The best time to connect restaurant systems is before teams invent workarounds between them. Design technology around the guest and order journey, then verify every physical and operational handoff.
Ask vendors to show the workflow, state the limitation, and explain who owns recovery. A clear “not yet” is more useful than a vague “yes.”
1. Draw the guest journey
Map discovery, booking, arrival, waitlist, seating, ordering, kitchen, payment, receipt, feedback, and return. Name the system and person responsible at every handoff.
2. Build the menu as an operational model
Define groups, items, modifiers, pricing, taxes, service charges, availability, kitchen labels, prep stations, recipes, retail attributes, and when each menu is visible.
3. Design the room and routing
Place registers, readers, printers, displays, network access points, cash drawers, charging locations, and cable paths on the actual floor plan. Map every item to its intended destination.
4. Define roles and approvals
Create employee jobs, permissions, location access, manager approvals, clock-in rules, tip policy, cash ownership, and server checkout expectations before training begins.
5. Choose the reports that run the business
Identify daily sales, payments, cash, labor, menu, kitchen, guest, reservation, and inventory decisions. Confirm how each report is produced and who reviews it.
6. Rehearse before friends-and-family
Run complete shifts with realistic orders and errors. Test every payment type, modifier path, course, void, refund, transfer, 86, receipt, printer, cash action, and closeout.
7. Open with an escalation map
Everyone should know who owns product, payment, hardware, network, menu, and operational decisions. Document stop conditions and fallbacks before the first guest arrives.
Request a Trellis demo and bring the scenarios that matter most to your restaurant.