Using an online platform for meal service provides many benefits but carries with it some risk. An unexpected internet outage can create significant problems for your organization unless the point of sale program can function while offline. The goal of MealTime's proprietary offline meal service feature is to allow the cashier to handle transactions in a consistent and predictable way, regardless of the quality of their internet connection.
MealTime currently offers two modes. Both require an internet connection for authentication and to begin meal service. Choose one based on your internet connectivity:
| Continuous (default) | Continuous Sync is expected to be the correct choice for 90% of users. This mode expects a strong internet connection and communicates with the server for every transaction. Local data is refreshed every ten minutes for use in case of slow/unavailable internet connectivity. |
| Periodic (optional) | Periodic sync addresses the concerns of users that experience recurrent internet connectivity issues. This mode does not communicate with the server for every transaction, but instead relies on local data, which is refreshed every five minutes as connectivity allows. |
| Note! Overriding default Data Sync settings at the POS Station level will prevent that station from receiving any changes to district-wide sync updates. |
If you lose your Internet connection while serving, you will see a "Last synced" status in the lower left of the POS Console page. | Once reliable connection has been detected, any information written locally is synchronized to the server and the status changes back to "writing to cloud". |
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In addition, if you have an unsynchronized transaction and you select Count Till, Return/Exit or Sign Out, the following online/offline displays will occur:
If the program is online, it will display this message: (While also synchronizing those transactions) |  |
If the program is offline, it will display this message: |  |