Frequently asked questions about 4Labs PRO

Straight answers for people running restaurants, sodas, bakeries and shops in Costa Rica. If your question isn't here, write to us at soporte@4labspro.com or book a demo.

1. What is 4Labs PRO?

   4Labs PRO is the software a Costa Rican restaurant runs its whole day on: the order comes in from the table POS or the diner's QR code, the kitchen dispatches it dish by dish on the KDS, every sale draws down FIFO inventory through the recipe, and the receipt goes out as an electronic document under version 4.4 of the Ministry of Finance. Reservations over WhatsApp, cash drawer counts, payroll and an AI copilot live in the same system.

2. How much does a restaurant POS cost in Costa Rica?

   4Labs PRO pricing depends on your branches, users, modules and implementation needs. We send a written proposal with the scope and monthly price, and the service is month to month with no minimum term.

3. Does 4Labs PRO work with the Ministry of Finance's e-invoicing?

   4Labs PRO issues electronic receipts and invoices under version 4.4 of Costa Rica's Ministry of Finance. The system signs the XML, keeps the sequential numbering, polls the tax authority until the document resolves, and delivers the customer's document by email with the PDF attached. It also receives your suppliers' invoices, tracks the legal eight business day window to answer the recipient message, and turns that XML into a stock entry in your warehouse. Your cryptographic key is uploaded once.

4. What is FIFO inventory and why does it matter in a restaurant?

   4Labs PRO tracks inventory by lot using FIFO (first in, first out), so every dish is costed against the lot that was actually consumed instead of a list price. That produces the two numbers a restaurant decides with: the real food cost per product and the exact warehouse value for the monthly filing. The drawdown happens on its own whenever a product with a linked recipe is sold, and an in-house sauce is costed and recosted like any other ingredient.

5. How long does it take to set up 4Labs PRO?

   4Labs PRO is set up with us alongside you, not through a self-service form. We arrange a call or a visit, import your menu from your old system's file, generate the table QR codes and leave the panel selling on the same day. What takes longer is whatever depends on third parties: e-invoicing needs your cryptographic key and your registration with the tax authority, and inventory needs a first stock count. We do that with you, without stopping service.

6. How do I migrate my menu and inventory from Hiopos or another system?

   4Labs PRO imports your menu, your opening inventory and your sales history from CSV files, so nobody retypes the catalog dish by dish when moving from Hiopos or any other system. Every import forces a dry run before it writes anything: it shows what will be created and which line of the file has an error. Receipt numbering can continue where the old system left off, and the history lands in a separate table so it never mixes with new sales.

7. What happens if the internet goes down mid-service?

   4Labs PRO keeps taking orders and closing checks without internet: each tablet works from the catalog and screens it already loaded, queues whatever staff do, and uploads it on its own when the signal returns, without charging the same check twice. The time it stores is the real time of payment, so the shift's cash count still balances. Issuing to the tax authority does need a connection, and the receipt waits in the queue. With a small PC on site, the kitchen screen and the printer still get the ticket.

8. Do I need special hardware or a cash register?

   4Labs PRO runs in the browser of the tablet, computer or phone you already own, on Chrome or Safari, so there is no cash register to buy. For receipts we support ESC/POS thermal printers over USB, Bluetooth or network; network ones are reached through a small PC in the restaurant, which also carries the waiter's tickets to the kitchen screen. Supermarket mode works with standard USB barcode scanners, the kind sold everywhere.

9. Does it work with the thermal printer the business already has?

   4Labs PRO prints to ESC/POS thermal printers, the kind almost every business in Costa Rica already owns, connected over USB, Bluetooth or network. The receipt carries your business details, your logo, the service charge and tip breakdown, the change counted out, and a number from your own series. One location can have several printers and assign one to each waiter, so the paper comes out of the one right beside them. Network printers are reached through a small PC on site.

10. Does it integrate with Uber Eats?

    Yes! The Uber Eats integration is now available in 4Labs PRO. Connect each branch’s store, receive and manage orders from administration, send accepted orders to the kitchen, and publish your menu with its modifiers. Our team helps you get connected. Uber Eats orders retain the platform’s commercial terms.

11. Can the diner order from the table with a QR code?

    4Labs PRO includes QR ordering: whoever scans opens that branch's menu on their phone, orders, and the ticket lands on the kitchen screen with the table number on it. The diner follows the status of the order and the running table account; the waiter or the register closes the payment. Because nobody reviews a QR order before it reaches the grill, each branch sets its own limits on lines, quantities, amount and frequency.

12. How does it handle the 10% service charge and tips?

    4Labs PRO stamps the 10% service charge the moment a check is opened, so changing the rate never reprices tables already being served, and it applies only to dining room checks. A product can be exempted, like takeout packaging, which is not table service. Service and tips live in their own columns: they never inflate your sales or your margin, they are recorded as what belongs to the staff, and the shift closing reports them separately so they can be shared out.

13. Can a check be split between several people?

    4Labs PRO splits a check three ways: evenly, by product, or by shares of a single line when three people share one pizza. Each guest pays with their own method, and the 10% service charge and any discount are prorated by consumption rather than per head, in whole cents, so the parts add up to exactly the table's total. And if a table ended up split into two checks by mistake, they merge back together without losing a single line.

14. Can I run several branches from the same panel?

    4Labs PRO runs several branches under one account, with a branch selector in the sidebar and permissions per person and per location. You can copy a menu from one branch to another without overwriting the prices or photos each has already tuned, transfer ingredients between warehouses at real lot cost, and read reports for all of them together or one at a time. Two brands sharing a kitchen, a warehouse, a menu or a cash drawer can be grouped without merging their books.

15. Does it work for a small soda, or is it only for large restaurants?

    4Labs PRO works just as well in a small soda run by one person: a phone or a tablet is enough, and whatever you do not use can be hidden from the waiter and register screens so it stays out of the way. You can start by charging and by putting the menu on a QR code, then add inventory, recipes and e-invoicing later without changing systems. There is also a simple view, with larger type and buttons, for anyone who never worked with a point of sale.

16. What is Supermarket mode?

    Supermarket mode in 4Labs PRO turns a branch into a retail store: you scan a barcode and the product drops into the cart, and if the code is unknown it takes you straight to creating it with the code already filled in, with inventory by SKU instead of by recipe. It suits corner shops, mini-markets, convenience stores and restaurants that also sell drinks, sweets or packaged goods. It is switched on branch by branch from the Branch screen, leaving the restaurant branches untouched.

17. What does the AI copilot do?

    The AI copilot in 4Labs PRO answers questions about your own operation in plain language: which dish was the most profitable this month, which ingredient is about to run out, how yesterday's drawer closed. It works with your branch's data inside the panel, and the emailed sales report is scheduled separately.

18. How is it different from a generic point of sale?

    4Labs PRO does not stop at charging and invoicing: it also runs the kitchen and the storeroom, which is where a restaurant wins or loses its margin. Selling a casado draws down the tomato lot through the recipe, the bar dispatches its drink without closing the grill's ticket, a physical count freezes the theoretical figure so the comparison means something, and the shift closing shows whether its own numbers reconcile and what to look at when they do not. All under Costa Rican tax rules.

19. Is my data stored in Costa Rica? Does it comply with data protection?

    4Labs PRO stores your data on cloud infrastructure, encrypted in transit with TLS and at rest with AES-256. Isolation does not depend on the screen: every query is filtered by branch in the database itself (Row-Level Security), so one location's terminal cannot reach another's data even with the browser console open. We follow the practices of Costa Rica's Law 8968 on personal data protection, and every sensitive action is recorded with who did it and when.

20. Is the data mine? How do I take it with me if I leave?

    Your restaurant's data is yours, and 4Labs PRO does not use it to tie you down. From the panel you download every shift closing as PDF and Excel, valued inventory and recipe coverage as CSV, and the reports your monthly filing needs. If you ever decide to leave, we arrange the handover of the rest of your information in an open format. Your electronic documents, on top of that, already sit with the tax authority and with every customer who received one.

21. Can I cancel whenever I want?

    4Labs PRO has no minimum term: the service is month to month, and you end it by giving us thirty days' written notice, with no penalty. Before you go we hand you your information: shift closings download as PDF and Excel, valued inventory and tax reports as CSV, and we arrange the delivery of the rest with you. The idea is that you stay because the system earns it, not because you signed something.

22. Do you offer support in Spanish and on Costa Rica hours?

    Support at 4Labs PRO comes from people who speak Costa Rican Spanish and work on Costa Rica hours (UTC−6), not a call center in another time zone. You reach us at soporte@4labspro.com or book a call over Google Meet or Zoom. During rollout we sit with you through the menu load, the e-invoicing setup and the first week of service, which is when the real questions show up and when a new system either holds or falls over.