Tables & floor service

If your store serves at tables, Swann Retail tracks each table, the tab open on it, and what’s owed. You set your tables up once in the back office, then your staff work the live Floor view through service — opening a tab, ringing items onto it, and settling the bill.

Tables are part of the Restaurant add-on. If you don’t see Tables and Floor in your menu, they aren’t on your plan — see The Restaurant add-on.

Set up your tables

Open Tables from the Catalog menu and press New table:

• Name — required, how the table reads on the floor (e.g. 12 or Bar 3).
• Section — optional, the area it sits in (e.g. Patio). Tables are grouped by section on the floor.
• Seats — optional, how many it sits.

Your tables list sorts by section, then by name in number order, so 2 comes before 12. Editing a table keeps the last thing you saved; deleting one is permanent.

Every table is either Available or Occupied. A new table starts Available, and opening or settling a tab flips it for you — so you rarely set the status by hand.

The Floor view

Open Floor from the Sales menu to see your room at a glance — which tables have a tab open right now. Each table is a card showing its name and section, with a chip that reads:

• Available (green) — the table is free.
• N open (amber) — the table has an open tab. The card also shows the running total owed and how many tickets are open on it.

Each card carries one action: Open tab on a free table, or Settle on an occupied one.

Open a tab and ring items

1. On a free table, press Open tab.
2. Choose the service type — Dine-in or Takeout (Dine-in by default). A tab is always seated at a table, so it’s for guests eating in or a takeout order you’re holding open on the floor; a delivery order goes through New Sale, not a table tab.
3. Add the items the guest has ordered as lines — a name, a price, and a quantity for each. You need at least one line to open the tab.
4. Press Open tab.

The table flips to Occupied and the tab stays open while the guest is served. A busy table can hold more than one open ticket at once — handy for splitting a large party by guest — and its Floor card shows the running total across them, along with how many tickets are open. When you settle, you pick which ticket to close.

Tax isn’t shown while the tab is open — the total is finalised when you settle. As you ring items, you can also tag each line with a course and a seat to keep a big table’s order organised.

Settle the bill

When the guest is ready to pay, press Settle on their table:

1. If the table has more than one ticket, pick the one to settle.
2. If your plan includes them, add a tip or auto-gratuity, or a surcharge, before you take payment — each folds into the total shown.
3. Take payment for the full balance — with Cash (the amount taken must cover the total, and any change is worked out for you), Card, or a split across both (part cash, part card). Settling closes the tab’s whole balance in one go.
4. The tab closes, the sale is recorded like any other, and the table goes back to Available, ready for the next guest.

Dine-in tabs also flow to the kitchen as you open them — see Kitchen display.