As soon as ordering, preparing and serving are no longer done by the same person, every order needs a route: where is it booked, who learns about it, and how do the finished goods reach the guest? In bessa you define this route with workstations (Main Sales Point, Sub-Terminals, kiosk), printing groups and the order monitor. This guide shows how to combine these building blocks and applies equally to restaurants, snack bars, cafés and hotels.
Which devices suit which use is covered in Choosing the right hardware. This guide is about how they work together in operation.
Step 1: Define the workstations
|
Workstation |
Task |
Note |
|---|---|---|
|
Main Sales Point |
Booking and taking payment, Sales Point closing, connection to the cloud |
At least one per location; every Main Sales Point is fiscalised and closed on its own |
|
Sub-Terminal |
Booking and taking payment at another spot, e.g. a handheld in service, the bar, the café counter |
Shares tables, number range and Sales Point closing with its Main Sales Point; needs the Main Sales Point on the local network |
|
Self-service kiosk |
Guests order and pay themselves |
The order reaches the kitchen and the order monitor like any other |
|
Order monitor |
Shows orders in the kitchen, at the bar or at the pick-up counter instead of printing them |
Separate module; runs in the browser of a screen on the same network |
Workstations that belong together, e.g. the Sales Point at the counter and the handhelds in the garden, are set up as one Main Sales Point with Sub-Terminals. Only then do they all see the same tables and orders. Two Main Sales Points at the same location do not exchange orders. Setup in Wireless ordering on Sub-Terminals.
Step 2: Decide where orders go
"Which article goes where" is handled by printing groups:
-
Under Articles → Printing groups, create one printing group per station, e.g. "Kitchen", "Bar", "Pizza oven", see Printing groups.
-
Assign each article group to its printing group. Food then goes to the kitchen, drinks to the bar.
-
On the Sales Point, assign a printer to each printing group, see Printer settings. One printer can serve several printing groups.
Articles whose article group has no printing group are printed by the order ticket printer as the fallback. Don't leave this role empty unless you are sure every article group has a printing group.
Common special cases
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A different printer per area: orders from the terrace should go to the printer at the outdoor bar? Add an override for the area in the bessa Manager, see Manage Sales Point printer settings.
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An overview for the pass: the expediter ticket summarises all items of an order across all stations, e.g. for the head chef.
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One ticket per piece: with the Single receipts setting set to Per piece, the printing group prints a separate ticket for each piece, e.g. for pick-up tokens or cloakroom tickets.
-
Tickets for direct sales as well: when you take payment directly without a table, the Sales Point only prints kitchen tickets with the Automatically print order setting on the invoice printer.
Step 3: Print or order monitor?
|
|
Order ticket printer |
Order monitor |
|---|---|---|
|
Suited for |
Few orders, stations without room for a screen |
Many parallel orders, a kitchen with several stations |
|
Strengths |
Robust, needs no operation |
Waiting times highlighted in colour, order steps such as "In preparation" and "Done", articles can be blocked |
|
Requirement |
A printer per station |
"Order monitor" module, a screen with a browser on the same network as the Sales Point |
Both can be combined: the order monitor can print to a printing group when a step is advanced, e.g. a ticket for the pick-up counter as soon as the kitchen reports "Done". Details in Order monitor and Order monitors.
Step 4: Control courses (table service)
With course groups you assign articles to starter, main course and dessert. Tickets and the order monitor show the items by course. With the course request, service releases a course only when the guests are ready.
Step 5: Check before the first service
The Bon routing preview in the bessa Manager calculates which tickets an order splits into and which printer or monitor each ticket goes to, without printing anything. Put together a typical order with food, drinks and options and check the result per area, see Bon routing preview.
Frequently asked questions
Does every Sub-Terminal need all printers assigned? No. From bessa Kassa 6.0, the Main Sales Point takes over every printer role left empty on the Sub-Terminal. On the Sub-Terminal, only assign what should differ, e.g. the bar printer for orders booked at the bar.
An article is not printed anywhere. Why? Usually its article group has no printing group and no order ticket printer is assigned, or the printing group is set to Do not print on this Sales Point. The Bon routing preview shows the reason.
Does the order monitor work without internet? Yes. It only needs the local network to the Sales Point.