POS Terminals
POS terminals are the physical or virtual devices that cashiers use to process meal transactions in the cafeteria. Each terminal is assigned to a school and a meal program, and can be configured with templates that control what students see at the point of sale.
Navigate to POS > Terminals from the main menu to manage your terminals.
The Terminals Table
The Terminals page shows all configured terminals for your district, with columns for:
School: the school this terminal serves
Location: a description of where the terminal is physically located (e.g., "Main Cafeteria Line 1")
Device ID: the registered device ID (shows "Not registered" until a device is paired)
Online Status: a green indicator shows the terminal has been active within the last minute
Last Active: timestamp of the most recent activity ping
Last Synced: timestamp of the most recent sync with the server
Use the search bar to filter terminals by school, location, or device ID.
Creating a New Terminal
Click the Create Terminal button to open the terminal setup dialog.
Select a School: choose which school this terminal belongs to. Required.
Location Description: optional free-text label (e.g., "Breakfast Line", "Kiosk A"). Helps staff identify the terminal on the Terminals page and in transaction reports.
Meal Templates: for each active meal (breakfast, lunch, etc.), select the POS template you want this terminal to use. Templates control menu display, pricing tiers, and serve mode.
Click Save to create the terminal. A unique terminal ID is generated automatically.
Meal Templates
Each terminal can have a different POS template per meal. Templates define:
Menu options: which items students can select (entrees, sides, milk, etc.)
Pricing: Paid, Reduced, Free, Adult, and Staff price tiers
Serve mode: Cafeteria (student walks up) or Classroom (cashier processes a whole room at once)
Fast Mode: simplified one-tap flow for high-speed lunch lines
Cash acceptance: whether this terminal accepts cash payments
Free Meals Mode: automatically applies free pricing to all students regardless of eligibility
Attendance tracking: whether serving a meal also counts as attendance for the day
Templates are configured separately and assigned to terminals on this page. Contact Gaia support if you need a new template or changes to an existing one. For a full reference of every mode and how it changes checkout, see POS Checkout Modes.
Registering a Device
After creating a terminal in Gaia, you need to pair it with the physical device (tablet, iPad, Chromebook, etc.) that will run the POS app.
Open the Gaia POS app on the device. If the device hasn't been paired before, the app opens to the Terminal Registration page.
Pick the terminal that matches this device's school and location from the list shown on screen.
The device registers and the Device ID column on the Terminals page in the Gaia web app will populate with the device identifier.
Once registered, the terminal will show as Online when the device is active and connected. The Terminal Registration page is shown only once per device — after that, opening the POS app takes the cashier straight to the Meal Select screen.
Editing a Terminal
Click the three-dot menu (⋮) on any terminal row and select Edit Terminal to update the location description or meal template assignments. The school assignment cannot be changed after creation.
Unregistering a Device
If you need to replace or reassign a device, click the three-dot menu and select Unregister Device. This clears the device pairing so a new device can be registered to the terminal. The next time the POS app opens on that device, it will return to the Terminal Registration page.
Deleting a Terminal
To permanently remove a terminal, select Delete Terminal from the three-dot menu. This cannot be undone. Historical transaction data associated with the terminal is retained.