Tech updates
Short pieces from the engineering team.
What running billing for 125 restaurants, rebuilding our own site and years of first conversations taught us. Written to be useful, not to rank.
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Articles
6 so far
Newest first. Two a month from here on.
5 min
Why we rebuilt our own website, and what it runs onATPL replaced a 300-URL WordPress site with a Next.js 16 build: one facts file, typed content, server-rendered HTML, a WebGL transition on top, and a rule for every old link.This siteWeb5 min
What 125 restaurants taught us about billing softwareThirteen years of running Ethos in 125+ restaurants and cafés, reduced to the lessons that decide whether billing software survives a busy counter.RestaurantsSoftware5 min
One address for every terminal: how centralised reporting worksHow Ethos has given owners one address for every terminal’s reports since January 2014: the till owns its bills, the centre owns the group picture, and sync joins them.CloudRestaurants5 min
Where AI pays off first in a small businessAI pays off first where the work repeats, the inputs are already in a system and a wrong answer is cheap to catch; here is where that is true and how to pick the first job.AI5 min
When not to use AIThe limits ATPL puts on every AI page, collected in one place: when a rule would do, when the job is rare, when the data is missing, and when a wrong answer costs too much.AI5 min
Questions to answer before you commission custom softwareTen questions ATPL asks in the first conversation about custom software, drawn from doing this since 2010, and what to bring so the call ends in a scope rather than a brochure.Software