Payments
What Is Pay-at-Table? A Guide to QR Payments
Pay-at-table lets guests start settling the bill from their own phone, usually by scanning the QR code on the table, instead of waiting for a server to bring the bill and a card machine. The guest asks for the bill from the menu and can say how the table wants it split. Some systems also take card payments on a secure payment page; what that covers differs from one system to another. The restaurant sees which tables have asked for the bill and which have paid.
How it works for the guest
- Open the bill: from the menu on the phone, the guest asks for the table's bill.
- Choose a share: the whole bill, an equal part, or what they ordered.
- Add a tip, if they want to.
- Pay by card on a secure checkout page; their bank may ask them to confirm the payment in its app.
- Return to the menu, with the payment confirmed.
Why restaurants use it
- The end of the meal is often the slowest part of service; guests who are ready to leave can pay without waiting.
- Splitting a bill between several people takes no arithmetic at the table and no extra trips with the card machine.
- Servers spend less time carrying the terminal and more time on tables that need them.
- Tables turn over sooner at busy times, because the wait for the bill disappears.
Splitting the bill
| Split | How it works | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Whole bill | One guest pays everything | A host paying for the table |
| Equal shares | The total is divided by the number of people | Groups that share dishes |
| What I ordered | Each phone pays for the orders it placed | Groups that ordered separately |
| Set amount | A guest pays a chosen amount towards the total | Uneven splits |
Splitting by individual dish from a shared order is harder than it sounds — two people sharing a starter, a bottle split three ways — and not every system supports it. Check what a system really does before promising it to guests.
Security and card authentication
A well-built pay-at-table system never shows card details to the restaurant or stores them in the menu: the guest types them on a payment page run by a payment provider. In the European Economic Area, online card payments are generally subject to strong customer authentication, which is why a guest's bank may ask them to confirm a payment in its app.
The EU Payment Services Directive (Directive (EU) 2015/2366, Article 97) requires strong customer authentication when a payer initiates an electronic payment transaction, subject to exemptions defined in technical standards.
What a restaurant needs
- An account with a payment provider that supports this kind of payment in your country, paying into your own business account.
- Table QR codes, so the bill belongs to the right table.
- A clear tip policy, and a maximum tip so a mistyped amount cannot go through.
- A way for staff to see which tables have paid.
When it is not the right fit
- Guests who prefer to pay a person, in cash or with a card machine — keep those options.
- Countries where your payment provider cannot take online payments for you yet: guests can still request the bill from the menu and pay the usual way.
- Very small venues where the server is always at the table anyway.
Paying is the last step of QR table ordering.
Pay-at-table with Thmenu
With Thmenu, a guest asks for the bill from the menu, can add a tip, and chooses how it should be split: the whole bill, only what their phone ordered, an equal share, a percentage or a set amount. Staff are notified with the chosen split and settle the bill the usual way. Where the restaurant takes card payments through Stripe, a guest can pay for their order by card when placing it, on a checkout hosted by Stripe, into the restaurant's own connected Stripe account; the tip can be adjusted there within a maximum the restaurant sets. Splitting is by share, not by individual dish. Where card payment is not available, guests still order and ask for the bill from the menu, and pay at the venue as usual.
See how Thmenu pay-at-table works.
Sources
- Directive (EU) 2015/2366 on payment services in the internal market (PSD2) — Article 97 (Authentication) (accessed 7 October 2026)