Opening a café: a technology checklist for POS, printers, QR menu and internet
When opening a café, technology has to work from day one just like the décor, menu and staff: no till, no sales; no printer, a waiting kitchen. The good news is that most of it can be set up in a few hours with devices you already have.
Must-haves on day one
Have these ready before opening.
POS software
Set up the menu, tables and staff before opening. With cloud software, setup happens in the browser, and some support teams import your menu from a photo. See our checklist for choosing.
Printer
An 80 mm thermal printer, ESC/POS compatible, with the character set you need. A network (Ethernet) printer is the least trouble in the kitchen; USB printers can be used from the cloud through an agent program.
Till and waiter devices
New hardware is not a must: an existing laptop becomes the till and phones and tablets become waiter devices. A touch screen speeds up the till.
What can wait
- Customer display: a second monitor facing the guest, showing the total and change.
- Kitchen display: instead of or next to tickets; worth it as the kitchen gets busier.
- Recipe-based stock: start with your best sellers in the first week.
- Reservations and campaigns: as your clientele settles.
Setup order
The week before opening.
- Internet: make sure the till and printers share a network; if possible keep a backup connection (mobile data).
- Menu and tables: items, prices, stations and the floor plan.
- Printers: connect the receipt and kitchen printers and print a test ticket.
- Staff: give each employee their own PIN and role; decide void and comp permissions.
- Trial service: before opening, rehearse a real evening with friends.
QR menu
A QR menu next to the printed one saves reprint costs when prices change. Our QR menu page shows how a table-specific code works.
You can try ari adisyon for free and run this whole list in your own café before opening.