The list, short
- A Windows PC or tablet for the till. One per till.
- A receipt printer, the ordinary ESC/POS kind, networked or on USB. One per station if you want the kitchen and the bar each to print their own.
- Your team’s phones, Android or iPhone, for Comanda Go. The ones already in their pockets.
- Internet on the premises. Fibre, or a 4G/5G router where fibre does not reach.
That is all. Everything else on this page is optional or something you already have: the back office runs in any browser, and the QR menu only needs the codes printed on the tables.
The till’s PC or tablet
The till is a Windows program. It runs on an ordinary PC with a touchscreen, on a Windows tablet, or on a desktop with a mouse if that is what is there: touch helps a great deal at the bar, but it is not required.
What does matter is the screen: from ten inches up it is comfortable, and on the main till the bigger the better, because the whole floor is on one screen and tables are opened with a finger. On a small screen you end up zooming, and at the rush that wears you down.
Windows 10 or 11. It does not need to be powerful; the cheap mini PCs that screw onto the back of a monitor have plenty to spare. If you have a PC from a few years ago that nothing else uses any more, it will probably do, and we check that at the demo with your machine in front of us.
One thing that saves you a surprise: an Android tablet or an iPad will not run the till. They will run the back office in a browser, and Android and iPhone handsets run Comanda Go, but the till is Windows. That is what lets it print receipts and kitchen orders without depending on a browser’s goodwill.
The receipt printer
Any ESC/POS receipt printer. It is the standard nearly every hospitality printer uses, from the well-known brands to the unbranded 80 mm ones, so if there is already one behind your bar, it most likely qualifies. We check it at the demo with the printer switched on, before you buy anything.
It can be connected over the network, by cable or wifi, or straight into the till PC by USB. A networked printer can be wherever it is needed: the kitchen’s in the kitchen, the bar’s at the bar, and the till sends each one its own. A USB printer has to sit next to the computer driving it.
How many you need depends on how you work. A small bar can run on one: receipts and kitchen tickets come out of the same printer. As soon as kitchen and bar are separate, one per station, so each gets only what is theirs and nobody goes hunting for paper.
A cash drawer is optional. If you want one, it plugs into the printer with its own cable and opens by itself on a cash payment. The usual drawers work.
What you do not need is an office printer. A receipt comes out of a thermal roll printer, and nothing else.
Your team’s phones
Comanda Go is the waiter’s app: the floor and the menu on the phone, so orders are taken at the table and sent to the kitchen without going back to the till. It runs on Android and iPhone, so it runs on the phone each waiter already carries. Everyone signs in with their PIN and sees the same floor as the till.
You do not need a special handset, nor one per bar. If you would rather staff did not use their own, a cheap Android per waiter is all it takes, and we will tell you which one has worked for us. What does help is wifi on the premises, so nobody burns data and nothing drops on the terrace.
And if you work without Go, that is fine: the till does everything. Go is for not walking back and forth.
Internet
Comanda works online. The till, Comanda Go and the back office all talk to the same server, which is what makes a price change at the till show on the QR menu instantly, and what lets every sale produce and send its VeriFactu record.
An ordinary business connection is enough: fibre, or a 4G/5G router if your street has no fibre. It does not need much bandwidth; it needs to be stable. If your wifi falls over when the terrace fills up with phones, that is the problem to fix, not the speed you pay for.
If the connection drops mid-service, Comanda tells you on screen rather than treating a sale that never arrived as done, and whatever records are pending are sent when it comes back. What we will not do is promise that everything works without internet, because it is not true, and we say so in the VeriFactu guide.
The back office, from any browser
Sales by day and by product, bookings, the menu, the team and their PINs: all of that is managed in a browser, on the computer at home, a laptop or a phone. Nothing to install, and whatever you change there reaches the terminals within seconds without closing the bar.
Here anything goes: a Mac, an iPad, an Android tablet, the phone in your pocket. It is a web page.
The QR menu
Customers open it on the phone they are carrying, with nothing to install. The only physical thing it needs is the QR codes on the tables: print them once, stick them down or put them in a holder, and that is it. Each code points at its table, not at a particular menu, so nothing is reprinted when a dish or a price changes.
What you do not need
One of those terminals sold as a bundle with the software. It is a Windows computer and a printer inside a handsome case, at a price that is not handsome, sometimes with a fee on top. If you already own one, it will probably do; if you do not, do not buy one on our account.
A server on the premises, or anything that needs maintaining. The server is ours and it is in Spain.
The card terminal stays your bank’s, as it is now. A card payment is marked on the till and taken on the terminal; the two are not connected, and we say that plainly because some people assume otherwise.
And no separate licence for anything. The monthly fee covers it all, VeriFactu included.
What we check at the demo
The demo happens on your premises with whatever you have switched on: the PC or tablet, your printer, your wifi. We open a table, send an order to your printer, take a payment and the receipt comes out. If something you own will not do, you see it right there, and we tell you what is missing and an inexpensive option we have already tested, before you spend a euro.
If you would rather start with a video call, that works too; but the equipment check we always do in person, because a printer behaves differently in a photo and at the bar.