2026-09-17T00:00:00Z https://www.rosettilane.org/ https://www.rosettilane.org/notes/your-cafe-does-not-need-an-app/ 2026-09-17T00:00:00Z

A rep tries to sell me one twice a year. Here’s what an app actually costs to build and keep running, and what customers asked for instead.

https://www.rosettilane.org/notes/choosing-a-pos-for-a-small-cafe/ 2026-09-17T00:00:00Z

Offline mode, how fast a new casual learns it, and whether it talks to Xero. What I check now, having chosen badly once.

https://www.rosettilane.org/notes/before-you-sign-a-three-year-term/ 2026-09-17T00:00:00Z

The cost of a merchant or technology contract is rarely in the number the salesperson circles. It is in the four clauses underneath it.

https://www.rosettilane.org/notes/card-surcharges-and-the-maths/ 2026-09-17T00:00:00Z

You may only pass on what card acceptance actually costs you — and from 1 October the card networks stop letting you pass on anything at all.

https://www.rosettilane.org/notes/the-forty-five-minute-backup/ 2026-09-17T00:00:00Z

Fourteen years in IT taught me that a green tick every morning proves nothing. Here is a backup a small shop can build in an afternoon, and the fifteen minutes that prove it works.

https://www.rosettilane.org/notes/guest-wifi-done-properly/ 2026-09-17T00:00:00Z

One flat network for the till, the NAS and the bloke uploading wedding photos. The fix is a checkbox most people have switched the wrong way, plus twenty minutes.

https://www.rosettilane.org/notes/build-versus-buy-for-bookings/ 2026-09-17T00:00:00Z

I run studio hire, so I take bookings for a living. Here is why you should buy your booking system, when building is actually defensible, and the fifty-dollar deposit that fixed my no-shows.

https://www.rosettilane.org/notes/what-to-ask-an-it-provider/ 2026-09-17T00:00:00Z

I spent fourteen years hiring and firing them. The questions that actually matter are not the ones on the sales call.