Tills, kitchen and customer screens. One connected system.
Aura runs your tills, MobilePOS, self-service kiosks, kitchen and customer screens, stock and your own branded ordering — and keeps trading when the power doesn’t. Aura NextGen is the new generation of Aura, which around 2,000 restaurants use today, from single cafés to national franchise groups.
Which describes you?
- 1–4 stores
One restaurant or a small chain
Packages from R995/month ex VAT with AuraPay. Add only what you need and be trading within days.
For independents - 5+ stores
A franchise group or several brands
Menus, prices and rules set once at head office, every store live in one view, per-store pricing and a planned rollout.
For groups
Just looking? Watch one sale on every screen or see everything Aura does.
Restaurant brands that trade on Aura
See it in action
One sale. Every screen.
Ring it up on the till and the customer sees it, the kitchen gets it — live, with nothing re-keyed.
What you’re watching
A real sale at Salt Cafe
A simple coffee-shop setup: one till, a customer display facing the customer, and a kitchen display. The same setup runs a single café or every store in a group.
Till
The cashier rings up the order and takes payment.
Customer display
Each item’s photo and the running total, then the brand’s adverts between sales.
Kitchen display
The order builds as it is rung up, and is ready to start the moment it is paid.
Order points & screens
Every way to take an order. Every screen to hand it over.
Mix the order points that suit each store and add screens as you grow. They all run from one menu, and every order reaches the kitchen the same way.
Take the order
Till
Staff ring up orders at the counter or front desk, with an optional customer display facing the customer.
MobilePOS
Waiters and queue-busters take orders on a phone or tablet, send them to the kitchen, take cash or card payments with tips and print the bill — and keep going when the internet drops.
Self-service kiosk
Customers browse the menu, customise, choose sit down or take away, then pay by card at the kiosk or at the counter. The kiosk prints their order number.
QR & online ordering
Your own branded site for skip-the-queue, Table QR and QR Drop Zone ordering — commission-free.
Make it and hand it over
Kitchen display
Every order from every order point lands here as it is rung up, with an optional sound when an order arrives on an empty screen. The kitchen starts it and marks it done.
Customer display
Faces the customer at the till: each item’s photo, the running total and their change, then your adverts between sales.
Order number display
Shows which order numbers are preparing and which are ready to collect, with the current wait time. Ready numbers pulse, with optional sounds, delivery-app orders show their channel, and one screen can serve several brands.
Each till, MobilePOS device, kiosk or QR ordering flow uses one Order Entry Licence.
Why Aura
More than a till — Aura runs the whole operation
The things that win in South African kitchens — trading offline, finding the profit, owning your ordering and running it from your phone.
Keeps trading when you're offline
When the power or internet goes down, your tills keep ringing up sales, taking orders and printing to the kitchen. Everything syncs back automatically the moment you reconnect — no lost sales, no re-capture.
In South Africa this is the difference between trading and standing still.
Find the profit leaks
Recipe-level food costing with theoretical-vs-actual variance separates buying-price movement from kitchen execution and waste — so you know whether the problem is your supplier, your portions or your people.
Shrinkage is the silent killer of SA restaurant margins. Aura makes it visible.
Direct mobile ordering
Your own branded mobile ordering site — no app download, no login friction. Customers scan, order and pay for skip-the-queue, collect or a QR Drop Zone, and the order lands straight on your kitchen screen.
Direct orders are commission-free, so you keep more of every order. (Need full online ordering & delivery? Aura Franchise includes Yumbi.)
Decisions, not just data
Dozens of click-through reports across sales, stock, cash-up, customers and operations — drill from any number into the detail behind it, plus forecasting, best-sellers, upsell tracking and store rankings.
Replace spreadsheets and end-of-month guesswork with live answers.
Pay your way, no lock-in
Card and tap/wallet (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay), Transaction Junction, Zapper, wiCode vouchers, cash and approved mobile money such as M-Pesa and MTN Mobile Money — through providers you already use. Choose AuraPay for a lower software fee, or keep your own.
You’re never trapped with one acquirer or one rate.
Manage from your pocket
The Manager Companion app puts live sales, orders, item availability and approvals in your hand — plus stock takes on your phone, offline sync and receipt scanning so managers can run the back office from the floor.
Stay on top of every store without standing behind every till.
Why trust us
Built on three decades of restaurant expertise
Aura NextGen is the latest chapter of 30 years of restaurant technology — rebuilt from the ground up for single-store operators and multi-country franchise brands alike.
30+
Years in business
Decades of restaurant technology expertise since 1994
~2,000
Restaurants use Aura
From independents to national franchise groups, now moving onto Aura NextGen
Always
Keeps trading offline
No power, no line? Tills keep ringing and printing, then sync the moment you reconnect
365
Days of support
Help desk open 6:30 am to 10 pm every day, including public holidays
For franchises & groups (5+ stores)
Structure pricing centrally so franchisees aren’t hit with lots of separate monthly technology charges. Ideal for brands that need governance, compliance enforcement, royalty calculation, Yumbi delivery and multi-store / multi-brand reporting.
Explore Aura FranchiseFor independents
Start with QuickServe or Restaurant, then add only what you need. Lower your monthly fee with AuraPay, or keep your own payment setup — either way you own your ordering and your data.
See independent setup