Otter + Revel Integration Guide

Integration Overview

What is a POS integration between Otter and Revel POS?

A POS integration is when you connect your online channels and delivery platforms with your Revel POS, via Otter.

It creates real-time and direct communication between the delivery platforms and Revel, removing most manual inputs and actions required to synchronize those systems.

What is the necessity of integrating your Revel POS with Otter?

When online food orders from Delivery platforms represent a significant part of the business of a restaurant, they start feeling multiple operational pain points, that all find answers and solutions with a POS integration.

Otter’s point-of-sale integration allows orders from your delivery partners to flow directly into your point of sale. This integration has numerous benefits including:

• Automatically synchronize the Menu from Revel POS to your delivery channels, with no manual actions.
• Sending all orders to flow directly into your Revel KDS seamlessly.
• Sending all orders to print using Revel POS printer.
• Eliminating the manual entry of delivery platform orders into the POS.
• Improving the quality of the data by reducing errors from manual entry.

In conclusion, an integration with Revel POS can save time and money, on a daily basis, and make your business more successful.

How does the Otter & Revel integration work?

	Step 1: Menu Sync A POS integration with Revel starts by a “Menu Sync” where Otter reads the menu in Revel POS and then links the items in Revel to the items published to the delivery platforms.
	Step 2: Order Injection A POS integration with Otter allows customers to get Online Food Ordering platform orders sent directly to their POS. This means that if you are POS integrated, when you receive an online food order through Otter, the food order will automatically be sent to your Revel POS and be processed by the POS as any other order.

How to Connect

The process to get the Otter & Revel Integration up and running

• Step 1: You must add Otter as a user within your Revel environment. You must also request that Revel grants us API access to the back end of the system. Check the articles below.
• Step 2: You will build your delivery menu in Revel and we will sync the items you create here to your Otter menu, which in turn is synced to your delivery channel menus.
• Step 3: You will map all items to their preferred printers in Revel.
• Step 4: At this point, we can turn the integration on and orders will immediately flow into Revel from Otter.

If you don’t have an Otter’s account, you can request a free demo here.
For current customers, in case of doubts, reach out to your Otter POS onboarding specialist.

Grantint Revel API access to Otter

Please send an email to operations@revelsystems.com and cc pos-emea@tryotter.com to request that they grant Otter access to your Revel API with the following information:

• Client name & email address
• Business name
• Revel URL
• Establishment(s) connecting to the Otter Integration

Adding Otter User in Revel

In order for Otter to be able to integrate with Revel, once we have API access you will need to add Otter as a user in your POS. The steps to achieve this are below.

 

Step	Process	Additional Information
1	Add a new role for Otter On your Management Console [yourdomainname.revelup.com], navigate to Employees and choose Management Console Permissions. You'll see all Roles that have previously been created. To add a new Role, click + Add at the top of the list.
2	You will be prompted to enter the Permission Set Name which can be set to Otter Permissions.
3	Select Reports, Products, Establishment, and Settings from the left-hand permissions pane.
4	Activate the Reports permissions for read all, write all and add all as denoted by the arrows above. Scroll down and make the same selections for Products, Establishment and Settings permissions as they are not automatically selected when setting permissions for Reports. Don’t forget to hit Save.
5	Add Otter as an Employee In the Management Console [yourdomainname].revelup.com], click the Employees tab. Click + Add and choose Add Employee from the drop-down menu.
6	Fill out the information for the new employee. The following fields are required: First Name: Otter Last Name: Team Employee Start: today’s date Role: Employee PIN: 1234 (if that's taken, it can be any pin) Username: otter.[yourdomainname] Email Address: pos-emea+[yourdomainname]@tryotter.com Password: Revelup!0000 (we will change this once we get access) Administrative Permissions Set: Otter Permissions (the one that we previously created)
7	Once all fields have been filled out, click Save & Close to exit the screen.

What if I previously worked with another POS integration provider? (e.g. Chowly, It's a Checkmate, Deliverect, OLO)

• Reach out to the Prior POS integration Provider to remove integrations from all delivery partners. They cannot just be disconnected, they need to be removed or the delivery partners will not let us connect. Please set a specific time to disconnect/remove the Prior POS Integrator and we can immediately launch the Otter integration.
• Connect with your Delivery Partners to set the “tablet order protocol”. The Prior POS Provider often has you change the order protocol so we’ll need to revert it back to the tablet. The Delivery Partners should be able to confirm/get this done quickly.
• Similarly, connect with your Delivery Partners to allow us menu edit access on all Delivery Partners.

To confirm, there is no downtime in terms of accepting orders if you follow these steps, and you can have an Order Manager running on the Otter tablet to aggregate those throughout the process. Still, we cannot link/publish to your Delivery Partners until the above steps are followed.

POS Integration Settings in Otter Dashboard

When you make changes to your POS settings, the changes will need to be reflected in Otter as well to avoid order injection issues. The changes made in your POS can be updated in Otter within the POS Settings of the Otter Dashboard.

Available POS settings in the Otter Dashboard:

• View all the POS integration parameters set up for each of the stores.
• Update the POS channel settings under its control for each store. 
  • These are parameters pulled directly from the POS, per integration, based on what you have configured on your POS account.
• Turn on/off the POS injection per channel.

Examples of those settings are payment ID, dining ID, pickup ID, etc.

Learn how to adjust the POS integration settings here: Third-Party POS Integration Settings

Menu Management

Menu Best Practices

Before initiating a POS integration with Otter, it's essential to ensure the usability and quality of the Menu in Revel POS.

Best practices include:

• Add all categories that you would like to have on your delivery channels (UberEats, Doordash, etc.) in the POS.
• Add all items/item variations/modifiers that do not already exist in Revel precisely as you want the guest to see them on delivery channels.
• Review and clean the names, descriptions and prices to make sure they are ready to be published to the delivery platforms.

Otter will be synchronized with the delivery platforms' menus so that they will reflect how they are in Revel, giving you the ability to completely control your guests’ experience directly from Revel POS.

How to prepare your Menu in Revel POS?

To begin preparing your delivery menu items in Revel, you can follow the steps below, and then via Otter, we’ll sync the menu items you create with the menu items in your delivery channels. This allows certain item details to be different between your delivery channels and POS system if required.

 

Step	Process	Additional Information
1	Create your delivery menu categories Firstly, you should create a new category in the Products tab in Revel called Otter Menu. We’ll use this name to identify which categories and items we should sync with your delivery channels. Following that, each category of your delivery menu should be created as a subcategory under the Otter Menu category. If you already have an active menu on a delivery channel, simply recreate those categories here. Your Otter Menu category in Revel should look similar to the image to the right after completing this step.
2	Create your modifier groups Once your category structure is built, you should create any modifier groups that the items on your delivery menu have applied to them. To create a modifier group: Click on Modifiers from the Products page tabs on the left hand side of the screen Click + Add Modifier Class to add a Modifier Class (modifier group) Enter a name for the Modifier Class in the corresponding field Please add “CSS - ” to the beginning of the name. This helps us identify which modifier groups to read from when we sync the menu to Otter Click the save icon to save the Modifier Class Expand a Modifier Class by clicking the ⊞ icon next to the class name Click + Add Modifier to create a Modifier option Enter a name for the Modifier in the "Modifier Class Name" field Input a cost and price for the modifier, if needed Click the save icon located in the upper right corner to save the modifier Your Modifiers list should look similar to the second image to the right when complete.
3	Create your menu items and add to categories Once your categories and modifiers are built, you should create the items that you’re selling on your delivery channels and add them into the relevant categories. We must have the following information for each item to be able to map reliably to your delivery channel products: Item name Price Category (should be Otter Menu) and subcategory To add an item to your delivery menu: Click the Product icon to open up the Products page. Click + Add in the upper right portion of the screen to open up the new product drop-down menu. Click Product (Advanced). The product details page will open with the most commonly used product details preselected. From the Basic Product Details section on the right side of the page, input the item’s name, description, and price. Scroll down on the right side of the page to the Display/Print Options section. Select the item’s category and subcategory from the Main category drop-down. At this stage you can also add additional information such as tax rates and printers, if required. More information on item settings is available here. When you’ve added all the necessary information for your item, click Save, then Back to Products to return to the Products list.
4	Apply your modifier groups to your items The final step to building your delivery menu is to ensure each item has any relevant modifier groups added to it. To add a modifier group to an item: Select the Products tab to access the list of categories. Navigate to the required item by clicking into your Otter Menu category, then the relevant subcategory. Click the “M” associated with an item to apply a modifier group to that item. Navigate to the desired modifier group to attach it to the item. Click Save in the upper right corner to save changes.

For further instructions on menu building in Revel, please check the Revel Menu Build Guide.

Tips to a perfect Menu Structure

Setting up Menu Auto-Sync with Revel POS?

Menu Auto-Sync with Revel POS is the best way to ensure a reliable POS integration with minimal maintenance in the long run. It is a best practice used by most Otter customers to manage their Menus in Revel POS and automate the update of all the other menus in their Delivery Platforms.

Here are the steps to enable Menu Auto-Sync with Revel POS:

 

Step	Process	Additional Information
1	Open your Otter Dashboard, if you don’t have this access, please contact Otter's Customer Support.
2	Go to the Otter Menus app, and select your menu.
3	Click on the Settings icon in the top-right corner.
4	Click on the Menu Sync tab enable the "Automatic updates from POS Menu" toggle.
5	The automatic menu publish setting will be available only once you configure the Automatic updates from the POS Menu. Configure the settings by selecting the information you wish Otter to update automatically from the POS.
When Menu Auto-Sync is enabled, it will run every 6 hours, and will ensure the menus are kept synced. Check more details in this article.

Use the Otter SSMM to manage your Menu

Self-Serve Menu Management (SSMM) is an Otter feature that allows you to create, edit, update, manage, and publish menus from Otter’s Business Manager tool.

You can find here all the helpful guides about the tool and its features.

Order Management

For these next steps, please, contact your Onboarding Specialist or the Otter Support team to enable the Order Injection.

What is required for the Order injection to work perfectly?

The order will be injected into your Revel POS only if the menu is synced, meaning that all menu items you have listed on Otter must be the same menu items you have listed on your Revel POS.

Please, follow these guides to ensure your menus are Synced with Revel POS:

1. Enable Menu Auto-Sync
2. Trigger a Manual Menu Sync in update from POS

Integration FAQs

Why is my menu updating without any action from me?

Why is my item in Revel POS not importing to Otter?

What if I have different prices online and in-store?

How to check if my Otter Menu is correctly Synced and linked to my Revel POS Menu?

 

Follow the next steps if you are already up and running with your Revel POS integration, if you’re new to POS integration, you can also contact Otter Support to set you up.

Step	Process	Additional Information
1	Select your Menu in the App list, then enter in your menu.
2	Click on Manage POS Links.
3	In “Manage POS Links”, review the “Links summary” section at the top. If all 3 boxes indicate that there are 0 unlinked items, 0 unlinked modifier groups, and 0 unlinked modifiers, it means the Otter menu is correctly Synced with Revel POS.
4	If any of the boxes indicates a number of unlinked items or modifier groups or modifiers, it means the Otter menu is not correctly synced with Revel POS. Unlinked items can result in order injection failures and missed orders.

How can I reach out to Revel support if I have an issue?

How to fix printing issues?

What happens if an order is not injected?

If orders are auto-accepted in Otter, does the order need to be acknowledged in the POS?

What if an order is canceled by the customer?

How do scheduled orders work?

Will it show which delivery partner the order is from?

If Otter loses connection to my point of sale, will my delivery accounts be taken offline?

How are tips accounted for?

How is sales tax accounted for?

Still need help? Reach out to our team:

Live Chat		Text/SMS Message
Chat with support by clicking the chat icon in the bottom right corner of the Otter Dashboard.		+1 (888) 681-8837 Send us a text to the number above for assistance over text message.

Updated December 31, 2024 07:30