Restaurant software free trial: what to test before you decide

Before you start the trial

Trials are short, so plan the test before you sign up. Write down one normal day at your place, from the first order to the closing count, and mark who does each step: cashier, waiter, kitchen, rider, manager. That list is your test plan.

Then check four things about the trial itself:

1. How long it lasts and when the clock starts.
2. Whether it asks for a card, and whether billing starts by itself when the trial ends.
3. Which features are switched on: some trials hold back reports, stock or extra branches.
4. What happens to your data afterwards, and whether you can download it.

Sign up with an email the business controls, not a staff member’s personal one, so the account stays with the restaurant.

Set it up like a real shift

A trial with three sample dishes tells you little. Load enough of your menu to run a real service: your categories, your best sellers, the sides or extras customers choose, and your prices in shillings. A good system lets you import the menu from a spreadsheet instead of typing every dish.

Then create real staff accounts with the right roles. A cashier should not see what the owner sees, and a waiter should only take orders. Ask each person to sign in on the phone or tablet they would actually use.

Test every way orders come in

Most problems show up between the order and the kitchen. Put one test order through every route you use, and check that each one lands on the same kitchen screen with the right dishes, sides and notes:

Then test the exceptions on purpose. Change a side dish after the order is sent. Cancel one item. Mark a dish sold out and check that it disappears from every menu, including the one guests see on their phones. Note which staff can do each of these, and whether the change is recorded.

If you deliver, follow one order all the way: accepted, cooked, handed to a rider, delivered, and the rider’s cash counted back in.

Test payments the way you take them

Run a test sale with each payment method you accept: cash, MTN MoMo, Airtel Money, and card if you take it. For mobile money, ask two questions.

Does the system only record the payment, or can it check it? If it only records, someone still has to match every transaction ID against the merchant statement by hand. Where does the money go? It should go to your own merchant account.

Then switch off the Wi-Fi at the counter, take two orders, switch it back on, and check that both orders reach the kitchen and the till once, not twice. Power cuts and slow connections happen at the worst times; find out now how the system behaves.

If you issue URA EFRIS receipts, print one from the trial and check it the way your accountant would.

Test closing time

At the end of the test day, close the shift and open the reports. Compare them with what you know happened:

• Does the day’s total match the orders you entered, with the cancelled item left out?
• Are cash, MTN MoMo and Airtel Money shown separately, so the till count makes sense?
• Can a manager open any number and see the orders behind it?
• Can you look at a week, a month, one branch or all of them, without rebuilding anything in a spreadsheet?

For stock, be clear about what the system does. Some systems take ingredients off for every dish sold; others count stock and record purchases. Both can work, but you need to know which one you are testing, and whether the way your team counts stock fits it.

When the trial ends

Decide before the last day. Gather your notes: what worked, what needed a workaround, and which staff found it easy. Then check, in writing:

1. What the paid plan includes compared with what you tested.
2. How you pay, monthly or yearly, and by which method.
3. Whether there is a contract, a notice period or a cancellation charge.
4. What happens to your data if you stop, and how to download it.

If the answer is no, export anything you want to keep before access ends.

Trying RelayEats

RelayEats is restaurant software built for Uganda, and the trial is the whole system on the plan you pick, so you can run a real shift on it.

• 14 days free, no cardThen pay monthly or yearly by mobile money.
• Basic or PremiumTry the plan you would use. More than one branch is on Premium.
• No contract, no commissionStop any time. Your own prices, one plan fee.
• Runs on what you haveAny phone, tablet or laptop with a browser.
• Your data is yoursDownload everything, any time.
• Built for hereMTN MoMo and Airtel Money checks, offline counter orders, URA EFRIS receipts.

It puts counter, waiter, table QR, phone and online orders on one kitchen board, follows riders and their cash, and keeps reports, finance and stock counts in the same place. Stock is counted and purchases are recorded; it does not deduct ingredients per dish sold.

Pictures show a demo restaurant; the names, orders and amounts are made up. Current plan prices are on relayeats.app.