Phone Orders Guide: Caller ID Setup, Phone Book, and Taking Orders

The phone order system in RestaurantManage identifies an incoming caller, matches the number against your saved customers, and shows the caller's name and delivery address on screen the moment they ring. From there, a staff member turns the call into a delivery order in one tap — with the customer's details pre-filled — and the order flows into the same kitchen, cashier, and courier screens as every other channel. This guide covers connecting a capture method, managing your phone book, and taking a phone order end to end.

How Does Caller Identification Work?

When a call comes in, RestaurantManage reads the caller's phone number and checks it against your restaurant's phone book. If the number belongs to a saved customer, a pop-up appears on your panel showing their name, saved delivery address, and any notes you've recorded. If the number is new, the pop-up shows a blank form ready to capture a new customer. Either way, a staff member can turn the call into an order without re-typing anything that's already known. The number itself is captured by one of three methods — an app on the order phone, a USB modem on a landline, or a Bluetooth-paired phone — described below.

The Incoming Call Pop-up

The moment a number is captured, an incoming-call pop-up appears on every open panel (admin, cashier, and the takeaway screen) with a short sound. For a recognized caller it shows the saved name and address; for an unknown number it shows just the number with an option to save a new customer. The pop-up doesn't interrupt what you're doing — you can take the order immediately, save the customer, or dismiss it. Recognized incoming calls also appear as live cards on the takeaway screen so they're never lost in a rush.

How Do I Set Up Call Capture?

RestaurantManage reads incoming numbers through one of three capture methods. You choose the one that matches how your orders arrive — the panel workflow is identical regardless of which you pick. You can start with one method and switch later without changing anything about how you take orders.

Method 1: Android App on the Order Phone

The simplest setup. Install the dedicated Call Capture app on the Android phone your restaurant already uses for orders, sign in with a staff account, and grant the call permission. When a call comes in, the app reads the number and sends it to your panel. The app is deliberately single-purpose and installed only on that one order phone, so the call-reading permission stays isolated from your other devices. This method needs no extra hardware — just the order phone you already have.

Method 2: USB Caller-ID Modem on a Landline

1. Confirm caller ID is active: Ask your telecom provider to enable caller ID (CLIP) on your phone line — it's standard and usually free.
2. Connect the modem: Plug a USB caller-ID modem into the phone line and into a Windows PC near your order station.
3. Download the agent: From the admin panel, open the Phone System section and download the Windows agent — it arrives pre-configured with your restaurant details.
4. Install it: Unzip the download and run the install script as administrator. The agent installs as a background service.
5. Start taking calls: Incoming numbers now appear on your panel automatically. The agent runs continuously and reconnects on its own.

Method 3: Bluetooth-Paired Phone to a PC

If your orders come in on a mobile number but your staff work at a PC, pair the order phone to a Windows computer over Bluetooth and run the same downloaded agent. The agent reads the incoming number through the Bluetooth hands-free connection and pushes it to your panel. This is the most hardware-flexible option — useful when you want the call coming in on a mobile but the order taken at a workstation. As with the modem method, the agent is downloaded pre-configured from the admin panel's Phone System section.

How Do I Manage My Phone Book?

Your phone book is the list of saved customers that incoming numbers are matched against. It lives in the admin panel under the Phone System section, where you can search, add, edit, and remove customer records. Each record holds a phone number, name, structured delivery address, and an optional note such as "ring twice" or "leave at the door". The phone book is scoped to your restaurant — it's your data, not shared with any marketplace.

The Phone Book Builds Itself

You don't need to import anything to get started. Every time you take an order from a new number, that customer is saved automatically, so within a few weeks of normal operation your most frequent callers are all recognized. You can also add known regulars by hand: open the Phone System section in the admin dashboard, tap Add Number, and fill in the customer's name and address. Saved customers are matched on their very next call.

Capturing a Structured Address

Addresses are saved as structured fields rather than one free-text line, which makes deliveries more accurate. The form captures province and district (pre-filled from your restaurant's location and adjustable), neighborhood, street, building number, and apartment or floor. The province, district, and neighborhood fields offer suggestions drawn from open mapping data for your country, so the operator picks from a list rather than typing everything. When the address is saved, the system resolves it to map coordinates in the background so the delivery shows as a pin on the courier map. If the lists don't cover your area, you can simply type the address as free text — nothing is ever blocked.

How Do I Take a Phone Order?

Recognized incoming calls appear as live cards on the takeaway screen, and the incoming-call pop-up also offers a one-tap path. Taking the order is the same as building any other order — you just start from the customer instead of a table.

1. Open the call: On the takeaway screen, find the live call card, or use the incoming-call pop-up, and tap "Take Order".
2. Confirm the customer: The point-of-sale opens in phone-order mode with the caller's name, phone, and address pre-filled. For a new caller, fill in the address fields.
3. Add menu items: Build the order from the menu exactly as you would for a table or counter order.
4. Confirm the order: The address is required for a delivery, so the system checks it's filled before sending. On confirm, the customer is saved or updated in your phone book.
5. Track the delivery: The order enters the kitchen and delivery workflow, appears on the live delivery map, and the call card clears from the screen.

Phone-Order Mode in the Cashier Panel

When you take a phone order, the cashier panel opens in phone-order mode rather than the usual table grid. The header shows the caller's name and number, and a customer panel on the right holds the editable name and the required delivery address. You add items the same way as any order. Because a phone order is a delivery, the address must be filled before you can send it — this guard prevents a delivery order from going out without a destination. Once sent, the order behaves like any other delivery for billing and courier assignment.

Marking a Call as "No Order"

Not every call becomes an order — sometimes a caller only asks about prices or hours. On the takeaway screen, a live call card can be marked as "No Order", which removes it from the active list while keeping the call in your history. The card otherwise stays on screen until it becomes an order or its two-hour window passes, so a genuine order is never accidentally lost during a busy service.

Where Phone Orders Appear

A phone order is a delivery order, so it shows up everywhere your other deliveries do. The kitchen sees it on the kitchen display, the cashier can bill it, and it appears on the live delivery map for courier assignment. If you run your own delivery, the order flows into the courier app with the customer's address attached — the map shows the destination as a pin, and for navigation the courier app opens the address as text in their maps app, which usually resolves to a more precise building-level location than a single coordinate.

Related Guides

• Cashier panel: Process payments, split bills, and print receipts
• Admin dashboard: Manage your phone book, users, and settings
• Phone order system article: Why caller ID and one-tap ordering speed up your operation