srv-food POS — Menu & Onboarding

Phone—

The one metric

Time to first order is the acceptance criterion (FD-ONB-2), so it is on screen throughout — a step bar during setup, and a real figure at the end. If a vendor cannot sell something on day one they go back to a notebook and do not come back.

Onboarding is on a phone, menu management on a tablet. A vendor signs up with what is in their hand, and may not own a tablet until they buy one. Screen 7 is where the tablet enters the story.

Menu entry is the barrier

Nobody types 40 items on a phone before their first sale. This is the single largest adoption risk in the whole product, and it is the reason FD-ONB-4 exists.

Three ways in, ordered by effort: photograph the board, start from a template for the vendor type, or type it. The photo path is first because Lagos menus are printed boards and handwritten lists — the data already exists, on a wall.

The extraction is drawn as imperfect on purpose. Screen 5 shows 9 of 11 items confident and 2 flagged for checking — a smudged price and an ambiguous line. A demo that shows perfect extraction is lying, and the design has to carry the error case as the normal case.

Prices are the risk, not names. A wrong name is embarrassing; a wrong price is money. So low-confidence prices block the finish, low-confidence names do not.

Untested assumption: that lib-llm reads a photographed Nigerian menu board well enough for this to beat typing. If it does not, the whole path collapses to the template. Worth a spike before committing.

Deliberately deferred

Inventory is skippable (FD-INV-23) and screen 8 says so out loud. Forcing stock setup before the first sale would kill the metric in note 1. It is offered later, from the menu screen.

Extras and combos are not part of first-run. A vendor can sell a wrap without modelling "extra cheese"; making them do it up front is the same mistake as inventory.

Menu management

Availability is a toggle in the list, not inside the edit screen. Running out is a daily event; changing a price is a rare one. The frequent action gets the shallower path.

Price changes name their blast radius (screen 13). Orders already placed keep the old price — that is FD-CORE-1's snapshot made visible. Without saying so, a vendor raising a price mid-service assumes it applies to the queue.

FD-LOC-7 is open and screen 14 is the decision. Drawn as: one menu for the vendor, prices overridable per kitchen. Mall rent is not roadside rent. The alternative — fully separate menus — doubles the maintenance a vendor signed up to avoid.

Publish is explicit, not autosave. Menu is server-authoritative under ADR 0004 and counters hold a read-only replica, so a half-edited menu must never reach one mid-rush.

Screen 16: publishing while a terminal is offline. Menu publish is in the must-be-online set (ADR 0006), so a counter with no internet keeps trading on its old prices and says so. Honest, and slightly alarming — a vendor could raise prices and still sell at yesterday's rate for an hour.

Words we use

This prototype shipped with "till" in it — the same mistake as "86" and "bump" in the kitchen one, one prototype after writing a note about it. "Till" is British retail for a cash register. It also contradicted our own naming: the pairing screen calls that device a Counter.

Fixed to counter throughout. The lesson is that a one-off correction does not hold — it needs a word list checked before each prototype ships, not good intentions.

Agreed words so far: counter (not till/POS/register), done (not bump), sold out (not 86), bring back (not recall), day (not shift, to the vendor), code (not PIN/passcode). Anything a first-shift hire would have to be taught is wrong.

Still open

No screen for translating menu items (FD-I18N-1). Pidgin item names were specified and are undrawn.

No photo per item flow. The counter grid shows thumbnails; nobody has drawn the vendor supplying 40 of them, which is its own adoption cliff.

Set up

Step 1 of 6

What do people call your place?

This is the name customers see on their receipt.

Business name

Mama Cee Suya

Your phone

0803 •••• 268

Email (not required)

Skip if you don't use one

✓

No email needed. We'll text you a code.

Set up

Step 2 of 6

Where do you cook?

You can add another place later — takings stay separate but you'll see them together.

Name this kitchen

Allen Ave

Address

14 Allen Avenue, Ikeja

Open

Mon–Sat · 11:00 – 22:30

Day ends at

4:00 am

Sales after midnight count for the day before, up to 4am. Change it if you close earlier.

Set up

Step 3 of 6

Let's get your menu in

Pick whichever is easiest. You can fix anything after.

📷

Take a photo of your board Fastest

Point your phone at your price list. We'll read it and you check it.

🍢

Start from a suya & shawarma list

A ready-made menu you edit. Good if your board is not to hand.

⌨️

Type them in myself

Fine for a short menu.

Reading your board

Working…

MAMA CEE SUYA
——————————
CHICKEN SHAWARMA ... 2500
BEEF SHAWARMA ..... 2800
DOUBLE CHICKEN .... 4000
SUYA RAM .......... 3000
SUYA CHICKEN ...... 2600
KILISHI PACK ...... 3500
YAM CHIPS ......... 1200
COLESLAW .......... 700
GIZZARD ........... 22oo
COKE 50CL ......... 800
ZOBO .............. 6OO

Found 11 things

Two need a second look — the ink is smudged. Everything else looks clear.

✓

Nothing is saved until you say so.

Check the prices

2 to fix

Check these two first. A wrong price costs you money every single day.

Peppered Gizzardcheck₦2,?00

Zobo 50clcheck₦6,00?

Chicken Shawarmaclear₦2,500

Beef Shawarmaclear₦2,800

Double Chickenclear₦4,000

Suya — Ramclear₦3,000

Suya — Chickenclear₦2,600

Kilishi Packclear₦3,500

Yam Chipsclear₦1,200

Set up

Step 4 of 6

Who works the counter?

Each person gets a 4-digit code. It's how you know who took what.

Blessing

Counter · code set

✓

Tunde

Kitchen · code set

✓

You (Musa)

Manager · can cancel & close the day

✓

You can add or remove people any time. Removing someone stops their code working straight away.

Set up

Step 5 of 6

Connect your counter tablet

On the tablet, open the app and type this code. It only works once.

4 9 2 7

Expires in 9:41

This tablet will be

Counter · Allen Ave

If a tablet is lost or stolen you can cut it off from here — without changing anyone's code.

Set up

Step 6 of 6

That's enough to start selling

These can wait. Most places turn them on after a week or two.

📦

Track your stock

Know how much chicken is left and what got thrown away. Needs a bit of setting up.

➕

Extras and combos

Extra cheese, no onion, meal deals.

🖨️

Kitchen printer

A paper backup for when the internet drops.

✓

You can start now and add these later from the menu screen.

Ready

● Live

🎉

Mama Cee Suya is open

11 things on the menu · 3 people · 1 tablet connected

Set up in

9 min

From signing up to being able to take money.

Take one real order now, even a small one — it's the only way to know it all works.

Mama Cee Suya · Allen Ave

3 changes not sent

Popular 6

Shawarma 4

Suya 3

Sides 3

Drinks 3

+ New group

Popular

🌯

Chicken Shawarma

Ready in ~6 min · 4 extras

₦2,500

🌯

Double Chicken

Sold out — kitchen, 18:40

₦4,000

🍢

Suya — Ram

Ready in ~9 min

₦3,000

🍢

Suya — Chicken

Ready in ~8 min

₦2,600

🍟

Yam Chips

Ready in ~4 min

₦1,200

🥤

Coke 50cl

No cooking

₦800

This menu

Things you sell19

Sold out now1

No photo yet12

Not sent yet

Yam Chips price
Coleslaw renamed
Zobo added

Chicken Shawarma

Popular · Shawarma

🌯

Name

Chicken Shawarma

Price

₦2,500

Ready in

6 min

Description (not required)

Customers rarely read this. Leave it if you're busy.

Group

Shawarma

Also show in

Popular

Ready in 6 min is what tells a customer how long to wait. Guessing low makes people angry — guess high.

On sale now

Yes — customers can order it

Extras for this

Extra chicken+₦1,000

Extra cheese+₦500

Sausage+₦400

Sold today

Your best seller

What's finished?

Turn things off as they run out

1 off

Everything you sellTap to turn off

🌯

Chicken Shawarma

🌯

Double Chicken

Off · turned off by Tunde 18:40

🌯

Beef Shawarma

🍢

Suya — Ram

🍢

Kilishi Pack

🥗

Coleslaw

✓

Turning something off here reaches the counter straight away. The kitchen can do it too, from their screen.

Comes back on

Most places forget to turn things back on. Tomorrow morning is the safer choice.

Change a price

Chicken Shawarma

Now

₦2,500

→

New

₦2,800

The 4 orders already waiting keep the old price. People were told ₦2,500 and that is what they pay. Only new orders use ₦2,800.

✓

Nothing changes at the counter until you send it.

What it means

Sold today64

At the old price₦160,000

Same amount, new price₦179,200

Last changed

₦2,200 → ₦2,500
by Musa · 2 Jun

Prices by place

2 kitchens

Open decision · FD-LOC-7

One menu, different prices where you need them

Everything is the same in both places unless you change it. Mall rent is not roadside rent.

ItemAllen AveIkeja Mall

Chicken Shawarma₦2,500₦3,200

Suya — Ram₦3,000same

Coke 50cl₦800₦1,000

Kilishi Pack₦3,500not sold here

Still to decide. Drawn as one menu with price overrides. The other option is a separate menu per place — more control, twice the work every time you change something.

If we go this way

Add an item once, it appears everywhere. Override only what differs. A vendor with one kitchen never sees this screen at all.

Send changes to the counters

3 changes

These will reach the counters

Yam Chips₦1,200 → ₦1,400

Coleslawrenamed “Salad”

Zobo 50clnew · ₦600

✓

Orders already waiting are not touched. Only new ones use the new prices.

Counters

Counter · Allen Ave

Online — gets it now

Counter · Ikeja Mall

Online — gets it now

Changes are sent as one lot, so a counter never has half a menu.

Send changes to the counters

1 counter offline

One counter can't be reached

Ikeja Mall has no internet. It is still selling — at yesterday's prices — and it will keep doing that until it comes back online.

Yam Chips₦1,200 → ₦1,400

Zobo 50clnew · ₦600

Allen Ave will use the new prices straight away. Ikeja will pick them up on its own when the line is back — you don't need to do anything.

Counters

Counter · Allen Ave

Online

Counter · Ikeja Mall

Offline 34 min · still selling

Worth knowing: a counter with no internet can go on selling at the old price for as long as it is offline.