Accounting/order tracking for small restaurant

[RickF71]

I have a good friend of mine that has a relatively new business -- a pizza place. His business is starting to take off and I would like to set him up with a (simple!) computerized order tracking/accounting system. He has a menu of ~30 items.

My current plan is to create a database (using Postgres or MySQL) then some sort of front-end GUI using Gnome (or just plain X) that my friend can use to enter in orders.

There are two pieces to the system which I'm not sure what direction to go... I've never done this specific type of programming and I'd love to talk to someone who has.

1) Caller ID - when a new telephone call comes in, I'd like to have my Linux box "know" the phone number. What device can I use for this? (This will enable me to write a program to display the last 'n' orders from that phone number, plus whatever other info was entered)

2) Register - basically, I would like Linux to control a cash drawer. I imagine this is the more complicated part of this, and probably the last part of the program I want to implement.

It seems quite possible that someone already has written code to do this type of thing. I don't need a high-end system because it's only one location with several dozen orders a day....plus I want the experience of setting it up myself.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated (including giving me the correct "buzz-words" for what I am trying to do; or just directing me to a (linux) web site that might help me out). Thanks in advance!

[michaelk]

You can search the web for point of sale and caller ID applications.

Here is just one of each that I found.

http://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/apps/financial/point-of-sale/!INDEX.html

http://www.na.linux.hr/electronic/marina/

[Rüpel]

Caller ID - when a new telephone call comes in, I'd like to have my Linux box "know" the phone number.

i don't know what the things are like in milwaukee, but here in germany everyone can automatically or even by hand (for each single call) disable the transmission of his phone number. so it would be a nice feature for your program but it should not rely on the submitted called id.

[TacKat]

Originally posted by Rüpel


i don't know what the things are like in milwaukee, but here in germany everyone can automatically or even by hand (for each single call) disable the transmission of his phone number. so it would be a nice feature for your program but it should not rely on the submitted called id.

You can avoid call id here in the US, but how you do it is not commonly known and not many people who do know how bother with it. It's fairly common procedure for pizza delivery places to store your address with your phone number and fetch that information when you call.