Setting up your own ordering, properly.

The menu is ninety percent of the work and the part most likely to cause problems later. Modifiers need to price per size and per option, not as a flat surcharge, or a large with extra cheese charges the same as a small. Every item needs a description written for somebody who cannot see the counter. And every item needs a category that matches how people order, which is rarely how the printed menu is laid out.

Most systems will be on Stripe or similar, so the questions worth asking are not about the brand. Ask what the per-transaction rate is, whether wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay are on by default, how quickly funds settle, and what happens to a refund. Wallets matter more than people expect: on mobile they remove the entire card-entry step, and card entry is where checkouts get abandoned.

A radius is the lazy version and it costs you money in two directions. It includes places across a river or a dual carriageway that take twenty-five minutes to reach, and it excludes streets just past the line that are five minutes away. Draw zones by road, set a different minimum order and fee per zone, and set a longer quoted time for the edge. The zone at the edge should carry a higher minimum, because a small order twenty minutes out loses money on every run.

An order that arrives on a tablet nobody is watching is an order you will miss on the one night it matters. Orders should print, or land on a kitchen screen, and they should make a noise that carries over an extractor fan. Test this before launch with the extractor on and the radio going, which is the actual operating environment rather than the quiet afternoon you set it up in.

Launch on a Tuesday. You want the first orders to arrive when the kitchen has capacity to absorb a surprise, not at half seven on a Friday. Take a handful of test orders yourself, including one with awkward modifiers and one to the far edge of your delivery zone. Then tell your regulars before you tell the internet: the first week should be forgiving people who like you, not strangers forming a first impression.