Kitchen screens and station tickets
Each kitchen station sees its tickets on a tablet or prints them on its own printer. A tap moves a ticket from new to preparing, ready and done. Late tickets turn red, and a ticket cleared by mistake can be recalled.
PLANSFrom Growth
Built and tested against our test server. The Kitchen app has not yet run on a real tablet in a kitchen and is not in the Play Store.
The problem it solves
- Paper tickets get wet, lost or read in the wrong order in a busy kitchen.
- The tandoor and the chaat counter both make the same order because nobody split it.
- An order waits 25 minutes and nobody notices until the customer complains.
- A cancelled item is cooked anyway, because the kitchen never heard.
How it works
- A Food Administrator adds kitchen stations under Configuration > Places > Kitchen Stations, with the items or food categories each prepares. One default station takes the rest.
- A tablet in Mode Kitchen Display, running SmartMy Feast Kitchen, is set to its station. A kitchen printer can print the tickets of the stations chosen on it instead, or as well.
- Orders sent from tables, takeaway and delivery bills, kiosks, delivery platforms and paid counter sales become one ticket per station.
- A new ticket says Tap to start. Tapped, it is preparing; tapped again, it is ready; then Tap when served takes it off the screen.
- Colours show the age: fresh, ageing at half the late time, and late after the station's minutes.
- Recall brings back the last ticket done, for ten minutes.
Everything it does
Routing
- By item, by food category (with its sub-categories) or to the one Default Station
- Each station prints on the kitchen printers that list it; a printer with no stations prints all
- Courses on the ticket when the outlet uses them; held items go only when fired
The screen
- One tile per ticket: where it is for (table, takeaway, pickup, delivery), its age in minutes, the items, quantities and notes
- PARCEL marks food to pack; ONLINE ORDER marks a delivery platform order
- Cancelled items struck through and marked CANCEL; a VOID ticket tells the station to stop
- All stations or one station, with the count of open tickets
- The screen refreshes every 5 seconds
States
- New, Preparing, Ready, Done; an order is ready when all its tickets are
- Late after (min): 15 per station to start with
- Reprints print REPRINT n and are logged; a reason and a supervisor only if the outlet asks
Kitchen voids
- Items voided after sending, with a reason: Wrong item, Customer cancelled, Delay, Quality to start with
- A supervisor approves once the kitchen started. The food counts as waste, valued at cost, and is written off from the outlet store when it has one
- Food Service > Counters > Tickets and Payments > Kitchen Tickets and Kitchen Voids; voids are on the shift report
Who uses it
Cook at a stationStarts, finishes and clears tickets; recalls one cleared by mistake.
Captain or cashierSends orders, sees tables and bills turn ready.
Kitchen manager or Food AdministratorSets stations, routing, late minutes and printers.
Where you use it
- The SmartMy Feast Kitchen app on a tablet in Kitchen Display mode: the Kitchen tab (built and in testing, not in the app stores yet)
- Kitchen printers on the network, one or more per station
- Web: Configuration > Places > Kitchen Stations and Configuration > Billing > Void Reasons; Counters > Tickets and Payments > Kitchen Tickets and Kitchen Voids
- Not offline: the kitchen display needs the network; a local server is enough
- Not built: bump bars or touch-free buttons; the screen is tapped
What you control
Settings
- Stations: items, food categories, Default Station, Late after (min): 15
- Kitchen printers: the stations they print
- Reprints Need a Supervisor and Ask the Reason for Reprints: off
Approvals
- Counter approval: voiding food the kitchen already started, decided at once with the supervisor's PIN
Questions
Do we need a screen at every station?
No. A station can have a tablet, a kitchen printer, or both. Screens are not counted on any plan.How does the kitchen know a ticket is late?
Each station has Late after (min), 15 to start with. The tile turns amber at half that and red once late.What if a cook clears a ticket too early?
Recall brings it back to the screen, for ten minutes after it was cleared.Does the kitchen see counter sales too?
Yes, when the outlet uses kitchen tickets: a paid counter sale goes to the stations that prepare its items. Sales made offline reach the kitchen when the counter syncs.Related features
TABLE SERVICE AND KITCHENTables, captains, split and merged billsSet up floors and tables, and captains take orders by table on a tablet: guests, seats, notes and courses held and fired. Bills are split by items, seats, equally or by amounts, moved, merged and paid in several ways or in parts.TABLE SERVICE AND KITCHENTakeaway, pre-order pickup and in-campus deliverySell food as dine-in or parcel at the counter. Takeaway, pickup and in-campus delivery bills go to the kitchen and are handed over when ready. Parcels take their own prices, GST rules and packing charges.TABLE SERVICE AND KITCHENReceipts and token slips on thermal printersThe counter tablet prints receipts, token slips and kitchen tickets on network thermal printers that take ESC/POS. On cash sales it opens the cash drawer through the receipt printer. Printers are set up once in the back office and reach every tablet.TABLE SERVICE AND KITCHENMenu board and order-ready screenA TV in the dining hall shows the meal's menu with prices, photos and offers. It also shows the order numbers being prepared and ready, with a chime. It opens at a secret web address or in the SmartMy Feast Display app.PORTAL AND APPSCaptain, kitchen screen and kiosk appsThe same tablet code runs three more jobs. A captain takes table orders on SmartMy Feast Counter. The kitchen works its tickets on SmartMy Feast Kitchen. Customers order and pay by themselves on SmartMy Feast Kiosk.KITCHEN PRODUCTIONFood cost, leftovers and plate wasteRecord what was left after each meal and what became of it, and weigh the plate waste. Every night SmartMy Feast works out the cost per plate and food cost % of each outlet and meal. It sets what was cooked against who came, with the reasons in plain words.
See it with your own menu.
Tell us how many outlets you run and how people pay today. We will show you a day in your mess or canteen on SmartMy Feast.