Electronic Canteen

The electronic point-of-sale (ePOS) canteen system, "Grazer," includes point-of-sale electronic tills with touchscreen interfaces, a backoffice database server with powerful export facilities capable of linking it to accounting and stock-control packages, and web-based adminstration software to configure and maintain the system.

A repeater display confirms the details of transactions to customers, and contactless card readers are used to identify individuals. Ergonomic touchscreens, adjustable to provide a comfortable working environment for the cashiers, provide the interface for entering transactions and operating the tills. Cash drawers allow the cashiers to handle cash sales in addition to those on account.

"Grazer," the till application, presents tabbed menus of food stuffs. The blue buttons down the right hand side switch between the available categories; the red button is currently selected. Touching any of the yellow buttons in the large, central region of the screen adds the corresponding item to the current transaction.

The four buttons at the bottom of the screen allow the cashier to add a cash or cheque credit to an account, to remove items mistakenly added to the bill, to confirm the transaction and to start over.

The panel in the lower right corner indicates the status of the current customer's account before and after a transaction. Support can be turned-on within Grazer for negative balances, and also maximum balances. The maximum daily, weekly and monthly spend on each card can also be bounded. Grazer supports multiple cards on each account. Cards, like credit cards, merely identify accounts-no money is stored on the cards and misplacing a card does not lead to the loss of any monies in the account.

The web-based management software allows authorized canteen staff to change the prices: the screenshot shows one of the menu pages and clicking on any of the items would allow the user to make alterations. The menu is edited through the website interface: food stuffs are added, deleted, and re-ordered using the mouse. New categories can be created and defunct categories removed.

The website interface further allows canteen administrators to create and delete accounts, and to view the logs for any card, account or retail till. Finally, a cashing-up screen allows the sum in each cash drawer to be verified before banking.