Aloha online ordering: fees, setup and phone orders

NCR Voyix now sells Aloha online ordering as Aloha Order Direct by Voyix, a mobile-first ordering page under your own brand. Older Aloha sites may run Aloha Online Ordering or Aloha Digital Ordering. NCR Voyix prints no price for any of them, so ask for a quote. The guest fees are yours to set.

Which product you get depends on which Aloha POS you run. NCR built Order Direct for Aloha Cloud, and Online Ordering and Digital Ordering run with Aloha POS. On Aloha POS, the tool you pick for order capacity also decides whether phone orders and web orders share one limit.

Which Aloha ordering product do you have?

NCR Voyix's documentation site lists four products for online, takeout and delivery orders. The site says it is no longer updated, so confirm current features with your rep.

Product	Works with	What NCR says it does	Start here if
Aloha Order Direct	Aloha Cloud POS	Branded ordering page for mobile; ASAP and future orders; curbside, dine-in QR and delivery modes; SMS notices	You run Aloha Cloud and want your own ordering link
Aloha Online Ordering	Aloha POS	The ordering engine behind Digital Ordering, Engage Mobile and many outside apps; managed in Web Admin with Menu Configurator	You run Aloha POS and already use Web Admin
Aloha Digital Ordering	Aloha POS	A branded ordering channel with QR order and pay, pickup, dine-in and curbside, and last-mile delivery	You want a branded site on Aloha POS
Aloha Takeout	Aloha POS	Order management for takeout and delivery, from order entry to driver routes, with future orders and capacity tracking	Staff take many phone and delivery orders

The sources are NCR's overview pages for Aloha Order Direct, Aloha Online Ordering, Aloha Digital Ordering and Aloha Takeout.

What does Aloha Order Direct do?

NCR Voyix's digital ordering page says Aloha Order Direct supports pickup, curbside and delivery, gives you first-party guest data such as order history, and updates menus, prices and availability centrally with near real-time sync. Loyalty and payments connect inside the checkout. Third-party marketplaces such as the delivery apps connect through the Voyix Commerce Platform.

NCR's implementation guide adds the details. When Order Direct is on, an Online Ordering menu appears in Aloha Cloud Back Office. It uses your existing items, modifiers, taxes and item availability, and does not use Back Office discounts, promotions, price lists or events. NCR recommends publishing one menu per site at a time. Your ordering link follows the pattern app.alohapos.com/m/[company]/s/[site].

What does Aloha online ordering cost?

Charge	What NCR Voyix prints
Ordering software	No price on NCR Voyix's online ordering page; ask for a quote
Card payments online	No rate printed. NCR's guide says Order Direct works with the SecurePay gateway only, using your Aloha Cloud payment settings.
Fees you charge guests	Up to 20 fees on your ordering website and two per order mode, each a flat amount or a percentage of the check
Delivery	The delivery tab appears when the delivery add-on is on; you set a minimum order and can split the delivery fee with the guest
Third-party marketplaces	Connected through the Voyix Commerce Platform; no fee printed

NCR's fee guide lets a percentage fee carry a minimum, a maximum and rounding to the nearest dollar or 10 cents. It also says you are responsible for following federal, state and local law and card network rules on any fee you charge.

How do minimum and maximum fees work? A worked example

NCR's own example: a 1% fee on a $13.81 check comes to $0.1381, which rounds to $0.14. The fee and checks below are made up. Say you add a 3% online service fee with a $1.00 minimum and a $3.00 maximum.

Check	3% of the check	Fee the guest pays
Check of $20.00	3% of $20.00 = $0.60	Minimum applies: $1.00
Check of $45.00	3% of $45.00 = $1.35	Fee on $45.00: $1.35
Check of $120.00	3% of $120.00 = $3.60	Maximum applies: $3.00

On the $20 check the $1.00 minimum works out to 5% of the order, and on the $120 check the $3.00 cap works out to 2.5%. Order a small and a large test basket as a guest and read the receipt before you publish the link. Our guide to commission-free ordering fees compares fees that other ordering companies print.

How do you set up Aloha Order Direct?

These steps follow NCR's implementation guide, in its order.

1. User roles. Decide who can change online ordering settings.
2. Menu. Build items, modifiers and taxes in Back Office, then build the online menu in Aloha Menu.
3. Items online. Under Item Availability, tick Online Active for each item to show. Clearing In Stock greys an item out on both the POS and the ordering page.
4. Store information. Set the link, address and store phone number. NCR says an Order Direct store must fill in its phone number.
5. Menu settings. Turn on special instructions (up to 255 characters) and, if you want, the four most popular items from the last 90 days.
6. Hours. Set E-Commerce Hours for pickup and curbside, dine-in and delivery. The same screen has a switch to stop taking orders.
7. Tips, fees and prep time. Set up to three tip suggestions and a default, add any fees, and pick a prep time.
8. Order modes. Under Order Settings, allow future orders up to seven days ahead, turn on curbside, and print dine-in QR codes for one table or all of them.
9. Branding, tax and payments. Add a logo, banner and privacy policy, set the online tax rate, and confirm payments.

What should you test before you share the link?

1. Order an item with required modifiers and a special instruction. Check the kitchen ticket or kitchen screen.
2. Clear In Stock on one item during service and check it greys out online and on the POS.
3. Hit Stop accepting orders, try to order as a guest, then turn orders back on.
4. Place a future order for a later day and check when it reaches the kitchen.
5. Scan a table's QR code, order and pay, and check the ticket shows the right table.
6. Order small and large baskets and read every fee on the guest receipt.
7. Refund a test order and check where it shows in your reports.

What happens to phone orders?

Phone orders and web orders compete for the same line. On Aloha POS, NCR's guide to capacity management gives two ways to cap orders per time slot: Aloha Takeout's setting, which counts in-store and online orders together, and Aloha Online Ordering's setting, which counts online orders only. If staff enter phone orders in Aloha Takeout, using its capacity settings keeps phone and web orders on one count.

Aloha Online Ordering also has Call Center Ordering, which lets a user with the Call Center Operator role place orders for guests. NCR says it serves restaurants that use an outside call center or run their own order desk. Aloha Takeout's documents include a Caller ID guide.

For Aloha Order Direct, the store phone number you enter shows on the ordering site, so guests with questions will call it. Our phone handoff checklist covers who handles calls about orders already placed.

If the phone is where you lose orders at the rush, Maple Pro answers calls and takes orders into supported POS systems, and NCR Aloha is on Maple's integrations list. The Maple NCR Aloha page is the place to start.

What should you ask NCR Voyix before you sign?

1. Which ordering product fits your POS: Order Direct on Aloha Cloud, or Online Ordering and Digital Ordering on Aloha POS?
2. What is the monthly price, and is there a setup fee or term?
3. Which card rate applies to online payments, and which gateway will you use?
4. Is delivery an add-on, and which courier services does it connect to?
5. Which delivery marketplaces connect through the Voyix Commerce Platform for your site, and what does that cost?
6. Where is the current documentation for your product, now that the old site is no longer updated?

Published by Maple. This AI-assisted guide combines NCR Voyix's own product page and documentation with an original product table, a fee example using made-up numbers, and a test checklist. NCR Voyix prints no price for these products, so it includes none. It does not report a quote from NCR Voyix or claim anyone tested Aloha ordering.