item can carry sizes and add-ons, and a note field the cook sees. The ticket shows the choices under the item, like “Size: Large · Add: extra shot”.

A highlighted Notes box holds the guest's request. “Oat milk, nut allergy” is hard to miss at 8:05.

Turn on Track inventory for a pastry and enter how many you baked. The counter shows “4 left” or “Sold out”, and the same stock is what online guests see. At zero, nobody can order it.

Every sale and restock is logged on the item's page, so you can see why the count moved. Mark a day sold out with one tap when the case is empty.

It is 7:50. Six guests have pre-ordered for 8:10, and the slot holds six. The seventh guest who opens your link sees 8:20 instead. Nobody is turned away, and the rush spreads over three slots.

On the kitchen screen, each ticket shows the pickup time large, the order number, the items with their options and the name to call. Tickets turn amber within 30 minutes of their time and red once late. The barista works down the list instead of up the line.

Staff sign in to the kitchen app with a PIN you set, not with your owner login. They can take orders and move tickets. They do not see your settings or your sales.

You sign in with your own account and see everything, including the orders list, which you can search by order number or customer.

Guests who pre-order by card pay the 10% at checkout, and you receive your menu price before Stripe's own card fee. For orders you enter yourself at the counter, you pay the 10%, charged weekly to the card you save.

There is no monthly fee and no per-terminal charge. Do the arithmetic first. Sixty counter orders a day at $7 is $420, so $42 a day is the 10%. If that number is high, book a call about pricing for busy kitchens.

The counter records whether an order was paid by cash or card. It does not include a card reader, a receipt printer or a cash drawer connection. Take cards on the terminal you already have, then mark the order Card.

It is built for orders that leave the counter: pickup and delivery. It does not handle tables, tabs or split bills, and it has no stamp cards or points.

Most cafes start with the counter and online pre-orders. Add the rest as you need them.

• Counter (POS): walk-in and phone orders on the same menu.
• Online ordering: your site, pickup slots, cutoffs, closed dates and order updates.
• Kitchen display system: tickets with a sound, a Walk-in lane, amber and red for late.
• Restaurant email marketing: tell the regulars about the new seasonal drink.
• Delivery software, if you run a lunch round to nearby offices.

Set the kitchen PIN. Open the kitchen app on the tablet at your till and sign in. Save a card on your account, because counter orders are billed weekly and the counter asks for one first.

Add your menu from a photo or pasted text. Enter a test order, watch it land on the screen, and undo it. You can undo a counter order within 15 minutes.