Key points
- Every order starts as "awaiting approval". Nothing reaches the kitchen until your team approves it.
- Pickup orders cannot be handed over until a cashier has recorded the cash and the change.
- Cash on delivery is recorded when the driver's order is marked delivered.
- Unapproved orders expire on their own and release everything they were holding.
1. The customer places the order
Customers order from your website or app, for pickup or delivery. The branch must be open for orders: the open/close switch in the console decides that, not just the published hours.
- Every order carries a recent location from the customer's phone, shared with their consent (see the article on verified locations).
- Each order is sent with a unique key, so a tap repeated on a weak connection cannot create a second order.
- Customers you have blocked cannot place new orders.
The order gets a short public number, made of three letters from your restaurant's link and ten characters, for example ZAA-4F2A9C51D0. Pickup orders also get a QR code. Only a protected fingerprint of the code is stored on the server.
2. Your team approves it
New orders appear in the console as "awaiting approval". Staff with permission to update orders approve them. Approval is the point where stock is committed and any coupon or points discount on the order is confirmed.
Before approval the customer can cancel the order themselves. After approval they need to contact the restaurant. Staff can cancel any order that is not yet closed; if it was already paid, they must confirm that the cash was refunded, and any points earned are reversed.
3. The kitchen prepares it
Only approved orders reach the kitchen display. The kitchen moves them from new to preparing to ready, and the console and the customer's order page update with each step.
4. Cash at the counter, for pickup
- The cashier finds the order by its number. Typing "#", spaces or Arabic digits is fine.
- The console shows the amount due, the items and the order's location, and asks how much cash was received.
- The change is calculated as the cashier types and shown before confirming.
- The cashier confirms only after actually receiving the cash.
Behind the confirmation are several checks. The confirmation is tied to the exact version and amount of the order the cashier opened, so if the order changed in the meantime it has to be opened again. The cash received must cover the total, and the same confirmation cannot be recorded twice.
A pickup order cannot be marked collected until its cash is recorded. Handing over food without payment is not possible in the system.
Cash on delivery
Delivery orders go from ready to out for delivery, then to delivered. Marking an unpaid delivery as delivered records the cash payment at the same time, and that step needs the same cash permission a cashier has.
From the order card, staff can send the delivery details to a driver on WhatsApp: the address, notes, a map link and the customer's phone. The customer is notified when the order is out for delivery.
Orders that are never approved or paid
- A pickup order that is still unpaid and unapproved expires when its payment window ends. Each branch sets that window, between 5 and 240 minutes (60 by default).
- A delivery order that is not approved within 24 hours expires.
- An expired order releases its reserved stock, coupon, wheel or Joker reward and any points it was using, and the customer is told they can order again.
A record of every step
Every status change is stored with who made it and why, and every cash confirmation is stored with the amount, the cash received, the change and the cashier. These records are append-only: the database refuses to edit or delete them.
SCALE Order does not take online card payments. Customers pay cash at the branch or on delivery.