Notices & Updates - User Guide
Overview
Innkeeper occasionally interrupts you with something that is not about running
the restaurant. There are only a few kinds, and this guide explains all of them:
- Legal documents you are asked to accept, and the notice about cookies.
- What's new — a summary of what changed in the latest release.
- A new version is available — an offer to reload, when the tab you have open is running an older version than the one now installed.
- Your session has ended — why you are sometimes returned to the sign-in screen without having signed out.
None of them takes anything away while it is on screen except the legal
documents, which do have to be accepted before you can continue.
Legal Documents
What you are asked to accept
Two documents require your acceptance before you can use Innkeeper:
- Terms of Service — the agreement between your restaurant and Innkeeper.
- Privacy Policy — what personal data Innkeeper holds and why.
If you have not accepted them, a dialog appears over whatever screen you landed
on and stays until you do. It cannot be dismissed, because the acceptance is the
condition for using the service at all. Each document is linked from the dialog;
open it, read it, tick the box and press Accept.
Acceptance is recorded against you, not your browser
Each person accepts for themselves. Accepting on the floor tablet does not accept
on your phone in the sense of the record — but you will not be asked twice,
because the acceptance travels with your account rather than with the browser you
happened to use.
When a document is updated
Documents have versions. If one is revised, the dialog returns and says the
document has been updated and needs your acceptance again. Your previous
acceptance is kept — the history of which version you accepted and when is
retained rather than overwritten.
The documents are in Ukrainian
The three legal texts are binding in Ukrainian and are not translated. If you are
reading the interface in English, the links take you to a page that says so and
points at the Ukrainian document. This is deliberate: a translation that was not
the binding text would be misleading about what you had agreed to.
The Cookie Notice
A strip appears at the bottom of the screen the first time you sign in, saying
that Innkeeper uses essential cookies. Press Got it and it goes away.
It is a notice, not a choice
There is nothing to accept or reject, and that is why the button says Got it
rather than Accept. Innkeeper stores exactly two things in your browser:
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| A sign-in session cookie | Keeps you signed in. Without it you could not use the app at all |
| Your display preferences | Light or dark mode, set when you press the toggle |
There is no advertising, no analytics and no tracking of any kind, so there is no
optional storage to turn off. The notice exists to tell you what is stored, not to
ask permission for it.
It is remembered on your account
Like the legal documents, the acknowledgement travels with your account. Press
Got it once and you will not see it again on any device you sign in from.
The Cookie Policy is linked from the notice and from the sidebar if you want
the full detail.
What's New
The announcement
After a new version of Innkeeper is released, a dialog appears the next time you
sign in or reload the page, listing what changed. It shows the latest release
only.
Unlike the legal documents, this one is information rather than a condition: you
can close it with the button, by pressing Escape, or by clicking outside it.
Any of those counts as having read it, and it will not come back.
The full history
The announcement has an All releases button, and the sidebar has a What's
new link under Resources. Both open a page listing every release, newest
first, including the ones before the announcement you just read.
Nothing is lost by closing an announcement without reading it — the same notes are
on that page afterwards.
Only what happened since you arrived
If your account was created after a release, you will not be shown its notes: the
announcement is about what changed while you were using Innkeeper, not a history
lesson on your first day. The full list is always there if you are curious.
A New Version Is Available
Innkeeper is updated at night, while restaurants are closed. A tab left open
across an update carries on running the older version, so a short message appears
at the top of the screen offering to reload.
Take it when you get a moment. Reloading is what picks up the new version, and
until you do, the tab is running the previous one.
It is an offer, not an interruption
There is a ✕ beside it, and nothing is forced. If you are in the middle of a
receipt, dismiss it and reload when you have finished — a reload discards anything
you have typed but not saved, which is exactly why Innkeeper does not do it for
you. The message will not come back in that tab, and any reload picks the new
version up whether you were asked or not.
Closing the tab at the end of the day and opening it again the next morning is
also enough. Most people never see this message for that reason.
Your Session Has Ended
Sometimes Innkeeper returns you to the sign-in screen without your having pressed
Sign Out, and says your session has ended. This is not an error, and nothing
you saved is affected. Sign in again and carry on.
You sign in once a day
Signing in lasts until early morning, and no longer. Whoever opens up signs in for
the day — the tablet that was locked up last night does not open already signed in
as whoever closed it.
That is the whole rule, and it is deliberately a time of day rather than a
countdown: it always lands while you are closed, so it never interrupts service,
and it is the same every day whatever time you signed in.
And after a long gap
Separately, a session that has gone unused for twelve hours ends. This is for
the tablet that gets put in a back room and forgotten, or a browser left signed in
on a phone. It cannot happen to a device you are actually using — every tap counts
as use.
You find out before you need the tablet
When you come back to a tablet that has been sitting idle — unlock it, wake the
screen, or switch back to the Innkeeper tab — Innkeeper checks the session there
and then, before you have touched anything. If it has ended, the sign-in screen is
already waiting for you.
That is the point of it. Signing in again takes a few seconds, and those seconds
are much better spent while you are picking the tablet up than in the middle of
taking an order with a guest standing in front of you.
If it happens during service
It should not. Tell whoever looks after your Innkeeper account, and mention roughly
what time it was — that is enough to tell whether something is misconfigured.
If Someone Is Helping You
When Innkeeper support signs into your account to look at a problem, none of
these appear for them. Nothing asks them to accept a document on your behalf, and
nothing marks an announcement as read that you have not seen. Anything
outstanding will still be waiting the next time you sign in yourself.
Related Guides
- Profile — your own account details and password.
- Account — your subscription and billing.
- Getting Started — an overview of Innkeeper's guides.