This article is part of a series of articles on point of sale (POS) devices used in retail. The previous article is “What is Lightspeed?”.
Admittedly, the primary source used for this article is for systems rolled out in the USA. However, the basic principles really do still apply — the buttons are essentially the same for UK and other systems.
To split a check is to divide a set of products amongst multiple payment methods. This means that different people can pay for different products. For example, one person can buy 1 beer and another person buys the other three beers.
To split a check, you click on “Zonal Options” and then “split check”.
Once you click on “Zonal Options”, there are various things which you might want to do, but only occasionally. Most of these capabilities are things which managers ought to be capable of doing — they have a padlock icon in the top right corner.
Let’s explore some of these buttons briefly. In the image above, you can see a button which says “Recall Check”. To recall means to bring something to mind, but in this situation means simply to “bring back” such as in “Parliament is being recalled”. So, to recall a check is to bring a check back. But what this button does exactly is not clear. Does it allow you to look at a check that was paid previously? Or is this button for refunding a check which has been paid?
Another button (with a blue colour) says “Open Drawer”. Presumably this button allows the drawer which contains metal coins and bank notes to be opened. Usually, this drawer opens automatically when change must be given to a customer. That is, an employee cannot usually open this drawer whenever they want to (for obvious reasons). So, this button must be for exceptional circumstances. It has a padlock on it.
Another button says “86 mode”. The term “eighty six” in the context of restaurants has a special meaning. The term is commonly used as a verb: eight six it. To eight six a menu item is to declare that it is no longer available. Or, you might eighty six a customer. To do this is to evict the customer. This infamous clip from the TV series Kitchen Nightmares depicts a manager who eighty-sixes the steaks, the french fries and several other menu items. The steaks are thrown in the bin.
So what does “86 mode” do? Perhaps it allows the manager to remove various items from the till. We don’t know because Zonal have no User Guide available on the Internet.
What about “Transfer Ownership”? What are we transferring ownership of? Perhaps it is ownership of a customer’s order.
Anyhow, the button we want to select is “Split Check”. Immediately, you are brought to this array of virtual checks:
You can then use this screen to transfer an item from one virtual cheque to another. You simply click on the item in the place it is currently positioned. Then, you click in its desired destination. When you click the second time, the item will appear in the destination like magic.
When you select an item, its text changes colour. It becomes yellow in this example. Below, you can see that the “Bottled Water” item has been selected. It is the only item in yellow.
As soon as you have selected an item, the red button “SPLIT ITEM” will become available to use. It will cease to be “greyed out”.
Now, you might think that if you press this button, then the selected item will move to a different virtual cheque. But this is not quite correct.
If you select “SPLIT ITEM”, then you can distribute the item across virtual cheques. This is helpful if two persons want to each pay half of the price of a coffee, say.
Pay attention here because we are not talking about splitting items across persons, with the items remaining intact. We are talking about splitting individual items.
You click the “SPLIT ITEM” button and then you select the first virtual cheque, and then the second virtual cheque, and so on. It is as if there is a period of time in which you are in split item mode.
If someone is paying for a third of the price of something, they will have a third of a cappuccino listed on their virtual cheque. So, instead of saying 1 cappuccino, it will say 1/3 cappuccino.
Third of a Cappuccino
Take a look at the image below. The cappuccino has been split across three virtual cheques.
There are three items in yellow because the Cappuccino product is selected. Each of the three yellow items constitute the Cappuccino product.
Remember that this general principles still applies: in order to remove an item from a virtual cheque, you simply tap the item. To remove a third of a cappuccino from a virtual cheque, just tap the item.
For example, look at the image above. We have a single cappuccino split across three virtual cheques. You want to ensure that Check 1 does not pay anything for a cappuccino, let’s suppose.
Well, to achieve this, tap on the item in Check 1. We would then have a situation in which the cappuccino is distributed across two virtual cheques (Check 2 and 3). See the image below.
Notice how the cappuccino is now distributed amongst just two virtual cheques.
Let’s summarise what happened. To begin with, the cappuccino was entirely on the leftmost cheque. Then, we “split” the cappuccino into three by entering Split Item mode (using the red button). Finally, we removed the cappuccino from the cheque that it was initially on.
Remember that you will need to exit the Split Item mode. To do this, you simply press the “Split Item” button once more.
The Next Button
At the bottom of the screen, there is a green button. On it, an angle bracket which points to the right. What is this button for?
Well, this button is for moving to the next page. It is for moving to the next page, which shows even more virtual cheques. You see, in the image above, we can only see three virtual cheques. But perhaps we want seven virtual cheques. Well, we can use this green button to make use of seven virtual cheques, or however virtual cheques we want to use.
In the image below, we can see that one virtual cheque is labelled “Check 4” and another “Check 5”.
Notice how the second page does not show Checks 4, 5, and 6. Although we do see Check 4 and 5, we do not see Check 6.
This is because the space is taken up by Check 1; the software chooses to keep Check 1 always in view, as if pinned to the top.
Why is this? Well, it’s because it is likely that we start with some initial check (at Check 1) and transfers items to other checks. And in order to make a transfer (as we have seen) both cheques need to be visible on the sscreen at the same time.
The chances that you want to transfer items from Check 1 to Checks 4 or 5 are higher than the chances that you want to transfer from, say, Check 4 to Check 5. So, there is a benefit to keeping the first virtual cheque pinned at the top as you scroll through the pages. This is good design.
To go to the previous page of virtual cheques, use the arrow which points to the left.
Note on Terminology
Notice what’s going on here. We have separate units. Each unit I have called a Virtual Cheque. There is something which unites all these units. They are not, after all, simply different accounts. Perhaps the units have in common the fact that they are all going to be paid by people around the same physical wooden table, over in the corner of the restaurant. These guests, perhaps for Mary’s 40th birthday party, have four Virtual Cheques set up.
In the image above, we can see that there is a table called Table 63. If you select this, then you access all of the virtual cheques for this table.
Once you click on Mary’s table, you are shown three icons. The icons are pieces of paper. Each represents a Virtual Cheque.
You can then print individual cheques or pay individual cheques or add items to these individual cheques.
To do so, first select the cheque, then specify what you want to do. When you select the cheque, a tick will appear.
