POS for Full-Service and Casual Dining Restaurants

A full service restaurant POS carries more than the order. In a casual dining room a server rings at the table, the kitchen gets each round as it is sent, the check splits three ways at the end, the host needs to know which tables open next, and the manager needs the schedule and the food cost behind all of it. Opero (operoos.com) is a Restaurant Operating System that runs those pieces on one check and one menu, on Android phones and tablets you already own. The table service tools are on Opero Full-Service at $249 per location per month. This guide covers what they do and, just as plainly, what they do not.

What does a casual dining POS need to do?

• ✓Take the order at the table and send it to the kitchen without a walk to a shared terminal.
• ✓Keep one open check per table that the server, the host and the register all see.
• ✓Split the check the way the party asks: one card, evenly, a fixed amount, or by what each guest ate.
• ✓Seat parties from a reservation book and a walk-in list onto a live floor plan.
• ✓Put the schedule, the time clock and labor cost next to sales.
• ✓Count stock and cost recipes so menu prices hold up when supplier prices move.

A fine dining room adds coursing, a wine program and deep guest notes to that list, which is a different buying decision with its own guide. This page is for casual dining and table service rooms where servers pace the table by sending rounds as the guests are ready.

How tableside ordering works on Opero

A server opens the Opero handheld screen on an Android phone or small tablet registered to the location, signs in with a PIN, and sees their tables from the floor plan. They ring items with the same modifier picker the register uses and send the round, which fires to the kitchen display or kitchen printer straight away, tagged with the table and the server. More rounds build up on the same check through the meal.

The PIN gives the server a signed sign-in tied to that location, and Opero checks on every call that the employee is still active, so a server who leaves mid-week is locked out the moment their record is deactivated. Every round, split and tip is recorded under the server's name, and prices are recomputed on the server for every round, so a phone holding a stale menu gets a price-changed message instead of undercharging the table.

Splitting the check and paying at the table

The check is split on the handheld, and each share is paid by card at the table on the card reader bought from us; each handheld that charges cards is paired to a reader. A server can take the whole check on one card, split it evenly across a number of guests, split off a fixed amount for one guest, or group items by guest and charge each group on its own card. Each share carries its own tip, picked from fixed presets on the handheld before the card is charged.

Cash is never taken on the handheld. A guest who wants to pay cash walks to the register, where the Open tables panel shows the same check with the same figure, takes the cash, works out the change and kicks the drawer. The register can pay a share the server already set up or take a plain amount against the check, but a new even or by-item split is made on the handheld, by the server who knows who ate what.

Automatic gratuity for large parties is enforced at payment. Set it per location for parties at or above a size you choose, and neither the handheld nor the register can settle a qualifying check below it. Party size comes from the covers set when the host seats the party, or that the server sets on the check. Tips taken at the table are recorded to the server who worked it and show by server in reporting.

Reservations, the waitlist and the floor plan

The host runs the book. Staff enter each reservation, pre-assign a table if they want, and move it through booked, confirmed, arrived, seated and completed, or mark it a no-show or cancelled. Walk-ins go on a waitlist with a quoted wait, and the list flags anyone who has waited past the quote. The live floor shows each table's status, turn timer, covers and any booking due in the next four hours.

Seating a booking or a walk-in opens a check on that table with the party's covers already set, and the server's handheld sees it and rings onto it. The floor plan editor draws your rooms, sections and tables, and section assignments decide which tables each server's handheld shows. The register's Open tables panel reads the same floor, so nobody re-keys a table number.

Scheduling, the time clock and inventory

Opero Full-Service includes a weekly schedule grid per location, with drafts, publish, copy last week and overnight shifts, and a PIN time clock that runs on a shared Android tablet with break minutes. Punches attach to the scheduled shift, so the grid shows planned hours against actual ones and flags a no-show. Each employee has one hourly rate, and labor cost and labor as a share of net sales sit next to sales in the Command Center and Reports.

Inventory on the same plan keeps an ingredient list, per-location stock counts on an audited ledger, and recipes priced at what you last paid, so each dish shows its plate cost. Every sale on every channel depletes its recipe, and a void puts the stock back. Receiving works from a photo of the vendor invoice that you confirm line by line, or from a barcode scan, and reorder suggestions turn into purchase orders you email to the vendor.

One check for the floor, the register and the kitchen

Table service in Opero is not a separate module with its own orders. The check the host opens is the check the server rings onto, the register's Open tables panel settles and the kitchen display fires from. One menu feeds the handheld, the register, the kiosk and online ordering, with per-location prices and per-location 86, so a sold-out item is refused on the handheld at order time instead of being discovered at the pass.

A coupon code can go on a table check from the handheld when the owner has given that staff member the discount permission, and a guest's loyalty points can be redeemed on the check once the owner turns redemption on and the guest confirms the last four digits of the phone on file. One discount per check: a coupon or points, not both.

What Opero does not do for full-service restaurants

These are the gaps that decide whether Opero fits your room. Read them before you buy.

• ✓No merging checks or tables, and no moving a check from one table to another.
• ✓No course firing or hold-and-fire. Servers pace the table by when they send each round; nothing holds an entree for the expo to release.
• ✓No seat numbers at order time. Items are grouped by guest when the check is split.
• ✓No bar-tab card pre-authorization. An unpaid check is simply paid later.
• ✓Reservations are host-run. There is no guest self-booking page, no confirmation, reminder or table-ready texts, no deposits or card holds, and no link to booking networks. The free-tables hint is a guide, not a lock, so two bookings can land on one table.
• ✓No payroll export or payroll integration, no overtime calculation, and recorded punches cannot be edited in the product. A published schedule is not sent to staff.
• ✓Cash is taken only at the register, never on the handheld.
• ✓Full refunds only. There are no partial or line-item refunds, no comps, no manual discounts and no price overrides.
• ✓No inventory variance report, no waste log, and no unit conversion or sub-recipes in recipe costing.
• ✓No offline mode. Every round, split and charge needs a working connection on the handheld.
• ✓Android only, for handhelds, registers and kitchen screens.

Which features are Full-Service only?

The table service tools on this page are Opero Full-Service features at $249 per location per month: the tableside handheld, table checks and splits, coupons and points on a check, reservations, the waitlist and the floor plan, scheduling, the time clock and labor cost, and inventory with recipe costing and purchase orders. The $149 Opero plan is built for counter service. On it, a server's PIN is refused on the handheld and the reservation and floor screens show an upgrade page.

Both plans are month-to-month and priced per location with unlimited devices, so six servers on six phones cost the same as two. Full-Service includes 2,000 receipt texts per location a month against 300 on the Opero plan, and email receipts are always free. The one piece of hardware you must buy from us is the card reader, one for each register or kiosk that takes cards; handhelds, registers and kitchen screens are Android devices you already own, receipts print on the Star mC-Print3 plugged by USB into a register tablet, and card processing is quoted per business.

Questions to ask any table service POS vendor

• ✓Ring two rounds on a handheld, then split the check by item for three guests. Who builds the split, and where?
• ✓Ask to pay cash at the table. Where does the cash go, and is it the same check?
• ✓Seat a reservation. Does the check open on the table with the covers set, or does someone re-key it?
• ✓Set an automatic gratuity for parties of six or more. Can anyone settle the check below it?
• ✓Deactivate a server mid-shift. Does their phone stop working at once?
• ✓Ask what happens when the Wi-Fi drops on the patio. Opero's answer is that the handheld stops until the connection is back.
• ✓If you course a tasting menu or merge tables mid-service, ask to see it done live.

A table service POS earns its keep when the check the host opens is the check the server rings, splits and closes, with nobody re-keying it.

If you run casual dining or table service and your servers pace tables by sending rounds, Opero Full-Service fits the room. If a bar is the center of the room, the bar guide covers tabs and repeat rounds. The guides below go deeper on tableside ordering, table turns and automatic gratuity for large parties.