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How to Send Orders to the Kitchen

The kitchen needs to know what to cook without a cashier shouting it. MultiPOS gives it a screen that fills itself.

Step 1: Turn the kitchen switches on

Section titled “Step 1: Turn the kitchen switches on”

Go to DevDiggers Plugins → MultiPOS for FluentCart → Configuration → General and find the Kitchen section.

The Kitchen section of the General tab

  • Auto-Send Held Orders to Kitchen is the one that matters. With it on, holding a cart in restaurant mode puts the ticket on the kitchen screen straight away.
  • Default Print to Kitchen Checked pre-ticks Send Order to Kitchen on the payment screen, so a cashier taking payment does not have to remember.

Turn on the first for table service. Turn on the second as well if you also take counter orders that the kitchen makes.

Click Save Changes.

Step 2: Check the outlet is in restaurant mode

Section titled “Step 2: Check the outlet is in restaurant mode”

Neither switch does anything on a Grocery/Retail outlet.

The Operation Mode dropdown on the outlet form

Go to MultiPOS for FluentCart → Outlets, edit the outlet and set Operation Mode to Restaurant/Cafe if it is not already. On the demo that is Harbor Lane Café.

Step 3: Open the kitchen screen

Section titled “Step 3: Open the kitchen screen”

Back on the outlets list, press Kitchen View on that outlet’s row.

The Kitchen View button on the restaurant outlet’s row

It opens yoursite.com/kitchen?outlet_id=<id> in a new tab. Bookmark that URL on the kitchen’s own device.

Each outlet has its own queue. Two branches never see each other’s tickets, and the outlet_id in the URL is what keeps them apart. Open plain yoursite.com/kitchen with more than one outlet and the screen asks which outlet’s kitchen it is.

The Kitchen View page asking which outlet’s kitchen this is, with a link for each outlet

Step 4: Sign the kitchen screen in

Section titled “Step 4: Sign the kitchen screen in”

The kitchen’s orders come from the POS, so the screen needs a signed-in POS Cashier, an Administrator, or a FluentCart manager when FluentCart Pro is active.

Open the bookmark on the kitchen device while signed out and WordPress asks you to sign in, then brings you straight back to the kitchen. Sign in with a cashier account and leave it signed in. An account without POS access is told This account cannot open the kitchen screen.

Once signed in, an empty queue reads No orders to prepare, with 0 in queue in the header.

The Kitchen Display with an empty queue, reading No orders to prepare

A tablet left on all day outlives its sign-in. The screen notices and reloads itself once to pick up a fresh one. You do not come back to a kitchen that silently stopped updating.

Step 5: Send an order

Section titled “Step 5: Send an order”

Two ways, and a restaurant usually uses both.

Hold the cart. Build the order in the terminal and press Hold Order.

The Hold Order box with its Enter Order Info field, Add and Cancel

Whatever you type in Enter Order Info becomes the Info line on the kitchen card. Use it for kitchen instructions rather than a reference number.

The cart clears and the pause icon picks up a count, exactly as it does on a retail POS. The difference is that the ticket is now also on the kitchen screen.

The restaurant cart after holding an order, with a count on the pause icon

Or tick it at payment. In restaurant mode the payment screen carries a Send Order to Kitchen card above the keypad.

The Send Order to Kitchen card on the POS payment screen

The card appears within about two seconds. The screen polls on its own and announces New order arrived to prepare.

The Kitchen Display with one order card waiting to be prepared

Step 6: Work the queue

Section titled “Step 6: Work the queue”

Each card carries the order or hold number, the table, the customer, every item with its picture and quantity, and the Info line.

One order card on the Kitchen Display

Cards stay in the order they arrived, so the top of the screen is the oldest ticket.

Step 7: Clear the card

Section titled “Step 7: Clear the card”

Press Ready when the food leaves the kitchen.

The Ready button on a kitchen order card

The browser asks to confirm, because there is no undo:

Are you sure to remove this order from kitchen?

That is a plain browser confirmation box, not a MultiPOS one, so it looks slightly different in every browser. Accept it and the card goes, with a Order is successfully removed from kitchen. message.

Clearing a card touches nothing else. The FluentCart order stands, and a held cart is still held and still waiting to be paid.

Press Ready with the kitchen device offline and it refuses: Cannot make request, check your internet connection!

A screen worth putting up

Section titled “A screen worth putting up”

Mount a cheap tablet where the pass can see it and leave the page open. It refreshes itself, needs no input beyond one button, and gives the kitchen the same list the POS has.

Two habits make it work. Sign it in and leave it signed in. Press Ready when the plate goes out, not when the pan goes on.

Where to go next

Section titled “Where to go next”