Food & Beverage
Map your floor, fire courses when tables are ready, take orders and payments tableside on Square Handheld and split checks the way guests ask — with Payaroo helping you set up Square's full service tools.
Square, made easier with Payaroo.
What your full service restaurant needs
Table 12 wants apps now and mains later. Table 4 is a party of eight splitting three ways. Two guests at the bar are running a tab while they wait for a table, and the kitchen is plating two courses at once.
Full service works when servers can see the room, the kitchen gets each course when the table is ready and checks close the way guests want to pay — at the table, on their own phones or split by seat. Behind the scenes, guest profiles remember the regulars, menus change with the daypart and reports show which section and which station carried the night.
Orders go on a notepad, get walked to a shared screen and keyed in while tables wait for water.
How Square helps Square Handheld takes orders and payments at the table and sends items straight to the kitchen, printing to a network printer if you use one, so servers stay on the floor.
Entrées fire with the appetizers, and plates sit under the heat lamp while guests are still on their salads.
How Square helps Coursing groups a check into courses, holds them and fires each one when the table is ready, and Square KDS shows each course at the right station once it's fired. Coursing needs a paid Square plan.
A table of ten wants separate checks, two couples want to split theirs evenly and gratuity has to be settled up front.
How Square helps Split checks by item, by seat or evenly, or run several payments on one check. Automatic gratuity can be added by party size. Split checks and auto-gratuity are paid-plan features.
The host can't see which tables are open or which section is slammed without walking the room.
How Square helps Floor plans map the dining room, bar and patio into sections and show which tables are seated, and reports break down sales by section. Floor plans and section reports come with Square Plus or Premium.
Recommended setup
The Square tools that matter most for a full service restaurant — and why each one earns its place.
Full service mode brings floor plans, open checks, coursing and split checks together on the devices your servers carry.
Servers take orders and payments at the table, so cards never leave the guest's hand and tickets reach the kitchen sooner.
Tickets route to the hot line, cold line and bar as courses fire, and kitchen performance reports track ticket times.
Build the room as it really is — booths, two-tops, the patio — and see which tables are open at a glance.
Split by seat, by item or evenly, or run several cards against one check without redoing the order.
Pool card tips by hours worked or by job percentage for servers, bussers and bartenders.
Guest profiles keep visit history and notes — the allergy, the anniversary, the favorite booth.
How Payaroo helps
Tell us how your business works. We'll help you understand the Square tools that fit.
Core capabilities
Lay out tables by section — dining room, bar, patio — sized and shaped to match the room, and see which ones are seated. Merge tables for big parties on Square Register. Floor plans need a paid Square plan.
Hold mains and desserts on the check while the table works through apps. When the plates are cleared, the server fires the next course and the kitchen sees it then, on a printer or Square KDS. Coursing needs a paid Square plan.
Build a menu for each daypart and give it its own hours and channels. At 3 p.m. the brunch items drop away and the dinner menu takes over on the POS and your ordering page.
Add gratuity automatically by party size, to every check or by hand, calculated before or after discounts. At close, tip pooling splits card tips by hours or job share. Auto-gratuity and tip pooling are on the paid plans.
Scan to Pay prints a QR code on the check so guests pay from their own phones while the server moves on to the next table. It needs a paid Square plan.
See sales by floor-plan section, item and modifier, and track kitchen performance by ticket count and average completion time. Section and kitchen reports need a paid Square plan.
Hardware options
You don't need every device. Start with what matches where you take payments — and add more later.
A pocket-sized point of sale with a built-in barcode scanner and camera.
The server's pocket POS: orders at the table, payments at the table, tickets to the kitchen.
A countertop point of sale with two touchscreens: one for your team and one that faces the customer.
At the bar or server station, for merging tables, moving checks between servers and walk-up payments.
A compact, battery-powered card machine with a built-in receipt printer.
Carry it to the table to take a card payment and print the receipt right there.
A kitchen display app that replaces paper tickets and sends each order to the right prep station.
Kitchen screens for each station that receive courses as servers fire them.
Software and tools
Floor plans, open checks, coursing, split checks and auto-gratuity for table service.
Server and kitchen schedules, timecards and tip pooling.
Guest profiles with visit history, notes and preferences.
Email and text campaigns for a new menu or a wine dinner; texts go only to guests who opted in.
Takeout from your own commission-free page, routed to the same kitchen.
How it works
One realistic day at a full service restaurant, with the setup above doing the work.
Setup finder
Answer a few quick questions about your full service restaurant. We'll stop as soon as we can point you to a useful starting setup.
Tell Buckaroo how your business works and he'll help you figure out which Square tools make sense.
FAQs
One common setup pairs Square Register at the bar or server station with Square Handheld for tableside ordering and payment, plus Square Terminal for paying at the table with a printed receipt. Add Square KDS in the kitchen, or a ticket printer if you'd rather stay on paper. Full service mode runs on Square hardware or an iPad, not on phones, and KDS needs a paid plan plus a per-device add-on.
Yes. Square Handheld is a pocket POS for tableside service: servers enter items, fire courses and take tap or chip payments without leaving the table. Guests can also pay from their own phones with Scan to Pay, which prints a QR code on the check and needs a paid Square plan.
A check can be split by item, by seat or evenly, and one check can be paid with several payments. Automatic gratuity can be set by party size, applied to every check or added by hand, and you can keep more than one rate. Both features need a paid Square plan.
Yes. Tip pooling in Square's team tools can keep card tips with whoever took them or share them among tip-eligible staff — equally among those on the clock, by hours worked or by job percentages. It needs a paid plan, and Square Payroll, a separate add-on, can import the results.
Square posts current pricing on its own site. Square Free has no monthly subscription (processing fees apply), while most table-service tools — floor plans, coursing, split checks, auto-gratuity, Scan to Pay and tip pooling — are listed on Square Plus and Premium. Each Square KDS screen is a per-device add-on on top of a paid plan. Check Square's pricing page, and we'll help you work out which plan the room needs.
Walk us through your floor, your service style and your kitchen, and we'll put together a starting setup. The account itself comes from Square, which reviews each application and verifies the owner's identity and the business before approving it. Payaroo then helps with floor plans, menus and devices.
Related businesses
Tabs with a card hold, floor ordering, drink routing, tip pooling and events.
Size and topping modifiers, KDS stations, pickup, delivery and phone orders.
Estimates, deposits, e-signed contracts, future orders and tray pickup.
Counter ordering, combos, self-order kiosks, kitchen routing and delivery apps.
Tell us about your floor, your kitchen and how guests like to pay, and we'll help you put it together.
Square reviews and approves every account. Call Payaroo at 972-431-0439.
Square is a product of Block, Inc. Square, the Square logo and related marks are trademarks of Block, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Payaroo is an independent company. Payaroo is not Square or Block, and nothing on this page describes a partnership, reseller relationship, certification or endorsement.
Square product details on this page were checked against Square's website on September 25, 2026. Square sets its own features, plans, pricing, fees, eligibility and hardware availability, and these can change. Confirm current details on Square's website before you sign up. Square pricing · Square fees
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