Taking a coffee

  1. Tap the NFC tag on the coffee machine with your phone.
  2. No NFC on your phone? Scan the QR code next to the tag with your camera.
  3. The first time, sign up from the sign in page that opens: you can only create an account from a machine's tag or QR code.
  4. Press Take a coffee: the coffee is recorded at once, and you have a few seconds to cancel it, as long as the countdown on the page (its owner sets it for each machine). It then shows as Cancelled and is never billed.

On a Free coffee Day! the coffee is still recorded, at CHF 0.00. A machine in maintenance or out of service does not record coffees.

Taken one by mistake and the countdown is over? Only the machine owner can cancel it: ask them, before its invoice is being paid.

Fair use

The app only records the coffees you tap or scan for: nothing stops a coffee taken without tapping or scanning. Billing is fair only if everyone follows these rules:

  • Tap the tag or scan the QR code for every coffee you take, including the ones nobody sees.
  • One tap or scan per coffee, on your own phone: never do it for someone else, and do not lend your account.
  • A coffee recorded by mistake: ask the machine owner, who can cancel it.
  • Pay each invoice within 30 days and press Transfer initiated once you have paid.
  • Leaving the company? Pay your open invoices before you go.
  • Owners: set a fair price (coffee, milk, descaling) and tell the users before changing it.
  • Questions or disagreements: talk to the machine owner or write to them from the Inbox; for your account, the admin.

What the statuses mean

Served
– the coffee is not on an invoice yet.
Issued
– for an invoice: issued and waiting for your payment. Its coffees show "Billed".
Billed
– the coffee is on an invoice you have not paid yet.
In progress
– you clicked "Transfer initiated"; the owner has not confirmed receiving the money yet.
Paid
– the owner confirmed your payment.

Invoices and payment

  • Invoices are issued on the first Sunday of each month: one per machine owner, for all your coffees not billed yet.
  • Open the invoice from your dashboard or My invoices and scan its QR code with your e-banking app, or download the PDF with its Swiss payment slip.
  • Once you have paid, click Transfer initiated. The invoice becomes Paid when the owner confirms the money arrived.

Your dashboard shows this month's coffees and the invoices still to pay; Details and My invoices show your full history with filters.

Your machine on your home screen

Add a machine you use to your phone's home screen: its icon opens the coffee page, so taking a coffee is one tap, without NFC or the camera. Open the machine's coffee page first (tap its tag or scan its QR code), then:

  • iPhone: in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. The machine keeps its own sign-in, apart from Safari: sign in once inside it.
  • Android: in Chrome, open the menu (⋮), then Add to Home screen or Install app.

Take a coffee from the icon only when you take one at the machine, as with the tag.

If the owner makes a new link for the machine, the icon stops working: you get an email. Open the coffee page again from the tag or QR code, and add the machine again.

Inbox

  • Press Inbox next to Sign out, then Write: write to a machine's owner (about one of their machines, or something else) or to the admin. There is no reply in the app: they answer you in person or by email.
  • Something wrong with a machine? The page its tag or QR code opens links to a message to its owner, about that machine.
  • Machine owners and the admin: the button shows how many new messages you have, and Received lists them, most recent first, with filters. Each one also arrives by email: reply to it to answer the sender.
  • The admin finds requests there too: to own machines, answered with Allow or Decline (with an optional reason), and to delete an account, answered with Delete the account or Decline; the user is told by email.

For machine owners

  • To own coffee machines, ask the admin from the Inbox: Write, then "Ask to own machines". Once they allow it, you get an email and the dashboard offers to create your owner profile.
  • Create your owner profile from the dashboard with a Swiss or Liechtenstein IBAN, postal code and city: invoices need them for the payment slip.
  • Set up a machine with its price, then put the NFC URL shown on the machine page on the machine, as an NFC tag, a QR code sticker or both: the machine page links to a step-by-step guide. If the URL leaked or a tag or sticker was lost, use Generate a new URL there: the old URL stops working, and you write the new one to the tag and print a new sticker.
  • In the Details panel of a machine, enter its purchase price, purchase date and descaling interval (in weeks): they are required for a new machine, and a machine created before shows them as missing until you fill them in. Save saves them with the Coffee panel (price, countdown to cancel, free period) and asks first.
  • Record in Maintenance on the machine page what was done to it (descaling, cleaning, repair), with its cost: it shows the last descaling and when the next one is due. The log is written only while the machine is set to Maintenance on the dashboard. It moves with the machine on a transfer, without the previous owner's costs. When a descaling is due, you get one email and the machine shows Descaling due until a descaling is recorded.
  • Record in Purchases on the machine page what you buy for it (beans, milk, sugar, supplies such as cups or descaling agent): only you see your purchases, also after handing the machine over.
  • Balance sheet on the machine page shows whether it pays for itself, per year: your coffees by the year they were taken less its purchase price, your purchases and maintenance costs. Only your own figures, also after a handover; the purchase price counts for the first owner only. Choose a period to see it month by month, and download it as a CSV file. A chart adds up income and costs month after month and says when the machine paid for itself.
  • Switch a machine between Brewing and Maintenance from the dashboard, and set a free coffee period from the machine page. Retire a machine, or put it back into service, from its machine page: a retired machine's NFC URL says it is no longer in service.
  • Use Issued Invoices to see invoices, generate them yourself for any period (the coffees taken from its first to its last day), and confirm payments you received: after the consumer's "Transfer initiated", or with Mark as paid when they paid without saying so. Set up your bank statement (CSV) in your owner profile, and the payments of your invoices are found in it for you to confirm.
  • To hand a machine over, choose the new owner in New owner, next to the owner's name on the machine page. Once they accept it on their dashboard, the machine moves to them when every coffee taken on it until then is billed and paid: generate those invoices from Issued Invoices and confirm the payments. Its NFC tag and QR code sticker keep working. You bill the coffees taken until the machine moves.

Emails

  • You get an email when an invoice is issued (with a link to pay it in the app), a reminder when the owner sends one, and announcements when a free coffee period starts and ends, or the price changes, on a machine you use.
  • Owners get an email when a consumer says they paid, when a machine transfer is completed, and for each message in their Inbox. In Issued Invoices, Send a reminder emails a reminder at once (once a day per invoice).

Language

The app is available in English, Deutsch, Français, and Italiano. Choose your language at the bottom of any page: when you are signed in, it is saved on your account and used on all your devices, and for your invoices.

A question about a coffee or an invoice?

Contact the machine owner shown on the invoice, in person or from the Inbox.