Takeaway, ordered ahead

THE ARGUMENT, IN ONE LINE. A delivery app takes twenty to thirty per cent of that order. CyprusBites takes nothing. The customer pays you directly, at your counter, in full. There is no card payment on this platform to take a cut from, which is why the cut cannot creep back in later.

HOW AN ORDER MOVES. It arrives pending. You ACCEPT it with a prep band and the guest is told "ready in about so many minutes, by this time, show your QR to collect". You press READY when it is bagged and they are told. You SCAN their code when they walk in, and it is collected. Or you DECLINE it, with a reason if you want, and they are shown somewhere else so they are not left with nothing.

PREP TIME IS THREE CHOICES, NOT A TEXT BOX. About ten minutes, about fifteen, about twenty five. Three buttons on a busy counter beats a number field every time.

ONLY WHILE YOU ARE OPEN. Takeaway follows the opening hours on your listing, so nobody orders from a closed kitchen. Want breakfast ordered the night before? Switch on Order ahead for a time and guests pick a slot inside your hours. And there is a PAUSE for when the kitchen is slammed, which is the button you will actually use.

IF YOU DO NOT ANSWER, we help and then we are honest. Halfway through the window your phone is pushed, with the time we will give up at. If nobody answers by then the order expires and the member is offered somewhere else. One SMS only, at order time, so this never becomes expensive.

RACES CANNOT CORRUPT IT. Every change carries the state it was read against, so a guest cancelling at the same moment you accept cannot leave you cooking a cancelled order.

THE KITCHEN SEES IT TOO. An accepted order prints its ticket with the code alone, as big as the printer goes, and stands on the kitchen board under the same code with one Ready, which your crew can press as well as you.