Sending to the kitchen

Adding items to a tab doesn't automatically tell the kitchen — staff choose when to send. This is the Kitchen action on the order screen.

How it works

On the order screen there's a Kitchen action: staff pick the items to send and confirm, and those lines are fired to your kitchen display or printer. Sent items then show as Sent on the tab.

On the kitchen display, a table's ticket shows the tab's order number from the first send, the same number the till and the receipt show. (Before, a table's ticket only got a number once the bill was paid.)

Sizes travel with the order: a line sent to the kitchen or bar names its size alongside any options, so the person pouring sees ½ pint, not just the drink. See Drink sizes.

Ask about allergies first (optional)

If your mode has "Ask for table allergies before sending" switched on, the first time you send a table's order to the kitchen the till pauses to ask whether anyone at the table has an allergy. Tick anything they've declared from the standard allergen list (or tap No allergies) and confirm — the answer is saved with the tab and shown to the kitchen alongside the order. You are only asked once per table: later rounds fire straight through without re-prompting. Turn it on per mode in Modes → your mode → Ask for table allergies before sending.

When a QR guest has told us about an allergy

If you take orders from a QR code at the table and you have set your allergy setting to Stop the order, a guest who ticks an allergen does not get turned away any more. Their order is saved exactly as they built it and held back, and the tab on your till shows a red Order waiting for you banner with what they declared, a short reference so you can tell whose order it is, and two buttons.

Go and have the conversation with them, then:

• Send to kitchen puts the order through. The kitchen gets it with the allergy shown on the ticket, and the guest can pay as normal.
• Cancel order takes it off the bill. Take the order with them directly instead.

Until you do one or the other the kitchen has not seen it and the guest has not been charged, so nothing happens by accident. The guest cannot send it themselves: it can only be done from a till or terminal that is paired to your venue, which is the point of it.

If your venue also uses stock and recipes, the banner names the dishes on the order that carry the allergen. If it does not, you will see what the guest declared but no dish list, because we would only be guessing. Always check the dishes with them either way.

This only applies to ordering at a table. Click and collect orders still cannot be placed online when someone declares an allergy, because there is nobody at the venue for the customer to talk to.

Courses: sending the next one, and seeing where a table is at

If you serve in courses, later courses are held back when the order is fired — the kitchen starts the starters and waits. When the table is ready for the next course, tap the table and choose Mains away: the held course is released and the kitchen starts cooking it.

Straight after you tap it, the till shows where that table is at — every course on the table with its current state, so you can see the whole meal at a glance rather than just the course you sent:

• Not sent — ordered, but the kitchen hasn't been told yet.
• Held — with the kitchen, waiting for you to send it away.
• Firing — being cooked now.
• Served — the kitchen has finished it.
• Cleared — the plates are back.

Each line also shows how much of that course the kitchen has finished, e.g. "2 of 4 items ready". Tap Done to close it and carry on.

Where the refreshed bill is switched on for your venue (it comes with voids with reasons), the bill itself is grouped by course: each course has a header with its state (Sent, Held, Not sent), its subtotal, and — for a held course — its own Fire button, so you can send the mains straight from the bill.

Courses use your own course names (Starters, Mains, Desserts) — set those up under Courses. A walk-up bar tab isn't seated at a table, so it has no courses and this view doesn't apply.

It's optional, not required before payment

Sending to the kitchen is optional. You can:

• Take payment on a tab without firing anything (handy for a drinks-only round).
• Fire more items mid-meal as new orders come in.
• Skip firing altogether if you don't route items through the kitchen.

Firing just starts the kitchen working before the bill is settled.

If an item was fired and then removed

Voiding an item on the till doesn't un-cook it. Where voids with reasons are switched on, the kitchen hears about it: the kitchen screen shows the new number (for example 3× Prawn cocktail · −1 VOIDED) and a VOID slip prints where the item was sent, and the till's message after the void says whether a slip went. Otherwise, tell the kitchen yourself. See Voiding items and Void a line before payment.

What's next

• Table-service sale walkthrough — where firing sits in the flow.
• Taking payment on the till.