Canteen Management System Project: Pre-Order, Daily Menu and Wallet for Android

A college canteen at lunch hour is a queue problem before it is a food problem. Students arrive in one rush between lectures, join a counter line, wait to see what is available, and only then decide what to eat — so the canteen management system in this listing replaces that line with a pre-order. The canteen admin publishes the day's menu each morning with prices and veg or non-veg marks; students browse it on their phones, pre-order for a 30-minute pickup slot, and pay from a prepaid wallet. Each confirmed order gets a token number, and a live display at the counter shows which tokens are being prepared and which are ready to collect. The student arrives at the chosen slot, shows the token, and collects the food without joining the ordering queue. For the canteen, the same flow turns guesswork into a count: the kitchen sees how many thalis, dosas and coffees each slot needs before cooking starts.

The flow runs from the canteen kitchen to the student's pocket. Each morning the admin publishes the day's menu — 12 items in the demo build — with prices and veg or non-veg marks, and sets the four 30-minute pickup slots. A student opens the app, browses the menu, adds items and picks a slot; the app totals the order, deducts it from the prepaid wallet, issues a token number such as A-047 and saves the order in the on-device Room database. WorkManager syncs the order to the canteen side, where the kitchen sees it grouped under its slot and starts preparation. As orders are served, the admin advances the token counter and the student's screen shows the token's status and how many tokens stand ahead. At the slot the student shows the token and collects the food — no ordering queue, no cash, and the kitchen knew the exact count before cooking.

1. The admin publishes the day's menu in the admin module — item names, prices, veg or non-veg marks — and sets the pickup slots for the day.
2. The student browses today's menu in the app and adds items; out-of-stock items are hidden automatically.
3. The student picks a 30-minute pickup slot; a slot that has reached its 40-order cap (design target) is shown as full and cannot be selected.
4. The app totals the order and deducts it from the prepaid wallet balance, then issues a token number and saves the order in the Room database on the device.
5. WorkManager syncs the order to the canteen side when the device is online; the kitchen sees orders grouped by slot with quantities per item.
6. The admin advances the token counter as orders are served, and the live token display and the student's app both update to show the current token and queue position.
7. The student arrives at the chosen slot, shows the token at the counter and collects the food; the order moves to order history with its date, slot and amount.

Tech stack:

• Kotlin (Android app)
• Android Jetpack · Room local database
• WorkManager background sync
• Material Design 3 UI components
• Android Studio
• Gradle build system
• Retrofit · REST API for order sync
• Git version control

The canteen management system is built around four capabilities that together remove the lunch queue. First, daily menu publishing: the admin sets the day's items, prices and veg or non-veg marks each morning, and items that run out disappear from the student app automatically. Second, pre-order with pickup time slots: students order ahead for a 30-minute slot, each slot capped at 40 orders, so the kitchen cooks to a known count instead of guessing. Third, a live token display: every paid order gets a token number, and the counter screen shows which tokens are being prepared, which are ready, and how many tokens stand ahead of yours. Fourth, a prepaid wallet: students top up once and pay per order from the balance, so no cash changes hands at the counter and every payment is recorded in order history.

• [Daily menu publishing] The admin publishes each morning's menu with item names, prices and veg or non-veg marks, and can hide an item the moment it runs out so students never order food that is unavailable.
• [Pre-order with pickup time slots] Students add items, choose a 30-minute pickup slot and confirm the order in advance; each slot accepts 40 orders (design target) and a full slot closes so the kitchen is never overloaded.
• [Live token and queue display] Every paid order receives a token number such as A-047, and the counter display shows the token now being served, the tokens being prepared and each student's position in the queue.
• [Prepaid wallet with top-up] Students top up the wallet in fixed amounts and pay for each order from the balance; every top-up and payment is recorded, and the balance is visible on every screen.
• [Order history and reorder] Past orders stay listed with date, slot and amount, so a student can repeat a usual lunch order without rebuilding it item by item.
• [Admin order management] The admin sees orders grouped by pickup slot, marks tokens served to advance the display, and watches the day's served count and wallet collections on one screen.
• [Offline-first data with Room] Orders and the menu are stored on the device with Room, so the app keeps working without connectivity and WorkManager syncs queued orders when the network returns.

• Complete Android app source code (Kotlin, student app plus admin module)
• Room database schema and WorkManager sync implementation
• Working single-file demo of the menu, pre-order, token display and wallet screens
• Setup instructions for Android Studio and the demo build
• Project report PDF (background, methodology, architecture, results)
• PPT presentation for final review
• Viva Q&A preparation document
• Project abstract PDF