Edgar,
You just described the other scenario I was thinking of
That may help with my first scenario. We could do the same thing with the customers in the line. Because both our ideas deal with a lack of table numbers, we need another way to adapt to the way business is done.
Now I thought of ticket tags for recording the numbers (similar idea as Emre's daily order number tickets) and that works for calling out numbers or to find a number on a table.
But how do we call up an order given that number. SambaPOS uses ticket numbers, tables or customer names. Is there a way of also showing a ticket tag on open tickets? The only reference we have is if we print the number on the kitchen/receipt ticket, then we can back reference to the open ticket in POS, but this still doesn't help when a customer gives us a daily order number. You can't go looking thru open tickets - not very practical.
Hang on, why can't we use table numbers. They don't have to be physical tables, but virtual ones - after all it is only a number. You will either use designated table numbers (restaurant) or assign them like Edgar (cafe). We can do the same with taking orders in a queue, and once the order has been fulfilled we recycle the numbers.
Edgar, will that work for you?