Which payment methods should your restaurant accept?

Cash, cards, contactless and mobile wallets each suit different habits. Cash means a starting float, change on hand and a count at closing. A mobile wallet needs the right merchant account and a confirmed transaction. Cards and contactless require a merchant contract plus the provider's terminal or payment flow. Start with the methods your guests ask for and your team knows how to handle, and don't advertise a channel you're still testing.

In a busy casual restaurant with fast service, whoever takes payment has to be able to match each payment to the right table. In a hotel restaurant, check the rules for hotel guests and outside diners separately. In a lounge, several rounds can come before one shared check. These situations shape your process far more than the payment method itself.

Payment providers, card processors and mobile wallet issuers are regulated country by country, and the rules for payment institutions and e-money issuers are often separate. A provider's local availability depends on its license and its merchant program. A service that's available in one city or country isn't automatically available to your venue or under your contract.

Before you print a logo or train your staff, check with the provider and with your country's financial regulator. Ask for the onboarding documents, merchant terms, limits, payout times, incident process and current fees. These change over time, so keep the version you received and the date you checked it.

Before taking payment, your team checks the items, extras and total. Then, for a mobile wallet, they look for the confirmation in the provider's merchant app. For a card, they follow the terminal's or provider's process. For cash, they note what was received and the change given back. A screenshot on the guest's phone doesn't always replace this check on your side.

When a table splits the check, note the amount due, the share already confirmed and what's still owed. At the end of service, reconcile checks against payments by method, then count the cash separately. A tab or a pending payment is not the same as a payment received. This way you can track down a discrepancy without editing sales to make it disappear.

When comparing two card terminals, ask whether the device is bought or leased, what the setup and monthly fees are, the cost per transaction, the cost of a void or refund, and what support is included. Also check what connection it needs, how long payouts take and what to do when the terminal shows an uncertain transaction. A rate quoted for another country or another contract isn't enough to work out your own cost.

Over a comparable period, add up the terminal's fixed fees and the fees on the transactions you actually expect, then note separately how long it takes to access your money and what incidents cost. Get the breakdown from the provider in writing before you choose. Weigh it against your volume and the other methods your guests already use. Accepting cards can make paying easier, but a terminal that's rarely used can cost more than you planned.

Test a weak connection, a wrongly keyed amount and a transaction whose confirmation is slow to arrive. Decide who looks into the transaction and when to offer another way to pay. A short process that the floor staff and the manager both know protects your service better than a row of logos no one knows how to check.

Zeat turns your menu into a mobile menu guests open with a QR code, and your team can update dishes and prices. Zeat also offers ordering by guests or staff, with orders routed to the kitchen and bar. That gives you a solid basis for a clear, readable check, especially when a table orders in several rounds.

The QR menu on its own doesn't mean that mobile wallets, cards or any other payment method are accepted in Zeat. Ask for a demo with the providers your restaurant actually uses: who starts the payment, where the confirmation shows up, who fixes a mistake and how amounts are reconciled at the end of the day. Keep the manual steps in view when you decide.