MenuBaton Documentation

MenuBaton connects your whole restaurant on one platform: customers order from their phones, the kitchen sees every dish on a live display, staff get real-time alerts when food is ready, and you manage everything from the Restaurant Portal.

These guides walk you through setting up your restaurant and running it day to day. If you are starting from scratch, read the first three in order — after that, dip in wherever you need to.

Who uses what, and how they get in

Everyone in your restaurant uses the same system, through the screen that suits their job. Nobody has to remember a web address: your team starts from the Restaurant Portal button at the top of this site, and your customers just scan a QR code.

Once someone is signed in, bookmark the page on the device that does that job — the kitchen tablet, the cashier's computer, the phone behind the bar — and they will land straight on it next time. The apps you install are described in Phone & computer apps and MenuBaton Station.

The manager apps: web, desktop and phone

As the manager, you can run your restaurant from three apps, each signed in with your manager email and password: on the web, the Restaurant Portal in any browser; on a computer, the desktop app for Windows or Mac; and on a phone, the phone app for Android or iPhone. The Restaurant Portal does everything. The desktop and phone apps are for running the restaurant day to day, so your settings, receipt format, payment accounts and subscription are changed in the Restaurant Portal only. Both apps are described in Phone & computer apps.

• One at a time. You can be signed in to only one of the three at once. When you sign in to another, it first tells you which one is open, and closes that one if you go ahead.
• Orders older than 90 days are kept only by the desktop app. It downloads your orders to its own computer whenever it is signed in and keeps every one, so its Statistics page can chart your whole history, back to your first order, while our servers keep only 90 days. Sign it in at least once every 90 days to keep that history complete. See Your order archive.

Set up kitchen printing

Kitchen tickets are printed on a receipt printer in your kitchen by MenuBaton Kitchen Printing, an app that runs on a computer, phone or tablet in your restaurant and signs in with your restaurant's printing account. You set the printer up once, on any one of those devices, and every device running the app prints to it.

You need:

• A receipt printer on your restaurant's network, by cable or Wi-Fi — an Epson TM or a Star printer, for example. Tickets are sent to the printer's network address, so a printer plugged into one computer by USB can't print them.
• A device for MenuBaton Kitchen Printing on the same network: a Windows PC or a Mac, or an Android or Apple phone or tablet. A computer that stays on through service is the most reliable choice.

1. Give the printer an address that never changes. Ten minutes now saves an evening of silent tickets later — see Printer address setup.
2. Choose where orders go. In the portal, open Settings and click Edit. In the Kitchen Screens card, under Where orders go, pick one and click Save Changes:
   • Print orders for the kitchen — what every restaurant starts with. Orders are printed and are not shown on the kitchen and staff screens, and an order is completed as soon as its kitchen tickets have printed.
   • Send orders to the kitchen app — nothing prints; your team works from the kitchen and staff screens.
   • Both — orders print and also appear on the kitchen and staff screens, where your team moves every dish through.
3. Sign in MenuBaton Kitchen Printing on the device beside the printer, with your Restaurant URL, the account name printing (already filled in) and your manager password — or the printing account's own password, if you have given it one. See The printing account.
4. Add the printer. Press + Add Printer. The app scans your network and lists the printers that answer; pick yours, or type its address in the box under the list. Then fill in:
   • Name — where it stands, such as Kitchen or Bar. It is printed on every ticket.
   • Paper width — 80mm (48 columns) or 58mm (32 columns), to match the roll in the printer.
   • Ticket format — leave it on ESC/POS (recommended). Switch to Plain text (fallback) only if the printer produces garbled characters.
   • Copies — how many sheets each order prints.
   Press Test print, and once the test ticket comes out, press Add.
5. Check it. The printer's row says Online in green while this device can reach it, and names the devices printing to it. Place an order from one of your table QR codes: once it reaches the kitchen, its ticket comes out within seconds, and the portal's Orders page shows it as Kitchen Printed.

Keep it printing

• On a computer, closing the window doesn't stop printing: the app keeps running in the system tray (the menu bar on a Mac) and starts again by itself when the computer restarts. The tray's Stop printing and quit stops it until the next restart; to stop a computer printing for good, press Sign out.
• On a phone or tablet, keep the app open and the device on charge. While it is printing, the top of the screen says Connected — this device prints. An Android device starts printing again by itself after a restart, once it is unlocked; an iPhone or iPad prints only while the app is open on screen.
• Nobody has to stay signed in. A device keeps printing after its sign-in runs out; sign in again only to see or change the printers. See MenuBaton Kitchen Printing.
• Two devices back each other up. The printing account can be signed in on up to four at once. Each ticket goes to one of them; if that device can't print it, the next one tries — Windows computers first, then Macs, then Android, then iPhones and iPads.
• A printer that was switched off catches up when a device reaches it again — and so does a printing app that was closed, when it opens again: the orders it missed print by themselves, as long as they are recent. How recent is the Pick-up window, under Catching up after a printer was off in the app — at least 5 minutes, or the printer's last few orders, whichever reaches further back. An order more than 24 hours old never prints this way. The orders left out stay on the Orders page as not printed, for Force Kitchen Print; a ticket somebody pressed Force Kitchen Print or Kitchen Reprint for while no device was on still prints when one comes back.
• Switched off, nothing is caught up — with one exception, so that a brief disconnection such as a restart loses nothing: an order placed while no printing device was connected still prints if one connects within 5 minutes.
• Every printer prints every order. Add a second printer — at the bar, say — and each order prints on both. Don't add the same printer twice to get two copies, as that prints every order on it twice; use Copies instead.
• Print a ticket again from the portal's Orders page, or the cashier's: Kitchen Reprint prints an order's ticket again, Force Kitchen Print prints one that hasn't printed, and Cancel Kitchen Print stops one that hasn't printed yet. Each order says where its ticket is — see Kitchen ticket status.
• Takeaway pre-orders print shortly before their pickup time rather than at once — 30 minutes before, unless you change Pre-order tickets print.

Set up receipt printing

A receipt is the customer's copy of a paid order, with its prices. Receipt printers work the other way round from kitchen printers: each one is set up on the device that prints to it and saved on that device only, and the rest of the restaurant never knows about it. Nothing here changes how kitchen tickets print.

Decide what every receipt says

Open Receipt Format in the portal's left menu. Fill in what goes above the order — company name, address, contact number, email, website and any Extra Text, such as opening hours, a tax number or your Wi-Fi password — and a Footer under the total, then choose whether the total line prints normal size or large. The preview shows the result. Click Save, and every receipt uses it: printed, on the MenuBaton Station screen, and in the PDF a customer saves from the receipt's QR code.

On MenuBaton Station: receipts that print by themselves

Each MenuBaton Station — the tablet customers order on at a counter or table — can have one receipt printer beside it. When a customer pays on that Station, at a counter or at a table while Pay on Order is on, their receipt prints once, as well as showing on the screen with its QR code.

1. On the Station's list of counters and tables — the screen it opens on after you sign in, or after staff enter the change table password — tap the tile under Receipt printer. It says None paired until you have done this.
2. Press Pair a receipt printer.
3. Pick the printer from the scan, or type its address, and choose the paper width and format as for a kitchen printer.
4. Press Test receipt, then Add.

At the cashier: the desktop and phone apps

1. On the cashier's computer or phone, add the printer once:
   • In the desktop app on Windows or Mac, signed in as the manager or a cashier, open Receipt Printers.
   • In the phone app, open Printers from the menu — or, signed in as a cashier, the printer button at the top of the screen.
   Press + Add receipt printer, give it a name for yourself (such as Cashier — it is never printed), choose the printer, paper width and format, press Test receipt, then Add. The desktop app also lists the printers installed on that computer, including one plugged in by USB.
2. To print a receipt, open a paid order, press Show receipt, then Print. It prints on every receipt printer on that device.

In a web browser — the Restaurant Portal or the cashier screen — Show receipt then Print opens the browser's print dialog, and the receipt prints on whatever printer that computer or tablet already uses. There is nothing to set up.

Set up a card machine: Stripe or Square

A card machine lets customers tap or insert their card on a machine beside the tablet instead of typing it into the screen. It is paired with MenuBaton Station, the tablet app your staff set up at a counter or table for customers to order on, and it belongs to that Station: every order placed on the Station is paid on its machine, at whichever counter or table the Station is taking orders for. Which machine you need depends on who takes your payments — a Stripe card reader for Stripe, a Square Terminal for Square.

Before you pair

1. Connect your Stripe or Square account on the Receive Account page and choose it under Who takes customer payments — see Set your receiving account. The Station offers a card machine only once a provider is chosen, and only that provider's machine.
2. Set the change table password: Settings → Edit → MenuBaton Station Apps, then Save Changes. Staff type it to sign a Station in, and again to pair a card machine, so your own password never has to be typed on a tablet customers hold. Until you set one, your account password does both.
3. Sign MenuBaton Station in on the tablet with your manager email and that password. It opens on the list of counters and tables.
4. Switch the card machine on and connect it to the internet, by Wi-Fi or cable.

Stripe card reader (Stripe Terminal)

Use a Stripe smart reader, such as the BBPOS WisePOS E or the Stripe Reader S700. Readers that connect to a phone by Bluetooth can't be paired. Stripe registers every reader at a location, the address it stands at, so your Stripe account needs one first: in your Stripe Dashboard, open Terminal → Locations and add your restaurant's address. The reader goes into the account's first location.

1. On the Station's list of counters and tables, under Card machine, tap Stripe card reader and enter the change table password.
2. Press Pair.
3. On the reader, open Settings and choose Generate pairing code. The reader shows a code of three words, such as sepia-cerulean-aardvark.
4. Type the code into the Station and press Pair. The Station says "Paired with this Station." — press Done.

If pairing is refused, the Station says why:

• "Your Stripe account has no Terminal location." — add one in your Stripe Dashboard, as above, and pair again.
• "Stripe did not accept that pairing code." — it was mistyped, already used, or has expired. Generate a new one on the reader.
• "Stripe is not connected." — connect Stripe on the Receive Account page first.

Square Terminal

Use a Square Terminal. Square's readers that work with a phone or iPad can't be paired. The Terminal takes payments for the Square account and location you connected on Receive Account.

1. On the Station's list of counters and tables, under Card machine, tap Square Terminal and enter the change table password.
2. Press Pair. The Station asks Square for a code and shows it in large letters.
3. On the Square Terminal, tap Sign in, then Use a device code, and type the code. A code works for five minutes; if it runs out, press Get a new code.
4. Within a few seconds of the Terminal signing in, the Station says "Paired with this Station." — press Done.

If pairing is refused, the Station says why:

• "Square needs your permission to pair card machines." — your Square account was connected before card machines could be paired. On the Receive Account page, press Change Square Account, sign in to the same Square account, allow it, and pair again.
• "Square is not connected." — connect Square and choose a location on the Receive Account page first.

Using, moving and removing a card machine

• Paying. After the customer presses Confirm, the Station shows Pay on the card machine and the amount appears on the machine. The order goes to the kitchen as soon as the payment is approved. The customer has 5 minutes to pay, and staff can press Cancel order on the Station to stop sooner. Either way, nothing is charged and the order doesn't reach the kitchen.
• One machine, one Station. Pairing a machine with a Station takes it off any other Station it was paired with. Two Stations at the same table each use their own machine.
• Swap or remove. On the Station, tap the tile under Card machine again: Pair another replaces the machine, and Remove takes it off, after which customers on that Station pay by card on its screen.
• Changed your Square account? A Terminal takes payments only for the account it was paired with. The Receive Account page counts the card machines still paired with an old account; pair each one again on its Station.
• In your Stripe or Square Dashboard, a machine paired this way is named MenuBaton Station.

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