Straight answers, no sales call.
Your dashboard has a "Getting Started" guide the moment you sign up. With Docket LIVE (service) on, it walks you through it in order: add your tables, map them onto a floor plan, route menu categories to kitchen stations, add online reservations to your website, build your menu, then invite your team. If you only run events, it is just your menu and your team. You can also do it by hand: Settings > Docket LIVE has Tables (add them in bulk — how many 2-tops, 4-tops and so on), Floor Plan and Kitchen Stations, and Settings > Menu gets your dishes in, including the AI Menu Uploader for a pasted menu, photo or PDF. After that you can seat a walk-in or take a reservation the same day.
Station by station. Nothing from us.
DocketBEO runs in a browser on what you already own. The only place worth spending money is the one screen that lives next to heat.
| Where | Device | Size | Why | Where to buy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host stand | Standard 10–11″ tablet on a stand | 10–11″ | Brief glances while greeting. No heat, no grease — nothing special needed. | Anything you already own |
| Servers, on the floor | Rugged handheld or a large phone in a rugged case, with a hand strap | 6–8″ | Go small, not big. This is the size purpose-built restaurant handhelds actually ship at. | Galaxy Tab Active5 (8″, IP68) — samsung.com/business, CDW |
| Cook line — grill, fryer, sauté | Sealed commercial touchscreen monitor, IP54+ | 15.6″ | Heat and grease genuinely shorten a bare tablet's life, even in a case. This is the one place to spend money. | Search “IP65 commercial touchscreen monitor” — POSGuys, CDW, Barcode Factory |
| Expo / shared pass | Larger sealed monitor | 21–22″ | One screen watching several stations at once needs the extra room. | Same POS resellers as the cook line |
| Bar | Standard tablet in a splash-resistant case | 10–11″ | Wet from ice and citrus, but not hot — a case is enough. | Consumer retail + a case |
| Truck or walkup window | Weatherproof / kiosk case | 11–13″ | Outdoors, so sun glare and rain matter more than heat. | Kiosk case suppliers |
| Office — settings, reports, schedule | Any laptop or desktop | Any | No special requirements at all. | Whatever is on the desk |
Kitchen tickets print automatically on a networked Star printer with CloudPRNT (mC-Print3, TSP143IV, or a TSP654II with the CloudPRNT interface card) or an Epson with Server Direct Print (TM-m30III, TM-T88VII) — no computer or driver, you just paste a URL into the printer. USB-only and Bluetooth-only printers can't do it. For printing checks and BEOs from a tablet, look for “AirPrint” (iOS) or “Mopria” (Android) named explicitly on the spec sheet. Either way, call a reseller and confirm the feature by name rather than assuming from the product title.
Payments run through Stripe. Three ways to take a card at the table: Tap to Pay in the DocketBEO app, where the phone's own NFC reads contactless cards and phone wallets with no hardware at all (Android phones and tablets with NFC today; iPhone is coming); Stripe's Reader M2 ($59), a pocket Bluetooth reader that pairs with the app; or the countertop Reader S700 ($299). Both readers come from your Stripe Dashboard under Terminal → Shop. A WisePOS E you already own still works (Stripe stopped selling new ones on September 1, 2026). Cards can also be typed in with no hardware. A reader from any other processor, Square included, physically cannot pair with Stripe regardless of specs.
We're designing a check presenter and a kitchen bump bar — see the hardware page. Optional accessories, not terminals you have to rent.