The restaurant lost power — restore it safely and get your POS back online

Summary. When power is lost to some or all of your equipment, safety comes first — then getting your POS server, terminals, and network back online in the right order.

Applies to. All Ingage-supported POS platforms (Sail POS, Focus POS) — POS terminals need to stay in constant communication with the POS server for all operations, so a powered-off server (or a powered-off network device between a terminal and the server) stops the whole system from functioning normally, regardless of platform.

Before you start

Know what's affected: the whole building, one circuit, or just a device that got unplugged/knocked loose.
Most POS terminals — not just the server — are plugged into a UPS (battery backup) to protect against surges and brownouts/blackouts. A UPS has two kinds of outlets: battery-protected outlets (keep the device running briefly on battery, then need the UPS itself powered back on) and surge-only outlets (no battery, but power flows again automatically once upstream power is restored).

What's happening

Equipment has lost electrical power — from a full building outage, a tripped breaker, or a UPS running out of battery.

Can you keep serving? (safety first)

Stop and call an electrician (don't keep troubleshooting) if: you smell burning, see sparks, there's water involved, or a breaker trips again as soon as you reset it. Never keep flipping a breaker that won't hold.
If it's a full building/block outage: there's no workaround — everything depends on utility power coming back. Skip to "When you must call" for what to do while you wait.
If a UPS is beeping: it's running on battery and will shut down the device(s) plugged into it soon. Outages longer than a few minutes commonly drain a UPS's battery entirely — get real power restored quickly, or expect that device to go down.
If multiple devices share that UPS and you have a few minutes before it dies, prioritize the POS server — everything else depends on it. Gracefully power down or unplug less-critical devices from that same UPS to stretch its runtime for the server, rather than letting the whole UPS run out and cut power to everything at once.

Get your systems back online

If a breaker tripped and there's no sign of an electrical problem, reset it once. If it won't hold, stop — that's an electrician call, not a POS issue.
Once real power is confirmed restored to the area, check any device that isn't powering back up on its own. If it was on a battery-protected UPS outlet, the UPS itself needs its power button pressed to turn back on — power won't flow to those outlets until you do. (Surge-only outlets power back up automatically once upstream power is restored — no button needed.)
Check whether the POS server has powered itself back on. Newer installs are often configured to auto-power-on when electricity returns, so give it a few minutes. Older installs are frequently not configured this way and need the power button pressed manually. If you're not sure which kind you have, wait a few minutes first — if it hasn't come up on its own, go ahead and power it on manually.
On a terminal, click Retry (or restart the terminal) to reconnect to the POS server.
If only your network gear (modem/router/switches) lost power while the rest of your equipment is fine, see A network/internet outage — check power and reboot your network devices instead — that article covers rebooting those specifically.

Verify it worked

Terminals reconnect and show no connection errors.
Send a test ticket to the kitchen to confirm printers/KVS are receiving orders.
Card processing works on a test transaction.

When you must call

Any sign of an electrical hazard (burning smell, sparks, water, a breaker that won't hold) — stop immediately and call an electrician first.
Power is back but a device still won't come online even after checking its UPS.
It's a widespread outage — let us know once utility power is restored if things don't reconnect on their own.
There's no UPS at all and power is fully out — there's no self-help step here beyond the safety/breaker checks above; this is a straight wait-for-utility-power situation, so let us know if things don't reconnect once it's back.

Restore

N/A — restoring power and powering devices back on is the fix.