How QR codes work
What a QR code opens, why a change to your menu never needs a reprint, and how a location's codes differ from table codes.
On this page
A QR code is a web address in print. A guest points their phone's camera at it, and your page opens in the browser — there is nothing to install.
What a code opens
Every location has a code for each page a guest can land on:
- Location page — the venue's own page, from which guests open its menus. Good for the door, the window or a flyer.
- The default menu — whichever menu the location serves by default at that moment. Change the default, or let a schedule switch it, and the same printed code opens the new menu. How a location picks it: Choose the menus a location serves.
- Every other menu it serves — that menu directly, like a drinks list on the bar. If the location stops serving it, guests see This menu is unavailable and a link to the menu served now.
A menu change never needs a reprint
A code holds only the address of a page, never the menu itself. Dishes, prices, photos and which menu is served are read when the guest opens the page, so every code already on your tables shows a change as soon as it reaches your guest menu.
The address inside every code contains your organization's link and the location's link. Change either, and the codes printed before stop opening your pages: print new ones.
Plain codes and extra codes
Each page has a Plain code, which always works and cannot be deleted. You can add codes that open the same page a certain way:
- In a language — the menu opens in that language, for example a sign for visitors who read Russian. A guest who already chose another language at your venue keeps theirs, and anyone can switch language on the menu.
- With a table number — the number is filled in on the list a guest shows the waiter. It is only a label: it does not send orders to that table.
All the codes of one page share one design. How to add them: Print and place your QR codes.
Location codes and table codes
For ordering at the table, each table on the location's Tables tab has a code of its own. It opens the default menu at that table, so orders arrive with the table — see Turn on guest ordering.
| A location's codes | Table codes | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you get them | the location's QR codes tab | the location's Tables tab |
| What they open | the location page or one of its menus | the default menu, at that table |
| Proves which table the guest sits at | no | yes |
| Stop working when | the page's address changes, or the location is deleted | the table's code is reissued, or the table is deleted |
Both kinds are drawn in your QR design.
Where you find your codes
- QR codes in the sidebar opens the page.
- All codes lists every location, each page it serves and the codes printed for it. Search and the filters above the list narrow it down.
- Design sets how the codes look — see Design your QR codes.
Codes are added on each location's QR codes tab, since a code belongs to one of the location's pages.