Summary
The OrderMate system, once integrated with RestaurantDiary provides several useful features and some really good benefits such as:
- Bookings can be easily made through the RestaurantDiary system (Phone or Online) and pushed through automatically to OrderMate.
- RestaurantDiary bookings can be viewed quickly in OrderMate.
- RestaurantDiary bookings can be modified as required in OrderMate.
- You can quickly visualise upcoming bookings on any OrderMate POS terminal's table layout screen.
- If a walk-in customer arrives, you can simply open a table and start ordering. OrderMate will block out the table in RestaurantDiary automatically.
- As the restaurant staff update the table state in the OrderMate POS, the meal status is updated automatically in RestaurantDiary.
- Upon closing the table in the OrderMate POS, the booking will be marked as completed in RestaurantDiary and the table will become available.
- If a diner moves from one table to another, OrderMate will automatically update RestaurantDiary so that the diary is always in sync.
- Allocating a bar tab to a table in the OrderMate POS will block out the table in RestaurantDiary until the tab has been closed off.
Reservations in WaiterMate
When you're utilising RestaurantDiary for your bookings, the WaiterMate reservations screen is converted to use RestaurantDiary bookings. This means that any new bookings must be made through RestaurantDiary.
To view reservations in WaiterMate, navigate to the Reservations screen.
The reservations screen will display a list of reservations imported from the RestaurantDiary system (Note that only the current day's reservations are imported, future days should be managed through RestaurantDiary).
You can select a reservation by simply touching it on the screen.
You can complete some basic tasks with each reservation:
- Modify the booking date, time, table number and covers.
- Modify the booking comment using the on-screen keyboard.
- View the customer's recent sales.
- Edit the customer's information.
- View the RestaurantDiary info.
Walk-Ins
It's important that RestaurantDiary tracks all walk-in customers. This is so that the RestaurantDiary system knows the table is in use and will not allow a booking to be made.
When a walk-in customer arrives, you simply select a table as normal and begin ordering. You should take note of the table layout on your POS terminal and select a table that is available and does not have a "Reserved" icon on it.
WaiterMate will not allow you to allocate a walk-in customer to a table that is reserved.
Once an available table has been opened in WaiterMate, a walk-in is created automatically in RestaurantDiary. The walk-in booking will be updated automatically as the table state is changed in the POS, as well as when the table account is closed.
Advanced Functionality
Transferring Tables
Using any of your WaiterMate POS terminals, it is possible to perform table transfers in a couple of different ways. You can complete a "Quick Transfer" in which the whole table including all items is transferred to another table in the restaurant.
When you perform a quick transfer, the original table becomes closed in RestaurantDiary and a new walk-in is placed.
You can also transfer individual items from one table to another. When this is done, a new walk-in is created in RestaurantDiary, and the original booking also remains open.
Bar Tabs
Bar tabs in the POS can be assigned to a table using the normal process. When assigning a bar tab to a table in the POS, can only select from available tables that have not got any reservations. Once assigned to a table, a walk-in is automatically created in RestaurantDiary to ensure that the table can't be taken by anybody else.
Once all tabs assigned to the table are closed, the walk-in in RestaurantDiary will be closed off and the table once again becomes available.
Auto Join and Split Tables
It is possible for one booking to be made in RestaurantDiary that requires multiple tables to be joined together.
In this scenario, all individual tables will display the reserved icon in WaiterMate.
When you arrive the customer in WaiterMate, the tables required will be joined automatically.
WaiterMate will automatically arrange the tables when auto-joining, but you may need to adjust the positioning manually. This can be done from the main tables screen using the "Rearrange Tables" button.
If a customer booked on an individual table arrives, tables are automatically split as required.