Order and pay at the table

For dine-in and bar service, whether guests order and pay from their own phones or the team takes payment at the table, and to let booked guests order ahead. Letting guests self-order and pay speeds up service and turns tables faster.

A guest scans the code on their table, reads the venue’s live Square menu, orders and pays, with nothing to download and no need to catch a server’s eye. The order lands on the till already knowing which table it came from. Each venue gets separate links for ordering at the table and ordering to collect, curated independently, so table service and pickup can offer different items at different prices.

The order is sent straight to the staff who need to make it and rings in at the till, so it is part of the same service flow rather than a separate channel.

The menu is the Square catalogue, live: categories, items, prices, photos, modifier groups and their minimum and maximum rules come straight from the till, so there is one menu to keep up to date. Modifier rules are enforced as the guest builds an item, allergens, dietaries and calories sit on every product, and a basket containing alcohol asks for age confirmation before it reaches checkout. A basket can be shared round the table, so everyone adds their round and one order goes to the till.

Payment is by card through Square at checkout, with the total recalculated from the venue’s own menu data before anything is charged. A guest can put one or more of their Square gift cards, including cards issued as loyalty rewards, against the bill, and an order fully covered by them needs no card at all.

Staff can still take the order and payment at the table on a Square Terminal by card, cash or an external tender, with an optional tip at checkout, and booked guests can order ahead from the same menu and pay before they arrive.

One menu can be live at several venues, and those venues can sit in different Square accounts. A guest sees one menu, builds one basket and pays once. Each venue’s items come from its own Square catalogue, and the guest never sees which venue or which account an item belongs to.

Because a Square payment settles to one location, a menu that spans venues names the venue that takes the money. Every order from that menu is charged at that venue’s Square location, so the takings land in that location’s bank account, and the other venues’ parts of the order are marked paid for fulfilment. You choose this once, on the menu’s Venues tab under Money goes to. Left unset, the money follows the venue that makes the food, which is how a single-venue menu behaves.

• The menu is maintained once in Square and synced across.

• The total is recalculated from the venue’s own menu data before a card is charged, so the amount taken is always the venue’s amount.

• Table and collection links are curated separately, so the two can carry different items and prices.

• Ordering ahead is tied to a booking, so the kitchen can prepare in advance.

• A menu spanning venues in different Square accounts must name the venue that takes the money. Until it does, the menu editor warns that a basket spanning those venues cannot be paid.

• The collecting venue does not have to serve the menu. A head-office account can take the money for a food hall and let the kitchens fulfil.

See also:

• The live table view

• Bills, splitting and settling

• How it works

• Available actions