GoTab Terminology

This page explains several terms that are used throughout the documentation as they relate to GoTab's product framework and design. This is not an exhaustive list of terms but should serve as a general starting point for understanding the GoTab restaurant commerce platform.

Catalog

The catalog is the full assortment of product at a location. The catalog is organized logically into one or more categories.

A default menu that matches the catalog setup is created automatically. This is the menu that is shown when catalog_view is enabled.

Category

A category is a collection of products.

Concierge

The Concierge is GoTab's web-based interface for coordinating with guests and the KDS through messaging.

Guests

Guests are the end users that ultimately create orders or have orders created for them (via the POS) at locations.

Item

An item is a specific configuration of a product and its options and is associated with a particular order.

Integration

Integrations are third-party services that GoTab interacts with to provide extra functionality to both guests and operators.

Examples of integrations include QuickBooks, Klaviyo, and Omnivore.

KDS

The KDS (Kitchen Display System) is GoTab's web-based interface for interacting with previously placed orders.

This system is usually displayed on a tablet in the kitchen at a location and is meant to be accessible by kitchen staff in order to coordinate the flow of orders through GoTab's system.

Location

Locations represent a physical restaurant, bar, or any other entity where orders can be placed by guests.

Manager

Managers are users at locations with elevated permissions that allow them to perform mangerial actions throughout GoTab's system.

This includes actions such as issuing refunds, viewing sales data, managing labor data, and creating other users.

Menu

Menus are a specific grouping of categories and their products.

Menus are the groupings that guests interact with when creating orders in order to better facilitate navigation through.

Option

An option is a configuration that guests are able to choose when building an order.

Options are specific to the product and may contain rules such as limits and minimumns.

The particular combination of products and options that gets associated with the order is an item.

Order

An order is a resource representing the intent of a guest to purchase and receive one or more items either immediately or in the future.

Orders are always associated with a single tab, whether the tab is "open" or not, as the act of creating an order also creates a tab.

Orders can also be created by servers through the POS on a guests' behalf.

Order Rule

An order rule is a logic-based configuration that can be applied to entities such as segments, zones, and products that will modify the order if its conditions are met. This can include adding items automatically, adding discounts, or adding extra charges.

For example, an order rule on a product can be used to implement a buy one, get one (BOGO) discount, or an order rule on a zone can be used to offer a surcharge for sitting in a "VIP" area.

Product

A product is a description of a purchasable entity and may also contain configuration in the form of options.

The specific combination of the product and its options, ie the configuration chosen when creating an order, is called an item.

POS

The POS (Point Of Sale) is GoTab's web-based interface that allows servers to create orders for guests among other actions.

QR

QRs (AKA QR Codes) are images that encode data and can be scanned by a typical phone camera.

GoTab-compliant QRs will often contain a url to a specific spot, zone, menu, or location, and depending on the resource linked may perform certain actions such as creating a new tab or returning the guest to a previously created tab.

Since the physical nature of QRs makes it cumbersome to keep up-to-date, QRs may also contain a url that simply redirects to a spot, zone, menu, or location. In this way the URL of the QR code never changes, but the resource it links to can be updated dynamically in the GoTab system.

Segment

A segment is an arbitrary resource that can have an order rule attached to it, usually in order to apply a discount.

A common use case for segments includes membership clubs and coupon codes.

Segments are typically shared by providing a code, url, or invite link to specific participants.

Server

A server is a user with elevated permissions that allows them to perform actions related to creating orders through the POS.

Spot

A spot represents a single physical area at a location. For example, a particular seat at a large table.

Tab

Tabs represent groupings of orders made by one or more guests at a location. Tabs always contain at least one order.

Multiple guests can order on a single tab through GoTab's tab sharing feature.

Orders may be added to a tab until it is closed manually or automatically. In the case where a guest is not opening a tab, ie a single order situation, the tab will be immediately closed after ordering.

Typically once a tab is a closed the payment for the tab will be processed immediately.

User

Users are people or entities that can be given permission to access and modify resources on GoTab.

Managers and servers are both types of users.

Zone

A zone is a logical grouping of spots. For example, a large table with multiple spots can be grouped under a single zone.

Grouping spots in this way allows you to apply order rules and other configurations to all spots at once.