Console Management

HandyCafe manages gaming consoles alongside PCs, giving your gaming center or esports arena a unified system for tracking sessions, pricing, and revenue across all devices.

What Are Consoles?

Consoles in HandyCafe represent gaming stations such as PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and other custom device types. They are managed separately from PCs but follow the same session lifecycle. You can start, pause, resume, and stop sessions with full pricing and billing support.

The Consoles page displays all registered consoles in the Card, Icon or List view, giving you a quick visual overview of which devices are in use, available, or have pending payments.

Console Status

Each console has one of these statuses:

The Consoles page uses color coding to make it easy to identify each state at a glance. Online, Paused and Unpaid consoles count as In Use.

Views

Open the View menu in the filter toolbar to switch between three views. The choice is saved for the signed-in cashier. The default for new cashiers is set in Settings > View > Consoles.

When Double Click Start/Stop is on in Settings > General, double-clicking an idle console starts a session and double-clicking a running or paused console stops it. This works in all three views.

Adding a Console

To register a new console in HandyCafe:

1. Navigate to the Consoles page.
2. Click the Add Console button.
3. Fill in the console details:
   • Name: A descriptive name for the console (e.g., "PS5 Station 1", "Xbox Area - Left", "Nintendo Dock 3").
   • MAC Address: The network MAC address of the console. This must be in a valid format (e.g., AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF). The system validates the format before saving.
   • Console Type: Select from the predefined console types (PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, or Custom). This determines the icon and category displayed on the status card.
   • Pricing Type: Choose how this console is priced:
     • Default: Uses the global hourly rate defined in your pricing settings. If you change the global rate, this console's rate changes automatically.
     • Custom: Set a specific hourly rate for this console only. Useful when premium consoles (e.g., PS5 with VR) should cost more than standard stations.
   • Custom Hourly Price: Only visible when Pricing Type is set to Custom. Enter the per-hour rate for this specific console.
4. Click Save to register the console.

The new console appears on the Consoles page as an Idle status card, ready to accept sessions.

Network Power Pairing Status

Open Settings > Consoles to see the saved network power pairing for every registered console. The Pairing column shows one of these values:

Pairing status is separate from the live power badge on the Consoles page. The badge follows the console device itself. An offline console is shown as unreachable instead of connected. A failed standby remains visible until HandyCafe confirms that the console reached rest mode.

Console Sessions

Console sessions follow the same lifecycle as PC sessions:

Starting a Session

Select an Idle console and start a new session. A standard prepaid start offers Minutes and Amount. In Minutes, the left side contains only the Minutes input. Collected appears on the right as a display value. If an exceptional adjustment is needed, click its pencil icon to edit it inline. No additional confirmation dialog appears. In Amount, the left-side Amount input is authoritative. The right-side Collected value is a read-only mirror of that exact payment. HandyCafe derives a whole-second countdown from the console hourly rate. The summary shows Calculated Charge and Collected separately before the cashier clicks Ok. Postpaid starts remain unchanged. You can optionally assign a member for wallet or time-based billing. See Session Pricing for the conversion and rounding rules.

Pausing a Session

If a customer needs a break, you can pause the session. The timer stops and no charges accumulate during the pause.

Resuming a Session

Resume a paused session to continue the timer and billing from where it left off.

Stopping a Session

End the session. The system calculates the total charge based on duration and the applicable hourly rate. The console moves to the Unpaid status until payment is collected, or directly to Idle if payment is processed immediately.

The payment breakdown lists charged equipment by billed extra quantity and item name, for example 1 × Controller. This equipment amount is already included in the console session amount.

When an active Ödeal fiscal terminal is configured, cash and card collection for a console session uses the same fiscal settlement flow as PC sessions. HandyCafe sends the console charge and any collected console orders to Ödeal before committing the local settlement. A successful cash settlement prints a fiscal receipt without opening the card collection screen.

Console sessions are identified by the console's name rather than by a MAC address connection (as with PCs). This means the cashier manually starts and stops sessions on consoles, rather than the system detecting connections automatically.

Console Pricing

Each console can be configured with its own pricing or use the global default:

• Default Pricing: The console inherits the global hourly rate from your pricing settings (Settings > Pricing). Any changes to the global rate are automatically reflected.
• Custom Pricing: A fixed hourly rate specific to this console. Changes to the global rate do not affect consoles with custom pricing.
• Startup Fee: Console sessions can also have a configurable startup fee that is charged once at the beginning of each session, separate from the hourly rate. This is configured in the pricing settings.

Pricing Example

If your global rate is $2.00/hour and you have a premium PS5 with VR:

• Standard consoles (Default pricing): $2.00/hour
• PS5 VR station (Custom pricing): $4.50/hour

When you raise the global rate to $2.50/hour, standard consoles update automatically but the PS5 VR station remains at $4.50/hour until you manually change it.

Filtering and Sorting

The Consoles page provides tools to quickly find the console you need:

Filter by Console Type

Narrow the view to show only specific console types (e.g., show only PlayStation consoles, or only Xbox consoles). Useful in cafes with many different console types.

Filter by Status

Use the All, In Use and Idle tabs. In Use shows Online, Paused and Unpaid consoles. Under All, consoles in use are listed first under an In Use heading, followed by the idle ones under Idle.

Sort Order

Consoles are ordered automatically. Unpaid consoles come first, then running timed sessions with the least time left, then other running sessions, then idle consoles. Consoles in the same group are sorted by name.

Member Assignment

Members can be assigned to console sessions to enable wallet-based or time-based billing:

• When starting a console session, select a member from the member list.
• The session charges are deducted from the member's wallet balance, just like PC sessions.
• If the member has a time-based membership, their remaining time is consumed during the console session.
• Session history for the member includes both PC and console sessions.

Unregistered (walk-in) customers can also use consoles without member assignment. In this case, payment is collected manually when the session ends.

License Limit

Your plan defines a separate maximum for active console sessions. Registered console records remain visible so a plan change does not require recreating them.

When the limit of Online or Paused console sessions is reached, starting another session is blocked. HandyCafe shows a localized message that asks the cashier to stop another console or upgrade the plan. Idle and Unpaid console records are not removed.

Console Count and Statistics

A strip of cards at the top of the Consoles page shows live figures for the selected console type, or for all types:

• Occupancy: The share of consoles in use, as a percentage.
• In Use: How many consoles are Online, Paused or Unpaid.
• Idle: How many consoles are available.
• Paid: The amount of running prepaid guest sessions.
• Unpaid: The amount of running postpaid guest sessions not yet collected.
• Time Used: The total time used across the consoles.
• Power: The number of consoles that are on and in standby, shown only when console power management is on. Failed standby attempts are counted on the card.

Member sessions are not counted in Paid or Unpaid, because their cost is charged to the member account. These figures update in real time as sessions start and stop. Hide the strip in Settings > View > Visibility with Info cards in the Consoles row.

Required Permissions

Access to console management is controlled by the Consoles permission category in the cashier role system:

A cashier without CONSOLE_VIEW cannot access the Consoles page at all. A cashier with only CONSOLE_VIEW can see the console status but cannot add, edit, or remove consoles. Because CONSOLE_PAUSE is separate from CONSOLE_UPDATE, a cafe can let the till start and stop console sessions while leaving pause and resume to a supervisor.

See Cashier Roles & Permissions for details on configuring role-based access.