Setting up your restaurant

Do these in order. Steps 1–7 are in the Back Office; steps 8–10 are on a terminal.

3.1 Server and tenant

Your Aura server hosts one or more tenants (businesses). You'll be given a server URL and an admin login (email + password + tenant id). Demo installs seed a sample Cape Town restaurant (demo-cape-town) so you can explore before entering real data. Installers: the full server configuration reference (payment keys, WhatsApp, email) is in Appendix C.

3.2 Tax rates

Back Office → Settings → Tax rates. Create your VAT rates. South African restaurant meals are standard-rated at 15% — set that as the default. Add a zero-rated entry only for genuinely zero-rated items. Prices in Aura are always VAT-inclusive.

3.3 Categories, products and modifiers

Back Office → Menu.

Create categories (Starters, Mains, Bar…) with a colour, a course type, and optionally a prep station — course type drives coursing, and the prep station routes every product in the category to the right KDS screen/printer.
Create products: name, price, cost (for margin %), VAT type, category, course, and optionally an emoji, image URL, description, SKU, and barcode. Tick Track stock for counted items.
Tag allergens on each product — pick from the 14 major allergens (gluten, nuts, shellfish…). Allergens show on the QR menu, on kitchen tickets (highlighted red), and in the Back Office.
Build modifier groups (e.g. "Cooking temperature", min 1 / max 1, required or multi-select) with options and price deltas, then attach them to the products that use them.

You can also import your existing menu from a Lightspeed, Tebi, or Pilot CSV export: Menu → Import CSV → pick the source → preview → commit.

3.4 Prep stations (kitchen routing)

Back Office → Prep stations. Create the stations your kitchen actually runs (Hot, Bar, Pastry, Grill…). Each station becomes a filter chip on the KDS. Optionally give a station a prep printer IP (port 9100 by default) — then every ticket fired to that station also prints on paper. Leave the printer blank for KDS-only. If you configure no stations at all, Aura falls back to automatic routing (drinks → Bar, desserts → Pastry, everything else → Hot).

3.5 Zones and tables

Back Office → Tables (or the terminal's arrange mode — see §6.5). Add your zones (Patio, Main, Bar…), then tables with a label, seat count, zone, and shape. Table labels must be unique within a location — guests' QR orders are routed by table label.

For online bookings, mark tables Bookable online and set each one's min/max party size. Define table groups for tables that push together for large parties. Optionally upload a floor-plan photo per zone (desktop Back Office only, max 700KB) so the terminal draws tables over a picture of the real room.

3.6 Staff and PINs

Back Office → People → New staff. Enter name, role (see the permissions matrix), and a 4–8 digit PIN. Set hourly rate and a colour if you use them. You can only create staff at or below your own role. Deactivating a leaver disables their PIN everywhere on the next sync. PINs are stored as salted hashes — nobody can read them back.

3.7 Suppliers (optional)

Back Office → Tools. Add suppliers (contact, payment terms, VAT number) so you can raise purchase orders and receive stock. Received POs feed input VAT on your VAT201.

3.8 Terminal settings

On each terminal: Settings (manager PIN required). Everything a device needs lives here:

Setting	What it does	Default
API URL	Your Aura server. Applied immediately on save.	Built-in cloud server
Location id	Which location this device belongs to.	`loc-main`
Printer host / IP	Network ESC/POS receipt printer. Blank = no printer.	blank
Printer port	Printer's raw TCP port.	9100
Course firing for new orders	All at once / Manual / Sequential / Hybrid — see §6.3.	All at once
Ask for guest count when seating	Prompt for covers, or skip straight to the order (counter-style venues). Covers feed per-seat ordering, by-seat splits, and the covers report.	Ask covers
Preferred payment method	Preselected on the payment sheet so the everyday charge is one tap.	Cash
Card capture (Yoco)	Card machine (take the card on the physical Yoco terminal) or Pay by link (the POS creates a Yoco checkout link the guest pays on their own device; the bill closes when Yoco confirms). Pay by link is online-only and needs the order open on the server (table/tab).	Card machine
Tip options (%)	Up to four comma-separated tip percentages shown on card/QR tenders. "No tip" is always offered too.	10, 12.5, 15

Printer changes take effect after the app restarts. Server and location changes apply immediately.

3.9 Table QR codes

Generate a QR code per table from Back Office → Tables → Print QR codes (per-table PNGs or one printable sheet — desktop Back Office; the browser version shows the links to copy). Codes point at https://<your-server>/order/?loc=<location>&table=<table>. Print them on table tents. See §14 for takeaway, kiosk, and booking links.

3.10 Payments, WhatsApp and email (optional)

Your installer sets provider keys (Yoco / SnapScan / Zapper), WhatsApp Cloud API credentials (receipts + booking confirmations), and Mailjet email credentials (checklist summary emails) as server environment variables — the full list is in Appendix C. Nothing breaks when these are unset: WhatsApp sends quietly no-op, QR payment falls back to "pay at the counter", and emails report "not configured".

3.11 Ring your first sale

On a terminal: Sale → add a product → Pay → Cash → tender → done. Then Cash → Clock out → Z-report to confirm the full loop, including the ledger.