Apps & Modules

Next Restaurant is a large product, and most restaurants don't need all of it. Fourteen functional areas are modules, and thirteen of them can be switched off individually on the Apps page — open the app launcher in the admin header and click the cog.

Switching a module off is not cosmetic. Its navigation disappears, and its server-side endpoints refuse the request — so a disabled area is genuinely unreachable, not merely hidden.

The module list

Module	Default	Depends on	What it covers
menu	On (core)	—	Menu items, categories, modifiers, allergens, galleries
orders	On	menu	The order pipeline across every channel
kds	On	orders	Kitchen display, stations, routing rules
pos	On	orders	Point of sale, payment gateways, cash drawer
corrections	On	orders	Cancel, modify, remake, comp, discount, refund
delivery	On	orders	Zones, drivers, dispatch
reservations	On	—	Bookings, floors, areas, tables, QR sessions
inventory	On	—	Stock items, recipes, movements, waste
customers	On	—	Customer records and reviews
loyalty	On	—	Coupons and gift cards
reports	On	—	Reporting and the audit log
staff	On	—	Staff records and the time clock
terminals	On	—	Staff terminal provisioning and the PIN lane
api	Off	—	The public REST API and integrations

Menu is core. No menu, no restaurant — it is the root that orders, KDS, POS and delivery all depend on, so it cannot be switched off and is excluded from the save.

The API is off by default. Public endpoints are opt-in, which is the right default for a surface that is reachable without an admin session.

The Apps page with each module's switch, showing dependent modules greyed out beneath a disabled parent

Dependencies and grey-out

The dependency chain is short but it matters:

menu ──> orders ──> kds
                └─> pos
                └─> delivery
                └─> corrections

A module is effectively enabled only when its own switch is on and every module it depends on is effectively enabled. Turn orders off and KDS, POS, delivery and corrections grey out automatically — you don't have to remember to switch four more things off, and you can't leave a half-configured state where the POS is on but orders aren't.

Turning orders back on restores whatever the dependents' own switches were set to.

Always-on areas

Some things are never gated, because they are the shell rather than a feature:

Dashboard, Locations, Settings, Roles & Permissions, Notifications, media handling, the storefront itself, and demo mode. Switching off "settings" would leave you unable to switch it back on.

The payments ledger is also deliberately not module-gated. It is a financial record: if you take a payment, you should be able to see it, even if you later switch the POS module off.

Modules versus permissions

These are two different controls and it is worth being clear about which to reach for:

	Module	Permission (role feature)
Question it answers	Is this capability part of our install?	May this person use it?
Scope	The whole install	One role
Set under	The Apps page (launcher → cog)	Settings → Roles & Permissions
Effect when off	Nobody can use it, endpoints refuse	That role can't use it; others still can

"We don't do delivery" is a module. "The kitchen shouldn't see sales reports" is a permission. Using a module toggle for a per-person concern removes the feature from everyone; using permissions for "we don't do this at all" leaves endpoints reachable by anyone whose role happens to grant them.

See Roles & Permissions.

Turning a module off safely

Switching a module off does not delete its data. The records stay; they simply become unreachable until it is switched back on.

That said, a few things are worth checking first:

Storefront menu items. Disabling orders leaves an Order menu item published on the site pointing at a disabled area. Unpublish the Joomla menu item too.
Terminals. Disabling terminals stops provisioned devices from authenticating — which is the intent, but tell the floor before you do it mid-service.
Reservations and QR. QR sessions and dining tables live under reservations, so disabling it stops QR ordering as well as bookings.