Restaurant software Oman: seven checks before you buy

Restaurant software is a bundle. Sellers put different things in the bundle and use the same words for all of them, which is why two quotes for the same job can look nothing alike.

This guide is a set of seven checks written for restaurant software in Oman specifically. Run them against any product you are shown, including ours.

Check one: the invoice

Oman has run VAT since 16 April 2021 at a standard rate of 5 percent, with registration required once annual supplies pass OMR 38,500 and voluntary registration available from OMR 19,250. If you are registered, your customers are entitled to a proper tax invoice and your accountant expects one.

So ask to see the invoice, not a screenshot of a dashboard. Does it carry your tax registration number? Are the numbers in one unbroken sequence? Does the total equal the sum of the lines every time, or does rounding wander?

In Get Menu the invoice is a PDF the customer can download without logging in, numbered in sequence, carrying your registration number, and the sales behind it export to a spreadsheet whenever you want them.

Check two: the Arabic

Arabic is not a font swap. The W3C's guidance on writing systems notes that right to left text is more complicated to work with and affects the organisation and directionality of the page layout. Software that treats it as an afterthought produces menus where prices sit on the wrong side of the dish.

Test it with your own items rather than the demo data. Type three real Arabic dish names, add a price and a description, and look at the result on a phone. Get Menu carries Arabic item names and descriptions beside the English on the same page, so customers are not sent to a second link.

Check three: where the order lands

This is the check most people skip, and it decides whether the software saves any time.

An order that appears only on a screen has to be read by somebody who is watching that screen. On a busy Thursday nobody is.

Get Menu sends 3 messages about 2 seconds after the customer confirms: a confirmation to the customer, a ticket to your managers group, and a dispatch note to your riders group carrying the map pin dropped at checkout. Every message is logged with whether it arrived, and an SMS can go from your own SIM if WhatsApp cannot deliver. Your team learns nothing new, because the order arrives in the group chat they already read.

Check four: how the money is taken

Most orders in Oman are still settled at the door, in cash or on a card machine the driver carries.

Get Menu is built for exactly that. There are no online payments in the system, which is a limitation stated plainly, and it has one useful side effect: there are no card details anywhere for anybody to steal, and no payment gateway to be approved for before you can start.

If taking the money on the website is what you need, we are the wrong product, and it is cheaper for everyone to say so in the first meeting.

Check five: the address

Ask how the system handles a customer in a tower with no street number. If the answer is a free text box, your drivers will keep phoning to ask which building.

In Get Menu the customer drops a map pin at checkout and picks their building and unit number from a list you control. You set a delivery fee per building, and free delivery over a threshold you choose. Riders open a link that needs no login and no account.

Check six: whose customers they are

Ask two questions and listen carefully. Can I export my customer list today? Can I export it on the day I leave?

If either answer is complicated, the software is holding something that belongs to you. In Get Menu the names, numbers and order history belong to your restaurant, export to a spreadsheet on any day, and old order details are cleared automatically after 120 days as a retention rule.

Check seven: the busy night

Software is easy to judge when the room is empty. Ask what it does when it is not.

Can two customers order the last portion? In Get Menu stock counts fall as orders come in, counts run per option as well as per item, and a dish greys itself out at zero without anyone watching. Can a nervous customer double tap and create two orders? No. Can somebody order below the minimum that makes a delivery worth doing? Not if you set one. Is the price on the screen the price charged? Every line is priced again at checkout from your live menu.

"Every business I have reviewed has one step where the software stops and a person starts copying. That step is where the errors live and where the evening disappears. It is worth more attention than the features people ask about in the first meeting." — Agha Shah Zaman, co-founder of Get Menu

What Get Menu covers, and what it does not

It covers the ordering side end to end. Your own address on getmenu.ae from day one, 12 page layouts with colour themes and a font picker, options and add-ons with their own prices, a spreadsheet upload instead of typing the menu, a code generated for every table with a print pack emailed to you, group ordering onto one bill, stamps and tiers with the loyalty card in Google Wallet updating itself, coupons with caps, exclusions and expiry dates, several branches with their own menus and hours, owner and manager logins, and an audit log of who changed what.

It does not cover everything that people searching for a pos system oman expect to get. There is no table reservation book, no payroll, no purchase ordering from suppliers, and no accounting package. The Apple Wallet card is built and waiting on a certificate, so today the wallet card is the Google one. Being clear about this before you sign is cheaper for both of us than finding out in month two.

For the neighbouring categories, our guides to a restaurant pos, an erp for restaurants and restaurant inventory management software set out what those words usually include.

How to run the seven checks in one meeting

Bring your own menu, your own phone and one real Arabic dish name. Ask the seller to build one item with a required choice, order it, show you where the kitchen sees it, produce the invoice, and export the customer list. Nothing on that list takes more than a few minutes if the product does it.

The Get Menu trial runs 15 days and asks for no card details, so you can run the same seven checks yourself without talking to anybody.

Frequently asked questions

What does restaurant software usually include in Oman?

Most bundles cover the menu, order taking, and some reporting. Beyond that, sellers differ widely, so check invoicing, Arabic, delivery addresses and data ownership item by item.

Does Get Menu produce a VAT invoice?

It produces an invoice carrying your tax registration number as a PDF, numbered in one unbroken sequence, which the customer downloads without logging in.

Can customers pay online?

No. In Oman the money is taken at the door, in cash or on your own card machine, so no card details exist in the system at all.

Does it work in Arabic?

Yes. Item names and descriptions can carry Arabic alongside English on the same menu page.

Do I need to buy hardware to start?

No. The menu is a web page and orders arrive as messages, so a phone or an existing computer is enough to begin.