The floor and tabs

After you sign in, the iPad shows the floor: the room as it is laid out in the back office, with every table showing whether it has a tab and how much is on it. This page covers reading the floor, opening and finding tabs, moving them (the whole tab, one seat, a merge, another server), closing an empty table, the "one iPad per table" rule, and the bars, alerts and banners around the floor.

What happens inside a check is in Taking orders, and drawing the room is in Tables and floor plan.

Read the floor

The floor shows the whole room exactly as it is arranged in the back office: tables, bar stools, the cash register and lounges, plus the bar and doors drawn as furniture. The whole plan fits on the screen, so every table is visible without scrolling, and the room looks the same on every iPad.

Everyone signed in sees the same floor and can open any table's tab — a tab isn't limited to the server who opened it. The table's fill color shows whose tab it is.

1. Find the table by its name and position. Free tables show their number of seats; tables with a tab show the amount.
2. At the bottom left, the legend reads Free · Open · Sent · Partial.
3. At the top right, the summary reads, for example, "12 tables · 5 occupied · $3,480.00 on floor".
4. Tap a table to open its tab, or to start one. Press and hold a table with a tab for its menu: move it, merge it, change its server, or close it when it is empty.

• The bar and doors are drawn under the tables and can't be tapped: nothing can be ordered at them.
• Only active tables appear.
• The iPad shows the whole floor at once; there is no section filter. A table's section only appears under its name on the card that opens a tab.
• Each table shows one tab. There are no separate bar tabs: for tabs at the bar, add bar stools or a cash register to the floor plan.
• Shapes: square or rectangle, round (a circle, or a pill when stretched), bar stool (a small round seat), cash register (a quick-sale point with a banknote icon) and lounge (a sofa, coffee table and two chairs, facing any of four ways).

While the floor loads

• The first time, gray outlines of the room pulse until the tables arrive.
• If the tables can't be loaded: "Couldn't load the floor", the reason, a countdown "Retrying in 5 s" and Retry now. It tries again after 5 seconds, then 10, then every 20.
• A venue with no tables yet: "No tables yet" and "Add tables in the floor editor of the web admin."
• Changes made in the back office — moving, resizing, adding or archiving a table, adding or moving furniture — appear on running iPads within about a second.

The top bar and the floor bar

Two strips sit above the floor. The order screen hides them and has its own strip, with Tables and the connection light.

The top bar, left to right

1. The venue's name.
2. The pill with your name: a connection dot, your name, and "· 03:25" — how long the day has been running, not how long you have worked. When they apply, the same pill also shows:
   • · Opening float not counted, in amber — until tonight's drawer is counted, or a manager skips the count. Tap it to count. With Barform 1.2.1 or later on the iPad everyone signed in sees it; on an older version, only managers and admins. See Cash drawer.
   • A printer warning, in amber with a triangle: "Bar printer offline", "Printer offline" or "2 printers offline". It stays until a job gets through to that printer, printing is switched off, or you sign out. See Printing and receipts.
3. Right after you leave a check with drinks not yet sent: the amber unsent chip, for example "3 unsent · T4", with a paper-plane icon. Tap it to open that check again. It clears itself after about 6 seconds, or as soon as you leave the floor.
4. The current time, in the venue's time zone.
5. The sign-out icon. See Signing in on the iPad.
6. ···, which opens More. A small amber dot on it means a newer version of the app is available.

Unsent drinks also show as a count on the table's corner and on the check's Send (N) button. The chip is only the reminder on your way out.

The floor bar, left to right

The floor bar floats over the room, right under the top bar.

1. The reservations pill, at a venue with the Reservations add-on: Reservations, or a count such as "2 to seat", "1 to confirm" or "1 late". It turns amber when a party is late or something is waiting to be confirmed. Tap it for tonight's book. See Reservations.
   • It shows the most urgent word first: late (a booked party past its time), then to confirm (bookings not yet confirmed, plus booking requests for later nights), then to seat (tonight's booked parties).
2. On the right, the occupancy summary. While a tab is being moved, the move banner takes its place.

• The summary counts the floor's tables and the occupied ones, and adds up exactly the amounts shown on the occupied tables.
• The floor has no guest-menu button: the guest menu opens from the PIN pad. See Guest menu.

How a table shows its tab

Each table shows its state with a color, an outline style and a mark, so it reads correctly in a dim room or for a color-blind server.

• A paid or voided tab leaves the floor, and the table shows Free again.
• A free cash register shows its banknote icon and Quick sale.
• With the Reservations add-on, a free table with a booking coming up shows a calendar icon with the booking's time and party size (only the time on small tables; the guest's name too on wide ones). Once the party is late, it turns amber and shows the time and how many minutes late, for example "9:00 PM · 12 min".
• Fill: a table with a tab fills with its server's floor color, when the server has one; otherwise with a light tint of the state's color. The outline always shows the state.
• Amount: Open and Sent tables show the tab's running total; a partly paid table shows what is still owed.
• Unsent count: a small number in the top-right corner (top left if the padlock is there) — how many drinks on the tab haven't been sent to the bar yet. It counts drinks, not lines, and voided lines don't count.
• Padlock: a gold padlock in the top-right corner means another iPad has this tab open right now. See One iPad per table.
• The table doesn't show the guest's or the server's name; those are inside the check.
• The back office's live view uses different colors for the same states.

Open a tab

Starts a new check on a free table, with how many guests sat down and, if you like, a name for the tab. You become its server.

1. Tap a free table. A card appears with the table's name (and its section, if it has one).
2. Under Guests, use − and + to set the number of guests, from 1 to 20. It starts at the table's number of seats.
3. If you like, type a name under Name (optional).
4. Tap Open tab. The check opens, ready for drinks. See Taking orders.
   • Cancel closes the card without opening anything.

• The guest count feeds the reports. You can correct it later — see Change the guests or the name.
• The check's header shows "T4 · Ana" with a name, or "T4 · 4 people" without one.
• If a table has more than 20 seats, the count starts above 20 and + is dimmed; you can still open the tab with that many guests.
• After the day is closed, tapping a free table shows "The day is closed. Start a new day on the PIN screen to continue." instead. See Signing in on the iPad.
• If opening fails, an Error alert says "Error creating order: …" with the reason.

Ring up a quick sale

1. Tap the free cash register (banknote icon, Quick sale). No card appears: the check opens at once with 1 guest and no name.
2. Ring up and charge as usual. See Taking payment.

Seat a booked party

A free table showing a booking opens the seating card instead. See Reservations.

Change the guests or the name

Corrects the guest count or the tab's name on an open check — a miscount at the door, or a name added later — without closing the table.

1. Open the table's check.
2. Tap Table ▾ at the top of the check, then Edit guests and name….
3. Change Guests with − and + (1 to 20), the Name (optional) field, or both.
4. Tap Save, or Cancel.

• Clearing the name removes it.
• If the tab was paid or closed on another iPad in the meantime: "This check was paid or closed on another terminal."

Find a tab

Every open tab sits on a table, so you find a tab by its table.

1. Look for the table, by name and position as in the room. Tables with a tab show their amount; the fill color shows whose tab it is.
2. Tap it to open the check. The header shows the table, the guest's name or the guest count, the server, when it was opened and the check's number.

• There is no tab search or tab list on the floor, and guest names aren't shown on the tables.
• Paid checks leave the floor. Managers find them in ··· › Check history. See Check history.
• Seated reservations can also be found through the reservations pill.
• Two tables can share a name. On the iPad only their position tells them apart, and the section only shows on the card that opens a tab.

Move a tab to another table

Moves a whole tab — every line, payment, discount, seat and the server — to a free table, when guests change tables. No manager PIN is needed.

1. Press and hold the table and choose Transfer to another table. (From inside the check: Table ▾ › Transfer to another table…, which takes you back to the floor.)
2. The banner at the top right reads "Moving T4 — tap a free table". Free tables get a dashed gold ring; the rest fade.
3. Tap the new table. The tab moves and the banner closes.
   • Cancel, in the banner, stops the move.

• Any open tab can move, including a partly paid one. The new table must be free; a cash register counts as a table.
• Nothing about the money changes. The check keeps its number, server, guests and name.
• Tapping a table that can't take the tab turns the banner red: "That table can't take them — tap a free table, or Cancel." With no free table anywhere: "No free tables."
• If two iPads send tabs to the same free table at the same moment, only one lands. The other sees "Could not transfer: That table was just taken — tap another."
• If the tab is paid or closed on another iPad while you are choosing, the move quietly cancels.
• Another iPad having the tab open doesn't block a transfer. That iPad stays on the check, now on its new table.
• You can't move a single drink to another table's check: move a seat, the whole tab, or merge. To move a drink between seats of the same check, see Taking orders.

Move one seat to another table

Peels one guest off a check: everything on that seat leaves for a new tab on a free table, and the rest of the party stays put. No manager PIN is needed. It is offered only when the check has lines on at least two different seats.

1. Press and hold the table and choose Move a seat… (or, from the check, Table ▾ › Move a seat…).
2. The card "Which seat is leaving?" lists each seat — for example Seat 2 with "3 items · $450.00", that seat's share of the bill, the same figure the payment screen would charge it. A drink discounted on a seat lowers only that seat's share.
3. Tap the seat. The banner reads "Moving seat 2 — tap a free table".
4. Tap a free table. The seat's lines open there as a new tab.

• Only that seat's lines move. Shared lines (on no seat) stay on the original check — the card says "Shared items stay on this check." Comped lines stay too.
• The new tab has the same server, 1 guest and no name, and the moved lines lose their seat number. It starts as Sent if any of the moved drinks had already been sent, so the bar is never asked to make them again.
• The original check's guest count goes down by 1 (never below 1). The seats left behind aren't renumbered.
• A percentage check discount applies to both checks. An amount discount stays on the original table: "The check discount stays on the original table."
• A partly paid check can't be split. The card says "This check is partly paid — settle it before moving a seat." and the seats are dimmed. A seat that has already paid shows "· Paid" and can't be picked.
• The same move can never happen twice, even if the iPad sends it again.

If the seat won't move

• "That seat has nothing on it." — the seat was emptied on another iPad.
• "That seat is the whole check — use Transfer to another table." — nothing else would be left.
• "Could not move the seat: Ana is editing this check — try again in a moment." — another iPad has the check open. There is no override for a seat move.
• "Could not move the seat: That table was just taken — tap another."

Merge two tables

Folds one table's check into another table's check when two parties join up. The check on the table you tap second survives — it keeps its number, table, server, name and discount — and the first table becomes free.

Who can do this: anyone, unless the venue requires a manager PIN for merges. Then a signed-in manager or admin merges directly, and anyone else is asked for a manager's PIN.

1. Press and hold the table whose guests are moving and choose Merge into another table… (from a check: Table ▾ › Merge into another table…).
2. The banner reads "Merging T4 — tap the table to join". Tables with a tab get the dashed gold ring.
3. Tap the table to join. If a manager PIN is needed, the Manager approval card shows "Merge T4 into T7" and a manager types their PIN.
4. The lines move and the first table becomes free.

• Every line moves, including comped lines; voided lines stay behind as history.
• Seats: the incoming seats are numbered after the highest seat on the surviving check, so they never mix with money already taken. Shared lines stay shared. More than 99 seats is refused: "Too many seats to merge into one check."
• Guests are added together. If any of the moved drinks had been sent, an Open survivor becomes Sent.
• Check discount: the survivor keeps its own. If it had none, it takes the merged check's. If both had one, the merged check's discount is dropped and the iPad says "The check discount on the old table was dropped."
• Sales: the merged lines count for the surviving check's server, in the Z's By Server section and in the Sales report.
• The check being folded in can't be partly paid: "This check is partly paid — settle it before merging." The surviving check can be.
• The same merge can never happen twice, even if the iPad sends it again. A merge can't be undone on the iPad.

If the merge doesn't go through

• "No table to join." — no other table has a tab.
• Tapping a table that can't take the merge — a free table, or the check's own — turns the banner red: "Can't join that table — tap another table with a tab, or Cancel."
• "That table is free now — use Transfer to another table." — the other table was settled a moment ago.
• "That table has nothing on it — close it instead." — the first check is empty.
• "Could not merge: Ana is editing this check — try again in a moment." — another iPad has one of the checks open. A signed-in manager or admin also gets a Table in use alert with Merge anyway, or Cancel.

Give a tab to another server

Hands an open tab to another staff member — at a section change or the end of a shift. The table's fill color changes to the new server's. No manager PIN is needed.

1. Press and hold the table and choose Assign to another server (from a check: Table ▾ › Assign to another server…).
2. The list shows every active staff member with their floor color. The current server has a check mark.
3. Tap the new server. Tapping the current one closes the list with no change, and so does Cancel.

• Reports that group by server — the Z's By Server section and Sales — put the whole check, including payments already taken, under the new server.
• If the tab was paid or closed in the meantime: "Could not reassign: This check was paid or closed on another terminal."

Close an empty table

Clears a tab opened by mistake, or emptied by voids, straight from the floor, without charging it. No manager PIN is needed.

1. Press and hold the table and tap Close empty table. It is offered only when the tab has nothing left on it. (The same button is inside the check — see Taking orders.)
2. The table becomes free.

• A tab emptied by voids, or never used, is closed with no money and no receipt, and who closed it is recorded.
• A tab whose lines were all comped closes as a $0 paid check instead, so the comp shows in the books as a comp. It prints a comp receipt when printing is on.
• "This table has items — charge or void them first." — a drink was added on another iPad in the meantime.
• "This table is no longer an empty open tab, so it was not closed." — it changed on another iPad.
• If two iPads close the same table at once, both end cleanly.

One iPad per table

Only one iPad works on a check at a time, so two people never add drinks to the same table at once. The iPad that opens a check holds it; other iPads see a padlock on that table and are told who has it.

If a table shows a padlock

1. Tap it. The Table in use alert says, for example, "Being edited by Ana."
2. Tap OK and wait for the other iPad to leave the check.
   • If you are a signed-in manager or admin, you can tap Take Over to open it here instead. The other iPad goes back to its floor.

If your check is taken over

1. The Table taken over alert appears: "This table is now open on another iPad.", "Ana took this table." or "Another iPad took control of this table."
2. Tap OK. You are back on the floor. Nothing you had already added is lost.

How the hold works

• The hold is labelled with the first word of the signed-in person's name, or the iPad's name.
• Leaving the check lets go of it. An iPad that crashes or is switched off frees its table by itself within about 25 seconds. For a few seconds more the padlock may still show, but tapping the table opens the check.
• The hold never blocks a payment. Moving a seat and merging respect it; moving the whole tab and changing the server don't.
• The same iPad going back into its own table walks straight in.
• A network blip never throws you out of a check — only a clear answer that another iPad has it.
• An iPad left on a check holds that table for as long as it stays there and awake. Automatic sign-out ends a forgotten hold. See Signing in on the iPad.
• Take Over is only for a manager or admin signed in on that iPad; there is no PIN route for anyone else.

Alerts that send you back to the floor

When the check you are on stops existing for you, the iPad says so in one alert and takes you back to the floor. Other failures use the same alert, titled Error.

• Tab closed — "This check was paid or closed on another terminal." The check was paid, voided or merged into another table on another iPad. Settling, closing or merging it on your own iPad doesn't raise it.
• Table taken over — another iPad took the check. See One iPad per table.
• Error — anything else that failed, for example "Failed to load orders: …". OK leaves you where you are.

Only one alert shows at a time, the most important first (Tab closed, then Table taken over, then Error); the next appears after OK. A payment window that was open on a check closed elsewhere is closed for you, so the alert is never hidden behind it.

Floor banners

Conditions that affect everything you do — the day is closed, the iPad is offline, a printer didn't answer — show as a banner over the top of the floor rather than an alert, so the room never moves under your finger.

• Day closed: "The day is closed. Start a new day on the PIN screen to continue." It also shows at the top of a check. Sign out and start the day — see Signing in on the iPad. While it shows, it takes the offline banner's place.
• Offline: "Offline — payments are paused until the connection is back." (gray, with a Wi-Fi icon). Check the network; charging comes back on its own. See Taking payment.
• Printer: for example "The receipt did not print — the printer Bar is not responding." (or the bill, a station ticket, the drawer or the Z), with Retry and Skip. It floats above every card, sits a little lower while the day-closed banner shows, and goes by itself after about 8 seconds. The amber printer warning in the top bar stays until that printer answers again. See Printing and receipts.

Related

• Taking orders
• Taking payment
• Tables and floor plan
• Reservations
• Signing in on the iPad