Use Toast in Offline Mode

In this Article:

Do’s and Don’ts While in Offline Mode
Service Adjustments for Your Staff While in Offline Mode
Troubleshoot Offline Mode
Shift Reviews While in Offline Mode
- Manage Pending Tips
KDS While in Offline Mode
Process Payroll While in Offline Mode
Additional Resources

Learn what Toast devices can do in Offline Mode.

Do’s and Don’ts While in Offline Mode

While in offline mode, it is important to remember the following information:

DO NOT DO THE FOLLOWING IN OFFLINE MODE:

DO NOT unplug Ethernet.

DO NOT turn off Toast devices.

DO NOT turn off or restart your router.

DO NOT log out of the Toast app or uninstall the Toast app. Note: You may still select Switch User.

Without an internet connection, you won't be able to log back into the app. Additionally, uninstalling Toast from a device during Offline Mode will cause its order and payment information to become lost and unretrievable.

DO NOT select Capture.

Avoid pressing the Capture button on the Close Out Day screen so you don't lose payment information. Once your device regains connectivity to the network, credit card authorizations will automatically be captured.

DURING AN OUTAGE IT IS RECOMMENDED TO:

If applicable: Temporarily disable online ordering. Your restaurant cannot receive orders from Toast Online Ordering channels, or other third parties while offline.

Note: Don't forget to turn online ordering back on once your connection is restored.

If applicable: Temporarily disable Mobile Order & Pay®. If your auto-fire device is offline or the entire restaurant is offline, you'll want to disable Mobile Order & Pay® so guests cannot place orders or payments you cannot see.

Service Adjustments for Your Staff While in Offline Mode

Anyone using a Toast device should make the following adjustments to their service processes while operating in Offline Mode:

Impacted process:	How to operate:
Placing orders on the POS	Stick to one device when placing orders so order and payment information can be stored together. Note: Different employees can use different devices, but each employee should stick to the same device for the duration of the outage.
Clocking in and out	Stick to one device when clocking in and out. Note: If your employees are required to do shift reviews, they'll be unable to clock out due to pending payments. This is expected behavior.
Payments	Continue to take credit/debit card payments and enter tips. It's best practice to verify the cardholder's name and card expiration date, especially when you're offline. It's also recommended to ask the guest to insert their card and enter in the PIN for an offline payment. Note: Background card processing is enabled by default. If your location doesn't have this setting enabled, you won't be able to take any card payments while operating offline. To learn more, see Prepare to Operate in Offline Mode During Service Disruptions or Outages. Save receipts for every check and save the merchant copies of all credit and debit card payments. This can assist in reconciliation and potential chargebacks when your devices regain connection. Pre-authorization will not work in offline mode unless the card was pre-authorized prior to the outage. Auto-capture: If auto-capture is enabled and the disruption is network or ISP-related, Toast cannot capture payments until the device reconnects and stored transactions are transmitted. If the disruption is Toast-related, captures will still process, but settlement timelines may be delayed depending on payment partner dependencies. To learn more about auto-capture, see Close Out Day, Z Report, and Auto-Capture Overview. This depends on the local device’s storage and synchronization status. Note: You are liable for all declined or rejected offline payment transactions.
Printers and Cash Drawers	Printing receipts and opening cash drawers should be unaffected by connection disruptions/outages as long as your Ethernet cables have not been unplugged.
Shift Review	Shift review is unavailable while in Offline Mode. If employees are required to count a drawer as part of their shift review, they will manually have to close the cash drawers by navigating to the *Toast POS Device Menu > Cash Management > Cash Drawers.* For more information, see the Shift Reviews While in Offline Mode section below.
Reporting	Reports will not contain data from offline devices and their orders, payments, or other data points until the system is back online and has synced with your back-end.

If applicable to your restaurant:

Impacted process:	How to operate:
Toast Gift Cards	Can not be sold or redeemed while in Offline Mode.
Toast Loyalty	Points can not be redeemed or accumulated while in Offline Mode.
Toast Online Ordering	Unavailable while in Offline Mode.
Toast Mobile Order & Pay®	Unavailable while in Offline Mode.

Troubleshoot Offline Mode

If you've entered Offline Mode, your devices will display a banner across the top of the screen. Within that banner, select What to do → for guidance on what to do and what not to do during an outage.

If the banner mentions a Toast Service disruption, there is a Toast-wide outage. Check out the Toast status page for a message about the outage and sign up for future updates by email or phone.

If the banner mentions no internet connection or no network connection, see Outages and Disruptions: Troubleshoot Internet or Network Connection Issues.

Shift Reviews While in Offline Mode

If your Toast POS device is offline, you'll be unable to complete shift review. During offline mode, you are unable to:

Close checks
Declare cash tips
Reconcile cash and tips
Clock out

If your device enters Offline Mode, you'll be given customized instructions on what you and your manager should do to properly close out your shift during a service disruption. While closing a shift in Offline Mode, managers should:

Collect all cash in hand payments from employees.
Keep merchant copies of receipts signed by guests as records for payments taken offline.
Keep a written record of what is tipped out while you're offline. Tipping out becomes seamless once your device is back online.
Note employee clock out times.

Note: Depending on your auto-clock out settings, clocked-in employees may be automatically clocked out at the end of the business day. To learn more, see Enable or Disable the Auto Clock-Out Feature.

Manage Pending Tips in Offline Mode

In the event of a service disruption that impacts bank/card processing, pending tips (from transactions that haven't fully processed yet) will be identified in the Shift Review Breakdown as seen below. They will also appear in the shift review workflow, in the Reconcile cash & tips section.

Once processed, pending tips will go directly to the house deposit. It's up to the restaurant to determine the best way to handle paying out pending tips at the end of a shift. A few options to consider:

If you choose to pay out pending tips the same day:

Pros	Cons/Risks:
Staff will leave with the full amount of tips earned from their work for the shift.	Some pending payments might not clear or process, which means the house will cover the tip amount if it has been paid out already. Managers will have to work with customers to try and reconcile missing payments/tips.

If you choose to pay out pending tips the next day -OR- when payments have been processed -OR- through the next payroll:

Pros:	Cons/Risks:
Restaurants can ensure that they have the correct amount to pay out to their staff (and don't assume the payment will be processed). Restaurants can manage all of the pending tips/payments they have in batch .	Delays staff getting their tips More manual, and requires managers to follow up on tips that are owed to staff Managers may have to inform staff if transactions didn't process and the tips will be delayed.

KDS While in Offline Mode

In order for a restaurant to take advantage of the Offline Mode experience, they must meet both of the following criteria. This applies to both Toast- and self-managed networks.

Have Universal Plug-and-Play multicast traffic enabled on their network router.
- Note: This is pre-configured for Toast routers. For self-managed networks, instructions vary depending on your router.
Have at least one hardwired non-Elo V1 Toast device on their restaurant network to serve as the local hub.

For customers who are on self-managed networks:

Having multiple subnets at a restaurant greatly reduces the likelihood that a restaurant will be able to successfully use Offline Mode on the KDS. The local hub will only communicate with devices on its subnet. If your restaurant has multiple subnets, please make sure all Toast devices are on the same subnet.

For customers who are using non-Toast hardware: Offline Mode has been optimized to support Toast’s proprietary hardware. While it's possible to meet the above requirements even in a self-managed network that has non-Toast hardware on it, Toast will not be able to guarantee functionality nor will we be able to provide troubleshooting support.

With Offline Mode, you can continue receiving tickets on your KDS for any new in-store order in case of an internet or a Toast service disruption. This replaces the need for backup printers and reduces disruption to store operations. As long as an eligible device is on-site, Offline Mode should work as intended; otherwise, orders will have no way of being sent through the system to the KDS. Orders will look no different from normal KDS tickets in Offline Mode.

Note: Offline Mode will not work for Toast Online Ordering or any other orders from outside the location. If the restaurant’s auto-fire device is offline, either because of a specific issue with that device or because all devices are offline, the KDS will still not receive tickets for online orders or Toast Mobile Order & Pay® orders until after the auto-fire device comes back online.

Process Payroll While in Offline Mode

Toast strongly advises against processing payroll while in Offline Mode. Wait until the system is back online so that time entries, tip data, and all related payroll information have fully synced from the POS to the cloud and into Toast Payroll. After any Offline Mode event, double-check time entries and tip amounts for accuracy before posting payroll.

Note: If the system went offline after a pay period ended and all time entries and tips for that pay period were already synced, you may choose to process payroll for that period.