The Kitchen Display: One Screen for Every Order

Orders arrive from more places than they used to. The app, the phone, the counter, a delivery request, a scheduled office lunch that fired at eleven. On paper that is four docket printers and a manager reconciling them.

The kitchen display is one screen.

How the pass actually works

Tickets appear as they are paid for. Staff bump an item when it is done, and a ticket moves through pending → in progress → ready → served as its items do. A ticket only becomes ready when nothing on it is still behind.

That last rule is the one that matters at the pass. A half-plated order marked ready is how a cold starter reaches a table.

The customer is told, automatically

When the last item goes to ready, the customer gets a message — "ready for pickup" on a collection order, the delivery wording on a delivery. Nobody has to remember to send it, and it fires once no matter how many staff bump the last two items at the same second.

This is worth stating plainly because it did not always work: bumping a ticket used to move it on screen and tell the customer nothing. A venue working the pass had no idea, because every signal it could see said the order had gone through.

Scheduled orders stay out of your way

An order placed for one o'clock does not sit on the screen from nine. It appears at fire time, so the board shows what the kitchen is cooking rather than what it will cook.

What it costs

Nothing. The kitchen display is part of Order Ahead and delivery, with no separate charge and no per-screen fee. Run it on whatever tablet you have.

Setting it up

1. Turn on Order Ahead or delivery. The display comes with them.
2. Open it on a tablet at the pass, and leave it there. It refreshes itself.
3. Set your prep time honestly — it sets the pickup estimate the customer sees.
4. Decide who bumps. One person bumping is faster than three; three bumping is fine, and the customer still gets one message.
5. Run one real service with the paper docket beside it before you retire the printer.

What it connects to

• Order Ahead — collection tickets, with pickup slots the display respects.
• Delivery — the same board, with the driver leg after ready.
• Voice ordering — phone orders land here rather than on a pad.
• Menus — an item marked unavailable stops arriving.