Restaurants, pizzerias, bars and farm restaurants
Restaurant management software
From booking to bill in a single program: floor plan, tables that join together, digital menu, orders taken at the table and the end-of-service report. Fixed subscription, no commission per cover.
One evening, from start to finish
Restaurant management software isn’t there to take bookings: that’s the first of five jobs. It’s there to seat people where there’s genuinely room, to get orders to the kitchen without the detour via the order pad, to close the bills and to know, the next morning, how it went.
Online bookings on their own solve the phone ringing during service, and that’s it. Then comes the part that happens on the floor, and that’s where a restaurant loses time: the table that shows as free but isn’t, the party of eleven nobody knows where to put, the ticket lost between the bar and the kitchen, the bill redone three times.
Bookings on their own have a page of their own: restaurant booking software. This page is about what comes after.
The dining room and tables, drawn as they really are
The floor plan isn’t an illustration: it’s the list of tables with their seats, laid out the way they stand in the room. Whoever looks at the screen sees at a glance who’s sitting where, which tables are free now and which are free but already promised to someone arriving at nine.
Tables are joined for large parties and split again at the end of the evening without redrawing the map. Joining is reversible: table 7 and table 8 go back to being two tables when the party of ten leaves, and the floor plan stays the same as ever.
Different rooms, different rules
- Several rooms in the same restaurant: indoors, terrace, main room, conservatory
- Each table with its own seats, which is what decides who fits
- Tables in the sun marked on the floor plan, for guests who ask for them in summer — or avoid them
- Tables joined when needed, and split when they no longer are
Orders at the table, without the order-pad detour
The order is taken at the table on a phone: pick the table, tap the dishes, confirm. What’s been ordered stays attached to the table, and the bill builds itself as the evening goes on — with the extras, the second rounds and the coffee.
At the end the bill is closed and paid. If you like, guests can also pay from their own phone, using the QR code printed on the table: open the bill, pay by card, the table shows as settled. Nobody’s left standing around waiting for the card machine.
Your customers, and they stay yours
Every booking leaves a record: who they are, how many times they’ve been, how much they’ve spent, whether they turned up. It’s the information you really need when Saturday night is full and you have to decide who gets it — and the information that, on booking portals, belongs to the portal, not to you.
On top of that sits the loyalty programme, with points or stamps, for anyone who wants to give guests a reason to come back. The records aren’t shared with other restaurants and don’t feed any restaurant listings site.
The end of service, when it all becomes clear
When service closes, the software saves the evening’s tally: how many covers, how much came in, which tables turned, how many bookings were no-shows. It stays in the history, so two Thursdays can be compared properly rather than from memory.
Closing can also happen on its own at a time you set: if nobody has closed service by two in the morning, the system does it and the report is saved anyway. It’s the one automation worth having in a restaurant, because it’s the one task nobody feels like doing at the end of the night.
One program, or four that don’t talk to each other
The real question when choosing restaurant management software isn’t which one costs least: it’s how many things you’ll have to keep in sync by hand. A restaurant that combines an online diary, a PDF menu, an order pad and a spreadsheet for the accounts has four different versions of the truth about the same evening.
| During the evening | Separate tools | LyamFlow |
|---|---|---|
| A booking comes in | It goes in the diary, and someone assigns the table from memory | It takes the table on the floor plan at the same instant |
| A price changes | You update the PDF, then the website, then the QR code — when you remember | Change it once, and it changes everywhere |
| An order is taken | Order pad, trip to the kitchen, and the bill is added up by hand | It stays attached to the table, the bill builds itself |
| Service ends | The numbers get pieced together on Sunday, if there’s time | The report is already written when the lights go out |
| A guest comes back | Whoever was on last time recognises them — if they’re working | Their record is right there, with history and cancellations |
The comparison is between two ways of organising yourself, not with any particular product: some restaurants work perfectly well with separate tools, and they’re usually the small ones where the same person always holds it all together. The sums change when there are three people.
On the cost side there’s a second difference worth knowing before you sign: LyamFlow is a fixed fee and takes no cut of each cover booked. The comparison with commission-based portals, with the numbers, is on the page for Swiss restaurants.
What it costs
- Demo take a look right away A made-up restaurant, with a full dining room and service under way. You don’t leave any address: just open it and look around.
- CHF 29.90 / month Basic plan One restaurant with nothing switched off: floor, menu, orders, bill, guests, shifts and end-of-day close. The restaurant’s website is included.
- CHF 79.90 / month Pro plan The restaurant, the pizzeria and the bar under one login — up to five — with rooms, menus and guests kept separate.
First you try it for fourteen days on your real restaurant, without leaving a card. Prices are in francs, the same currency that appears on your statement: no conversion between what you read and what you pay.
Frequently asked questions
Do bookings taken over the phone end up in the same place?
Yes. Whoever answers enters them by hand and they sit in the same book as those that came in online: there’s one dining room, so there has to be one cover count. There isn’t one diary for the phone and another for the web.
What happens if the table has already been given to someone else?
It can’t happen: a table shows as taken for everyone at the very moment it’s promised to someone, and there’s no window in which two bookings coexist. The technical detail — why it holds even in the exact second two people confirm at once — is explained in restaurant booking software.
Do I need a particular till or card machine?
No. Orders and bills are handled from the phone or tablet you already have, and payment at the table goes through a web page the guest opens from the QR code. There are no terminals to buy to get started.
Can I run several restaurants from the same account?
With the Pro plan, yes, up to five, and you switch from one to another without logging out. Each restaurant has its own floor, menu, guests and website: the data never mixes.
How long does it take to set up the dining room, menu and tables?
A guided set-up asks for opening hours, rooms and tables with their seats all at once, and creates them together, without configuring them one by one. The menu is entered afterwards, by category. From sign-up to the first service run on it usually takes an afternoon, and the longest part is typing in the dishes.
Are the menu on the website and the one behind the QR code the same thing?
Yes, and that’s the point: they’re the same list of dishes shown in two places. A price changed in the software changes at the same moment on the website and behind the QR code, and there are no old versions floating around.
If you need something specific
- Just bookings Restaurant booking software: how to open them up, and how to avoid double bookings.
- Your restaurant’s website Websites for restaurants, with your real menu inside and booking right on the page.
- I’m in Ticino or elsewhere in Switzerland The page for Swiss restaurants: francs, languages and the way things are done here.
- I don’t have a restaurant Business management software covers salons, practices, gyms, tradespeople and seven other trades.
Two weeks in your own restaurant, free
Everything switched on, no credit card. If you don’t need it after fourteen days, you stop — no harm done.