Every order a customer sends from a table or room QR code turns into a real invoice in your books — with the guest's name on it, the sale posted to your accounts, the stock taken out of the kitchen store, and the tax recorded. Nothing is left sitting as a "note to self".
An order is settled one of two ways:
- Charged to the room — the order goes onto the guest's folio (their room bill) and they pay it all at checkout.
- Paid — the customer pays (online at order time, or at your till), and a receipt is produced.
Open the board from Sales → QR Orders.
Before you start
A few settings must be in place, or orders can't be turned into invoices:
- POS departments — your selling department and the delivering (kitchen/bar) store must be set under Setup → POS settings. The delivering store is what the food is taken out of, so stock only moves when it's set.
- A default customer — used for walk-in / paid orders.
- A payment method and cash account — used to record the payment on paid orders.
- Room orders only: the guest must be checked in and have a billing customer (their sponsor, chosen at check-in).
- Item prices — an item with no price would post a zero-value line, so the order is refused instead.
Steps
Accepting an order (the usual way)
- Open Sales → QR Orders. New orders appear on their own.
- Press Accept on the ticket.
- What happens next depends on the order:
- A room order that hasn't been paid → it is charged to the guest's folio automatically. The ticket moves to Posted and the charge shows on their room bill.
- An order already paid online → an invoice and receipt are created automatically. The ticket moves to Posted.
- A table order the customer will pay later → it stays Accepted. Take payment at the till when they're ready, or settle the whole table (split the bill if needed). Each bill becomes its own invoice, and the order is marked Posted when its last item is billed.
- An order paid online that you never accepted is still invoiced: when the table is closed, it gets its own invoice and receipt automatically.
- The kitchen carries on preparing the order as normal — accepting it for billing does not change the prep steps.
Charging a room order manually
If you've turned off automatic charging (see Tips), press Charge to room on the ticket. The charge lands on the guest's folio straight away.
Recording payment on a pay-later order
Open the ticket and use the payment section to record Cash or Transfer. The invoice and receipt are created in the same step — you don't need to ring the order up again at the till.
If the customer paid through an online link, press Verify payment. Once the payment confirms, the invoice and receipt are created automatically.
Cancelling an order
Press Reject (or Cancel & refund once the order has been billed). What happens depends on how far the order got:
- Nobody has paid and it wasn't charged to a room — the ticket is simply dropped. Nothing to undo.
- It was charged to the guest's room — the charge is removed from their folio and the items return to stock. The guest's bill is left clean, as though it was never ordered.
- The customer paid — the payment is refunded, the sale is reversed, and the items return to stock.
When you cancel a paid order you're asked how to refund it:
- Refund from — the cash drawer or bank account the money goes back out of. It defaults to wherever the payment first landed, but you can change it (for example, refund from the till for a card sale).
- Refund the guest's card through Paystack — shown only when the guest paid online. Tick it and the money is sent straight back to their card automatically; leave it and you refund them yourself from the account above.
What the guest sees on their folio
When a paid order is cancelled, nothing is deleted — the money genuinely came in and went back out, and the bill shows the whole story:
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Invoice | +17,500 |
| Payment | −17,500 |
| Cancelled — credit note | −17,500 |
| Refund to guest | +17,500 |
| Balance | 0 |
The guest can see the order was cancelled and their money returned. Their balance is unchanged, because they paid and were paid back.
A charge that was only put on the room (never paid) is simply removed instead — there's no money to give back, so there's nothing to show.
If the card refund is declined by Paystack, nothing is changed — the order stays as it was, so you can try again or refund another way. If the card refund goes through but recording it in the books fails (rare), you'll be told to reconcile that one order by hand — do not refund it a second time.
Tips
- Turning off automatic room charging. If you'd rather your team charge each room order by hand, set AutoChargeRoomServiceToFolio to False under Setup → Preferences. Orders will then wait for a Charge to room press. Left alone, automatic charging is on.
- Where to see the charge. A room charge appears on the guest's folio and is collected at checkout — you don't need to chase it separately.
- Tax follows the item. If a menu price already includes tax, the tax is taken out of the price; if it doesn't, tax is added on top. This follows each item's own setting, exactly like a sale rung up on the till.
- Stock moves by itself. Ordering a dish takes its ingredients out of the kitchen store. Nothing extra to do.
Common problems
"I accepted a room order but nothing appeared on the folio." The most likely causes, in order:
- The guest has no billing customer — check how they were sponsored at check-in.
- The guest has already checked out, so there's no open bill.
- Automatic charging is switched off — press Charge to room instead. The ticket stays as Accepted so nothing is lost — fix the cause and press Charge to room.
"It says the POS selling department isn't configured." Set your selling and delivering departments under Setup → POS settings. Until then no order can be turned into an invoice.
"It says there's no default customer." Paid and walk-in orders need a default customer on your POS settings. Add one and try again.
"It says the payment method or cash account isn't set." Paid orders record the money against a payment method and a cash account. Set both under Setup → POS settings.
"The order was already paid — will charging it to the room bill it twice?" No. An order that's already paid can't be charged to a room; it becomes a paid invoice with a receipt instead.
"I pressed Accept twice — did it bill twice?" No. Once an order is Posted it already has its invoice, and it won't be posted again.
"Why is the ticket 'Posted' when the food isn't ready?" Posted describes the money side only — the invoice exists. The kitchen steps (Queued → Preparing → Ready) run separately and are unaffected, and you can still move the ticket through the kitchen as normal.
"It won't let me mark an order done." An order can't be marked done with no bill behind it — that's how orders used to vanish without ever reaching your accounts. Either take payment, charge it to the room, or ring it up at the till, and it will close off properly.
"It says the sale has already been refunded." Each order's sale can only be reversed once, so a second cancel is refused rather than paying the customer twice. Look for the existing credit note against the invoice.