MAVOS
Documentation

Point of sale

Taking orders at the counter

Sign in, build a cart with modifiers and notes, name a customer, use tables, folders and tabs, and sell or check in bookings.

The staff POS is the screen your team uses at the counter. This article covers everyday order-taking; for payments and the cash drawer see Payments and the till.

Signing in

When the POS screen loads you'll see Sign in to POS. Enter your staff PIN (at least 4 digits) and confirm — the keypad also takes a physical keyboard if the register has one. PINs are set per user under Settings → Users & roles — see Users & roles. Your name appears in the top bar, so orders, edits, and till actions are recorded against you.

Shared registers

A register can be set up as a shared register, for a till a whole shift uses rather than one person holding it all day. On a shared register:

  • The lock screen shows a card per staff member who is eligible right now, each with their own colour and icon. Tap yours to sign in — no PIN needed. Signing in with your PIN once adds your card for next time.
  • The register returns to the lock screen after every sale, so the next person just taps their own card.
  • Tap the × on a card to take it off this register (a list a manager has set can't be removed this way).
  • The register signs you out after your venue's idle timeout, and clears whatever was on screen.
  • Refunds, voids, going over a tab limit and order edits ask for a manager PIN — whoever you are, owners included. A tap on a card proves who is standing there, not who they are. One manager PIN then covers further approvals for about a minute and a half.

Managers turn this on, choose who appears and set the sign-out time under Settings → Devices, or from the register itself under More → Settings — see Managing devices.

Building a cart

  1. Use the navigation rail on the left to move between your menu pages, and Search to find anything quickly.
  2. Tap a product tile to add it to the cart. If the item has options, the modifier screen opens — pick sizes, extras, and add any line notes (e.g. "no onion"), then confirm.
    • If a manager has set the register to only show the modifier screen when it's needed, items whose option groups are already answered by their default choices add straight to the cart with those defaults applied. Anything still needing a choice opens the screen regardless of that setting, so you can't be handed a line you're unable to finish.
  3. The cart sits on the right. Tap a line to change its quantity or options; use the minus button to remove it.

Folders and blocks on the menu

Two kinds of tile aren't products:

  • Folders are tiles you tap into. They hold their own items, and they can have their own sections — useful for a long wine list or a bottle-shop range. A breadcrumb at the top takes you back out, and searching inside a folder stays inside it.
  • Blocks are information cards — a note for staff, a photo, a heading. Some of them open a link when tapped; the rest are just there to read.

Both are set up in the app builder — see Building your app.

Marking an item sold out

When the kitchen runs out mid-service, you can take an item off the menu without leaving the register. Open More → Sold-out mode and enter a manager PIN.

An amber bar appears above your menu, and while it's showing, tapping a tile marks that item sold out instead of adding it to the cart. Tap a sold-out tile again to bring it back. The change takes effect immediately — there's no need to also edit the product. Your other registers, kiosks and QR menus normally catch up within a second or two; if one has been sitting idle or has a patchy connection, it picks the change up the next time it reloads.

Tap Done on the bar when you've finished. The mode also switches itself off if you move to another menu page, leave the menu, or start taking a card payment.

A few things worth knowing:

  • The manager PIN unlocks the mode rather than each item, so marking a run of items at open only needs approving once. If you're still going a while later you may be asked to approve again.
  • Bookings, passes and memberships can't be marked sold out here. Their tiles are dimmed and won't respond, because turning one off would stop people booking it on any future date — not just today. Take those off sale from Products in admin, where you can see what you're changing.
  • Marking an item sold out doesn't touch anything already in a cart or on an open tab.
  • The mode ends when the shift does. Logging out — or the register locking itself after a period of inactivity — switches it off, so the next person to sign in starts with a normal menu.
  • It's the same on/off switch as Available on the product itself, so a manager can also bring items back from Products at the end of service.

Order details: types, tables, names

Depending on your location's checkout settings, orders can be Dine in, Pick-up, Take-away, or Delivery, and you may be asked for a customer name or table. Configure which order types are enabled, the default, and when a table or name is required under Settings → Checkout.

The order type buttons and the phone number box stay tucked away so the cart isn't cluttered on a normal sale. Under the customer name box you'll see Add phone or order type — tap it to open them, and Hide extra details to fold them back. An order you don't touch takes your default order type.

They come out on their own when they matter. If your setup needs a phone number for the order type in play, the box is on screen from the start and marked (required) — it can't be folded away, and neither can the order type buttons if the order type can't be worked out. A Delivery address is always shown for delivery orders. Anything you've already typed or chosen also stays on screen, even if it stops being required, so a phone number you've taken can't disappear out of sight.

  • Add table — tap it in the cart footer to attach the order to a table.
  • Discount — apply a promo or discount from the cart footer; see Discounts.
  • Redeem loyalty — appears once a customer with points is attached; see loyalty points.

The customer name box

At the top of the cart is a plain Customer name box. Type a name and it goes on the order. That's all — no customer record is created, and typing doesn't search anything.

When you do want a real profile:

  • Tap the magnifier to search your existing customers by name, email or phone, then tap one to attach it. Attaching a customer replaces the typed name and brings their loyalty balance with it.
  • Tap Create profile… at the bottom of that search to make a new one. Fill in Name plus an email or a phone number, optionally tick Join rewards, and tap Save profile. Ticking rewards before the sale is paid means this sale earns points.
  • If the email or phone already exists you'll see "This looks like … — attach instead?" with the matching people and what they matched on. Tap one to attach it, or choose Create anyway if it really is a different person.

When something is required

If your setup requires a name, a table or a phone number, the cart shows an amber hint (for example Name required) and the payment buttons stay disabled with the reason shown underneath until it's filled in. The hold/tab button is deliberately not blocked — holding an order isn't taking money.

A required field is never hidden behind Add phone or order type. If something starts being required part-way through an order — because of what's now in the cart, or the order type you picked — its box appears by itself, so you're never blocked by a field you can't see.

Tabs

If tabs are enabled for your venue, the cart shows a third button beside Card Payment and Pay for holding the order. Its wording depends on your venue type — a bar sees Open tab, a restaurant Send & keep tab open, a quick-service counter Hold order — and your venue can override the wording under Settings → Checkout. Add rounds to an open tab and settle it later.

Find open tabs any time from the Tabs section inside Search, where you can resume a tab, add more items, or take payment.

Finding past orders

Tap Search in the navigation rail. Everything that used to have its own entry on the rail is a section inside Search:

  • Orders — recent orders with full detail, receipts, refunds, and outstanding payments.
  • Upcoming — today's bookings and future-dated orders together, earliest first.
  • Tabs — open and recently closed tabs.
  • Tables — what's currently seated where, with the option to move tables.
  • Customers — look up a customer and their history.
  • Day sheet — everything booked for a chosen day; see The Day sheet.
  • Calendar — the day scheduler.

Which of these you see depends on your venue: Tables and Tabs need your venue type to use tables, and Day sheet and Calendar appear where the register sells or checks in bookings. A manager can also hide sections you don't need under App → Settings → Search sections.

Any of these can be pinned back onto the rail as its own button with its own name, icon and colour — set a menu page's Shows to that section in the app builder.

More on searching, the date control and the This Device filter in Orders.

Selling bookings at the counter

If your venue takes bookings, bookable products (tickets, sessions, multi-day passes) appear on the menu like any other tile:

  1. Tap the bookable product.
  2. A picker opens showing live availability — choose the date, time slot, and party size (or a date range for multi-day products). The price shown comes from your price rules.
  3. The booking is held and added to the cart as a line (quantity is fixed at one per booking — remove and re-pick to change it).
  4. Take payment as normal. The booking is confirmed once paid.

See the bookings overview for how holds, capacity, and confirmations work.

Checking in a booking

The register no longer has a separate Check in button at the bottom of the menu. Check guests in where the bookings already are — on the Day sheet or the Calendar inside Search, by tapping Check in on the booking's row.

If a guest hands you a booking code, type or scan it into the Search box on the Upcoming or Orders section: it finds the booking's order, and you can open it and check the guest in from the Day sheet. A USB or Bluetooth barcode scanner works anywhere you can type, since it simply types the code for you.

More on managing bookings day-to-day in Managing bookings, and on running arrivals — checking guests in, sending pre-ordered food to the kitchen, seating tables, rebooking or cancelling — in The Day sheet.