Age Checks on Alcohol: 18+ Drinks and Licensed Hours

Mark the drinks that contain alcohol as 18+ and Café QR helps your staff keep to your premises licence and your Challenge 25 policy. Guests ordering from a table QR code or your online page see an 18+ badge on those drinks, and they must confirm they are 18 or over before they can order one. In the US the age is 21.

Owners, and managers who can edit the menu, can mark drinks. Only owners can set licensed hours.

Café QR can't see anyone's ID. Your staff still check ID when they serve alcohol, and you stay responsible for your licensing conditions.

Mark drinks as 18+

You can mark a whole category, such as Beers or Wine, or one dish at a time.

A whole category

1. In your dashboard, open Menu.
2. Under the category's name, tap 18+: off. It changes to 18+ (contains alcohol).

Every dish in that category is now 18+, including dishes you add to it later. Tap it again to switch it off.

One dish

1. In your dashboard, open Menu.
2. Find the dish and tap Edit.
3. Under Alcohol, tap 18+ (contains alcohol).
4. Tap Save changes.

When you add a new dish, you can also switch on 18+ (contains alcohol) on the Add item form.

Dishes that are 18+ show an 18+ label in your menu list.

What guests see

• An 18+ badge next to the drink on your QR menu, your online order page and the self-order kiosk.
• At checkout, when their basket has an 18+ drink, a box to tick: I'm 18 or over, with a line saying staff will check ID.
• They can't place the order until they tick it. Café QR checks this again when the order arrives, so it can't be skipped.

Baskets with no 18+ drinks look the same as before.

On the till and the waiter app

The first time an 18+ drink goes on an order, a Challenge 25 prompt asks staff to check ID if the guest looks under 25.

• Tap ID checked to carry on. The order can't be sent or paid until this is done.
• Tap Refused to take the 18+ drinks off the order. The refusal is kept in your activity log, with who refused and at which table.

At a table, one check covers the whole visit. Later rounds on the same open tab aren't asked again, until the tab is paid or the next party sits down.

The kitchen and bar screen, printed tickets and the order page show 18+ check ID next to those drinks, so whoever serves them knows to check.

Sales rung up with no connection still ask. If something was missed, the sale is flagged on its order page for a manager to look at.

Set licensed hours

Licensed hours are the times your premises licence lets you sell alcohol. Outside them, guests can't order 18+ drinks from a table QR code or your online page. Other dishes can still be ordered.

1. In your dashboard, open Locations.
2. Under the location, open Licensed hours.
3. Switch on Only sell 18+ dishes during these hours.
4. For each day, enter the time the licence starts and ends. Switch on None for a day with no alcohol sales.
5. Tap Save licensed hours.

A time that ends earlier than it starts runs past midnight. For example, 11:00 to 01:00 on Friday lets guests order a drink until 1am on Saturday.

For an online order placed for later, Café QR checks the time it is for, not the time it was placed.

On the till and the waiter app, staff can still sell 18+ drinks outside licensed hours, for example to residents or at a private event. Owners choose who can do it on the Staff page, under What each role can do, in the row Sell 18+ drinks outside licensed hours. By default a manager can, and waiters need a manager's PIN.

Each change to licensed hours is kept in your activity log.

Deliveroo and Uber Eats

When your menu is sent to Deliveroo or Uber Eats, 18+ dishes are sent marked as containing alcohol, so the delivery app runs its own age checks. On Deliveroo, a meal deal that can include an 18+ drink is marked too.

On Uber Eats, a dish sent as alcoholic stays marked even if you switch 18+ off later. To undo a mistake there, contact Uber Eats Support.

Pakistan

Age checks on alcohol aren't available for cafés in Pakistan, so the 18+ switches and licensed hours don't appear.