Going live in one day: the honest first-day setup

“Same-day go-live” is true for a specific, small definition of live: a guest can order, pay and leave with a receipt, and the kitchen can see the ticket. It is not true if you try to finish HR, loyalty, white-label apps and a year of recipes before lunch.

Here is the order that actually fits in a day.

Morning: identity, tax, menu

The onboarding wizard exists to stop you inventing an order. Follow it.

1. Account and branch. Name, address, currency. The currency is the one the till will speak forever — pick it once.
2. Tax and service charge. Rate, inclusive or exclusive, registration number on the receipt. Ring a test item before you type the whole menu. If that receipt is wrong, every later one will be.
3. Categories, then items. Twenty dishes that sell beat sixty that might. Sizes and modifiers on the items that actually have them — not on everything “in case”.
4. One image per section, or none. A half-photographed menu looks unfinished. Finish photos later.

Skip recipes this morning if they are not written. You can sell without a bill of materials. You cannot sell with yesterday’s prices.

Midday: people and the till

• You as Admin. One login that owns the account.
• One cashier login, named after a person, never “cashier1”.
• One kitchen login if you are turning the kitchen screen on today; otherwise the till is enough and the tickets print.

Install the POS on the tablet you will actually use, not on a laptop you will put away. Pair or address the printer. Print one ticket and open the drawer. If that fails, nothing else you configure today matters.

Hardware, in this order: one tablet, one printer, then the rest.

Afternoon: one real service

Do not open the doors to a full room. Take ten real orders — staff meal, a neighbour, a quiet first hour.

Watch for the only things that break a first day:

Fix those four and you are live. Everything else is week two.

What you should not do today

• Do not build the branded app. Store review is a week, not an afternoon. A web ordering page and a QR menu cover the same flow with nothing to install.
• Do not import last year’s spreadsheet of 400 items. Type the twenty you will sell tonight. The rest can wait until they have a recipe and a price you still believe.
• Do not create a second Admin “for convenience”. You will not remember who changed the carbonara.
• Do not turn on every module. Attendance, loyalty and the spin wheel are not what a guest is waiting for at 7 p.m.

A close that proves the day worked

Before you leave:

1. Close the cashier shift and count the drawer. Enter the real number.
2. Look at today’s orders. Every test ticket should be there once — not twice.
3. Write down the two things that confused staff. Those are tomorrow’s training, not a reason to undo the setup.

Live, on day one, is a restaurant that took money and can explain it. The operating system is still there in the morning. Fill it in then.