01 — Overview
On a busy evening, a restaurant has only a few minutes for each order to go from the table to the kitchen, and from the kitchen back to the table. A slip that reaches the wrong counter, a bill that is added up wrong, or a dish that cannot be made because the stock has run out can spoil a guest's evening.
A family restaurant with a mixed menu, dine-in tables, takeaway and delivery orders was working with paper slips and a basic billing machine. The kitchen heard orders by shouting, bills were split by hand, and stock was counted only when something ran out.
The restaurant moved to cloudeDhaba, our restaurant and dhaba management platform. Orders now reach the right kitchen station, bills come out GST-ready, and raw material goes down as dishes go out.
02 — The Challenge
A fast floor, but orders, bills and stock did not talk to each other
The staff worked hard, but the tools did not keep up with the rush. The main difficulties were:
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Paper slips reached the wrong station, or reached it late
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Moving a table, merging two bills or holding a bill was done by hand
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Menu changes such as variants, add-ons, combos and time-based menus were hard to keep correct
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GST bills, split bills, discounts and service charge were calculated manually at the counter
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Raw material was found short only when a dish could not be made
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Online and QR orders arrived on different screens
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When the internet dropped, billing stopped
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Cash at the end of a cashier's shift often did not match
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Wastage and cancelled items were not recorded
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The owner saw the day's results only after long hand-checking
03 — The Solution
A point of sale that runs the floor and the kitchen together
We set up the point of sale, kitchen tickets, billing and inventory first. Multi-outlet control, QR self-order and loyalty can be added when the restaurant is ready. For the demo, the restaurant's own menu card was loaded, so the team could punch a real order and print a real bill.
Key highlights
- ✓A live table layout, with dine-in, takeaway and delivery orders on one screen
- ✓Order punching with table transfer, item merge, hold bills and quick keys
- ✓Kitchen order tickets printed or shown at the right station, such as tandoor, chinese or bar
- ✓Preparation status and order-ready alerts
- ✓A menu with categories, variants, add-ons, combos and time-based menus
- ✓GST billing with split bills, discounts, service charge and tax invoices
- ✓Cash, card, UPI, split and part payments, with cash matched at the close of the day
- ✓Recipe-based stock, so ingredients go down as dishes are sold
- ✓Vendors, purchase entries and physical stock audit
- ✓Waiter-wise sales, cashier shifts and role-based screen access
- ✓Online and QR menu orders in the same order queue
- ✓Day-end reports for sales by item, hour and payment mode, plus wastage and cancelled-item tracking
- ✓Works with standard thermal printers and cash drawers
- ✓Billing that continues if the internet drops, and syncs when it returns
- ✓Central menu and pricing control for several outlets
- ✓Customer database, repeat-visit offers and bill messages by SMS or WhatsApp
04 — Our Approach
What We Did Differently
01
Billing does not stop when the internet does
cloudeDhaba keeps working offline and syncs when the connection returns, so a busy night is never held up by a network problem.
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Stock goes down as the dishes go out
Each dish is linked to its ingredients. When a plate is sold, the raw material falls on its own, and the owner can see what is running low before the kitchen does.
03
We loaded the restaurant's own menu for the demo
The team could punch a real order from their own menu and print a real bill, which made it easy to judge whether it suited their kitchen.
04
Guests can order from the table
A QR code on the table opens the live menu and sends the order straight to the kitchen.
05 — The Impact
From a shouting kitchen to a calm one
Orders now reach the right station on their own, bills are ready for GST, and the owner sees the day's results at closing time without hand-checking.
- ✓Every order sent to the right kitchen station
- ✓GST-ready bills with split, part and mixed payments
- ✓Raw material that goes down as dishes sell
- ✓Billing that continues offline and syncs later
- ✓Day-end reports by item, hour and payment mode
- ✓Wastage and cancelled items recorded
- ✓Cash matched at the end of each shift
What's next
With the base in place, the restaurant can add QR self-order and loyalty offers, and bring a second outlet under the same menu and pricing.
