iCAFE is a variation of the iPOS is a Point of Sale software designed to record sales in restaurant or cafe. It has extra features for the saving of items to a table and recording them for later settlement.

To access iPOS, simply open Internet Explorer . iPOS will be set to be the home page.

iPOS works inside a mini web page that you will be able to connect via the “Restaurant” button on your home page. This will allow you to begin recording sales. The Login section on the left is for access to “Back Office” reports.

There are a number of simple steps to taking an order. iCAFE is capable of many different variations, this manual will cover the most general, your administrator will tell you of any custom changes made to the way iCAFE works for you.

The RESTAURANT system is started by clicking the Restaurant button on the Home Page.

iCAFE allows you to select a table from either a GRID (default) or a FLOOR PLAN (which requires a graphic of the floorplan to be setup) as shown below.

Each Table changes colour during the service cycle. This is very useful for greeting staff to see the progress of tables during service, especially if some tables are physically not in the line of sight from the door. The colours have the following meaning.

To select a table it is as easy as clicking (or touching) the table with the number you want. It will either start a new ORDER (if the table was Blue) or load an existing order (any other colour).

The next step is to tell the system who you are. This can be done by selecting your name (or your allocated name) from the list on the screen. Your administrator is the person to ask about how to add or change the list of names on the screen.

An important statistic of restaurant operations is the number of people that are served at every meal. Each person is called a “cover”. All point of sale system calculates covers. iCAFE has 2 methods depending on service standards chosen. The easiest is for the Cover Count to be entered as the table is opened. If this is the case select the button on the right hand side of the screen which matches the number of people at the table.

If the number changes you can always get back to the cover count by selecting the Covers button (top right of the table screen).

The second method uses Seat Selection. In this method the number of seats used in the order determines the cover count. In other words the system works it out for you. Depending on your service standards you may be required to enter the Cover Count and Use Seats, or only one of the screens.

For example an a la carte menu would be best suited to using just the Seats Screen as cover count can be calculated from each meal. A Pizza restaurant or even Asian where a lot of the meals can be shared may be better served by using just the Cover Selector, as shared meals cannot be calculated by the Seat selection alone.

If Seat selection has been setup then you will need to understand Seat number and how to assign seats to a table. Ask your manager for how to identify seat numbers in your stores (Where is Seat 1 on a table).

Every meal should then be entered under a seat. To start select a Seat (normally Seat 1) and work your way around the table.

Using Seat numbers has many advantages even though it may be a little tricky to enter until you get the hang of it. Seat numbers reduce the number of errors by getting you to confirm that every seat has a meal. It allows plate runners to place the correct meal in front of the guest instead of ‘auctioning’ meals at the table (“Who has the chicken?”). iCAFE also has the extra special feature of sub-totaling each seat, so that even though your restaurant does not split bills the bills comes with a sub-total for each guest making it easy for the table to settle the bill.