Switch on your restaurant

Hospitality · checked 2026-10-30

This guide switches on a restaurant that serves tables: the floor, open checks, the kitchen, and the apps around them. It follows the order a restaurant sets up in. The till comes first, in seven steps. Then each app takes one step, in the order you install them. A counter without tables skips step 5. Setting up a café or quick-service counter has the details of the first steps.

Expect eleven steps and about 30 separate actions when you install all four apps. Do the steps in iVendNext Desk, as a user who may create stores, items, prices, users and permissions. You can stop after any step and the till still works.

Step 1: Outlets, tills and people

Set up each outlet as for any retailer. The page Setting up a café or quick-service counter covers three parts of this step, in this order:

1. Making the store: a Price List, and a Warehouse with Is Retail Store ticked.
2. Making the till: a POS Terminal for each till, and one POS Profile for the store. Give each store one live profile.
3. Letting your staff sell: the roles Retail Cashier or Retail Manager, and a row in Allow Access to Stores for each person.

A server also needs rights for the floor. Search Desk for User, open the person, and follow the link in Retail Permission to the person's permission sheet. A sheet shared by several people changes for all of them, so make one for servers. Tick these rights in the group Open Checks:

Give a manager more: May Change Any Line, May Move, Merge or Split, May Hand a Check Over, May Comp a Line, May End Another Till's Payment, May Close an Empty Check and May Void a Line the Kitchen Has. See Granting Permissions.

Step 2: The menu

1. Make each dish an item, with its price, as in Adding your dishes.
2. For a dish that asks for choices, such as a milk or a side, search Desk for Retail Option Group and make a group. Fill in Display Name (for example Milk), Minimum Picks (0 for optional, 1 or more for required) and Maximum Picks (0 for as many as there are choices). In Choices, add a row for each choice: the Item, the Price Type, the Price it adds, and Pre-ticked if it starts ticked.
3. Open the dish and add the group to Option Groups. Tick Sold Only As An Option on an item that sells only as a choice, such as an extra shot.
4. On the store's POS Profile, tick Item Options. It is off by default, and without it the till does not ask for a dish's choices.
5. To mark a dish sold out, or sell it only at certain hours, search Desk for Retail Item Availability and add a record: the Item, the Store (leave it empty for every store), Sold Out and Sold Out Until, or Limit Hours with Available From and Available To.

Step 3: Service modes and the service charge

A service mode is how the guest eats, such as Eat in or Take away. Each mode can carry its own tax and its own service charge.

1. Make your service charge as a Surcharge, as in Setting up the service charge.
2. Search Desk for POS Profile and open the store's profile.
3. In Service Modes, add a row for each mode. Fill in Service Mode, the Tax Category if the mode has its own tax, and the Service Charge to add by itself to every sale in that mode. Tick Default on the mode a new sale starts in.
4. Save.

With two or more modes, the cashier or the server picks one for each sale. A mode with no service charge adds none.

Step 4: Kitchen stations and their printers

A kitchen station is a place where dishes are made, such as the grill or the bar.

1. Search Desk for Retail Kitchen Station and add one for each station. Type the Station Name.
2. Say which station makes each dish. Open the item and choose its Kitchen Station, or choose one on its item group. On the POS Profile, Default Kitchen Station takes every item that has neither. An item with no station anywhere is not sent.
3. On the POS Profile, in Kitchen Printers, add a row for each station: the Station, and either the Network Printer or the Till Printer. A network printer on port 9100 takes the ticket directly. A till printer is a printer cabled to one till, and only that till prints to it.
4. Save. With no rows in Kitchen Printers, the till has no Send for the kitchen.

Each register has its own printers. Repeat this step on every store's profile.

Step 5: Table service and the floor

1. On the POS Profile, tick Table Service. This lets the register keep tables' and tabs' checks open and pay them at the end. Tick "Refuse the Last Close While Checks Are Open" if the store may not close its last day while a table is still open.
2. Search Desk for Retail Floor Section and add a section for each area, such as the terrace or the bar. Fill in the Store, the Section name and the Order (lower numbers show first), and tick Active.
3. Search Desk for Retail Floor Place and add a place for each table. Fill in the Section, the Store, the Name the floor shows (for example Table 12), the Kind, the Usual Party Size and the Order, and tick Active.

A person who may write Retail Floor Section has every check right, a comp included. Voiding a dish the kitchen has still needs its own right. Give the write right only to someone you trust with every check.

Step 6: What the till opens to

A theme chooses how the till looks. No theme comes ready-made for a restaurant, so you copy one.

1. In Desk, search for POS Studio and open the theme the store's till uses. To keep the shipped theme as it is, select Save as a new theme and name the copy.
2. On the Theme tab, set Opens to: Floor for a table-service restaurant, or Sell for a counter. The till opens there once the day is open, for a person who may use that screen.
3. On the Designer tab, add the Floor key to the key bar of a counter or a tablet. The key shows when Table Service is ticked and the person has May See the Checks.
4. Save. In the store's POS Profile, choose the theme in Theme (Till, Tablet and Phone).

A till follows a theme change at its next sign-in or reload. See POS Studio.

Step 7: Call numbers

A call number is the short number you call out when a counter order is ready.

1. On the POS Profile, tick Call Numbers. Each paid sale then gets its till's next call number for the day.
2. On each POS Terminal, fill in Call Number Prefix. A prefix of A gives A-17. Each prefix must be different in a store. When it is empty, a store with more than one till uses the till's name as the prefix.

Setting up an app's user

Front of house, Guest ordering and Kitchen screen each work through a user of their own. Restaurant back office does not use this step. The install adds the user, which is named like ivendnext_foh@integration.invalid, and the user works through the API only. Give it its store and its keys in this order:

1. Search Desk for User and open the app's user.
2. Keep Is Desk User ticked and tick Is POS User. Without Is POS User, the save drops the store row and every call is refused.
3. Choose any Shift Profile. The user never opens a shift.
4. Choose a Retail Permission that has only the rights the app needs. The app's step says which. Make one if you have none, and use it for this one app.
5. In the store access table, add one row for each store the app serves, each store once, with its register: the POS Profile that has Table Service ticked. Front of house has one row.
6. Select Save, then Generate Keys.

Use each app's user for that app only. A user that once enrolled a till is refused.

Step 8: Restaurant back office

Restaurant back office takes ingredients off stock by your recipes, shows allergens, and works out food cost.

1. Install the app from the App library. The install adds the app's user, ivendnext_rbo@integration.invalid.
2. In Role Permissions Manager, give IVENDNEXT RBO Integration the rights its guide lists.
3. Open Registered Application, then IVENDNEXT RBO Back office feed, and leave it switched off.
4. Make the IVENDNEXT RBO Settings for each company. Give each dish a Bill of Materials.
5. In Retail Extension Subscription, switch on the app's services. In Retail Desk Action, switch on its buttons.

The rest is in the Restaurant back office guide.

Step 9: Front of house

Front of house keeps reservations and the waiting list, and its Seat button opens the party's check.

1. Install the app from the App library.
2. Set up its user as above. The Retail Permission has only May Open a Check and May See the Checks.
3. Give IVENDNEXT FOH Host to your hosts and managers. In Role Permissions Manager, give it Read on Retail Floor Place and Select on Warehouse, POS Invoice and Customer. Without them the host's list is refused. Make an IVENDNEXT FOH Settings record for each company, with a row for each store.
4. In Retail Extension Subscription, switch on the app's five services. In Retail Desk Action, switch on its six buttons.
5. If the App library asks, select Connect again on the app.

The rest, including the table-ready text, is in the Front of house guide.

Step 10: Guest ordering

Guest ordering lets a guest order from a QR code on the table or from a kiosk. The order waits on the check until a server sends it.

1. Install the app from the App library.
2. Set up its user as above. The Retail Permission has only May Open a Check, May Add to a Check and May See the Checks. Never give it May Send to the Kitchen: a guest's order must wait for your staff.
3. On the store's POS Profile, list the menu's Item Groups. Give IVENDNEXT GOR Integration Read on Item, POS Profile and Retail Option Group.
4. Make an IVENDNEXT GOR Settings record for each company.
5. In Retail Extension Subscription, switch on the app's service. In Retail Desk Action, switch on Make code. If the App library asks, select Connect again.
6. Make an IVENDNEXT GOR Code for each table and kiosk, select Make code, and print the table cards. A card printed before Make code reads "Press Make code first".

The rest is in the Guest ordering guide.

Step 11: Kitchen screen

Kitchen screen shows each station's tickets on a screen, with an expo screen at the pass and a Now serving board. Install it only when your kitchen is ready to work from screens. Until then the tickets print.

1. Install the app from the App library.
2. Set up its user as above. The Retail Permission has only May Work a Kitchen Screen. A new one may come with layaway ticked: untick it.
3. Make an IVENDNEXT KSC Settings record for each company. If your cooks will mark dishes sold out, give IVENDNEXT KSC Integration Read, Write and Create on Retail Item Availability in Role Permissions Manager.
4. In Retail Extension Subscription, switch on the app's service. In Retail Desk Action, switch on Make link. If the App library asks, select Connect again.
5. Make an IVENDNEXT KSC Screen for each screen. Select Make link and open the link on the screen's tablet or TV.

A ticket reaches a screen only when its station's printer took it from the till, so keep step 4 in place. The rest is in the Kitchen screen guide.

What to check before the first service

1. Sign in as a server. Open the floor and open a table.
2. Add a dish with a choice, give it a guest and a course, and select Send. The ticket prints at the station, or shows on its screen.
3. On the floor, select the ⋯ on the table, then Print the check. Select Checkout and pay.
4. Close the day.

The steps for a service are on Running a service.