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When a customer walks out

Sometimes customers leave without paying, whether intentionally or by accident. Here’s how to handle this situation in Tebi:

If the customer hasn’t paid yet

When a customer leaves without completing payment, you’ll need to close the sale properly to maintain accurate records:

Option 1: Apply a discount for the walk out

  1. Open the unpaid sale

  2. Tap the three dots (⋯) at the top of the sale

  3. Select Add/remove discount

    1. If you need to create a discount code, see this article.

  4. Apply a 100% discount with a name like “Customer walk out” or “Theft”

  5. Tap Pay €0.00 to close the sale

Note: you can pull a report in the Back Office to see how often discount codes are used. Go to Insights > Reports > Discount report.

Option 2: Clear the sale completely

  1. Open the unpaid sale

  2. Tap the three dots (⋯)

  3. Select Clear sale > Clear to remove all products

  4. Tap Pay €0.00

  5. Tap Close sale

Note: After clearing and closing the sale, the empty invoice will still be logged for record-keeping purposes.

Option 3: Write off the sale as bad debt

  1. Open the unpaid sale, in the detailed sales view

  2. Tap the three dots (⋯)

  3. Select Help closing this sale

  4. Select ‘Mark the remaining amount as bad debt’

  5. Tap on ‘write off €XXX’

  6. Tap Close sale

Note: This will write off the remaining balance as bad debt and close the sale. This should only be used when the amount cannot be collected (e.g. a scenario where it can be collected is that where the customer paid for the wrong table)

If the customer already made a partial (pre)payment

If the customer paid for some items or made a prepayment on their reservation but left before paying the full amount:

  1. Review what was actually consumed/taken

  2. Remove any products they didn’t take from the sale

  3. If there’s still an outstanding amount for items they did take, apply a 100% discount to those remaining items

  4. Tap Pay €0.00 to close the sale

Prevention tips

  • Use Tebi’s Floor Plan feature to keep track of table statuses

  • Enable “Show amount due on Floor Plan” in Settings > Preferences to see outstanding amounts at a glance

  • Set up sales highlighting to show sales that haven’t been opened in a while (yellow warning after X minutes, red after Y minutes)

Reporting and tracking

These walkout incidents will appear in your reports, helping you:

  • Track patterns and frequency

  • Identify potential training needs

  • Monitor loss prevention effectiveness

For more detailed guidance on managing sales and payments, check out our articles on creating your first sale and how to close an open sale.

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