The Live Kitchen Board

The kitchen board is where service happens. Every order a guest places lands here in real time, and your staff move it from New to Preparing to Ready without touching paper. You'll find it at /admin/kitchen, and it updates on its own as new orders come in.

The three columns

The board is split into three columns, left to right, matching how an order flows through your kitchen.

• New: the order just came in and nobody has picked it up yet.
• Preparing: someone's cooking it.
• Ready: it's plated and waiting to go out.

A card moves from one column to the next as your staff tap to update its status. No card jumps ahead, so the board always reflects what's really happening on the line.

What's on an order card

Each card carries everything the kitchen needs at a glance:

• The table number so runners know where it goes.
• The guest name, if they gave one.
• The items and quantities for the order.
• Any special instructions, like "no onions" or "extra spicy."
• A timer showing how long the order has sat in its current status.

That timer is the part to watch. If a card has been in Preparing for 20 minutes, you can see it across the room and chase it before the guest does.

Moving an order along

On a New card, tap Start preparing to send it to the Preparing column. When it's plated, tap Mark ready to move it to Ready. Marking an order Ready sends a push notification, with a sound alert, straight to the waiters' phones so a runner knows to pick it up. No shouting across the pass.

Once the food has gone out, tap Mark served on the Ready card. That clears it from the board and keeps your history clean. Your waiters handle the table and payment side from the waiter app.

Orders that wait for a waiter

By default, every order reaches the board the moment a guest confirms it. There's one optional exception. If you turn on Require waiter confirmation before the kitchen in settings (it's off by default), a new order is held in the waiter app first. The board only shows it once a waiter taps Confirm. If the waiter rejects it as a fake, it never appears here at all. This is the anti-ghost-order gate, and it keeps prank or off-site orders off your line. Most kitchens leave it off and see orders land straight away.

Manual orders for counter and phone

Not every order starts with a QR scan. For a walk-up at the counter or an order taken over the phone, you can enter it by hand from the Orders page, or a waiter can add it as a walk-in from the waiter app. Either way it joins the New column like any other order and flows through the same three columns, so the kitchen treats every order the same way.

FAQ

Do I need to refresh the kitchen board?

No. The board updates live on its own. A new order from a guest appears in the New column within seconds of them placing it, and status changes show up for everyone watching the screen without a manual refresh.

What happens when I mark an order Ready?

Marking an order Ready sends a push notification with a sound alert to your waiters' phones. That tells a runner the food is plated and waiting, so they can pick it up and take it to the table without checking the pass.

Can I take counter or phone orders?

Yes. Enter a walk-up or phone order by hand from the Orders page, or have a waiter add it as a walk-in from the waiter app. It drops into the New column and moves through Preparing and Ready just like an order a guest placed by scanning the QR code at their table.

Why isn't a new order showing on the board?

If you've turned on "Require waiter confirmation before the kitchen," a new order waits in the waiter app until a waiter confirms it, so it won't appear on the board until then. With that setting off, which is the default, orders show up within seconds of a guest placing them.

What to do next

Once an order hits Ready, the table side takes over. Set up your team on the waiter app so runners get pinged the moment food is ready, and see how an order starts in how diners order.