Restaurant billing software in Perungudi.

A clear collection point for several similar takeaway orders

Greater Chennai Corporation’s council record names Perungudi Lake and Rajiv Gandhi Salai in its local boundary descriptions. The lake inspires this page’s original illustration. When arranging a restaurant visit, share the street, building entrance and floor as well as a nearby landmark. The Chennai team visits by arrangement; confirm access details directly rather than relying on a road or landmark name alone.

Local reference: Greater Chennai Corporation: council record, 31 December 2018. Use the restaurant exercises below with your own menu.

Prepare three deliberately similar practice orders

Use sample references P01, P02 and P03 on a rehearsal sheet. P01 has two meals; P02 has two meals and one extra side; P03 has one meal and one drink. Substitute dishes from your own menu and keep all three orders separate in the demonstration. Their similarity is intentional: a parcel described only as “the meals order” is not enough to identify it. The sample references are exercise labels; use the actual references produced by the demonstrated software when tracing each order.

Give packing and collection different checkpoints

Set aside three labelled positions on a table for the rehearsal. Have the kitchen operator match each ticket to the dishes prepared, then ask the packer to count the containers and additions against that reference. A prepared dish, a checked parcel and a collected order are three different observations. Ask to see how your proposed kitchen display or paper-ticket workflow communicates them. Do not assume the software includes a particular packing status; agree a simple physical handoff if it does not.

Rehearse an extra side before collection

Add an extra side to P01 after its original food is packed but before collection. Follow the supported order-change procedure and inspect what reaches the kitchen. The packer should identify the addition without preparing the first two meals again. Check the final bill against the original items plus the addition. Keep P02 in view throughout: both parcels now look similar, so the reference must remain the primary check. Ask each operator to repeat the sequence rather than relying only on the demonstrator.

Let the collector arrive out of sequence

Have a colleague ask for P03 before P01 and P02 are collected. Confirm the reference using the procedure your restaurant chooses, check the meal and drink together, and only then hand over the parcel. Record who completed collection. If payment is part of the exercise, use agreed test evidence and review it separately from food readiness. A screenshot, a printed bill and a parcel on the shelf each answer different questions; show how the cashier makes the final payment check in your actual setup.

Keep an uncollected order visible at handover

Leave P02 uncollected when the next operator takes over. Write its reference, the checked contents, the payment state used in the exercise and the next action on the shift-handover worksheet. Agree who follows up and how the restaurant applies its own food-holding policy. Avoid writing customer phone numbers on a public collection shelf. Repeat the exercise after changing the counter layout if staff must walk around waiting customers to reach the parcels.

Record the result you need from a Perungudi demo

For each order, record whether the kitchen received the correct instruction, the packer matched every item and the collector received the correct parcel. Note any mismatch and its cause before changing the setup. Bring your longest menu names, actual printer model and a sketch of the packing counter to the demo. DeccanPro costs ₹6,000 per year with unlimited use and no setup fees. Discuss hardware and connectivity separately, using this rehearsal to decide what your restaurant needs.