Restaurant Operations Manual — Complete User Guide

About This Manual

This manual is the complete guide to Tout Compris, the all-in-one web application for running the day-to-day operations of an independent restaurant, bistro, café or small hotel kitchen. It walks through every part of the app, from first-time setup to the daily routines your team will use during service.

Who this manual is for

It is written for the restaurant owner or manager who sets up and runs the app. Where a task is performed by other team members (a chef logging a fridge temperature, a server clocking in), this is noted so you can point staff to the right section.

How the app is organised

Tout Compris is one secure web app that you open in a browser on a computer, tablet or phone. Work is grouped into modules — reservations, scheduling, stock, HACCP, accounting and so on — reached from the navigation menu on the left. What each person sees depends on their role: a manager sees everything; a chef, floor manager or staff member sees only the parts relevant to their job (Part 1.4).

Conventions

• Bold text is a button, menu item or field you tap — for example + New Reservation.
• Numbered lists are step-by-step instructions.
• Tip = a shortcut or good practice · Note = useful background · Important = affects compliance, money or data.

Part 1 — Getting Started

1.1 What Tout Compris does

Tout Compris brings the tools an independent restaurant needs into a single place, replacing several separate subscriptions. In one app you can:

• Take and manage reservations, private events and takeaway orders, with a live floor plan.
• Build staff schedules, run a PIN clock-in station, and track hours, leave, tips and labour cost.
• Manage ingredients, recipes, dish costs and menu profitability.
• Run stock counts, suppliers and purchase orders, including invoice scanning and barcode receiving.
• Keep a complete HACCP and allergen compliance record, ready to print for an inspector.
• Track daily sales, till reconciliation and VAT across countries and split rates.
• Keep a guest CRM, communicate with your team on a noticeboard, and ask an AI assistant about your own data.

Everything is saved securely online, so your data is available on any device you sign in to and is shared live between your team's devices.

1.2 Signing in for the first time

New to Tout Compris? Tap Create your restaurant account on the login screen: enter your restaurant name, email address and a password (at least 8 characters), choose from the list how you heard about Tout Compris, and accept the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. You'll receive a confirmation email — click the link, then sign in as below. Your subscription starts with a 14-day free trial (Section 8.8).

The login and sign-up screens open in your browser's language automatically. Use the language selector at the top of the login card to change it — this also decides which language the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy open in, so set it before you accept them. If you have signed up but not yet subscribed, the subscription screen carries the same language selector, so you can switch there too.

1. Open the Tout Compris web address in a modern browser (Chrome, Safari or Edge work well).
2. On the login screen choose Restaurant Manager.
3. Enter your Manager Email and Password, then sign in.
4. The very first time, the app opens the first-time setup wizard (next section).

1.3 First-time setup wizard

The wizard takes you through four short steps: 1. Country → 2. Language → 3. Restaurant → 4. Done.

1. Country — select where your restaurant operates. This sets your currency and pre-fills that country's usual VAT rates, and suggests a default language.
2. Language — choose the interface language. It can be changed at any time, and each team member can use their own.
3. Restaurant — enter your restaurant name (it appears on printed documents) and check the pre-filled VAT rates.
4. Done — finish, then sign in. Your choices are applied to your account on that first login.

1.4 Understanding roles and access

Every person has a role that controls what they can see and do. You set it when you add them (Section 1.5), under App Access Level.

A full feature-by-role matrix is in Appendix A.

1.5 Adding your team

Add each employee once, in the Staff section of the menu.

1. Open Staff and click + Add Employee.
2. Enter the person's Full Name, their day-to-day Role, department, and their App Access Level (Manager-level access stays with your email login; choose Floor Manager, Chef or Standard Staff here).
3. Set their Hourly Rate (used for labour cost and payroll) and Annual Holiday Allowance in days.
4. Give them a 4-digit PIN for clocking in and signing in on shared devices.
5. Save. Repeat for each team member.

About PINs: PINs must be 4 digits and cannot be an obvious code (such as 1234 or 0000). Give every person a different PIN — the clock-in station identifies people by PIN alone. Staff can change their own PIN later with Change My PIN.

1.6 Setting up the clock-in station (kiosk)

The clock-in station turns a shared tablet or computer near the staff entrance into a kiosk where the team clocks in and out with their PIN.

1. On the device you want to use, open the login screen's Kiosk tab.
2. Enter the manager email and password to activate it — this locks the device into kiosk mode so staff cannot reach the rest of the app.
3. Staff use the big keypad: enter your 4-digit PIN. The station recognises who you are, greets you by name and shows your shift.
4. Tap the single action button — Clock In or Clock Out (or Start Break / End Break). A confirmation screen shows the name and time, then the keypad returns for the next person.
5. To leave kiosk mode, tap Exit and enter the manager password.

The station is deliberately strict, so your time records stay clean:

• It only allows clock-in from 15 minutes before a scheduled shift, and blocks clock-out attempts long after a shift ended.
• Someone with no shift today is told so — no accidental hours.
• If an earlier shift was never closed (a forgotten clock-out), the station flags it for a manager to correct with Manual Clock Entry.
• Anyone working more than 5½ hours without a break sees a break reminder, and breaks are tracked with their own start/end.
• A short cancel window after the 4th digit lets staff abort a mis-tap.

1.7 The dashboard

After sign-in, Tout Compris opens on the Dashboard — your at-a-glance view of the day:

• Getting started — on a new account, a checklist card walks you through the first-week steps (add your team, set up ingredients, first sale, first temperature check, first clock-in). Each item ticks itself as the data appears; dismiss the card any time with ✕.
• Today's AI briefing — a short daily summary, written for you each morning: expiring stock, overdue temperature checks, today's covers and dietary flags, pending requests, and anything notable in the week's sales. Tap ↻ to regenerate. (Managers only; see 8.1.)
• Stat cards — staff on the books and clocked in now, today's reservations and covers, hours and labour cost so far, waste as a % of revenue, and out-of-stock items.
• Today's shifts, grouped kitchen / service, with live "working now" dots.
• Today's reservations with status badges.
• Stock and expiry alerts — items at zero, below par, or expiring soon.
• 7-Day Revenue Trend — a simple bar chart of recent sales.
• The alerts bell (top bar) — lights up with notifications such as overdue temperature checks or expiring certificates.

1.8 Finding your way around

• The navigation menu on the left lists every module, grouped into sections (Daily Ops, Scheduling & HR, Front of House, Kitchen & Stock, Finance, Compliance, Takeaway, Admin). Each section collapses and expands with a tap, and the app remembers which sections you keep open on each device.
• Don't use a module? Hide it from the menu under Settings → Modules (for example Takeaway or Events). Nothing is deleted — hidden modules keep working in the background and can be switched back on any time. Compliance and finance can't be hidden.
• The alerts bell opens your notification inbox; Mark all read clears it.
• Your language can be changed at any time from the language switcher and updates the whole app immediately.
• On a phone the menu collapses behind a ☰ button; everything works on mobile, including the scanner.

1.9 Devices, idle lock and signing out

• Tout Compris keeps every connected device in sync in near real time — a booking taken at the front desk appears on the office laptop within seconds.
• For security, manager mode locks itself after about 10 minutes idle, returning to the login screen. The device stays connected — staff and kiosk keep working — but manager access needs the password again.
• Use Disconnect this device (Settings) when retiring or handing off a device: it signs the device out fully and removes the locally cached copy of your data. Your data itself stays safe in the cloud.

1.10 Exploring with sample data

New accounts start clean and empty — no invented dishes or bookings. If you want to explore the app before entering your own data, open Settings → Load sample data. This fills only the sections that are currently empty with a realistic sample restaurant — menu, ingredients, reservations, suppliers, a small team with scheduled shifts, and a week of sales — so every screen has something to show. Your own entries are never overwritten. (Sample team members have no PINs, so they can't clock in — add your real team for that.)

When you're done exploring, one click takes it out again: Settings → Remove sample data removes exactly the sample records and nothing else. While sample data is loaded, the dashboard shows a reminder so it's never forgotten.

Part 2 — Daily Operations

2.1 Reservations

The Reservations module manages bookings, party details and status throughout service.

1. Open Reservations and click + New Reservation.
2. Enter the guest Name, Date, Time and Party Size.
3. Add any dietary / allergy notes and special requests — these flow automatically into the service briefing and prep list.
4. Save. The booking appears in the list, on the dashboard and on the floor plan.

• During service, update each booking's status: Confirmed, Pending, Seated, Waitlisted, Cancelled or No-Show.
• Filter by date or status to focus on the current service; no-show statistics are tracked automatically (Section 7.6).

Pending requests

The list below shows one day at a time — but requests can arrive for any date, especially from your online booking page (Section 7.5). The amber Pending requests strip at the top of the screen therefore gathers every booking still marked Pending, from today onward, across all dates. Each row shows the date, time, guest, party size and phone, with one-tap Confirm, Decline and Go to date. Online requests carry an Online badge. Declined requests are kept as Cancelled — your booking history doubles as guest records.

2.2 Floor Plan

The Floor Plan is a visual map of your tables, organised by zone (for example Main Floor, Bar, Terrace, Private Dining).

• Set up once: add each table with its name, zone, seat capacity and shape. Edit or remove tables as your room changes.
• Live view: pick a date to see that day's seating at a glance, with reservations placed on tables and status colouring.
• Block a table that is out of use (a wobbly table, a private area) so it is not offered for seating.

2.3 Service Briefing & 86 List

The Service Briefing prepares the team before service: today's specials, items that are unavailable (the 86 list), and a consolidated allergy summary pulled from today's reservations.

1. Open Service Briefing & 86 List.
2. Add today's specials, and any 86'd items — dishes that are off or sold out — so the floor knows what not to sell.
3. Review the allergy alerts, gathered automatically from today's bookings.
4. Add notes for kitchen or floor, then Print Briefing or Save for the record. Saved briefings are kept in history.
5. Use Post to Noticeboard to broadcast the board (86 list, specials and notes) to the whole team's noticeboard in one tap.

2.4 Prep List

The Prep List calculates how much to prepare based on expected covers, and cross-checks stock and allergies.

1. Open Prep List. Expected covers are taken from today's confirmed reservations (adjustable).
2. Click Calculate Prep to generate quantities per dish and ingredient.
3. Review stock shortfall flags (where you may not have enough) and the allergy warnings drawn from bookings.
4. Print the list for the kitchen.

2.5 Clock In / Out and My Hours

• Staff record working time on the clock-in station (Section 1.6). Each person can review their own time in My Hours, and see their coming three weeks in My Schedule.
• A manager can add or fix a record with Manual Clock Entry, and close any open shifts needing a clock-out.
• Recorded hours feed directly into labour cost and the payroll export.

2.6 Daily Sales & Till Reconciliation

At the end of each day, record what you sold and reconcile the till. Confirmed totals are the source for VAT and analytics, so this step matters.

1. Open Daily Sales and select the date.
2. Enter the day's sales by dish (a fast tally), or import the file your till exports. Two import buttons, two jobs: a dish-by-dish list goes into Daily Sales (it deducts stock), a totals-only Z report goes into Till Reconciliation (money check only — it never touches stock). Hints under each button remind you which is which, so the same report is never counted twice.
3. In Till Reconciliation, enter the Opening Float, Cash in till at close, and card totals.
4. Record Cash Tips and Card Tips separately — tips are deliberately kept out of your revenue and VAT figures.
5. Review the reconciliation summary (over/short is calculated for you), then confirm. Confirmed tallies feed the VAT module.

2.7 Tip Distribution

The Tips tab (inside Till Reconciliation) divides collected tips fairly and keeps an auditable record — designed with the UK Tips Act 2023 in mind and useful in every country.

1. Choose the period to distribute (for example last week). Cash and card tip totals are pulled from your till reconciliations.
2. Pick the method — typically proportional to hours worked in the period.
3. Review the per-person split, adjust if needed, and record any agreed deductions transparently.
4. Save as draft, then approve to lock the distribution as a record you can show staff or an inspector.

Part 3 — Staff Management

3.1 Staff Scheduling

1. Open Schedule and navigate to the week you want.
2. Click + Add Shift, choose the employee, set start and end times, breaks, and the role for this shift.
3. For a recurring shift, set Repeat until and tick the weekdays it applies to — the shift is created across the whole range in one go, automatically skipping days that clash with leave, unavailability or an existing shift (you get a summary of what was skipped).
4. Save — the shift appears on the weekly grid. Use the department filter (all / kitchen / floor) to focus on one team.
5. Watch for availability warnings where someone is unavailable or on approved leave.

Exporting or printing the rota

Click Export in the Schedule toolbar. Pick a period — this or next week, this or next month, or any custom date range — and optionally a single department. Preview & print opens a clean rota document (one grid per week, with each person's shifts, roles, notes and approved leave, plus hour totals for the whole period), ready to print or save as PDF for the staff-room wall. Export CSV downloads the same period as a spreadsheet for Excel or your bookkeeper. Chefs and floor managers can export their own department's rota the same way.

3.2 Shift swaps

1. A staff member opens their shift and chooses Request Swap, selecting a colleague.
2. The request lands in the manager's alerts bell, titled New shift swap request so you can tell what it is without opening it. Clicking it opens the Schedule, where Pending Swap Requests sits at the top; the manager approves or denies from there.
3. Once approved, the schedule updates automatically.

3.3 Unavailability

Staff mark dates they cannot work with Mark Unavailability. These dates show as warnings on the schedule so you don't roster someone who cannot come in.

3.4 Leave & Holidays

1. A staff member creates a Leave Request — Holiday, Sick or TOIL — with dates.
2. The manager reviews and approves or denies (managers are pinged on the alerts bell).
3. Approved leave automatically blocks those dates on the schedule, and each person's balance counts down against their annual allowance.

How holiday days are counted

A holiday day is counted for each day you were rostered to work — so a weekend off costs two days, and a week off costs however many shifts you would have worked. If you book leave before the rota for that period is published, the app shows an estimate and works out the exact number when your manager approves it. For holiday booked a long way ahead, your manager will usually leave the request pending until that rota is written; remind them closer to the date.

Approving a request

Each pending request shows the person's holiday balance and what it becomes if you approve — highlighted if it would take them over their allowance — alongside anyone else who is already off or has asked for the same dates, so you can judge cover before deciding.

3.5 Labour Cost

• Labor Cost compares actual staff cost (hours × rate) against your target, with a progress bar that changes colour as you approach it.
• Switch between this week, this month or a custom range; set targets in Settings.

3.6 Payroll export

1. Open the payroll export and choose the date range.
2. Tout Compris calculates hours × rate to a gross figure per person, with daily detail.
3. Export CSV — the file opens cleanly in Excel.

3.7 Staff certifications

1. In Staff → Certifications, click + Add Certificate.
2. Record the type (food hygiene, first aid…), certificate number, issuer, issue and expiry dates.
3. Each certificate shows a status badge — Valid, Expiring soon or Expired — and expiring certificates raise an alert in good time.

3.8 Staff Noticeboard

The Noticeboard replaces the staff WhatsApp group with something you control and can prove was read.

1. Open Noticeboard and click + Post Notice.
2. Write the title and message, pick a category (VIP/guest, new dish/86, reminder, rota, other) and a priority.
3. Choose the audience — everyone, kitchen, front of house, or managers — and optionally an expiry date after which it disappears.
4. Leave Requires acknowledgement ticked for anything staff must confirm they've read.

• Staff see a badge with their unread count; notices that require acknowledgement pop up when they sign in and are ticked off per person.
• You can see exactly who has acknowledged each notice: the card lists who has read it and who has not yet — useful for allergy changes or policy reminders. The count covers only the people the notice was addressed to, so a kitchen-only notice reaches 100% once the kitchen has read it.

Part 4 — Kitchen & Stock

4.1 Ingredients Library

The Ingredients Library is the foundation of stock, recipes, allergens and food cost. Keep it accurate and the rest of the app stays accurate.

1. Open Ingredients and choose the Kitchen or Bar tab.
2. + Add Ingredient — name, unit (kg, L, piece…), and price excluding VAT.
3. Set the current stock level and a par level (the amount you like to keep on hand).
4. Tick any allergens it contains (the EU 14) and set an expiry date if relevant.
5. Set the ingredient's VAT rate, and optionally assign a barcode for scanning.

• Stock can be edited inline at any time; items expiring soon show amber, expired items red.
• Par levels drive low-stock alerts and the Smart Order suggestions (Section 4.6).
• An ingredient the app created for you — from a scanned invoice or a received order — carries a ⚠ Needs review badge until you open it and save it. One that has no price yet carries ⚠ No price set instead. The to review filter above the list shows both, from either tab.

4.2 Menu & Dish Costs

1. Open Menu & Dish Costs and click + Add Dish.
2. Name the dish, choose its category, and add its ingredients with quantities (the recipe).
3. Enter the sell price. Tout Compris calculates the true food cost % allowing for VAT.

4.3 Food Cost Calculator

Every dish as a card with a margin bar and an ingredient-level cost breakdown — green is a healthy margin, amber borderline, red poor. Use it to spot dishes that need re-pricing or a recipe change, and print dish cost cards for the kitchen.

When a dish uses an ingredient that is missing, has no price set, or has a unit that cannot be converted to the recipe’s unit, the card shows ⚠ Cost incomplete together with how many ingredients are involved — and the dish’s cost, margin and food cost % show a dash (—) instead of a number, on screen and on the printed cost card, because any figure computed from an incomplete recipe would understate the true cost. The affected ingredient row reads No price set; the other rows keep their real costs, so the card shows you exactly what to fix. The averages at the top count only fully costed dishes and say how many that is — “12 of 18 dishes costed” — using the same definition on the Food Cost and Menu screens, so both always show the same average.

4.4 Menu Engineering

Menu Engineering plots dishes by popularity and profitability into the four classic groups, using your actual sales for the period you choose (7–365 days):

• Stars — popular and profitable: feature them.
• Plough Horses — popular, low margin: improve the margin.
• Puzzles — profitable, unpopular: promote or reposition.
• Dogs — neither: consider removing.

A dish that is not yet fully costed — no recipe, no sell price, or an incomplete recipe — is never classified: it appears in grey as Not costed yet, as a hollow dashed dot on the chart and in its own grey card, making no margin claim. Complete its recipe and prices and it joins the analysis automatically.

4.5 Stocktake

1. + New Stocktake — the app snapshots expected stock at that moment.
2. Staff enter the physical counts (or Scan to count with the barcode scanner).
3. Review the variance / shrinkage report, valued at cost price.
4. Approve to lock the counts in as your new stock levels; Export CSV for your records.

4.6 Suppliers & Purchase Orders

Suppliers and orders

1. Add each supplier with + Add Supplier (contact, email, phone, notes, which ingredients they supply).
2. Create an order with + New PO, or let Smart Order / Order What's Low suggest quantities from par levels.
3. Send the order to the supplier by email.
4. When goods arrive, open the PO, record what actually came in — full or partial — then Approve & Update Stock. VAT on the received goods is captured at that moment for your input-VAT figures.
5. For anything short-delivered, create a back-order PO to chase the rest.

Scan an invoice (OCR)

1. Click Scan Invoice and upload a photo of the supplier invoice.
2. Tout Compris reads it and shows an editable review screen, highlighting anything it is unsure about.
3. Check supplier, lines and totals — correct anything — then confirm. A purchase order is created and stock updated for matched ingredients.

As you edit, each line total and the Your lines running total update live, and Tout Compris compares them (plus VAT) against the invoice's own printed total — an amber warning names the difference if they don't add up. The VAT box on the review screen is editable too: the figure you confirm is recorded as the input VAT for this delivery and used in VAT reporting. If you clear it, the VAT report values the delivery at your library prices instead.

Correcting an invoice after you have confirmed it. On Suppliers & Orders, every order now has a Details button. It shows the supplier, the date, each line with its unit price and line total, and the invoice VAT — the first place those prices are visible after a scan. The invoice number and invoice VAT can be corrected there, which matters because the VAT figure is what your VAT return uses for that delivery once the order is marked Received and has a date. Anything else — a draft, an order still on its way, or one only partly delivered — is not counted, and the screen tells you so. Clearing the VAT box does not set it to zero: it falls back to a calculation from your ingredient prices, and the screen tells you which of the two is currently in use. If the order is dated in an earlier VAT period, you get a warning — if you have already filed that period, a change here will no longer match what you submitted.

Supplier certificates

On the certificates tab, record each supplier's compliance certificates (Food Safety, HACCP, Allergen, Organic, ISO 22000…) with issue and expiry dates. Tout Compris warns when one is expired or due within 30 days.

4.7 Barcode / GS1 scanner

Use a phone or tablet camera to scan product and case barcodes — no extra hardware. The scanner reads standard retail barcodes and GS1 case labels, extracting batch number, use-by date and weight where present.

• Assign a barcode to an ingredient so future scans recognise it instantly.
• Scan to receive — scan a delivery to add it to stock and create the HACCP incoming-goods record (with batch and use-by) in one step.
• Scan to count — speed up stocktakes by scanning instead of typing.
• Unknown codes prompt you to assign them to an existing ingredient or create a new one.

4.8 Waste Log

1. + Log Waste — choose the ingredient, the reason (spoilage, over-prepared, dropped, expired, trimming…), the quantity and who logged it.
2. The module totals waste by period, shows a breakdown by reason, and the dashboard tracks waste as a % of revenue.

4.9 Goods In (staff receiving)

Early deliveries often arrive before the chef does. On each staff card the manager can tick "May receive deliveries & count stock" — Standard Staff with this permission get two extra menu items when they sign in with their PIN: Goods In and Stocktake.

• Goods In — Scan to receive (adds stock and writes the HACCP delivery log, including who received it) and manual Receive Stock. A "Received today" list shows the morning's scanned deliveries at a glance.
• Stocktake — they can start a count themselves, count by scanning or typing, and submit it. Quantities only: stock values in euros stay hidden, and the final Approve & Update Stock remains with the manager.
• No prices, no supplier list, no purchase orders — receiving is deliberately separated from purchasing.

Part 5 — Compliance (HACCP & Allergens)

5.1 HACCP overview

The HACCP module is your complete food-safety record, organised into registers (sub-tabs) and filtered by role — kitchen staff see kitchen tabs, front staff see cleaning. Every register can be printed as an inspector-ready record, over a date range you choose, with a signature line for manager, date and inspector. The one exception is the HACCP Plan tab: that is a regulatory reference (links to your country's food-safety authority), not a record of your operation, so it has no print button.

The registers: CCP Register, Temperature Logs, Incoming Goods, Cooking & Serving, Cleaning Schedule, Production Records, Display/Time Control, Process Records, Allergen Matrix, Training Records, Audits & Corrective Actions, Pest Control, Calibration, and the HACCP Plan / Regulatory Reference.

5.2 CCP Register

Your Critical Control Points, colour-coded by hazard type — biological, chemical, physical. Six standard CCPs are provided to start (cooking, cooling, cold storage, reheating, incoming goods, allergen control), each with critical limits, monitoring, corrective action, verification, responsible person and an F-form reference. Edit them, add your own, or archive ones you don't use.

Print CCP Register produces the register as it stands today (F-00) — one row per active CCP, ordered along the kitchen flow from receiving to service, with the hazard, critical limit, monitoring, corrective action, verification, responsible person and F-reference. Archived CCPs are left out. Because the register is a current-state document rather than a log, the printout is dated "current as of" today instead of covering a date range.

5.3 Temperature monitoring

1. Set up your units once with Manage Equipment — each fridge, freezer, dishwasher or hot-hold with its safe min/max and a check frequency.
2. During the day, Log Check per unit. Overdue checks raise an alert on the bell.
3. If a reading is out of range, the app opens an incident and shows the matching CCP's corrective action — record what you did.
4. Turn on Trends for a sparkline per unit — recent readings against the safe band. Print Temperature Log for your records.

5.4 Incoming Goods / Deliveries

+ Log Delivery — supplier, product, delivery temperature, packaging check, batch and use-by, accepted or rejected, initials. If you use Scan to receive (Section 4.7), these records are created automatically.

5.5 Cooking & Serving Temps

Log core cooking temperatures, hot-holding and cooling with + Log Check. The app knows the norms (e.g. core ≥ 75°C, hot-hold ≥ 63°C) and prompts a corrective action when a reading fails.

5.6 Cleaning Schedule

Set up tasks with Manage Tasks (kitchen and front of house, daily/weekly/monthly). Staff tick tasks off with their initials as they are done; the schedule shows what is outstanding.

5.7 Production Records

Track batches from delivery through prep to service with + Add Entry. The product list pulls from your incoming-goods log (with FIFO batch selection) and received purchase orders, so batch numbers stay linked end-to-end.

5.8 Allergen Matrix & Allergen Menu

• Allergen Matrix — a per-dish grid against the EU 14 allergens. Click each cell to cycle present (●) / may contain (◑) / not present (○).
• Allergen Menu — a clean, customer-facing allergen sheet generated from the matrix, ready to print for the pass or the host stand.

Checked or not checked. A cell nobody has touched shows a dashed ?, not a free-from circle — the matrix distinguishes "we have assessed this and it is free from" from "nobody has looked yet", which is what an inspector is really asking. A dish with no assessment at all carries a grey not checked badge, a partly assessed one an amber n/14, and a dish with all 14 set a green tick. Above the grid you see how many of your dishes are fully checked.

Marking a dish reviewed. A dish that contains none of the 14 does not need fourteen separate clicks: press Mark reviewed on its row. Tout Compris fills every allergen you have not set yet — taken from the dish's recipe where there is one, otherwise marked free from — and leaves anything you set by hand untouched, so it is safe to press again later. Always check the result against the actual dish: the recipe is a starting point, not a substitute for your judgement about the kitchen it is cooked in.

When the declaration and the recipe disagree. If a dish is marked free from (or may contain) an allergen that an ingredient in its own recipe carries, the cell gets an orange outline naming that ingredient and the dish gets a red check recipe badge — it keeps the green tick off and drops out of the checked count until you resolve it. This re-checks itself every time you open the screen, so correcting a recipe or an ingredient's allergens is enough to make the warning appear or disappear. Only that direction is flagged: declaring more than the recipe (shared fryers, cross-contact) is your judgement and is left alone.

On the customer allergen sheet, two safety rules apply. A dish that has neither an entry in the matrix nor a recipe to derive from prints ? — ask staff — instead of free-from, so an unreviewed dish is never declared clean to a guest. And where the declaration and the recipe disagree, the sheet prints the more cautious of the two: a dish is never shown free from an allergen its own recipe contains. The matrix keeps your declaration exactly as you typed it — it is your record — while the guest sheet errs on the side of the guest until you have had your say.

5.9 Other registers

• Display / time control — records for unchilled display and time-based safety (e.g. sushi, buffet) with quantities out and back.
• Process records — special processes such as sous-vide, smoking, acidifying, with the parameters each requires.
• Training records — who was trained, on what, when.
• Audits & corrective actions — internal hygiene audits and an incident log; failed temperature checks create incidents automatically.
• Pest control — contractor visits, sightings, actions, next visit due.
• Calibration — thermometer/scale checks with reference vs measured readings.

5.10 HACCP Plan / Regulatory Reference

Shows the official food-safety guidance and links for your country, in the matching official language, plus a reference grid across all supported countries. It cites the governing regulation (EU 852/2004 or the FDA framework) and maps which register covers what.

5.11 Printing HACCP records for an inspection

1. Open HACCP and choose Print HACCP Records.
2. Select which registers and which period to include.
3. Print or save as PDF — each register prints with headers and a signature block, suitable for an inspector.

Part 6 — Finance & Reporting

6.1 VAT & Accounting

1. Open VAT & Accounting and choose a period — this week, month, quarter, year, or custom dates.
2. Read the five stat cards: Revenue incl. VAT, Revenue ex. VAT, Output VAT, Input VAT and Net VAT due.
3. Review the monthly breakdown table, with a per-rate footnote when you sell at more than one rate.
4. Open the EU VAT Return Helper to map figures onto standard return boxes.
5. Export CSV in the format your bookkeeper prefers — standard (with per-rate columns), Xero or QuickBooks.

6.2 How VAT works in Tout Compris

• Food / reduced VAT % applies to food dishes; standard / alcohol VAT % to drinks; takeaway VAT % is set separately for collection and delivery.
• VAT is captured per dish at the point of sale, so past periods don't change if you later edit a price or rate.
• Multi-rate days are decomposed correctly — the app splits gross revenue into net + VAT per rate, not with one blended rate.

6.3 Weekly Report

Every Monday, Tout Compris generates a one-page report for the previous week automatically — a NEW badge appears in the menu and a note lands in the alerts bell. The badge clears as soon as you open the Weekly Report. Weeks with no recorded activity are skipped, so a brand-new account isn't greeted by an empty report. It covers:

• Revenue, covers and average check, with a day-by-day bar chart.
• Waste — cost, % of revenue, and the top waste reasons.
• Labour — hours, cost, and labour as a % of revenue.
• Top 5 dishes by revenue.
• Reservations and no-shows — bookings, no-show count and rate.

Open Weekly Report to read it, browse previous weeks, or print it for a Monday team meeting. You can also generate a report for the current week so far.

6.4 Dashboard analytics

The dashboard's 7-day revenue trend gives a quick read on momentum. For deeper analysis use VAT & Accounting for money, Menu Engineering for dish performance, and the Weekly Report for the rounded weekly picture.

Part 7 — Guests & Growth

7.1 Guest CRM

1. Guests are added automatically whenever a reservation is saved or confirmed — including online booking requests you confirm and waitlist entries you promote. Duplicates are avoided by matching on phone number, then name.
2. You can also add someone manually with + Add Guest.
3. Record contact details, dietary / allergy notes, birthdays, and mark VIPs. Common dietary keywords in booking notes (vegan, gluten, nut allergy…) become tags automatically.
4. Each profile keeps a visit history so regulars are recognised. The card shows how many visits a guest has made and when they last came in; open the profile to see the full list — date, time, party size and status. No-shows are counted separately, so a high visit count always means visits that actually happened. The history is built from your reservations — matched on phone number where you have one, otherwise on name — so it keeps itself up to date with no extra typing.

7.2 Guest Reviews

The Guest Reviews area shows ratings, their distribution, and a per-platform breakdown (Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor). Direct review-platform integrations are in development: the section says so honestly and shows a register-interest card for each platform instead of sample data. Press Register interest on the platforms you use to help us decide which to connect first — it is recorded once per account per platform. Until a platform is connected the feed itself stays empty ("No reviews for this platform yet."). Once an integration launches, that platform's reviews will appear in the feed automatically.

7.3 Events & Private Dining

1. Create an enquiry with + New Enquiry and move it through the pipeline: Enquiry → Quoted → Confirmed → Completed.
2. Build a Quote — pick dishes from your menu or add custom lines; use a package or flat rate if you prefer.
3. Track the deposit required/paid and the balance due; convert the quote to an Invoice for the final bill.
4. Add to Reservations to put the event on the booking calendar, and print a Function Sheet for the team.

7.4 Takeaway

• Order Board — a live board moving orders through Incoming → Preparing → Ready → Collected, with the order source and a running timer per order. Start one with + New Order.
• Takeaway Menu — pick dishes from your kitchen menu and set a separate takeaway price and availability per dish. Every takeaway dish is linked to its kitchen dish, so ingredients, stock deduction, dish costs and allergen information follow automatically — a new dish must first exist under Kitchen → Menu & Dish Costs. Older takeaway items without a matching kitchen dish keep working for orders but show a not linked warning until you add that dish to your menu.
• Packaging Tracker — log packaging used (cups, lids, containers, bags, cutlery) for EU Single-Use Plastics reporting.
• Takeaway Sales — revenue and VAT for takeaway, using your takeaway VAT rates (collection and delivery can differ).
• Delivery Platforms — direct integrations with Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat / Takeaway.com (Thuisbezorgd) are in development; register your interest per platform to help us choose which to connect first. Until then, log platform orders on the Order Board with their order source — per-platform revenue and the delivery VAT rate are applied automatically.

7.5 Online booking widget

Let guests request a table from your own website, or from a link you share anywhere — no website needed. Setup takes about two minutes:

1. Open Booking Widget → Widget Settings. Set the name guests should see (your restaurant name is used if you leave it empty), an optional tagline, your brand colour, the maximum party size, which guest languages to offer (English, Dutch, German, French), your opening and last-booking times and the time-slot interval. The live preview shows exactly what guests will see. Save Settings.
2. Open the Embed Code tab and press Publish booking page. Your page goes live immediately — use Open booking page to see and test the real thing.
3. Share it, two ways:
   • Direct booking link — copy it into WhatsApp, your Instagram bio, your Google Business profile, an email signature, or print it as a QR code. Works even if you have no website.
   • Embed code — copy the snippet into your website (WordPress, Wix, Squarespace or custom HTML); the booking form appears right on your own page, in your brand colour.

Guests fill in name, phone, date, time, party size and any special requests, in their own language. Every request lands in Reservations as Pending — instantly, on all your devices, with an alert — and appears in the Pending requests strip (Section 2.1) for one-tap Confirm or Decline. Requests are never auto-confirmed: you stay in control of your capacity.

• Changing widget settings later updates your live page automatically when you save.
• Take offline unpublishes the page at any time (the embed shows a polite "online booking is unavailable" message); publish again whenever you like.
• The Waitlist tab tracks guests waiting for a table; promote a waitlist entry straight into a confirmed reservation when a spot opens.

7.6 No-Show Prevention

Reduce no-shows with reminder messages and honest statistics.

• Configure reminder timing (for example 24 hours and 2 hours before) and edit the message template.
• For each booking, the app prepares the reminder message for you — personalised with name, date, time and party — which you send from your own phone (SMS or WhatsApp). The booking is then marked reminded, so the team can see what's been covered.
• Mark bookings No-Show when guests don't arrive; the module tracks your no-show rate over the last 30 days and it feeds the weekly report.

Part 8 — System & Admin

8.1 AI Assistant

The AI Assistant lets a manager or chef ask questions about the restaurant in plain language and get instant answers from live data — for example "Which dish has the best margin?", "What's running low or expiring?", "How much have we made this week?". It also works as an in-app guide: ask "How do I log a delivery?" and it points you to the right screen.

Language: the assistant replies in whatever language you write to it — any language, not just the twelve the app's interface offers. If a message is too short to tell (an "ok" or a number), it continues in the language of the conversation, or your interface language for a fresh chat.

Today's AI briefing: each morning the assistant also writes a short briefing on the manager's dashboard (Section 1.7) — expiring stock, overdue temperature checks, today's covers and anything else that needs attention. It is generated once per day for your restaurant — in each interface language your managers use, so everyone reads it in their own — and shared across your devices; tap ↻ to refresh it on demand.

8.2 Languages

Tout Compris is available in 12 languages: English, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Czech, Swedish, Danish and Finnish. Change language at any time from the switcher; the app re-renders immediately, and each user can choose their own.

8.3 Settings

• Restaurant name and currency.
• VAT rates — food/reduced, standard/alcohol, default ingredient VAT, and takeaway (collection/delivery).
• Labour-cost targets, leave-year start and default holiday allowance.
• Push notifications and email notifications (8.4), and installing the app on the device.
• Modules — hide modules you don't use from the menu (1.8).
• Change Manager Password, Load / Remove sample data (Section 1.10), Data Backup & Restore (8.5) and Disconnect this device (1.9).

8.4 Notifications & alerts

• Important events — overdue temperature checks, expiring certificates, pending leave and swap requests, low stock, new online booking requests — go to the alerts bell, with an unread count.
• Enable push notifications per device to get a notification on your phone or desktop the moment something happens — it appears outside the browser, so you don't have to be looking at the app. It works while Tout Compris is still running somewhere: an open tab, a background tab, or minimised, and most reliably when you Add to Home Screen on a phone. If the app is fully closed, use Email Notifications below instead. Send yourself a test to check the device is set up.
• Switch on Email Notifications (Settings) to also get an email at your account address for the events that matter when nobody has the app open: a new online booking request, a holiday request, a shift swap request, or an expiring certificate. Everyday operational alerts stay in-app. A Send test email button confirms it's working.

8.5 Data backup & restore

1. Open Data Backup & Restore in Settings.
2. To back up: optionally enter a passphrase to encrypt the file, then download. The backup contains all of your restaurant's data in one file.
3. To restore: upload a backup file. Tout Compris detects whether it is encrypted and asks for the passphrase if needed.

8.6 Installing on a device

On a phone or tablet, use the in-app install prompt or your browser's Add to Home Screen so Tout Compris opens full-screen like a native app. Ideal for the clock-in station and for managers on the move. The app also opens (read-only for new changes) when your connection briefly drops, and syncs when it returns.

8.7 Your data, security & privacy

• Data is stored securely in the EU and served over HTTPS; each restaurant's data is isolated from every other restaurant's.
• Staff PINs are stored hashed (they cannot be read back), and repeated wrong attempts trigger an escalating lockout.
• Manager sign-in uses email and password; manager mode auto-locks after ~10 minutes idle.
• Backups can be encrypted end-to-end with your own passphrase.
• You can export or delete personal data (for example a guest record) to support privacy requests.

8.8 Subscription & billing

Tout Compris runs on a subscription, billed monthly or annually. New accounts start with a 14-day free trial: after your first sign-in, choose monthly or annual and enter a payment card on the secure Stripe page. Nothing is charged during the trial, your plan starts automatically when it ends, and you can cancel at any time before then without paying. The free trial is offered once per account.

• See your plan — Settings shows a Subscription card with your plan, its status, and your trial-end or renewal date.
• Manage billing — the Manage billing button opens the secure Stripe billing portal, where you can update your payment card, view and download invoices, switch between monthly and annual billing, or cancel.
• Switching to annual — if you pay monthly, the Subscription card shows what annual billing would cost you: the same plan for the price of ten months. Switching takes effect at your next renewal date, and nothing is charged when you make the change. Founder accounts: Stripe's plan screen lists the standard price first — your 40% founder discount is applied on the confirmation step that follows, and you keep the founder rate on the annual plan.
• Cancelling — cancelling stops future renewals; your access continues to the end of the period you have already paid for. Annual plans are paid in advance and are non-refundable mid-term — the trial is the try-before-you-buy window. After access ends your data is kept for 30 days and then permanently deleted, so export a backup first if you want to keep records (Section 8.5).
• Payment problems — if a renewal payment fails, manager sign-in shows an update-payment screen. Connected staff clock-in devices keep working in the meantime, so a card issue never interrupts a service.

Appendix A — Role & Access Matrix

A tick (✓) means the role can use that area. Floor Managers and Chefs manage their own department; pay rates and PIN resets stay with the manager.

Appendix B — Quick Task Finder

Appendix C — HACCP Register Checklist

Appendix D — Troubleshooting & FAQ

Q: An amber bar says I'm not synced / offline.
A: Your device briefly lost its connection (or the browser's tracking protection is blocking it — the banner links to the fix). Your work is kept locally and syncs when the connection returns.

Q: A staff PIN is locked out.
A: After several wrong attempts a PIN entry point is locked for a short, increasing cooling-off period. Wait and retry, or have a manager reset the PIN.

Q: Someone forgot their PIN.
A: A manager opens the person's staff record and resets the PIN. PINs can never be viewed, only reset.

Q: I forgot my manager password.
A: On the login screen tap Forgot password? and enter your account email. You'll receive an email with a secure link to set a new password. If it doesn't arrive within a few minutes, check your spam folder.

Q: The kiosk says "no shift scheduled today" but they're supposed to work.
A: The station only allows clock-in against a scheduled shift. Add the shift in Schedule — it reaches the kiosk within seconds — and try again.

Q: The Z-report import didn't work.
A: Import the CSV your till exports (most major formats and EU/US number styles are recognised). Confirm the date, then re-import in Daily Sales.

Q: Invoice scanning failed.
A: Try a clearer, well-lit photo of the whole invoice. If it keeps failing, enter the PO manually — the scanner is a convenience, not the only way.

Q: The camera won't open for barcode scanning.
A: Allow camera permission for the app's website in your browser settings, and use a current browser version.

Q: My VAT figures look wrong.
A: Check the VAT rates in Settings (food, alcohol, ingredient default, takeaway) and confirm your daily sales are entered and confirmed. VAT comes from confirmed sales and received purchase orders.

Q: The app looks out of date after an update.
A: Reload the page once (pull down to refresh on mobile). The app always fetches the newest version when online.

Q: The language didn't fully change on one screen.
A: Switching language re-renders immediately; if a page looks mixed, navigate away and back. Each user can set their own language.

Q: I loaded the sample data — how do I get rid of it?
A: Open Settings → Remove sample data — one click removes exactly the sample records and nothing else. Everything you added yourself stays; if you made test entries while exploring, delete those from their sections so they don't affect your real numbers.

Appendix E — Glossary