Restaurant module – kitchen display, orders and tables

The Restaurant module runs the back of house in SmartPOS Hub: a live kitchen display, an Orders board, tables and a floor plan, your own order statuses and kitchen stations. Use it if you run a restaurant, café, pizzeria, fast-food outlet, food truck, diner or bar and want orders to flow from the till to the kitchen and back.

How to turn it on

1. 1Plan: Included in every plan (core feature, no add-on needed).
2. 2Switch: Settings › Business Settings › Modules › Restaurant, bar & bookings: switch on Tables, Kitchen and/or Modifiers (Service staff and Bookings are optional), then click Update Settings.
3. 3Permission: User Management › Roles › Restaurant section (for example View kitchen display, View tables & floor plan, Restaurant settings).

Mobile app: Floor plan, kitchen display and orders are in the SmartPOS Business app under Restaurant.

What the Restaurant module includes

Part	Where you find it	What it does
Kitchen display	Restaurant › Kitchen display	Live tickets with timers. Cooks tick items, tap Start, move the order to the next status and Bump it when done.
Orders	Restaurant › Orders	Board (columns per status) or list of every restaurant order, with waiter and delivery-person assignment and filters by type, table and location.
Tables & floor plan	Restaurant › Tables & floor plan	Drag-and-drop floor per location and area. Shows free, occupied, reserved soon and needs-cleaning tables live.
Modifiers	Restaurant › Modifiers	Paid extras such as size, crust, toppings and sauces. See Modifiers.
Bookings	Restaurant › Bookings	Table reservations and walk-in waitlist. See Bookings.
Reports	Restaurant › Reports	Kitchen and order reports (times, volumes, staff).
Restaurant settings	Restaurant › Restaurant settings	Order statuses, kitchen stations, kitchen display timers, POS behaviour, open tabs, customer notifications and one-click staff roles.

The switches in Settings › Business Settings › Modules decide which parts appear:

Switch	Turns on
Tables	Table picker on the POS, Tables & floor plan, Table report
Kitchen	Kitchen display, “Send to kitchen” on the POS
Modifiers	Modifiers page and the options window on the POS
Service staff	Waiter / staff picker on each order, Service Staff Report
Bookings	Table reservations and appointments with a calendar
Types of service (in Sales & stock)	Dine-in, takeaway, delivery with their own prices and packing charge

Note

Turning a switch off hides its menus and screens for everyone, but your data is kept. Switch it on again and everything comes back.

Before you start

• Your business locations are set up (each location has its own tables and kitchen screens).
• Your menu items exist as products with categories (for example Pizzas, Pasta, Drinks). Categories are how items reach the right kitchen station. See Add products or Import prebuilt.
• You are signed in as the Admin, or your role has Access business settings and Restaurant settings.

First-time setup

1. Switch the parts on. Open Settings › Business Settings, click the Modules tab and switch on Tables, Kitchen and Modifiers under Restaurant, bar & bookings. Add Service staff if waiters take orders and Bookings if you take reservations. Click Update Settings at the bottom of the page.
2. Check your order statuses. Open Restaurant › Restaurant settings. The standard list is ready: Order placed, Confirmed, Preparing, Cooked / baked, Quality check, Ready, Out for delivery, Delivered, Served, Completed and Cancelled. Drag to reorder, click Edit to rename or to choose which order types a status applies to, or + Add status for your own step.
3. Create kitchen stations. Under Kitchen stations, click + Add station (or Import prebuilt for ready-made stations such as Grill, Fry, Bar). In each station, tick the categories it makes. Set a Default station under Kitchen display for anything not mapped.
4. Fix the coverage check. The Coverage check lists categories with no station. Pick a station next to each one so nothing gets lost.
5. Add your tables. Open Restaurant › Tables & floor plan, choose the location, then Add table (or Import prebuilt). Click Edit layout to drag tables into place, set seats, shape and area (for example Dining, Terrace).
6. Choose how the POS behaves. Back in Restaurant settings › Orders & POS, set Which sales are restaurant orders and whether to Show an order type selector on the POS (Dine-in / Takeaway / Delivery). Click Save at the bottom of the page.
7. Create staff roles. Under Staff roles, click Create role next to Kitchen staff, Waiter and Delivery driver. Then add users with these roles in User Management › Users.
8. Put screens in the kitchen. Go to Settings › Screens & displays and open each station’s link on the screen at that station. See Screens & displays.

/modules/restaurant/settings

Restaurant settings: order statuses at the top, kitchen stations, kitchen display, Orders & POS and staff roles below.

Everyday use

Taking an order at the till

1. Open POS. Pick the table (the dropdown shows each table with its area, seats and whether it is occupied or reserved) and, if you use it, the order type and waiter.
2. Add the items. If an item has modifiers, the options window opens. Each cart line shows the kitchen station it will go to.
3. Tap Send to kitchen to keep the bill open (see Open tabs), or take payment straight away for takeaway orders.

Working the kitchen display

1. Open Restaurant › Kitchen display (kitchen staff land here automatically after signing in).
2. Pick a station at the top, or All stations for the expo / pass.
3. Tick each item as it is done. Tap Start when cooking begins and the status button (for example Confirmed or Cooked / baked) to move the order on.
4. Tap Bump when the order leaves the kitchen. Made a mistake? Recall brings back recently bumped orders.

/modules/kitchen

Each ticket shows the order type, table or customer, a running timer and the items. Colours turn amber and red as the order gets late.

Ticket colours follow your settings: Amber after (minutes) and Red / late after (minutes). The counters at the top show how many tickets are open and late.

Following orders and tables

• Restaurant › Orders shows every order as a board (one column per status) or a list. Filter by date, status, order type, table, delivery person or location. Tick Show completed & cancelled to see finished orders. Use it to assign a waiter or a delivery driver.
• Restaurant › Tables & floor plan shows the floor live. Click a table to seat a walk-in, start a sale, open its order, assign a booking, move an order or mark it clean. Open host screen shows the same floor full screen for the host stand.

/modules/tables

Occupied tables show how long guests have been seated and the bill so far.

Settings explained

Setting (Restaurant settings)	What it does
Order statuses	The steps an order goes through, which order types each applies to, and whether the customer is notified.
Kitchen stations	Splits the kitchen. Each station gets its own screen link. Also send these products sends single products to a station regardless of category.
Amber after / Red / late after (minutes)	When tickets change colour on the kitchen display.
Refresh every (seconds)	How often kitchen screens check for new orders.
Hide tickets older than (hours)	Clears forgotten tickets from the display.
Default station	Where items go when their category has no station.
Sound on new tickets	Beep on new orders (each screen can still mute itself).
Move the order on when all items are ticked	When the last item is ticked, the order moves to the first status after the kitchen (for example Ready).
Only POS orders ticked “Kitchen order” go to the kitchen	Off: every restaurant order goes to the kitchen. On: only orders sent with Send to kitchen.
Which sales are restaurant orders	Sales with a table, waiter, order type or kitchen order, or every POS sale. Direct sales (Add sale) never appear unless they have a table or kitchen order.
Show an order type selector on the POS	Dine-in / Takeaway / Delivery. Hidden when Types of service are on (they are used instead, mapped under Types of service → order type).
Mark tables “needs cleaning” when the order is completed	Staff then mark the table clean on the floor plan.
Show “reserved” this many minutes before a booking	When a booked table turns orange on the floor.
Open tabs (eat first, pay later)	See Open tabs.
Customer order-status page	Each order gets a private link the customer can follow live.
E-mail customers on status changes	Only for statuses marked Notify and customers with an e-mail address. Needs working e-mail settings.
Staff roles	One-click Kitchen staff, Waiter and Delivery driver roles.

Permissions

Set these in User Management › Roles (Restaurant section). The Admin role has all of them.

Permission (as shown on the Roles page)	Typical role
View kitchen display	Kitchen staff
Start / advance / bump orders on the kitchen display	Kitchen staff
View all restaurant orders	Manager, cashier
View own orders only (waiter)	Waiter
Change order status, assign waiter / delivery person	Manager, waiter
Delivery driver: see and update own deliveries	Delivery driver
Access tables	Waiter, cashier
View tables & floor plan	Waiter, host
Add / edit tables and arrange the floor plan	Manager
Restaurant settings	Manager
Restaurant reports	Manager

Taking orders on the POS also needs the normal POS permissions such as Add POS sell. See Users and roles.

In the SmartPOS Business app

Staff with the right role see a Restaurant tab in the SmartPOS Business app: the floor plan with live table status, the orders list, the kitchen display with Start and Ready buttons, and open tabs. Waiters get Home · Sell · Restaurant · Sales · More at the bottom; kitchen staff get Home · Restaurant · More.

Floor plan and kitchen display in the SmartPOS Business app.

Tips and mistakes to avoid

• Map every category to a station. Unmapped items only show on All stations, so a station-only cook never sees them. Use the coverage check after adding new categories.
• Use the one-click roles instead of building kitchen roles by hand. They contain exactly the permissions each job needs.
• Turn on Mark tables “needs cleaning” if guests are seated by a host. It stops new guests being seated at a dirty table.
• Don’t delete a status that has orders. The Delete button is greyed out for statuses in use; rename it instead.

Related pages

Open tabs (eat first, pay later)

Modifiers

Screens & displays

Restaurant setup guide

Bookings

POS V2