Frequently asked questions
If yours is not here, write to us — we answer them ourselves.
Getting started
Will this take my whole week?
An afternoon. You type your menu in or upload the PDF you already print, pick a template, and print the QR codes. There is no installer to book and no hardware to wait for.
Does this only work for restaurants?
No. Anywhere with a menu works the same way. Cafes and bars run the screens a full kitchen runs; a bakery or a truck usually takes the Menu plan with one code at the counter.
Do I have to buy new hardware?
No. Guests use their own phones. The kitchen display opens in a browser on any tablet or TV you already have.
Will my guests have to download an app?
No. The code on the table opens a web page in the phone camera. Nothing to install, nothing to sign into.
Is there an app for me and my staff?
Yes, and there is nothing to wait for. All of it runs in your phone’s browser today — same account, same screens as the laptop — and the iPhone and Android apps are in review now. Your team signs in by scanning a code, so a new hire is working without an email address or a password.
Do I have to type the whole menu in by hand?
Only if you want to. Upload the PDF you already print and let it read itself, or send it to us on the Service plan and we type it in for you.
Do I have to pay before I see it working?
No. Build your entire menu, choose your design and preview it for free. Payment happens at the moment you publish it for guests.
I am not a computer person. Can I really do this myself?
Yes. If you can write your menu on paper, you can build it here — you type a dish, a price and a photo, and pick a look from the templates. Nothing to install, nothing to configure. If you get stuck at any point, write to us and we will do that part for you.
Will your name be all over my menu?
No. It lives at yourname.chitrail.com — you choose the name — and it carries your logo, your colours and your words. Guests never see ours.
Running the night
Do guests have to pay through the app?
No. Guests order from the table and pay you the way they always have. The order reaches the kitchen with the table number on it, and the money stays at your register.
Will this replace my register?
No. Your register keeps ringing up the same way and your staff learn nothing new to use it. What changes is the walk to the table and the note in the waiter’s pocket.
Some of my guests will never scan a code. Can my staff take the order?
Yes. A waiter writes the order on the panel or on their own phone, off the same menu, and it lands on the same board and the same kitchen screen as one a guest sent. Staff can also put an order through outside your opening hours, which a guest cannot. Most rooms end up running both.
What stops a prank order, or someone ordering from home?
An order carries the code of the table it came from. You can hold every order for staff approval, cap how many one table sends a minute, and take orders only inside your opening hours.
If the wifi drops, do I lose the orders?
No. The kitchen display keeps what it already has and syncs the moment the connection returns. If an order cannot be sent, the guest is told plainly rather than shown a false confirmation.
How much training will my staff need?
A shift, and most of that is watching. You print a code and a new hire scans it, taps once and is on the floor — no email address, no password, and the phone stays signed in. They work on their own phone, they see orders, tables and bookings and nothing else, and at the register they carry on doing exactly what they do now.
How do I know who is working hard and who is not?
Every order is stamped with the waiter who sent it and the manager who accepted it. The staff page ranks the team by orders taken, what those tables spent and how long guests waited, over any stretch you pick. Everyone is measured the same way, so a review is a number you can both look at.
My guests still want a person. Does this get in the way?
It calls one over. On the Service plan a guest can ask for a waiter or for the check with one tap, and it lands on the same screen an order does — with the clock running, so nobody sits there with a hand in the air.
It does not do something my place needs. What then?
Tell us and we build it. There is a screen in the panel where you write what you need in your own words; small things go out in days, bigger ones in a few weeks, and yours sits there with where it got to. It costs nothing extra, and when it ships everyone gets it.
My menu changes every day. Will it be out of date?
A price change or a sold-out mark reaches the table the second you make it. Bigger edits stay a draft until you publish, so guests never read a half-finished menu.
Do I have to give up my paper menus?
No. The design tool prints the same menu on paper, in the same look guests see on their phones.
Am I going to reprint menus every time a price moves?
That stops the day you publish. A price change is one tap and the next guest to scan sees it. Print the paper version when the menu really changes — a new season, a new dish — instead of every time a supplier puts the price of beef up.
Plans and billing
I have more than one place. Does that work?
Yes, on Service. You keep one menu and one design across every location, and each one sets its own prices, hours, tables and staff. The numbers come per location and side by side. Each location after the first is $9.99 a month on yearly, $19.99 month to month.
What is the difference between Menu and Service?
Menu publishes your menu with QR codes for every table. Service adds table ordering, the kitchen display, the floor map, the numbers, staff sign-in, more than one location, same-day support, and we will type your first menu in for you.
Do you take a cut of what my guests spend?
No. You pay one flat price a month or a year, and what a guest spends at your register stays there.
Why is this so much cheaper than the others?
Because we sell you one thing. Most systems for this cost $50 to $150 a month for one place, and the money is in what comes with them: their tablets, their card reader taking a cut of every payment, a person to come and set it up. We sell none of that. You use the tablets you own, your register keeps the money, and you set it up yourself in an afternoon.
Will it renew without telling me?
Your plan renews on its own, monthly or yearly, at the price you signed up for. The renewal date sits in the panel next to your card, and you can cancel there in two clicks.
Am I locked into a contract?
No. Cancel whenever you like. Everything you built stays in your account, and your menu stays up until the end of the period you already paid for.
Is yearly just a way to lock me in?
It is a discount you can walk away from. Menu is $119.88 a year against $239.88 paid monthly; Service is $479.88 against $839.88. Past about six months yearly is cheaper, and cancelling still leaves your menu up to the end of the period.
If a payment fails, does my menu go down?
No. Your menu and your orders keep working while you update the card, and the panel tells you what happened. Nothing goes dark in the middle of service.
If I get stuck, do I get a person or a robot?
A person, every time — one of the people who built it, answering from our own inbox. Menu gets an answer within a business day, Service the same day. Ask as often as you like; the same person stays with you through the thread.