Kitchen Display System (KDS)
Use this page to set up the kitchen screen and kitchen tickets, so the kitchen sees every order with its modifiers and special instructions.
Quick steps
To set it up:
- Go to Settings > Edit Settings, open Sales & Integrations and find Restaurant & Food Service Features.
- Tick Enable Kitchen Ticket Workflow (and Enable Kitchen Tickets if you want printed tickets). Set the Station name and save.
- On the Categories page, switch on the kitchen column (named after your station) for categories like Food and Drinks.
- On the kitchen screen, open your store address followed by
/kds(or go to Orders > Kitchen Orders and click Open KDS) and sign in with your PIN.
To work an order on the kitchen screen:
- A new order appears in red. Tap Start when you begin cooking.
- Tap Ready when it's done.
- Tap Picked Up when it's handed over. It leaves the screen.
Common questions
Orders aren't showing up. Check Enable Kitchen Ticket Workflow is on, the items are kitchen items (category or product setting), and the sale was completed today.
I tapped Picked Up by mistake. Tap the gear icon, tick Show picked up orders, tap Save, then tap Recall on the order.
Can I hurry an order? Tap the warning triangle on its card to mark it RUSH. It jumps to the front.
Can kitchen tickets print on my receipt printer? Yes. Use Receipt Printer for Kitchen Tickets is on by default when you have no separate kitchen printer.
More detail: settings, which items go to the kitchen, and opening the screen
The Kitchen Display System (KDS) is a live order screen for your kitchen, bar or prep area. When a sale with kitchen items is completed at the register, it appears on the screen. The kitchen moves it from New to Prep to Ready to Picked Up. Kitchen tickets can also print on a kitchen printer or on your receipt printer.
Turning It On
Go to Settings → Sales & Integrations → Restaurant & Food Service Features:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Enable Kitchen Tickets | Prints kitchen tickets, separate from customer receipts, for orders with kitchen items. |
| Enable Kitchen Ticket Workflow | Tracks each order from received to preparing, ready and picked up, and shows it on the kitchen display. |
| Station name | What the station is called, such as "Kitchen", "Bar" or "Prep". It appears at the top of tickets, in the "Sent to…" message after sending a tab, and as the column heading on your Categories page. |
Restaurant stores start with Enable Kitchen Tickets and Enable Product Modifiers turned on. Turn on Enable Kitchen Ticket Workflow to use the kitchen display.
Which Items Go to the Kitchen
Only kitchen items go to the kitchen. A vape or a bottle of wine at the counter never does.
- By category: on the Categories page, turn on the kitchen column (it's titled with your station name) for categories like Food or Drinks.
- By product: on a product's Options tab, Kitchen item can be set to Inherit from categories, Always a kitchen item or Never a kitchen item. The product setting wins over its categories, for kitchen tickets, a tab's Send button and the kitchen display alike.
- Cocktails count as kitchen items unless you set them otherwise.
If none of your categories are marked for the kitchen, every sale completed at the register is sent to the kitchen display, unless every product on it is set to Never a kitchen item. Kitchen tickets still only print for kitchen items.
Orders reach the kitchen display when:
- A sale with kitchen items is completed at the register.
- A clerk taps Pay Later. The order shows right away, and it isn't sent a second time when it's paid.
- A clerk taps Send on an open tab. Only the tab's kitchen items that haven't already gone are sent.
- An order is brought in from Square (including DoorDash and Uber Eats orders that come through Square) or from DoorDash.
The screen shows today's orders only.
Opening the Kitchen Display
- Open your store address followed by
/kdson the kitchen screen, for examplehttps://yourstore.brotherpos.ca/kds. From the admin, you can also go to Orders → Kitchen Orders and click Open KDS. - Sign in. You may be asked for your email and password first, then enter your 4-digit PIN.
- Orders start showing right away.
The screen remembers the sign-in on that device, so it doesn't ask every time it's opened. Tap Logout to sign out.
Use a tablet or monitor that stays on in the kitchen. Turn off the device's sleep or screen timeout, and tap the fullscreen button to hide the browser bars.
More detail: what's on the screen
The Screen
Top Bar
- Kitchen Display with a Live badge (or Disconnected if the connection drops)
- Order counts for New, Prep and Ready
- The signed-in staff member's name
- Buttons for light or dark mode, sound on or off, Settings, fullscreen and Logout
Order Cards
Each order is a card:
| Part | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Header | The order number (last four digits of the receipt number, or the tab or pay-later order's reference), a SALE or HOLD tag (HOLD means a tab or pay-later order), where it came from (In-Store, In-Store (Pay Later), Online, Website, Phone Order, DoorDash, Uber Eats…), and how many minutes it has been waiting. |
| Customer | The customer's name (or the order number when there's no customer), or the name given to a tab or pay-later order. Online orders also show their reference. |
| Items | Each product with its quantity, like x2. |
| Modifiers | Listed under each item: + Extra Cheese, NO Onions (in red), + Bacon x2, and typed requests like + Name on cake: Happy 40th Dad. |
| Special instructions | Shown between asterisks: ** No nuts - allergy **. |
Modifiers from lists set to Hide from customers still appear here, so the kitchen sees the whole build.
Tab and pay-later cards show items, modifiers, typed requests, removed options (NO …) and special instructions the same way a sale card does. A tab's card lists the items that have been sent with Send. Items still waiting to be sent, and items taken off the tab, aren't shown.
The card header colour shows its stage: red for New, amber for Prep, green for Ready.
More detail: working orders — stages, recall, rush and timers
Working Orders
Moving an Order Along
Tap the big button at the bottom of the card:
| Stage (header colour) | Button | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| New (red) | Start | The order moves to Prep. |
| Prep (amber) | Ready | The order moves to Ready so it can be handed off. |
| Ready (green) | Picked Up | The order is done and leaves the screen (unless Show picked up orders is on). |
Recalling a Picked-Up Order
If an order was marked Picked Up by mistake, you can bring it back:
- Tap the gear icon, tick Show picked up orders under View Options, and tap Save.
- Picked-up orders from today now stay on the screen, after the Ready orders, each with a Recall button.
- Tap Recall on the order. It moves back to Ready.
Ticking Off Items
While an order is in Prep, each item has a checkbox. Tap it to cross that item off, and tap it again to undo. Once every item is ticked, the Ready button is highlighted. This works for sales. Tab and pay-later orders don't have item checkboxes.
Rushing an Order
Tap the warning triangle on a card to mark it RUSH. The card turns purple, moves to the front of the screen and beeps (if sound is on). Tap the triangle again to cancel. A rush clears when the order is picked up.
A rush only shows on the screen where it was tapped. Other kitchen screens don't see it.
Screen Order
Rushed orders come first, then New, Prep and Ready. Within each group, the oldest order is first.
Timers
Every card counts the minutes since the order came in:
- After the warning time (5 minutes unless changed), the card gets a thicker yellow border.
- After the urgent time (10 minutes unless changed), the border turns red.
If sound is on, a beep plays when a new order arrives, including the first order after a quiet spell. Orders that are already on the board when the screen is opened don't beep.
More detail: KDS settings and the admin Kitchen Orders page
KDS Settings
Tap the gear icon on the kitchen screen to open KDS Settings:
| Setting | Options |
|---|---|
| Theme | Light Mode or Dark Mode |
| Language | The language of the kitchen screen |
| Sound | Enable notification sounds, and volume |
| Display | Columns per row (2 to 6) |
| Font Size | Small, Medium or Large |
| Timer Thresholds | Warning (yellow) after, and Urgent (red) after, in minutes |
| View Options | Show picked up orders |
Tap Save. Sound, columns, font size, timers and Show picked up orders are saved for your whole store, so every kitchen screen picks them up the next time it's opened. Theme and language only change the screen you're on.
The same store-wide settings are also under Settings → Hardware & System → KDS Display Settings (shown once the kitchen workflow is on).
Kitchen Orders in the Admin
Orders → Kitchen Orders (the button appears when the kitchen workflow is on) is a manager and admin view of the same orders:
- Filter by All, Received, Preparing or Ready, and pick a date.
- See counts for received, preparing, ready and total pending.
- Move an order along with Start Preparing, Mark Ready and Picked Up.
- Reprint an order's kitchen ticket.
- Open KDS in a new tab.
More detail: kitchen tickets and where they print
Kitchen Tickets
When Enable Kitchen Tickets is on, a ticket prints automatically when an order with kitchen items is completed. Tapping Send on a tab prints a ticket for the items just sent.
A ticket shows the station name, the order number, the customer name, whether it's dine-in, pickup or delivery, each kitchen item with its modifiers ("NO" for removed defaults), special instructions, and any order note.
Where Tickets Print
Set this under Settings → Hardware & System → Kitchen Ticket Printer (this section isn't shown for cannabis stores):
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Use Receipt Printer for Kitchen Tickets | On by default. With no separate kitchen printer, kitchen tickets print on your receipt printer. |
| Kitchen Printer IP Address and Port | Your separate kitchen printer, when you have one. |
A register that prints through the printer bridge can also have its own Kitchen printer (separate, via bridge) in its register settings. See Registers.
- One printer: if a register has no kitchen printer and prints receipts through the bridge, a sale's kitchen ticket printed from that register comes out of the receipt printer, as long as Use Receipt Printer for Kitchen Tickets is on.
- No kitchen tickets on the receipt printer: turn Use Receipt Printer for Kitchen Tickets off. A register with no kitchen printer then doesn't print kitchen tickets. If you try to reprint one from sales history, a message says there's no kitchen printer.
More detail: troubleshooting and good habits
Troubleshooting
| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| Orders not appearing | Check that Enable Kitchen Ticket Workflow is on, that the items are kitchen items (category or product setting), and that the sale was completed today. |
| Screen shows Disconnected | Check the device's internet. The screen keeps trying to reconnect on its own, however long the connection is down, and also refreshes every 30 seconds. |
| No sound alerts | Check sound is on in the top bar and in KDS Settings, and that the device volume is up. Some browsers only play sound after you've tapped the screen once. |
| An order was marked Picked Up too early | Turn on Show picked up orders in KDS Settings, then tap Recall on the order to move it back to Ready. |
| Screen goes dark | Turn off the device's sleep and screen timeout settings. |
| A modifier or instruction is missing from a tab's kitchen ticket | Make sure it was added before the cart was saved to the tab, then tap Send for any new items. |
| Kitchen ticket didn't print on the receipt printer | Check that Use Receipt Printer for Kitchen Tickets is on, or set up a kitchen printer. |
| Kitchen Orders page sends you to Settings | Turn on Enable Kitchen Tickets. |
Best Practices
- Mount at eye level where the whole team can see the screen.
- Mark the right categories. Only food and drink categories should go to the kitchen, so the screen isn't cluttered with retail items.
- Set timers to your real prep times. Warning at your normal ticket time and urgent a few minutes after that.
- Use Rush sparingly. If everything is rushed, nothing is.
- Test the full flow after changing settings. Ring up a test order with a modifier and special instructions, and check it on the screen and the ticket.
What's Next?
- Modifier Lists: Set up the choices that appear on kitchen orders.
- Modifiers and Variations: How clerks pick modifiers at the register.
- Categories and Brands: Mark categories that go to the kitchen.
- Menu Board: Show products to customers on an in-store screen.