User manual

1. Getting started

Once the Vanter team creates your restaurant account, a setup wizard walks you through loading:

1. The business details.
2. The dining-room tables.
3. The initial catalog: categories, dishes with prices and, if you use them, modifier groups (for example “doneness” or “extras”).

When you finish you land in the admin panel, where everything is configured and monitored.

Floor, kitchen and cash staff sign in at the same web address with the credentials the admin creates for them. On shared floor devices each person can also set a 4 to 6 digit PIN for quick sign-in: the admin sets it on the employee profile.

2. Roles & access

Ember has five roles. The admin creates each person and assigns their role; everyone sees only what their role allows.

3. Floor & tables

The floor view is a map of every table with its live status: gray when free, red when occupied. From there the waiter opens the table and generates the QR and the code so diners can join from their phones. Everything syncs instantly across devices, so two waiters never see different states of the same table.

In the table panel the waiter prints the bill, transfers the table to another waiter and adds a dish manually. Dishes can be removed until they are sent to the kitchen, one by one or by selecting several at once.

For a large party that pushes tables together, “Link table” attaches free tables to an already open session (you can also press and hold a table and drag it). Linked tables show as a single card, for example “M3 + M4”, share one bill and are released together when it closes; “Unlink” detaches one while the session is still open.

Reservations. For a same-day phone booking, the waiter taps “Reserve” on a table and enters the time, party size, customer name and, optionally, a phone number and a note. Bookings are only for later that same day, and a table cannot hold two bookings less than 2 hours apart. The card shows the time (“Res. 7:30 PM”) and, from one hour before, the table locks as “Reserved”: it cannot be opened or linked to another session. When the customer arrives, any waiter taps “Release booking” and picks the reason: Customer arrived, Cancelled, No-show or Other. If nobody shows up, the table frees itself 15 minutes after the booked time. The “Today’s bookings” button lists every booking of the day with its status.

If a table gets stuck, the admin can close it without charging, with a mandatory reason: the open bill is voided and the table is freed. This is not possible if the table already has confirmed payments; in that case finish charging it or refund it.

4. Collaborative cart

Diners join their table session by scanning the QR or entering the 5-character code in their phone browser, with no app to install. Everyone at the table shares the same cart and sees it update in real time as each person adds dishes. On confirmation the order goes straight to the kitchen.

To pay, each diner can tell the waiter from their phone that they want to cover their share and the waiter confirms it when collecting, or the waiter collects the whole table. If the restaurant has a loyalty program, the diner sees their points, their tier and the rewards available.

5. Kitchen display (KDS)

Every confirmed order shows on the kitchen screen and moves through controlled states: Pending → Preparing → Ready → Delivered. The kitchen taps each card to move it forward, or selects several dishes and changes their status at once; the change shows instantly on the waiter panel. Orders that go 15 minutes or more without moving are highlighted in red automatically. Each dish shows how long it has been in its current state and when it came in, and modifiers are grouped so they read at a glance.

Each order carries a ticket code (for example ELPO-KDS-000045) that is also printed. Linked tables appear together, and counter orders are labeled “TAKEAWAY #12” or “EAT HERE #12”, with the customer name if one was entered.

6. Bills & payments

From a table panel the waiter sees everything ordered, adds manual items that did not go through the cart and calculates the bill. The bill can be split among diners, equally or by what each one consumed; if someone leaves, their share is redistributed among those present. The waiter records each cash payment and, once everything is paid, closes the table with “Settle and close table”. An open cash shift is required to take cash.

Tax. Each bill keeps the subtotal and tax breakdown it was calculated with, so a later change to the rate does not alter bills already issued. If “Tax included in menu price” is on in Settings › Billing, the bill charges the menu price and the tax is shown broken out inside it.

Discounts and courtesies. With “Discount” the waiter reduces the whole bill before tax, by percentage, by a fixed amount or as courtesy dishes, always with a reason. It is only possible while nobody has paid. Up to the “Max discount without authorization” the admin sets, the waiter applies it alone; above that percentage, and for every courtesy, Ember asks for an administrator’s email and PIN.

Voids and refunds. A bill can be voided, with a reason, before any payment lands. A confirmed payment can be refunded in full or in part, also with a reason; if the bill is already paid, the refund issues a numbered credit note (see DGI-authorized invoicing). Everything is recorded: who did it, when and for how much.

Bill code. Every paid bill gets a sequential code of its own per restaurant, for example ELPO-000123: the first letters of the business name and a gap-free number. The number is assigned at payment, not when the bill is calculated, so a bill voided before it is paid uses no number. The code shows on the receipt, in payment lists and in exports.

Today Ember records cash payments; digital card payment does not process real money yet.

7. Cash register & shifts

The Accountant opens the cash shift by counting the opening float bill by bill and coin by coin; the total is calculated automatically, never typed by hand. During the shift they record cash movements that are not sales (cash in and cash out, always with a reason) and see the shift payments live. The payments table has a search box: type a bill code, for example ELPO-000123, and the list filters instantly without scrolling through everything.

US dollars in the drawer. If the restaurant takes dollars, the admin sets the “Exchange rate (C$ per US$)” in Settings › Billing. The rate applies to shifts opened after it is saved and cannot be changed while a register is open. The count then lists US$ bills next to the córdobas, and Ember converts them into a single córdoba total. When charging at the counter, the waiter can enter the amount “Received in US$” and Ember calculates the change. If the field is empty, dollars are not taken.

Overdue shifts. Every shift has a closing time. If it passes, Ember warns and lets you prolong it, for example by 1 hour, or close it; while it is overdue, cash payments cannot be recorded. To close, there can be no open tables and no open counter registers.

Closing. Closing is a blind count: the Accountant counts the cash by denomination and Ember reads the counted total back to be confirmed (“Yes, close”) or fixed (“Fix count”). Only then does Ember show the expected amount, the counted amount and the difference, labelled Over, Short or Balanced. Counter registers close the same way. A note can explain a difference. The admin later reviews the shift history and the Z report, with who opened and closed, extensions, voided bills, refunds with their credit note and, if dollars were taken, the shift’s exchange rate.

8. Cash drawer & cash payments

When a waiter records a cash payment, the Accountant sees it as pending in “Cash payments to receive”, with a sound alert. Tapping “Receive and open drawer” marks the cash as received and opens the physical cash drawer through the printer. If it fails it can be retried; opening can also be skipped.

The Accountant and the admin can also open the drawer manually without a sale, always giving a reason, and it is logged. Cash payments not received before closing are listed in the closing dialog. For this, the printer with the drawer attached must be flagged as such in Settings › Hardware › Printers.

9. Counter registers

When several people take payments, each can have their own register inside the shift.

1. When opening the shift, the Accountant chooses how many registers there will be (0 to 10).
2. They then prepare each register with a float and assign a waiter. That float comes out of the main register cash.
3. The waiter opens their register from “My register” with their personal PIN (or password) and counts the float, which must match.

While working, the waiter sees the float, their cash sales, the expected cash, the movements and a record of every sale they took. If money needs to move, the Accountant records a cash handover between the register and the main one.

At the end the waiter closes their register by counting by denomination and sees their difference. The counted cash moves to the main register. If the waiter is absent, the Accountant can force-close it with a mandatory note, and can cancel a register that was never opened. The shift only closes when every register is closed, and the day total difference adds the main register and every counter register.

10. Counter sales

To sell without opening a table, the waiter goes to Counter from the bottom menu (store icon). It needs an open shift and the waiter’s own register open; if either is missing the screen says so and links to “My register”. Products are on the left, with the same modifiers as at a table, and the order being built is on the right. By default the sale is “Takeaway”; it can be switched to “Eat here” and a customer name can be added.

On “Charge”, Ember calculates the exact total, the waiter enters the amount received and sees the change. On confirmation the sale is recorded in their register, the order goes to the kitchen and the screen shows the turn number of the day (it starts again at 1 every day), the bill code and a button to print the ticket. A double click or a retry on a bad connection never charges twice. If the page is reloaded, the order in progress is kept.

Counter sales are cash only and available from the Pro plan.

11. Analytics & export

The admin analytics panel shows total sales, number of paid bills, average ticket and top-selling products, with day, week, month and year filters. It also breaks performance down by product and by table, to see what sells and which table turns over most, and shows the date range with data.

The “Sales by service” card separates what was sold in the restaurant from what was sold for takeaway, and what was collected at tables from what was collected at the counter. Data updates as payments come in.

In Settings › Export data the restaurant information downloads as Excel, for a date range or the whole history if the dates are left blank. Besides sales (with a service-type column), it includes audit sheets: payments, cash shifts, counter registers, voids and refunds.

12. Ticket, receipt & drawer printing

Ember prints kitchen tickets and customer receipts through a print agent that runs on a computer at the venue.

1. Download the agent from Settings › Hardware › Printers.
2. On that same screen create the agent and get a 10-character pairing code, valid for about 15 minutes.
3. In the agent choose Cloud or Local (Ember Hub), paste the code and it connects.

After that the agent lives in the system tray, reconnects by itself and receives jobs automatically when an order is confirmed or a table is paid.

It supports thermal printers (ESC/POS) and also regular printers with a driver, such as inkjets, for venues without a dedicated thermal. Each printer is registered with a role: Kitchen or Receipt. The agent also opens the cash drawer through the printer it is wired to. A test page can be printed from the agent.

In Settings › Hardware › Printers, the “Recent jobs” list shows what was last sent to print; from there the admin can “Retry” a job to print it again or cancel pending ones.

13. Restaurant settings

In Settings the admin adjusts:

• Branding & Business: logo, colors and business details, including legal name, tax ID (RUC), tax address and phone.
• Menu: whether sold-out dishes and search are shown.
• Billing: currency symbol, exchange rate for dollars, taxes (rate and whether they are included in the price), max discount without authorization, suggested tips and DGI-authorized invoicing.
• Payment gateway.
• Ticket: format, logo and receipt preview.
• Hardware: automatic printing and printers.
• Space: how many tables the restaurant has.
• Schedule: the weekly hours and the restaurant’s time zone, which sets when the day starts for counter turn numbers and for reservations.
• Loyalty: points, tiers and the reward catalog.
• Information and Export data.
• Plan (in the cloud version): the contracted plan, its start date and the next renewal.

Outside Settings, the admin has Inventory (categories, dishes, modifiers and stock), Staff (adding employees, role, quick-login PIN and password reset), Analytics and Records (cash register: shift history and Z report; and reservations by day with their status and reason). Each screen has a help button that opens a guided tour of that section.

14. DGI-authorized invoicing

14.1 What it is and when to turn it on

A restaurant in Nicaragua can ask the DGI (the tax authority) to authorize Ember as its Computerized Invoicing System (Disposición Técnica 09-2007). With that authorization, the receipt Ember prints is the legal invoice and the pre-printed invoice book is no longer needed.

The mode is optional and off by default. Turn it on only once the DGI has given you the authorization number. While it is off, the receipt prints exactly as always and you keep using your invoice book. The mode is available on every plan.

14.2 Requirements and activation

1. In Settings › Branding & Business fill in Legal Name, Tax ID (RUC), Tax Address and Phone. These legal identity fields can be edited on any plan.
2. In Settings › Billing, on the “DGI-authorized invoicing” card, type the DGI authorization number (up to 40 characters).
3. Turn on “Invoice with DGI authorization” and save.

If any field is missing, Ember will not turn the mode on: the card shows “To turn it on, fill in:” with the list of fields and a “Fill in under Branding” button. The change applies to tickets printed from then on.

14.3 The printed invoice

With the mode on, every receipt prints as a cash invoice. The printed invoice is always in Spanish:

• At the top, the legal name, RUC, address and phone, always, even if the ticket has business info turned off.
• The legend FACTURA DE CONTADO (cash invoice) and the invoice number (No. ELPO-000123) with date and time.
• The subtotal and tax breakdown, always (“Impuesto incluido” when menu prices already include it). If the restaurant charges no tax, a zero line prints.
• At the end, right-aligned, Autorizacion DGI No. with your authorization number.

                El Portal
        Restaurante El Portal S.A.
           RUC: J0310000000001
         Km 5 Carretera a Masaya
              Tel: 2222-3333
Mesa 4
FACTURA DE CONTADO
No. ELPO-000123             07/10/26 19:42
------------------------------------------
2 Tacos                           C$180.00
------------------------------------------
Subtotal                          C$156.52
Impuesto incluido (15%)            C$23.48
TOTAL                             C$180.00
------------------------------------------
          Gracias por su visita
             Autorizacion DGI No. 123-2026

The preview in Settings › Ticket shows the invoice exactly as it prints; it serves as the format sample for the DGI application. While the mode is on, the “Show RUC, address and phone” and “Show tax breakdown” options appear on and locked, with the note “Required with DGI invoicing.”

14.4 Consecutive numbering

• Every invoice carries the restaurant code and a consecutive number: ELPO-000123.
• The number is assigned at payment, never earlier. Since version 0.10.0, a bill voided before it is paid uses no number, so the printed series has no gaps.
• The series is the one the restaurant was already using: turning DGI mode on continues it, it does not restart.
• Two simultaneous payments never get the same number.
• Paid bills are never deleted: they stay in the shift history, the Z report and the exports.

14.5 Refunds and credit notes

Every refund on a bill that is already paid (that is, already invoiced) issues a credit note with its own consecutive series: ELPO-NC-000001. Returning a diner’s share while the bill is still open is not a credit note, because no invoice exists yet: it is recorded as a refund, with no number.

1. From the payment, the waiter taps “Refund” and enters the amount (all or part) and the reason.
2. If the bill was already paid, once recorded the window shows “Credit note ELPO-NC-000001” and a Print credit note button, to hand it to the customer.
3. With the DGI mode on and, in Settings › Hardware, “Automatic order printing” and “Print customer receipt” on, the note prints by itself.

The printed note reads NOTA DE CREDITO, its number and date, the invoice it belongs to (Ref. Factura No. ELPO-000123), the customer if one was entered, the reason, the subtotal, the tax and the TOTAL DEVUELTO (total refunded), a “Recibido:” signature line and, in DGI mode, the authorization at the bottom. A refund that is refused uses no number. In each shift’s audit, the “Credit note” column shows the number of every refund.

14.6 Reprints and lookups

• Invoice: when the table is closed, with the bill already paid, the waiter prints it with “Print Bill”; at the counter, with “Print ticket” when confirming the sale.
• Credit note: with “Print credit note” in the refund window.
• Later: in Settings › Hardware › Printers, “Recent jobs” lists the latest prints and the admin can “Retry” any of them to print it again.
• Lookups: invoices can be searched by code in the shift payments; credit notes show in the “Credit note” column of each shift’s audit. Both are reviewed in the shift history and downloaded in the audit sheets of Settings › Export data.

15. Branches (Enterprise plan)

With the Enterprise plan, one owner runs several branches. Each branch is a complete restaurant: its own menu, tables, cash register, shifts, staff, QR codes and invoice numbering. The Vanter team creates the branches.

• Switch branch: Settings › Branches › “Switch branch”. Pick the branch’s card; the panel reloads in it. At the top, next to the business name, you always see which branch you are in.
• Who switches: only the administrator (the owner). Servers, kitchen, cashiers and the accountant work in a single branch.
• Metrics for all of them: Analytics › “All branches”: revenue, bills, average ticket, sales over time per branch and a comparison table.
• Menu for a new branch: in Menu, while the menu is empty, “Copy menu from another branch” brings categories, dishes, modifiers and photos. Inventory is not copied.
• Currency and time zone are the same in every branch: change them in one and they change in all.
• If the plan drops below Enterprise, the extra branches are locked (their data is kept) and come back when you return to Enterprise.

16. Troubleshooting

• A diner cannot join by QR: check that the table has an open session and that the phone has internet; you can always read out that table’s 5-character code.
• The printer does not print: confirm the computer running the print agent is on and connected, that the printer has paper and that it is registered with the right role in Settings. If the agent stays on “Connection lost” or on “Check that the server is on”, install the latest agent version from Settings: old versions can stop understanding the server after an update.
• An order does not show in the kitchen: only confirmed orders go through; what stays in the cart unconfirmed is not sent. Also check that the kitchen screen is open with an active session.
• Cash cannot be taken: a cash shift must be open, opened by the Accountant. If the shift is overdue, the Accountant prolongs it or closes it and opens a new one.
• Counter shows “Open your register before selling”: the Accountant must prepare your register and you open it from “My register” with your PIN.
• A discount asks for an administrator PIN: it exceeds the max discount without authorization, or it is a courtesy; an admin must enter their email and PIN.
• DGI invoicing will not turn on: the card lists the missing fields (“To turn it on, fill in:”); complete them in Settings › Branding & Business and type the authorization number.
• The exchange rate cannot be changed: a register is open; change it after closing.
• You do not see a module or an action: it is almost always because your role has no access to that part. Ask the admin to review your role.