Restaurant & POS glossary

Point of sale (POS)

A point of sale is the screen and software that record a customer's order, calculate the total and tax, take payment and print the receipt. In restaurants it also links the order to the kitchen and to inventory.

Offline-capable POS

An offline-capable POS keeps recording the order, calculating the total, printing the receipt and sending it to the kitchen even when the network is down, then uploads everything automatically when the connection returns.

Kitchen display system (KDS)

A kitchen display system shows orders on a screen in the kitchen instead of paper tickets. Each item appears the moment the cashier confirms it, with notes and add-ons, and is marked “ready” when it is done.

QR menu

A QR menu is a code the customer scans with their phone camera to open the menu as a web page instead of a paper menu. It can be updated instantly and linked to a WhatsApp order.

ESC/POS

ESC/POS is a command set that software uses to talk to thermal receipt printers and cash drawers. The common way to open the drawer is an electrical pulse the system sends through the printer.

Thermal printer

A thermal receipt printer prints with heat on special paper with no ink. It is fast, cheap to run, and usually supports ESC/POS commands for printing and opening the drawer.

Cash drawer

A cash drawer is a box that opens electrically when a cash sale is completed. It usually connects to an RJ11 port on the receipt printer, and the system opens it with an ESC/POS command.

E-invoicing

E-invoicing means issuing invoices and sending their data immediately to the tax authority's system in a standard format, instead of a paper invoice or a manually emailed PDF.

JoFotara

JoFotara is Jordan's national e-invoicing platform, run by the Income and Sales Tax Department. The system submits each invoice's data to it and receives an official identifier and QR code.

Void

A void reverses a confirmed item or invoice. In a proper system the record is not deleted: a reversing entry is posted with a reason, and the invoice and its number stay visible for audit.

Shift report / cash-up

A shift report summarises what happened during a cashier's shift: total sales, expected vs. counted cash, voided invoices, discounts and drawer opens.

Food cost

Food cost is the value of ingredients used divided by sales, as a percentage. Example: 3,000 of ingredients on 10,000 of sales = 30%.

Prime cost

Prime cost is food cost plus labour cost, as a percentage of sales. It is considered the most important operating number in a restaurant because it combines the two largest variable expenses.

Break-even point

The break-even point is the sales volume at which revenue equals all costs, so there is no profit and no loss. It is fixed costs divided by the contribution margin per order.

Recipe costing

Recipe costing works out a menu item's cost from its ingredients, quantities and purchase prices, so you know the cost per portion and its food-cost percentage.

Table turnover

Table turnover is how many times a single table is seated during a service period. Higher turnover means more sales from the same floor space.

Multi-branch

Multi-branch means running more than one location from one account: menu, prices and inventory per branch, and reports either consolidated or per branch.