Billing

Running a small restaurant counter: tables, kitchen orders and the evening total

A practical routine for a small restaurant or dhaba counter: numbering tables, getting orders to the kitchen without mix-ups, billing each table once, and closing the evening total so the cash, the kitchen and the stock agree.

2 November 2026 · 9 min read · By Muhammad Ahmad

It is half past eight and every table is full. Table 4 wants two more rotis, table 6 says their karahi never came, and a family at the door is asking for a parcel. The cook shouts that he has two daal orders and does not know which table either one is for. At the end of the night the drawer holds a fair amount of cash, but nobody can say whether it is the right amount.

A small restaurant has the same money problems as any shop, with one extra: the goods are made after the order, by someone who is not at the counter. Most of the losses happen in the gap between the table, the kitchen and the bill. This article sets out a simple routine that closes that gap, on paper or on a phone, and that you can start tomorrow evening.

Why a restaurant counter loses money

In a grocery shop, the item is on the shelf and the price is on the item. In a restaurant, an order passes through three hands before it becomes a bill: the waiter takes it, the kitchen makes it, the counter charges for it. Each hand-over is a chance for something to go missing.

The common leaks are easy to recognise:

• Food made but never billed. An extra plate of rice was sent out and nobody added it to the table.
• Orders made twice. The kitchen did not know table 3's order was already done, so it cooked it again.
• Wrong table, wrong bill. Two tables ordered the same dish, and one of them paid for both.
• Parcels and walk-ins mixed with tables. A takeaway order is paid at the door and never recorded.
• Waste nobody writes down. Food that burnt, fell or came back is simply gone, and the stock no longer matches.

None of these needs a big system to fix. It needs one rule: every dish that leaves the kitchen belongs to a written order, and every order belongs to a table or a named parcel.

Number every table and keep the numbers fixed

Start with the room. Give every table a number and put the number on the table, where both the waiter and the customer can see it. A painted number or a small card works. Keep the same numbers every day, so that "table 5" means the same table to everyone.

A few habits make the numbers work:

• Use the same numbers in the kitchen. Write them on a small board near the cooking area so the cook knows the layout.
• Give parcels their own numbers. Call them P1, P2, P3 through the evening, and write the customer's name or phone next to them.
• Give outside seating or a family hall its own range. For example, tables 1 to 8 inside and 11 to 14 outside. Then nobody confuses an inside table with an outside one.
• Join tables, do not renumber them. If a large group pushes tables 2 and 3 together, keep the order on table 2 and write "with 3" on it.

This sounds small. In practice, most mix-ups in a busy evening come from tables that have no clear name.

One order, one slip, one table

The order is the most important piece of paper in a restaurant. Every order, from the first plate to the last cup of tea, goes on a slip with three things on it: the table number, the dishes with their quantity, and the time.

Here is a routine that works for a small counter:

1. The waiter writes the order at the table, with the table number first.
2. The waiter reads it back to the customer. This catches most mistakes before anything is cooked.
3. The slip, or a copy, goes to the kitchen. The kitchen does not cook anything without one.
4. When the dish is ready, the cook marks it done on the slip.
5. More dishes for the same table go on a new slip with the same table number, not on a shouted message.

The rule "no slip, no cooking" is the single most useful habit in a small restaurant. It feels slow for the first week. After that, the kitchen stops making food that nobody pays for, and arguments about who ordered what nearly disappear.

Write the special requests on the order

Customers ask for changes all the time: less chilli, no onion, extra raita, half plate. These requests are part of the order, and some of them change the price.

Decide in advance which changes are free and which are charged:

Write every request on the slip, even the free ones. A dish that comes back because the cook did not know about "no chilli" is a dish made twice. Put the charged extras on your price list so the counter does not invent a price each time. The free price list maker is enough for a printed menu card with these prices.

Price each dish from its ingredients

A restaurant's price is not what the dish costs to buy. You make it, so you need to know roughly what goes into one plate. Take a pot of daal as an example. Add up what the lentils, oil, onions, spices and gas cost for one pot, then divide by the number of plates it serves. That is the cost of one plate. The selling price sits above that, with enough left over for rent, salaries and your own living.

Do this for your ten most-sold dishes first. Many owners find that one or two popular dishes earn very little, because the ingredient costs rose and the menu price did not. The same thinking as in pricing products in a small shop applies: start from the real cost, then round to a price customers can pay easily.

Check these costs again whenever the price of a main ingredient changes. Meat, oil and flour usually move the most.

Bill each table once, at the end

A table should get one bill, made from all its order slips, when the customers ask for it. Paying dish by dish, or paying part at the counter and part to the waiter, is how money gets lost.

At the counter:

1. Collect every slip for that table number.
2. Check each one is marked done by the kitchen. Do not bill a dish that was not served.
3. Make one bill with every item, and read the total to the customer.
4. Take the payment, and mark the table as paid and free.
5. Keep the slips together with the bill copy until the end of the night.

For parcels, bill when the order is placed or when it is picked up, and decide which once for all parcels. Many small places take the money when the parcel order is placed, so a parcel that is never collected is not a loss.

If a table wants to split the bill, make the split on the bill, not by guessing at the counter. Two smaller bills for one table are fine. What matters is that every dish appears on one of them.

Close the evening total

When the last table leaves, the evening is not finished until three numbers agree: what the bills say you sold, what the drawer holds, and roughly what the kitchen used.

Start with the cash. The same steps as in closing the day with a cash count work in a restaurant. Count the drawer by notes and coins. The cash counter tool does the adding for you. Then compare it with the day's bills, less any cash paid out for the kitchen, such as a quick run for vegetables or gas.

Then look at the slips. Every slip should be attached to a bill. A slip with no bill is food that left the kitchen and was never charged. Find out why the same night, while people still remember.

Finally, a quick look at the main ingredients. You do not need to weigh everything. Check the two or three that cost the most, usually meat, oil and flour. If you used far more than the bills explain, there is waste, over-portioning or food going out unbilled.

Write down waste and staff meals

Food that burns, spills or comes back from a table is a real cost. So are the meals your staff eat during the shift. Neither is wrong, but both must be written down, or they look like missing stock.

Keep one page, or one note, for each evening:

• Waste: what, how much, and why. For example, "1 plate biryani, dropped" or "half pot daal, burnt".
• Returned dishes: what came back from which table and the reason.
• Staff meals: how many, so they can be counted at cost.

After two weeks, read the page. A dish that keeps coming back usually has a recipe or a timing problem. Waste that is always on the same evening usually means too much was cooked ahead. The ideas in reducing stock loss apply to a kitchen too: find where the loss comes from before trying to stop it.

Questions shopkeepers ask

Do I really need written order slips for a small place with six tables?

Yes, especially at peak time. With six tables and one cook, a single forgotten roti or one dish cooked twice each evening adds up over a month. A slip takes a few seconds to write and removes the guessing. On a slow afternoon it feels unnecessary, but the habit has to be there when the room is full.

Should the waiter or the counter take the payment?

Choose one and keep to it. For most small places, payment at the counter is safer, because one person handles the money and one drawer is counted at night. If waiters take payment at the table, each waiter should hand over the money and the bill copy together, straight away, never at the end of the shift.

How do I handle a customer who says a dish never came?

Look at the slip. If the kitchen did not mark it done, take it off the bill and apologise. If it was marked done, check with the waiter who served that table. Either way, decide quickly and politely at the table, then look at what went wrong after the customer has left.

What should I do with food left at the end of the night?

Write down what is left before deciding. Food that is safe to keep can be used the next day, if it is stored properly, and the amount tells you to cook less next time. Food that is not safe to keep should be thrown away and recorded as waste. Food safety rules differ by place, so check what applies where you trade.

How often should I change menu prices?

Look at your main dishes whenever the price of a main ingredient changes for good, not for one week. Changing prices too often confuses regular customers, so many places review the menu every few months and adjust a few dishes at a time.

Saleva can be set up for a restaurant when you choose what you sell, which turns on table numbers for each order. Its restaurant extras, part of Saleva Pro, add modifiers for requests, kitchen tickets, and recipes, so selling a plate takes its ingredients off stock. Shift and Reports then bring the evening's cash count, expenses and profit together on one screen.

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