Question 1

How do I claim a tag?

Accepted Answer

Tap the bracelet to your phone (or scan the printed QR). On the landing page, sign in or create a free account, then enter the holder's name. The tag is now linked to you and you can top it up.

Question 2

What does the holder name mean?

Accepted Answer

The owner is the person who pays — typically a parent or sponsor. The holder is the person who carries the tag and consumes meals — typically a student or employee. They can be the same person.

Question 3

How do I top up?

Accepted Answer

From the tag landing page or the My Tags dashboard, tap Top up, choose an amount and a payment method offered by the canteen (Stripe card, MTN MoMo, or Orange Money), and complete checkout. Your balance updates as soon as the payment provider confirms — usually within seconds.

Question 4

Which payment methods can I use to top up?

Accepted Answer

You can top up by bank transfer, by international credit or debit card (Visa, Mastercard), or with the local mobile money service on your phone. Mobile money is available in 20 countries: Benin (MTN MoMo, Moov Money) · Burkina Faso (Orange Money, Moov Money) · Cameroon (MTN MoMo, Orange Money) · Congo-Brazzaville (MTN MoMo, Airtel Money) · Côte d'Ivoire (MTN MoMo, Orange Money, Wave) · DR Congo (Vodacom M-Pesa, Airtel Money, Orange Money) · Ethiopia (Telebirr, M-Pesa) · Gabon (Airtel Money) · Ghana (MTN MoMo, AirtelTigo Money, Telecel Cash) · Kenya (M-Pesa) · Lesotho (M-Pesa) · Malawi (Airtel Money, TNM Mpamba) · Mozambique (M-Pesa, Movitel e-Mola) · Nigeria (MTN MoMo, Airtel Money) · Rwanda (MTN MoMo, Airtel Money) · Senegal (Orange Money, Wave, Mixx by Yas) · Sierra Leone (Orange Money) · Tanzania (Vodacom M-Pesa, Airtel Money, Mixx by Yas, HaloPesa) · Uganda (MTN MoMo, Airtel Money) · Zambia (MTN MoMo, Airtel Money, Zamtel Kwacha). You'll only see the methods enabled for your canteen at checkout.

Question 5

Are there fees on a top-up?

Accepted Answer

Each canteen sets a topup fee (4% by default). Whether you pay it or the canteen absorbs it is decided per canteen by the operator. When the tag owner pays, the topup form shows the breakdown — your amount, the fee, and the total — before checkout. When the operator pays, you're charged exactly what you typed.

Question 6

Why does my balance show as a dash?

Accepted Answer

Balances are only visible to the tag owner. If you tapped someone else's tag (for example a friend's) you'll see the canteen branding and today's menu, but not the balance.

Question 7

What happens if I lose the bracelet?

Accepted Answer

Sign in and ask the canteen operator to mark the tag as stolen, so staff can no longer accept it. When you have a new bracelet, the operator replaces the old tag with it: your remaining balance and credits move to the new bracelet, and the old one stays in your account with its history.

Question 8

Can I get a refund?

Accepted Answer

Refund policy is set by the canteen operator. We can issue technical reversals for failed transactions; balance refunds are handled by the operator directly.

Question 9

Why was a transaction marked "flagged"?

Accepted Answer

Flagged transactions are sales that pushed your balance below zero — usually because the staff device was offline when you tapped. The operator reviews flagged rows and either accepts the negative balance or asks you to top up.

Question 10

What are meal credits and packages?

Accepted Answer

Some canteens sell prepaid meal credits (e.g. lunches) in packages. You buy a package like a top-up — by card or Mobile Money — and the credits are held on your tag, separate from your money balance. The same top-up fee as a normal top-up applies, and staff debit the credits when you check in.

Question 11

How do I delete my account?

Accepted Answer

Open the mobile app and go to Settings → Delete account. You confirm by typing your email; this disables your account, signs you out everywhere, and you won't be able to sign in again. Your tags' balances and the operator's transaction records aren't erased. If you delete by mistake, contact support to restore access.

Question 12

What does my canteen see when I answer a survey?

Accepted Answer

Before you answer, the survey tells you whether it is anonymous. On an anonymous survey the canteen sees only totals and unsigned written answers, never who answered. On a named survey it sees your name with your answers. You can answer each survey once, and reminders stop as soon as you have answered. To stop survey notifications and emails, switch off "Surveys" in your profile or in the app's Settings.

Question 13

What does the KYC review involve?

Accepted Answer

After you submit your operator profile, our team verifies your business registration, billing address, and contact details. Approval typically takes one to three business days. Until you're approved you can configure canteens but not accept top-ups.

Question 14

How does subscription billing work?

Accepted Answer

Pick a tier on /pricing — Intro, Starter, or Pro — and you'll go through Stripe Checkout to set up the monthly subscription. Enterprise is custom: click Request quote and we'll reach out. Each tier caps how many canteens and tags you can have; you'll see those numbers on the pricing page and inline as you approach a limit.

Question 15

What happens if my subscription lapses?

Accepted Answer

If you cancel or your card fails for an extended period, the system blocks new canteens, new tag provisioning, and inbound top-ups across all your canteens. Existing balances are untouched and resume working the moment the subscription is active again. Suspending is reversible; we never delete data on lapse.

Question 16

How do canteen short-codes work?

Accepted Answer

Each canteen gets a short uppercase code (for example CAFE-A). Staff use it together with their 4-digit PIN to sign in on the mobile POS. Pick something short and memorable; you can't change it after creation.

Question 17

How do I manage products?

Accepted Answer

Products live in two places. /app/products is your operator-level pool — the master catalog, with optional default price, image, type (food / beverage / snack / other), and description. From a canteen's Products tab you Add from pool to make an entry available there with a canteen-specific price and in-stock state. The same pool product can appear on multiple canteens at different prices.

Question 18

What's the difference between Menus and Shop on a canteen?

Accepted Answer

Menus are per-day curated lists shown on the public tag landing page (/n/, /q/) — for daily lunches, weekly specials, and so on. Shop is a single persistent always-for-sale list per canteen — drinks, snacks, anything you sell every day. Both pull from the canteen's product list; the Edit dialogs reuse the same UX (search, type filters, add-from-pool inline).

Question 19

How do I add staff?

Accepted Answer

From the canteen detail screen, open Staff → Add staff. Pick a role (checkin, seller, or nfc_writer), set a 4-digit PIN, and add at least one schedule window. Staff can only sign in during their scheduled hours unless you use Operate as staff to override.

Question 20

Can I edit, suspend, or reset a staff member's PIN?

Accepted Answer

Yes — each row on the Staff tab has Edit, Reset PIN, and Suspend / Unsuspend actions. Suspending blocks future logins and force-expires any active session. Reset PIN takes a new 4-digit value; the staff member uses it on their next sign-in.

Question 21

What's the difference between checkin, seller, and nfc_writer?

Accepted Answer

Checkin staff can only check students in and out. Sellers can also record sales (Shop tab on mobile). nfc_writer staff additionally see the NFC writer screen, used to provision blank tags with the canteen's signed URL.

Question 22

How do payment provider toggles and topup fees work?

Accepted Answer

An admin enables providers per canteen on /admin/payment-providers. As the operator, you'll see only the providers an admin has activated for your canteen as top-up choices. Topup fees default to 4% and can be overridden per canteen by the admin. You choose who pays the fee — the tag owner or the operator — under your canteen's Settings tab.

Question 23

Where do I see audit history?

Accepted Answer

Open /app/audit to filter your operator's audit trail by event type. Every state change — KYC review, tag activation, transaction settlement, settings changes — is recorded.

Question 24

Where are my Stripe invoices?

Accepted Answer

/app/billing surfaces your current plan, the Stripe Customer Portal link to update payment methods, and the last 20 invoices.

Question 25

How do I set up meal credits?

Accepted Answer

On a canteen's Credits tab, define credit types (e.g. Lunch), packages (a quantity at a price in your currency that owners buy), and check-in modes (which debit a set number of credits when staff check a tag in). Credits are held per tag, separate from money balances; you can also adjust a tag's credits manually with a reason.

Question 26

How do I sign in?

Accepted Answer

Open the 3C Canteen app, choose I'm a staff member, enter the canteen short code your operator gave you, and your 4-digit PIN. Your session lasts for the rest of your shift, or 8 hours, whichever is shorter.

Question 27

I'm getting "You're not on shift right now."

Accepted Answer

Your operator's schedule for you doesn't cover the current time. Check with them — either the schedule needs updating, or they can use Operate as staff to start your session out-of-band.

Question 28

What happens when the network drops?

Accepted Answer

Sales and check-ins are queued locally and sent when the connection returns. You'll see queued items at the top of the History tab with an amber Queued pill until they sync. The server deduplicates by client id, so each tap is recorded exactly once even if the queue retries. Pull down on History to force a sync attempt.

Question 29

I get "This staff account is suspended" on sign-in.

Accepted Answer

Your operator paused the account. Ask them to unsuspend it on the Staff tab of the canteen — it's a single click and you can sign in again immediately afterwards.

Question 30

I forgot my PIN.

Accepted Answer

Ask your operator to reset it from the Staff tab on web. They click Reset PIN on your row, set a new 4-digit value, and you sign in with that on the next attempt.

Question 31

Why did a sale go through with a red Flagged label?

Accepted Answer

The student's balance went negative — usually because their last top-up hadn't yet synced when they tapped. The transaction is recorded; the operator decides whether to accept it.

Question 32

How do I write a new bracelet?

Accepted Answer

If your role is nfc_writer, the Writer tab is visible. Type the tag id, tap an unprovisioned NFC bracelet to the back of the device, and the app writes the signed canteen URL and locks the tag read-only when supported.

Question 33

How do I look up a tag's details?

Accepted Answer

Use the Tag info tab. Scan a tag (NFC or QR) or search by holder or owner name/email to see the owner, holder, money balance, meal credits and tag status. From there you can assign an owner to an unclaimed tag, or deduct credits with a reason.

Question 34

What kind of NFC tags work?

Accepted Answer

Any NTAG-family tag (NTAG213/215/216) with at least 128 bytes of writable space. We write a single NDEF URL record with the canonical https://cccanteen.com/n/{tag_id}.{sig} format and lock the tag when the chip supports it.

Question 35

Why does my browser show "signature invalid"?

Accepted Answer

The URL on the tag has been altered or copied. We block the page so no one can mistakenly claim or top up. Replace the tag and ask staff to re-provision it.

Question 36

Can I print my own QR cards?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The /q/{tag_id}.{sig} URL format is identical to NFC; you can print it as a QR code on a card and the same landing page renders.

Question 37

Do tag IDs ever change?

Accepted Answer

No. The tag id is a one-time identifier baked in at provisioning. The HMAC key for signing it is per-canteen and is never rotated, so a tag printed today will still verify five years from now.

Help & FAQ

Video guides

For parents & bracelet holders

For canteen operators

For tag owners

For operators

For staff

NFC and QR