The restaurant EPOS built for UK operators in 2026
HMRC Making Tax Digital VAT ready. Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat in one queue. Natasha's Law allergens and the Fair Tips Act built in. One cloud restaurant POS system for cafes, pubs, restaurants and dark kitchens from Manchester to Brighton — £8 per month, live in 48 hours, no lock-in.
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What UK restaurants actually need from a POS in 2026
A UK restaurant in 2026 is not the operation it was in 2019. Aggregator commissions eat between fourteen and thirty-five pence of every pound you take on delivery. HMRC now expects your VAT returns to arrive as digital records with an unbroken audit trail from till to submission. Diners assume Apple Pay works on the first tap. Staff turnover keeps a manager training a new front-of-house person almost every fortnight. And Natasha's Law and the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 have made allergen data and tip distribution legal exposure rather than good manners.
What that means in practice: the till you buy this year has to do far more than ring up covers and print a receipt. It has to keep digital VAT records for HMRC, pull Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat orders into the same queue your floor uses, print allergen-compliant labels for prepacked-for-direct-sale items, run a fair-tips distribution engine, and do all of it on hardware your team already owns. It also has to cost a sensible number of pounds per month — because delivery margins are already thin enough without a per-terminal software licence taking another chunk.
Online eMenu is built for that reality. It is a cloud restaurant POS software licensed as a single subscription (£8 per month per site, no per-terminal fees), delivered by INWIZARDS SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES L.L.C from Dubai, and used by more than five thousand independent venues across India, the GCC and Europe. The rest of this page walks through the eight things a UK operator should test before signing anything — MTD VAT, aggregator commissions, allergens, tips, comparison against the incumbents, and what actually ships in the box.
MTD VAT and HMRC compliance done for you
Since April 2022, every VAT-registered business in the UK must keep digital VAT records and submit returns through HMRC's Making Tax Digital service. The rule bites the moment your rolling 12-month turnover crosses £90,000 — the current registration threshold, raised from £85,000 in April 2024. Restaurants above the line have to file quarterly through MTD-recognised software. Restaurants below the line can voluntarily register and often do, because they can reclaim VAT on standard-rated purchases.
Online eMenu keeps every sale as a digital transaction from the moment you tap "print bill" — item, quantity, VAT rate, gross, net, tender type, tip and service charge. Nothing is retyped, nothing is exported to a spreadsheet and re-entered somewhere else, and the digital link between the till and the return stays unbroken. Both the Standard Rate Scheme and the Flat Rate Scheme are supported (choose in setup — 12.5% is the current Flat Rate for catering) and the POS calculates the correct VAT column on every ticket without a manager thinking about it.
At the end of each quarter, one screen shows box 1 through box 9, exportable as CSV or straight to your bookkeeper or bridging tool. Zero-rated takeaway items, 5% reduced-rate energy costs on the P&L, and standard 20% dine-in are separated cleanly. Cash accounting scheme users get the extra "paid vs invoiced" cut. Refunds and voids flow back through the same audit trail. If HMRC ever asks to see the working, one filter shows every line item that fed a given box on a given return.
- Digital VAT records at line-item level from day one
- Standard Rate and Flat Rate schemes supported, plus cash accounting
- Quarterly VAT return export (box 1 to box 9) in MTD digital format
- 20% standard, 5% reduced, 0% zero-rated splits calculated automatically
- Six-year digital audit trail, HMRC inspection ready
Deliveroo + Uber Eats + Just Eat in one queue
Three aggregators, three tablets and three commission rates is the default UK setup. It costs you order accuracy, headcount and margin. Online eMenu collapses all three into your existing till queue and reports the commission math where you can actually act on it.
The kitchen does not care whose brand is on the app. It cares whether the ticket that just printed is real, whether the item is in stock and whether the rider is due in eight minutes or twelve. Online eMenu takes the Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat webhooks and drops each order directly into the same queue as your dine-in tables, WhatsApp orders and QR menu orders. One kitchen display, one prep clock, one Z-read at close.
When you 86 the daily fish special, the item flips off all three aggregator menus within seconds — no more fielding refund calls at 8:30 pm because Uber Eats still had it live. When Deliveroo hits you with a demand-surge boost fee, the POS logs it against the order and shows it in the same weekly report as your standard commission line, so your P&L is not carrying an invisible cost. Rider status, courier ETA and customer name land next to the order so front-of-house can hand off in one motion.
The commission math itself is the part most operators run without seeing clearly. The rates below are the published UK rates as of 2025-2026, though your actual take-home depends on plan, boost spend and card processing. If you want to model your own weekly volume, the pricing page has a working sheet.
UK aggregator commission — cost per £20 order
| Aggregator | Commission range | Extra fees | Your take on £20 order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deliveroo | 25% – 35% | Marketplace+ boost, packaging | £13.00 – £15.00 |
| Uber Eats | 30% (base) | Boost fees 5-15%, promo co-fund | £11.00 – £14.00 |
| Just Eat | 14% – 30% | Delivery via Stuart on Deliver plan | £14.00 – £17.20 |
| Direct order via QR / WhatsApp | 0% | Card processing only (~1.5%) | £19.70 |
Published UK rates 2025-2026. Actual take-home varies by plan tier, boost spend, delivery model and acquirer.
The uncomfortable line at the bottom is the entire argument for owning your own order channel. Every direct order — through your QR menu at the table, through the WhatsApp bot, or through a website form — keeps roughly £6 more on a £20 order than a Deliveroo one does. Online eMenu ships all three direct channels as part of the standard plan, and the commission column on the weekly report is what tells you which ones to promote.
Allergens, Natasha's Law and the Fair Tips Act — built in
Three pieces of UK regulation now shape what a restaurant POS actually has to store and print. Skipping any of them is not a paperwork slip — it is a compliance failure with fines attached. Online eMenu handles all three inside the standard plan, without a separate allergen tool, a separate tip-pool spreadsheet or a separate age-verification app.
Every menu item stores the 14 declared allergens required under UK Food Information Regulations 2014 — celery, cereals with gluten, crustaceans, eggs, fish, lupin, milk, molluscs, mustard, nuts, peanuts, sesame, soya and sulphites. For prepacked-for-direct-sale (PPDS) items covered by Natasha's Law (October 2021), the till prints a compliant label with the ingredient list, the allergens emphasised, the product name and a use-by date. Front-of-house sees an allergen icon on every ticket. The KDS reads allergens aloud on the audible-order option so a busy kitchen does not miss a "no nuts" note buried in the modifiers.
The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 came into force 1 October 2024 and requires you to pass 100% of qualifying tips to workers within the month, distribute them fairly under a written policy, and keep records for three years. Online eMenu's tip-pool module logs every card tip, cash tip and service charge, applies your policy (equal share, hours-weighted or role-weighted), stores the mandatory written policy, and exports the three-year tipping record on one click.
Alcohol licensing: for on-licence venues, the till enforces Challenge 25 with a mandatory ID prompt at the point of ringing an alcohol SKU. The prompt scan is time-stamped against the till user, giving you an audit trail if a test-purchase visit ever lands. The same interface handles the Scotland minimum unit price rules where applicable.
Works with the UK payments and payroll stack you already run
A UK restaurant does not need to swap its acquirer to get a new till. Online eMenu is card-scheme and processor agnostic — bring your Stripe UK, Worldpay, Barclaycard Smartpay, Adyen, SumUp or Square terminal and it will work on day one. Apple Pay and Google Pay work on every supported terminal because they run at the terminal level, not the till level. If you run a members' club or a corporate account model, GoCardless handles Direct Debit subscription billing.
The weekly UK wage cycle is short, so payroll integration matters. Shift, tip and hours data exports on Sunday night in the formats BrightPay, Sage Payroll and Xero Payroll take without reshaping. Fair-tips distribution figures land on the same export so the payroll run reflects the tip policy without a manager typing anything twice.
£8/month vs Lightspeed, Zonal, Toast, Epos Now — the honest comparison
The UK EPOS market has six systems that a serious independent will end up shortlisting: Lightspeed Restaurant, Zonal, Toast (UK), Tissl, Epos Now and Tevalis. All are competent. All are more expensive per month than Online eMenu, in most cases by a factor of three to ten. The comparison below sticks to features a UK operator actually buys on — MTD VAT, native aggregator sync, allergen labelling for Natasha's Law, Fair Tips Act 2024 tip pooling, and starting price. Feature parity in one row does not mean feature parity everywhere; check the vendor site for the current spec.
| Capability | Online eMenu | Lightspeed | Zonal | Toast UK | Epos Now | Tevalis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MTD VAT digital records | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Deliveroo native | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Add-on | Yes |
| Uber Eats native | Yes | Yes | Partner | Yes | Add-on | Yes |
| Just Eat native | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partner | Add-on | Yes |
| Natasha's Law PPDS labels | Yes | Add-on | Yes | Add-on | Add-on | Yes |
| Fair Tips Act 2024 pool | Yes | ~ | Yes | ~ | No | Yes |
| WhatsApp direct ordering | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| QR menu ordering | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Add-on | Yes |
| Per-terminal fee | None | Per terminal | Per terminal | Per terminal | Per terminal | Per terminal |
| Starting price | £8/mo | £69+/mo | Quote | £69+/mo | £25+/mo | Quote |
| Contract | Monthly, no lock-in | 12-24 mo | 36 mo | 12-24 mo | 12 mo | 36 mo |
The right question is not "which is the cheapest UK till?" — it is "which UK till gives me MTD VAT, all three aggregators, Natasha's Law labels, Fair Tips distribution and direct-order channels without a per-terminal fee or a three-year contract?" On that question, we think the £8/month row is the honest starting point. See also our Foodics vs Online eMenu comparison for the same treatment on the GCC side.
What's included in the standard plan
One subscription. Every module below is on from day one. No per-terminal fee, no per-order fee, no aggregator connection fee.
- Unlimited tills and handhelds across one site
- MTD VAT digital records + quarterly return export
- Deliveroo, Uber Eats, Just Eat native integration
- QR menu ordering for dine-in and takeaway
- WhatsApp direct ordering and receipt delivery
- Natasha's Law PPDS allergen label printing
- Fair Tips Act 2024 tip-pool distribution engine
- Challenge 25 age-verification prompts for alcohol
- Table plan and floor layout editor with course firing
- Kitchen display (KDS) with multi-station routing
- Recipe costing and stock with par-level alerts
- Xero, QuickBooks, Sage daily journal sync
- BrightPay, Sage Payroll, Xero Payroll weekly export
- Stripe, Worldpay, Barclaycard and other UK acquirers
- Loyalty and CRM with SMS and email campaigns
- UK-hours support via WhatsApp and email
A 6-step decision framework for UK operators
The six questions that should decide your POS pick this year. Take the shortlist you already have, score each vendor against these, and buy the one that clears all six without a "but".
Does it file MTD VAT without a bridging kludge?
MTD is non-negotiable if you are over the £90,000 threshold, and voluntarily useful below it. Ask the vendor to demo a live quarterly return export, box 1 to box 9, with a digital link from till to submission — not a CSV re-typed into another tool. If the demo needs a spreadsheet, the digital link is broken and the audit trail fails.
Are Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat all native, or is one an add-on?
The UK is a three-aggregator market. If one of the three is a paid add-on or a "partner integration", you will still run one tablet on the pass, and you have not solved the queue-collapsing problem. Insist on all three, and ask for a live commission report from a real customer — weekly commission column, per aggregator, split by boost fee.
Can it print a Natasha's Law compliant PPDS label at the till?
If you sell prepacked-for-direct-sale — sandwiches, wraps, cakes, salad pots made in-house that morning — the label has to carry the ingredient list with the 14 allergens emphasised. Ask for a printed sample from a working customer, not a marketing mock-up. A POS that stores allergens but cannot print the label is only half the answer.
Does it distribute tips under the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023?
Since 1 October 2024 you must pass 100% of qualifying tips to workers, distribute fairly under a written policy, and keep three years of records. Ask the vendor to show the tip-pool screen, the written policy store and the three-year record export. "We record tips" is not the same as "we distribute tips" — and the policy has to exist on file.
What is the true cost — per terminal, per order, per aggregator?
Headline prices in this market range from £8 to £250 per month per site, but the killers are per-terminal fees, per-order fees on delivery, and paid aggregator connections. Ask for a written quote at your real volume: three terminals, one KDS, 400 delivery orders a week, all three aggregators. That number — not the headline — is your actual cost.
How long is the contract, and what happens on day 31 if it is wrong?
Zonal and Tevalis default to 36-month contracts. Lightspeed and Toast typically want 12 to 24. Epos Now runs 12. Online eMenu is monthly, no lock-in. A three-year contract on a system you outgrow in eighteen months is a five-figure mistake — always model the exit cost before you sign the entry cost.
One UK plan. Everything above included.
£8 per month, per site. No per-terminal fees. No per-order fees. Cancel anytime.
Restaurant POS · United Kingdom
- Unlimited tills, KDS and handhelds per site
- HMRC MTD VAT digital records + quarterly export
- Deliveroo + Uber Eats + Just Eat native integration
- Natasha's Law PPDS allergen label printing
- Fair Tips Act 2024 tip-pool distribution engine
- QR menu + WhatsApp direct ordering (0% aggregator fee)
- Xero, QuickBooks and Sage daily sales journal
- BrightPay, Sage Payroll and Xero Payroll weekly export
- Works with Stripe, Worldpay, Barclaycard Smartpay, Adyen, SumUp and Square
- UK-hours support via WhatsApp and email
No card required. No setup fee. Live in 48 hours. Multi-site pricing on contact.
Frequently asked questions
What is restaurant POS software and how is it different from an EPOS system in the UK? +
Restaurant POS (point of sale) software and restaurant EPOS (electronic point of sale) are the same thing — UK operators just tend to say EPOS or till. It runs your orders, kitchen tickets, table plan, payments and reports on any tablet, laptop or till screen. A modern cloud EPOS also handles online orders from Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat in the same queue, files MTD VAT to HMRC digitally, and stores allergen data required by Natasha's Law.
Is Online eMenu compliant with HMRC Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT? +
Yes. Online eMenu keeps digital VAT records at the transaction level, calculates output VAT on every sale (20% standard, 5% reduced, 0% zero-rated), supports the Standard scheme and the Flat Rate Scheme, and exports quarterly VAT returns in the MTD digital format ready to submit through your HMRC-recognised bridging or filing tool. Digital links between the till, the sales ledger and the VAT return are maintained end-to-end.
Does the POS integrate with Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat in the UK? +
Yes. Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat orders drop straight into the same order queue as your walk-in tables, WhatsApp orders and QR menu orders. One kitchen screen, one nightly Z-read, one commission report per aggregator. When you 86 an item, all three aggregator menus update within seconds so you stop taking orders you cannot fulfil.
What is the VAT registration threshold for a UK restaurant in 2026? +
As of April 2024, the UK VAT registration threshold is £90,000 of taxable turnover in a rolling 12-month period (up from £85,000). Restaurants under the threshold can voluntarily register — often useful if you buy a lot of standard-rated stock. Online eMenu tracks your rolling 12-month turnover so you know when you are approaching the threshold, and switches VAT collection on cleanly the day you register.
How does the POS handle Natasha's Law and allergen labelling for PPDS foods? +
Each menu item stores the 14 declared allergens listed under UK Food Information Regulations 2014. For prepacked-for-direct-sale (PPDS) items covered by Natasha's Law (October 2021), the POS prints allergen-compliant labels with the full ingredient list and allergens emphasised. Front-of-house and delivery orders show allergen icons on the KDS ticket and on the customer receipt.
Does Online eMenu support the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 / Fair Tips Act 2024? +
Yes. Since 1 October 2024, UK restaurants must pass 100% of qualifying tips, gratuities and service charges to workers without deduction and distribute them fairly. Online eMenu's tip pool module logs every card tip, cash tip and service charge, applies the distribution policy you define (equal share, hours-weighted, or role-weighted), keeps the mandatory written policy on file, and exports the three-year tipping record HMRC requires.
How much does restaurant POS software cost in the UK? +
Online eMenu is £8 per month per site, all-in, with no per-transaction fees. UK-established competitors typically start much higher: Epos Now from around £25 per month, Lightspeed Restaurant from around £69 per month, Toast UK from around £69 per month, and Zonal on enterprise quotes only. Payment processing costs sit with your acquirer (Stripe UK, Worldpay, Barclaycard Smartpay) rather than the POS. See the full pricing page for multi-site quotes.
Which UK payment providers does the POS work with? +
Stripe UK, Worldpay, Barclaycard Smartpay, Adyen, SumUp and Square terminals are supported for card-present transactions. Apple Pay and Google Pay work on every supported terminal. GoCardless is supported for Direct Debit subscriptions if you run a members' club or corporate account model. The POS is card-scheme and acquirer agnostic — you keep your existing merchant deal.
What hardware do I need to run a UK restaurant till on Online eMenu? +
Any Windows laptop, Android tablet or iPad works as the till. A thermal receipt printer (Epson TM-M30 or Star TSP143 are common in the UK) prints receipts and kitchen tickets. A cash drawer and a barcode scanner are optional. You can use hardware you already own — no forced buy of proprietary terminals. Age verification for alcohol runs on the same tablet. See the products page for the full hardware list.
How long does it take a UK restaurant to go live on Online eMenu? +
Most UK sites are live within 48 hours. Menu import (from a spreadsheet, PDF or Deliveroo Hub export), VAT scheme selection, table plan, printer routing and aggregator connections are done in a guided WhatsApp session with our onboarding team. Training for floor staff typically takes 20 minutes because the till interface is one screen deep. Read the onboarding walkthrough on the blog for what a Wednesday go-live actually looks like.
Run your UK restaurant
from one £8/month till.
14-day free trial. No card required. Live in 48 hours. MTD VAT digital from day one. Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat in the same queue as your walk-ins. Natasha's Law labels on the till. Fair Tips distribution on payroll day.