Volunteers take orders on an iPad, baristas see them on another (or the same) iPad, and admins change the menu and see reports. Drinks are free with a suggested donation (cash box or Venmo QR code), so the app never handles money.
The screens
| Screen | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Order | At the counter. Tap a drink (like "Latte, oat milk"), type the name, tap Place order. |
| Barista | By the espresso machine. Each order is a card: Start, then Done (with Undo for 10 seconds). |
| Order + Barista | One iPad does everything: the New order button on the left, the queue on the right. |
| Admin | For admins and cafe leads, from any phone or computer. Menu, Orders, Reports, People, Settings. |
| Volunteer guide | One page to read or print: taking orders, making drinks, problems, end of day. |
All screens update live, with no refresh. No more than 5 taps for a normal order.
Costs near zero
- Hosting: Vercel (free tier)
- Database and login: Supabase (free tier)
- A daily keep-alive job, so the project never pauses between Sundays
- A silent weekly backup to a private GitHub repo