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Launch, 6 min read
The going-live checklist
What to set up, test and rehearse before the first real service on a new system. Written from the checklist we use ourselves.
New systems rarely fail on features. They fail on a tax setting nobody checked, a role with too much permission, or a waiter who has never seen the screen before 7pm on a Friday. Work through this a week out.
A week before
- Tax: rate, inclusive or exclusive prices, service charge on or off. In Nepal, menu prices must include VAT and service charge, so set prices to tax-inclusive.
- Currency and timezone on the restaurant. Reports close the day in this timezone.
- Menu: categories, items, variants and modifiers. Check three bills by hand against the POS.
- Staff: one account per person, the smallest role that does the job. Shared logins make the audit log useless.
- Tables and QR codes printed, laminated and tested from a guest’s phone.
- Recipes for your top 20 sellers, and an opening stock count.
Two days before
- A mock service: staff order for each other, the kitchen cooks from the screen, every tender type is taken, one bill is split, one item is refunded.
- Pull the network cable mid-service. Orders should keep queuing on the POS. Know that card payments and the kitchen display need the network, and decide what staff do if it drops.
- Close a practice shift and count the drawer.
On the night
- Card payments: run the card on your own terminal first, then record it in the POS. DataRestro records payments; it does not process them.
- A manager on the floor with approval rights, so voids and refunds do not stall.
- After close: run end-of-day, check the tax total, reconcile card totals against the terminal’s batch report.