Help centre

Getting started

1. Get a Windows 10 or 11 PC that can stay on during service. It serves the menu to guests' phones, so the tables need nothing but a QR card. Keep a few printed menus too, and have staff take orders on the PC for guests who can't or don't want to use a phone.
2. Download and run the installer from the download page. If Windows says Windows protected your PC, click More info, then Run anyway. If it says Smart App Control blocked it, see Troubleshooting. Leave the Windows Firewall option ticked.
3. Buy a plan, then open TouchMenu and enter your license key. It asks for the key first, and activating it needs an internet connection.
4. Set up your restaurant: its name, the number of tables, the menu languages and an owner PIN. Add the sample menu to try things first.

Wi-Fi and network

• The PC, the receipt printers, the kitchen screen and guests' phones must be on the same network, for example your router's guest network.
• Keep card terminals, other tills, office computers and cameras on a different network that guests can't reach. Card payment providers expect this. If you're not sure how, ask whoever set up your network. On many routers the cable ports belong to the main network, not the guest Wi-Fi.
• Protect the guest Wi-Fi with a password (WPA2 or WPA3). On an open network, anyone nearby can read guests' orders and chats.
• Client isolation, also called AP isolation or wireless isolation, stops guests' phones from reaching each other. Leave it on if phones can still open the menu. If they can't reach the PC, turn it off on this network only.
• Give the PC a fixed address in the router (a DHCP reservation). The address is printed on every QR card; if it changes, the cards stop working.
• The menu works without internet. Some phones warn that the Wi-Fi has no internet; guests should stay connected. The PC itself needs the internet to activate the license and at least once every 14 days to check it.
• Don't share folders from this PC: guests' phones are on the same network.

QR cards for the tables

1. Open Menu → QR codes. Under Guest Wi-Fi, enter the Wi-Fi name and password guests use, press Print Wi-Fi sign (or Save sign as picture) and put the sign where guests see it. The sign shows the password to everyone, so enter your guest network here, never the one your card terminals or office computers are on.
2. Under Address of this computer, keep the address from changing. If TouchMenu shows steps, press Open the router's settings, reserve the address it shows, then press It is reserved.
3. Press Print all cards to print them on the receipt printer, or Save all as pictures for a print shop, and put each card on its table.

You print the cards once. Table codes never expire, and a new Wi-Fi password means reprinting only the sign. A new password also locks out anyone who used the old one. If this computer's address ever changes, the Tables page warns you. If a card is lost, or a table gets orders nobody there sent, press New QR code for that table and print its card again. The old card stops working.

Receipt printers

• Use network thermal receipt printers (ESC/POS, 58 or 80 mm, port 9100), for example Epson, Xprinter or Rongta. Give each one a fixed address in the router too.
• Open Settings → Tables & printers, add each printer by its address, choose which menu categories it prints and whether it prints bills, then press Test print.
• If a ticket can't be printed, TouchMenu shows an alert with the printer's name, and staff can print the order again.
• Basic includes one printer, Standard three and Pro as many as you need.

Kitchen screen

Show new orders on a tablet or TV in the kitchen, instead of or as well as paper tickets. Open Settings → Tables & printers and scan its QR code with the tablet, or type its link. Cooks mark dishes as started and ready, and waiters see it at once. Anyone with the link can see open orders, so open it only on your own devices. If someone else may have it, press New link there; screens with the old link stop working. The kitchen screen is part of the Standard and Pro plans.

Music and song requests

On the Pro plan, guests pick songs on their phones and TouchMenu plays them by itself.

1. Copy your music files (MP3, M4A, WAV, FLAC or OGG) into the Music\TouchMenu folder of Windows, or choose another folder under Social → Music, and press Scan again.
2. Turn on Song requests under Social → Music.
3. Open the music player link on the computer or tablet connected to the speakers, or press Open on this computer, and press Start music there once.

Guests vote, and the song with the most votes plays next. When nobody has asked for a song, the player plays random songs from the folder; turn off House music when nobody asked to stop that. A song can't be asked for again until an hour after it played. Staff can skip or remove any song.

Playing music to guests usually needs a licence from your country's music rights organisation. Getting it is up to the restaurant.

Chat, gifts and guest data

On the Pro plan, guests can chat between tables and send each other gifts. If they don't suit your restaurant, turn them off under Social → Settings.

• Messages to staff, the everyone room and reported messages are under Social → Messages. Staff see a private message between tables only when a guest reports it.
• You can delete any message there, and pause a table to stop its chat and gifts. Guests can also block another table themselves.
• Common swear words are hidden, but no filter catches them all. Add your own under Blocked words.
• A gift is served like any other order, so check age before serving alcohol, as your local law requires.

What guests send stays on this PC and never reaches us. TouchMenu deletes it by itself: private chats and chats with staff when the table closes, the everyone room after a day, and names, notes, comments and reported messages 30 days after the visit. Orders, totals and star ratings stay for your bills and reports. Backups keep one copy a day for the last 30 days the PC was used, so deleted data leaves them after that.

Guests can read this under Privacy at the bottom of the menu. Your restaurant decides how it uses guest data and is responsible for it, including telling guests about it where the law requires.

Today's menu

Change what's on offer today without editing the menu. Open Menu → Today's menu; waiters can use it too.

• Today's special (the star): guests see a Today's specials section at the top of their menu and a star on those dishes. Specials end by themselves the next day. To end them sooner, press Clear today's specials.
• Off today: guests see the dish greyed out and can't order it today. It's back by itself tomorrow. Sold out is different: it stays until you turn it off.
• For a dish you serve only on some weekdays, open Menu → Items, edit the dish, open More details and pick the days under Only on these days. With no day picked, it's on every day. Staff can still add it to an order on other days.

The daily menu is part of the Standard and Pro plans.

Allergens

Guests see the allergens of each dish in their own language, and they can filter the menu to leave out dishes with an allergen. TouchMenu lists the 14 allergens named in EU and UK food law, plus buckwheat. You enter this information, so you are responsible for keeping it right.

1. Open Menu → Items, edit a dish and open Options & allergens.
2. Tick every allergen in the dish, including those in its sauces and options.
3. When you have gone through the whole list, turn on All 15 allergens checked for this dish. Dishes not checked yet have a warning sign in the list.

Until you do, guests see Allergens not listed on that dish, and it is left out when they filter by allergen. So a missing tick never tells a guest that a dish is free of something. Guests are also asked to tell your staff about an allergy before they order.

Floor plan

Draw your restaurant so guests find their way. Owners and managers open Tables → Edit floor plan.

1. The list on the left shows the tables Not placed yet. Drag each one onto the floor where it stands.
2. Tap a table to change its name, seats, shape (square, rectangle or round) and size in the panel on the right, or use Rotate and Remove. A removed table's past orders are kept.
3. Use Add area for rooms or a terrace, Add wall for walls and Add label for signs such as the entrance or the kitchen.
4. Press Save. Nothing changes until you do; if you leave first, TouchMenu asks before throwing your changes away. Guests see the new map right away.

Snap to grid keeps everything lined up. Undo and Redo also work with Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y, the arrow keys move what is selected, and you zoom with the buttons or the mouse wheel.

Reports

Owners and managers see sales under Reports → Sales. Sales reports are part of the Standard and Pro plans.

• Choose Day, Week or Month. The cards at the top compare with the period before.
• The calendar is tinted by each day's sales: darker days sold more. Tap a day to open it.
• Charts show sales by day and by hour, payment methods and best sellers.
• For a single day, Day details shows dishes, tables and service speed, and Print day summary prints that day's summary on the receipt printer. It is an internal summary for you, not the fiscal day-end report of a cash register.
• Export CSV saves the figures as a file that opens in Excel.

Reports → Activity lists every order, payment and change, with who did it.

Staff, PINs and roles

• Add staff under Settings → Staff, each with their own PIN. Owners and managers can change the menu and settings; waiters take orders and requests and note how each table paid.
• Every order, payment and change is written to the activity log under Reports → Activity, with who did it.

Updates and backups

• TouchMenu looks for new versions by itself. When one is ready, Settings shows a badge: open Settings → This computer and press Update now when no guests are ordering. The app closes for about a minute and opens again, and your menu, orders and settings stay.
• Your data is kept on this PC and backed up every hour while you work, and every day in any case. Under Settings → This computer you can make a backup now or put an earlier one back.
• Under Settings → This computer each computer also picks the staff screens' language, light or dark mode and one of five colour themes.

Plans and license

• Enter your license key under Settings → License; activating needs an internet connection. A key works on one computer at a time: to move to a new PC, press Move to another computer on the old one, then enter the key on the new one. If the old PC no longer works, write to support@touchmenu.app with your order number.
• To change plan, open the link in your receipt email and switch plans there, rather than buying a second plan. A second plan is a separate subscription that keeps renewing until you cancel it. After switching, press Check now under Settings → License to see the new plan.
• To use a different key, press Change key under Settings → License. The old key is released from this computer, but its subscription isn't cancelled: cancel it from its receipt email.
• TouchMenu checks the license once a day when it is online. Without internet it keeps taking orders for 14 days; after that it asks to be connected before it takes orders again.
• If the subscription ends, TouchMenu asks for a key again. Your menu, orders and settings are kept.
• See what each plan includes under pricing.

Power cuts

• Every order, payment and change is saved the moment it is made. A power cut can't leave anything half saved: when TouchMenu opens again, everything is as it was.
• If the data was damaged anyway, TouchMenu puts back the newest healthy backup by itself and tells you what time it is from. Backups are made every hour while you work, so at most an hour is lost.
• Guests' phones and the kitchen screen connect again by themselves once the PC and the Wi-Fi router are back. An order a guest sent while the PC was off is sent again.
• To start again without anyone at the PC, keep Start TouchMenu when Windows starts ticked in the installer, and turn on the PC's BIOS setting that switches it on when the power returns (often called Restore on AC power loss). If Windows asks for a password at start, someone has to sign in first.
• A small UPS (a battery for the PC and the router) keeps service going through short cuts.
• If the PC's clock is wrong after a power cut, TouchMenu asks you to set the correct date and time before it opens, so no order is saved with the wrong time.

Troubleshooting

• Phones can't open the menu. Check that the phone is on the restaurant's guest Wi-Fi, that client isolation isn't blocking it (see Wi-Fi and network), and that the PC is on with TouchMenu open. If the Tables page says this computer's address changed, fix it in Menu → QR codes.
• Nothing prints. Check that the printer is on and on the same network, and that its address is right, then press Test print under Settings → Tables & printers.
• Phones are blocked by the firewall. Run the installer again and leave the Windows Firewall option ticked.
• Windows says Smart App Control blocked TouchMenu. There is no Run anyway for this. Open Windows Security → App & browser control → Smart App Control settings and turn it off. Leave it off while you use TouchMenu, because it checks the app again each time it starts and when it updates. On some Windows versions it can only be turned back on by resetting Windows. If you'd rather not change it, write to support@touchmenu.app before you buy.
• TouchMenu doesn't start with Windows. Run the installer again and leave Start TouchMenu when Windows starts ticked.
• Something else went wrong. Open Settings → This computer, press Copy and send it to support@touchmenu.app.