# Questions restaurant owners ask us > Straight answers on offline behavior, payments, QR ordering, BIR receipts, hardware, pricing and data privacy. Source: https://salohq.com/faq/ Straight answers about running service offline, payments, QR ordering, BIR receipts, hardware, pricing and your data. If yours is not here, email us. ## The basics **What is Salo?** Salo Restaurant OS is an offline-first restaurant operating system for independent restaurants in the Philippines. It connects the floor, kitchen, stock, cashier and owner reports, and keeps taking orders when the internet drops. **What are Salo Restaurant, Salo Inventory and Salo Sales?** They are the three products of one system. Salo Restaurant runs service: the live floor, orders, kitchen screens and the cashier. Salo Inventory deducts ingredients by recipe and warns you before stock runs low. Salo Sales gives the owner daily sales, table turns, voids and discounts. **Who is Salo for?** Salo is built for independent dine-in restaurants, cafes, bakeries and food halls with table service, with 1 to 3 branches and 8 to 50 tables. It is not built for large chains or delivery-only kitchens. **Can I use Salo now?** Salo is in its pilot phase with two or three design partner restaurants. You can apply for the pilot, and the Founding 50 offer opens to paying branches after that. ## Offline and reliability **What happens when the internet goes down during service?** Each device keeps taking orders, printing tickets and accepting cash. Every action is saved on the device and synced when the connection returns, and retries never create duplicate orders or payments. **Can a restaurant POS in the Philippines work without internet?** Salo does. It is an offline POS by design: orders, kitchen tickets and cash payments are saved on the device first and sync when the connection returns. QR Ph payments and guest QR ordering wait for the internet. **Do my phones and kitchen screen share orders during an outage?** Not yet. Devices share orders through the cloud, so during an outage the kitchen screen will not see new orders until the internet returns. Print kitchen tickets from the ordering device in the meantime. Our planned Branch Hub will let devices in one branch share orders with no internet. **How long can Salo run without internet?** We test that staff can keep taking orders through an 8-hour outage on the same device before any restaurant goes live. Longer outages work the same way, the sync backlog is just bigger. **What if the kitchen printer fails?** Tickets stay on the kitchen screen and any ticket can be reprinted. If the screen is the part that fails, print from the ordering device instead. ## Payments **Which payments does Salo support?** Cash and counter payments always work, online or offline. Card and e-wallet payments taken on your own terminal or phone can be recorded against the bill, and QR Ph payments are in beta. **When is a QR Ph payment marked paid?** Only after the payment provider confirms it. Salo never marks a cashless payment paid from a screenshot or while offline. **Does Salo work with GCash and Maya?** Yes, through QR Ph, which guests can pay with GCash, Maya or their bank app. QR Ph in Salo is in beta, and a payment is marked paid only after the provider confirms it. GCash or Maya payments taken on your own phone or terminal can also be recorded against the bill. **Does Salo take a percentage of my sales?** No. Salo is a flat monthly subscription and takes no commission on your sales. If you use QR Ph through Salo, only the payment provider's own fees apply. ## Guest QR ordering **How does QR ordering work for guests?** Guests scan the QR code on their table, browse the menu, order, call a waiter and ask for the bill from their own phone. There is no app to download and no account to create. **Can someone order from outside the restaurant with a photo of the QR?** Each table's QR code is signed and tied to that table, and a guest session expires after a few hours. If a code gets copied, you can replace it and the old one stops working. **Does QR ordering work during an internet outage?** No. Guest ordering needs internet on the guest's phone and at the restaurant. During an outage, guests order through staff as usual. ## Receipts and BIR **Does Salo issue BIR official receipts or invoices?** No. Salo is not BIR-accredited and does not issue official receipts or invoices. Salo currently keeps your restaurant's existing compliant invoicing process in place and prints order summaries, labeled as not an official receipt, for guests and the kitchen. **What should I use for official invoicing then?** Keep the BIR-registered invoicing you use today, whether that is an accredited POS, a computerized accounting system or registered invoice booklets. Salo runs service around it. ## Hardware **What hardware do I need?** Android phones or tablets you already own, plus a laptop or PC with a modern browser for the cashier or owner. A thermal printer is optional. You do not need to buy a POS terminal. **Which printers work with Salo?** Salo is built for common 58 mm and 80 mm thermal receipt printers. We confirm your exact model during setup. ## Pricing **How much does Salo cost?** Starter is PHP 299, Restaurant is PHP 699 and Operations Pro is PHP 1,299 a month per branch. Paying quarterly saves 10% and paying yearly saves 20%. **What is the Founding 50 offer?** The first 50 paying branches get 50% off for 12 months, then keep list price locked for the following 12 months. **Is the pilot free?** Yes. Design partner restaurants use Salo free for 60 to 90 days in exchange for real-service use and a weekly feedback call. ## Data and privacy **Do guests need an account to order?** No. Guest ordering is anonymous. Salo does not ask guests for a name, phone number or email. **Who owns my restaurant's data?** Your restaurant does. Your menu, sales, stock and staff records belong to you, and each restaurant's data is kept separate from every other restaurant's. **Where is my data stored?** In cloud data centers in Singapore, the closest major region to the Philippines. Devices also keep a local copy so service can run offline. **Does Salo follow the Data Privacy Act?** We are writing our privacy notice under the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Republic Act 10173). The current draft is on our privacy page and will be finalized before any restaurant goes live. --- Salo Restaurant OS. Salo prints order summaries, not official receipts. Keep your current BIR-registered invoicing for that. No commission on your sales.