Tableside ordering and payment on handhelds you already own

A tableside ordering system lets a server take the order at the table, send it to the kitchen without walking to a terminal, and close the check where the guest is sitting. In Opero that runs on an Android phone or small tablet you already own: the server signs in with a PIN, every round they ring is attributed to them and tagged with the table from your floor plan, and the check settles at the table by card on the card reader bought from us. Guests who want to pay cash walk to the register, where the counter sees the same check with the same figure. Tableside is part of Opero Full-Service ($249 per location per month) and is not on the $149 Opero plan.

How tableside ordering works in Opero

A server opens the Opero handheld screen on any Android phone or tablet registered to the location as a handheld, types their PIN, and sees their tables. Which tables they see comes from the floor plan: assign servers to sections or to single tables and the handheld shows each server their own tables and which already have an open check. If you have not drawn a floor plan yet, the handheld falls back to a free-text table label so you can still run service.

• ✓Sign in with a PIN per shift. Every round, split, tip and receipt is recorded under that server's name.
• ✓Pick the table from the floor plan (or type a label), ring items with the same modifier picker the register and kiosk use, and send the round. It fires to the kitchen display or kitchen printer straight away.
• ✓Ring more rounds on the same check as the meal goes on. Each round is tagged with the table and the server, so the open check builds up in one place.
• ✓When the party is ready, open the check on the handheld, choose how it is being paid, take the card at the table, and print, text or email the receipt.

The handheld reads the same menu as the register, the kiosk and online ordering, so a price change or an 86 lands on the server's phone at the same time it lands everywhere else. A sold-out item is refused at order time from any channel, including the handheld.

How a check is split and paid at the table

The check is split on the handheld, and each share is paid by card at the table. A server can take the whole check on one card, split it evenly across a number of guests, split off a specific amount for one guest, or group items by guest and charge each group separately. Each share carries its own tip, chosen from fixed presets on the handheld before the card is charged, and each share respects the location's auto-gratuity floor if the party qualifies.

• ✓Whole: one card for the full check.
• ✓Even: the check divided across a number of guests, each share charged separately.
• ✓By amount: one guest pays a fixed amount; the remainder stays on the check.
• ✓By item: items grouped by guest at settle time, each group labelled and charged on its own card.

Cash is never taken on the handheld. If a guest wants to pay cash, they walk to the register and the counter's Open tables panel settles the same check through the same code path the handheld uses: same items, same figure, cash accepted with change computed and the drawer kicked. The counter can pay a share the server already set up, or take a plain amount against the check, but it cannot author a new even or by-item split; that stays on the handheld, with the server who knows who ate what.

A coupon code can be applied to a table check from the handheld when the owner has switched the discount permission on for that staff member. A guest's loyalty points are a different thing: they can be redeemed on the check from any handheld once the owner turns on points redemption for the account: the server looks the guest up by the phone number or email on their loyalty profile, and before points are spent the guest confirms the last four digits of the phone on file; a member with no phone on file cannot redeem. No staff permission is involved. One discount per check: a coupon or points, not both. A manager can void an open check from the handheld with their PIN, and a fully settled check can be refunded in full from the register's refunds screen, with the tip returned along with the sale.

Why the handheld is signed in, not just logged in

A server's PIN produces a signed, short-lived token bound to that one location, and Opero re-checks that the employee is still active on every single call. That matters when someone leaves mid-week: a terminated server's phone stops working the moment their record is deactivated, without anyone collecting the device or changing a shared password. The token itself expires after a shift, so a phone found in a locker tomorrow is not a way into today's checks.

• ✓Identity is never claimed by the client. The server behind a round is read from the token, so a round cannot be rung under someone else's name by editing a request.
• ✓Prices are recomputed server-side for every round. If the handheld is holding a stale menu, the server sees a price-changed refusal instead of the guest being undercharged.
• ✓Every round carries a request id, so a tap retried over a weak connection never rings the same items twice.
• ✓A handheld registered to one location cannot ring or settle checks at another, and the register's device login works the same way.

Auto-gratuity for large parties is enforced at payment, not suggested

Set an automatic gratuity per location as a percentage of the pre-tax subtotal that applies at or above a party size, and Opero treats it as a tip floor when the check is paid. The server cannot settle a qualifying check below it from the handheld, and the counter cannot settle it below the floor from the register either, because both screens go through one shared settle step. The party size comes from the covers set when the host seats the party, or from covers the server sets on the check; a check with no covers recorded does not qualify.

Tips taken at the table are recorded to the server who worked the table and show up by server in daily reporting. Tip presets on the check are fixed and are not configurable per location; the tip presets on the counter's customer display are per location and are a separate thing.

How tableside connects to the floor plan, the register and the kitchen

Tableside is not a bolt-on with its own order table. It sits on the same check that the host stand, the register and the kitchen display read, which is why there is nothing to re-key between them.

• ✓Floor plan and reservations: when the host seats a booking or a walk-in, Opero opens a check on that table with the party's covers already set. The server's handheld sees the open check and rings onto it.
• ✓Server sections: section and single-table assignments made on the floor plan decide which tables each server's handheld shows.
• ✓Register: the counter's Open tables panel lists every table with an open check. It is where cash is taken and where a guest who walks up to pay is settled, on the same check.
• ✓Kitchen: a round sent from the handheld fires to the kitchen display or kitchen printer like a round sent from the register.
• ✓Live floor: a table with an open check reads as seated on the live floor, with a turn timer, and reads as available again once the check is paid.
• ✓Menu: one menu for the handheld, the register, the kiosk and online ordering, with per-location prices and per-location 86.

What tableside does not do

Opero's tableside rail is deliberately narrow, and these gaps are the ones that decide whether it fits your room. Read them before you buy.

• ✓No course firing or hold-and-fire. Servers control pacing by when they send each round; there is no held entree that the expo releases later.
• ✓No seat numbers at order time and no per-seat ordering. Items are grouped by guest when the check is split, and the seat label is assigned then, not when the item was rung.
• ✓No merging of checks or tables, and no moving a check from one table to another from the floor.
• ✓No cash on the handheld, by design. The guest walks to the register.
• ✓Full refunds only. There is no partial or line-item refund in the product.
• ✓No manual discounts, comps or price overrides. The only discounts on a check are coupon codes and loyalty points, and only one of them per check.
• ✓Tip presets on the check are fixed, not configurable, and there is no post-capture tip adjustment or tip-pool tooling.
• ✓No bar-tab card pre-authorization. An unpaid check is simply paid later.
• ✓No offline mode. Every round, split and charge is a round-trip to the server, so a handheld without a connection cannot ring or settle.
• ✓Android only. There is no handheld app for other phone platforms.

Which plan includes tableside, and what hardware you need

Tableside, table checks and splits are on Opero Full-Service at $249 per location per month, month to month, which also adds reservations, the waitlist, the floor plan, inventory, scheduling, QuickBooks sync, the Marketing suite, DoorDash Drive early access and AI recommendations. The $149 Opero plan is for quick-service and counter restaurants and has none of the table-service surfaces: a server's PIN is refused on the handheld at sign-in on that plan. Pricing is per location, never per device, so a floor with six servers on six phones costs the same as a floor with two.

• ✓Handhelds: any modern Android phone or tablet you already own, registered to the location as a handheld. None is required from us.
• ✓Card reader: required, one per location, bought from us (the PAX card reader is the default). Each handheld that charges cards is paired to a reader; tell us how many servers take cards at once and we will spec the count with you.
• ✓Receipts: printed on supported network printers spec'd with us before you buy, or sent by text or email from the handheld. Full-Service includes 2,000 receipt texts per location a month, and email receipts are always free.
• ✓Kitchen: a kitchen display on any Android tablet or any TV with a browser, or a supported kitchen printer, receives the rounds.
• ✓Connection: a working Wi-Fi or mobile data connection on every handheld at all times, because there is no offline mode.

Who tableside is for

• ✓Full-service restaurants where servers currently walk to a shared terminal to ring and to close, and want rounds in the kitchen sooner.
• ✓Rooms that split checks every night and want the split done by the person who stood at the table, not re-created at the register.
• ✓Owners who want every tip and every round attributed to a named server without a shared login anyone can use.
• ✓Bars and casual dining that run tabs as unpaid checks and close them by card at the seat or by cash at the bar.
• ✓Operators who already run Opero reservations and the floor plan and want the seated check to be the check the server rings onto.

It is not for a coursed tasting room that needs hold-and-fire, a room that needs to merge tables mid-service, or an operator who needs partial refunds or manager comps at the table. Those are listed above on purpose so you can decide with the facts.