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KDS modes — what a kitchen screen shows and does

Build a mode once (in the kitchen, at the pass, on the wall), choose what the screen shows and which buttons staff get, and apply it to as many stations as you like.

A KDS mode decides two things about a kitchen screen: what it shows (tabs, course headings, one ticket per order or per table) and what staff can do on it (tick dishes, Done, Bump, Call away). You build a mode once and apply it to as many stations as you like. A station with no mode keeps the screen it has always had.

Find it under KDS → KDS modes. You start with three built-in modes: Kitchen screen, Pass screen and Wall display.

Note

We're rolling out a new look for this page, one venue at a time. This article describes the new one. If your page is a plain list and a settings page with a Save at the top, every switch below is still there with the same name and the same effect, and Tickets is the same three-way choice; only the layout differs. Its Preview shows the same sample kitchen screen as the new editor, with the same Quiet service, Busy service and All day tab choices.

Your modes

Each mode is a row with a small sketch of its screen, where it lives (In the kitchen, At the pass, On the wall), the stations using it, and when it was last changed. A mode nobody is using says Not applied. Click a row to open it in the editor.

You apply a mode to a station from that station's Settings tab, under How this station works, not from this page.

At the end of each row:

  • Duplicate makes a copy and opens it. The copy is named "(copy)", then "(copy 2)" and so on. The copy isn't applied to any station.
  • Rename changes the name without opening the editor. Two modes can't share a name.
  • Delete removes it. If stations are using it, you're told which ones. They go back to the default screen; tickets keep arriving.

Above the list, Search modes narrows the list as you type, Export downloads the list you can see as a spreadsheet file (CSV), and ticking two or more rows lets you delete them together.

Making a new mode

  1. 1

    Click New mode

    It's at the top right of the page.

  2. 2

    Pick where the screen lives

    In the kitchen: chefs tick dishes off as they cook. At the pass: one person checks plates and clears tickets. On the wall: nobody touches it, it just shows the board. There is no blank option, because a screen always has one of these three jobs.

  3. 3

    Name it

    A free name is suggested for you. Type your own if you prefer.

  4. 4

    Click Create & design

    The new mode opens in the editor with sensible switches for that job.

The editor

The editor fills the whole screen. Along the top: close, the mode's name, undo and redo, Preview on kitchen screen, and Save.

  • The kitchen screen (middle) shows sample tickets the way a screen in this mode would show them, and redraws as you flip switches. Quiet service, Busy service and All day tab change the sample only. The buttons on the sample tickets can't be pressed.
  • Ticket design, above the screen, draws the sample tickets in one of your ticket designs from the Screen editor, so they look like your real tickets. It starts on the design of a station that uses this mode. Change what's on a ticket opens that design in a new tab. Picking a design here changes the preview only; a station's design is set on the station.
  • Settings (right) is one list of everything about the mode: its name, where the screen lives, the stations it is applied to, and every switch.

Seeing what a switch does

Every switch you flip shows its effect on the sample screen straight away:

  • A short line above the screen says what just changed, and the part that changed is ringed for a moment. The line has a space of its own, so the screen never jumps when it appears or goes.
  • The screen never moves by itself. If the sample or tab you're looking at can't show the change, it stays where it is and the line offers the place in one click ("Not on this sample — show on Busy service").
  • It works the same way while Preview on kitchen screen is open.
  • A button that can't be pressed yet (because of Only when every dish is ticked) is marked Locked. A ticket with every dish ticked isn't.

Every switch you can see changes the sample screen. Two are hidden while they couldn't change anything: with Tickets set to One per order or One per table, each card is already split by course, so Sort by course is hidden; with One per table, no ticket is left outside a table's card, so Course label on each ticket is hidden too. Their settings are kept, and they come back with One per course.

Ticket colours (amber, then red, as a ticket waits) aren't part of a mode. Each station sets its own: Stations, then the station, then Screen alerts.

Where this screen lives

Picking a different job resets every switch to that job's defaults, so you're asked first. If you change your mind afterwards, Undo brings your switches back.

Heads up

A wall screen can't call away courses (which prints their slip), so do that from the till, or from another kitchen screen with the Call away button.

What it shows

| Setting | What it does | | --- | --- | | Sort by course | Starters, then mains, then desserts. Off: oldest first. | | Course label on each ticket | e.g. STARTERS or MAINS on the ticket. | | Upcoming tab | An Upcoming tab where held courses wait until called. Off: they sit greyed on the main board. | | All day totals | An All day tab that adds up every dish still to cook, e.g. 12 burgers. | | Tickets | One per course: each course of an order is its own ticket (starters on one, mains on another). One per order: each order is one ticket with its starters, mains and dessert inside. One per table: one ticket per table; anything the table orders later is added to it under a "just added" banner. |

What staff can do on it

A wall display has none of these: nobody touches it, so no ticket has a button.

| Switch | What it does | | --- | --- | | Tick off dishes | Tap a dish when it's ready. Under it: Two-tap ticks (first tap cooking, second tap done). | | Done button | The ticket turns blue for the pass. Under it: Only when every dish is ticked. | | Bump button | Clears the ticket off the screen. Under it: Only when every dish is ticked, and Bring back cleared tickets (a Recall column). | | Call away button | Starts a held course and prints its slip. |

A switch that sits under another only appears while the one above it is on. The two Only when every dish is ticked switches also need Tick off dishes. Switching one off switches off what is under it.

Turn every button off and the screen is read-only.

Preview on kitchen screen

Preview on kitchen screen shows the same screen in a device frame on a busy service, built from your switches as they stand, saved or not. Back to editing returns.

Saving and leaving

Save is switched off until you change something. Opening a mode and looking around doesn't change it. After you save, stations using the mode pick it up on their next screen update; there's nothing to restart.

If you close the editor with changes you haven't saved, you're asked first.

Going back to the classic page

For now the old pages are one click away. Classic, next to the search box on the list and next to the name in the editor, opens the same page the old way. Your modes are the same in both.