Plain-English summary#
The Kitchen Display (KDS) is its own app at kds.foodops.io. The kitchen mounts a tablet or TV, signs in once, picks the outlet, and gets a full-screen ticket board that updates live as cashiers ring up orders. Kitchen staff tap items to move them Open → Preparing → Ready; finished and cancelled tickets go into their own tabs.
Kitchen setup (kitchens per outlet, choosing which kitchen each menu item goes to, kitchen printers, plan limits) is covered in Kitchen Display System and isn't repeated here.
When you'd use this#
- A dedicated kitchen screen (tablet/TV) that does nothing but show tickets
- A kitchen with several stations (Hot Kitchen / Bar / Grill), where each station shows only its own tickets
- A pass/expo TV in TV mode — display-only, no buttons, safe from stray taps
- Working out why an order rung up on the counter isn't showing in the kitchen
Walkthrough — from sign-in to working the board#
1. Sign in#
Use the same Foodops sign-in as the counter.
2. Pick the outlet#
You land on the outlet picker: searchable cards (name, reference, city/country). After the first visit, the app goes straight back to your last outlet when you sign in. Choosing Switch outlet from the board stops that so you can pick again.
3. The display board#
| Area | What it does |
|---|---|
| Header row (left) | Outlet name · Switch outlet · Sign out · Clear cache & sync (asks you to confirm) · Test sound · light/dark toggle |
| Header row (right) | Sort dropdown · Settings dropdown · kitchen picker (a menu when the outlet has more than one kitchen; a plain label when it has one; your choice is remembered on this device) |
| Status tabs | Open / Preparing / Completed / Cancelled, each with a live count |
| All Day panel (left, collapsed by default) | Running total per product across all active tickets, shown as "started/total" — the "how many shawarmas are in flight" view |
| Tickets grid | Ticket cards, 10/20/50/100 per page, three layouts |
| Fullscreen button | Floating at the bottom right; fullscreen hides the header completely |
4. Work a ticket#
Each ticket card shows the order number, order type, table ("Table N") and covers for dine-in, customer, time elapsed, items with quantities/modifiers/notes, allergy flags, and takeaway markers. Each item shows the specific variant name (e.g. "Full Alfahm") rather than the general product, with its modifiers and flavours. Flavours still show even if a modifier was later renamed or deleted.
- Per item: tap to move it on — not started → Preparing → Ready. The whole row is tappable. After a tap, a message such as "marked as ready" appears with an Undo button for about 5 seconds, so a mis-tap can be taken back before it is saved.
- Per ticket: a button at the bottom of the ticket moves all remaining items at once: Mark all as Preparing when something hasn't started, and Ready All once everything is preparing.
- Urgency colours: tickets change colour at 5 min (warning) → 10 min (urgent) → 15 min (critical, pulsing). Done and cancelled tickets stay neutral.
- Items marked Ready/Served are struck through. Cancelled orders go to Cancelled (with a pop-up message when they're cancelled).
5. Settings (gear dropdown)#
- All Day panel show/hide (hidden by default)
- TV mode — display-only: hides the ticket buttons (for pass-through TVs)
- Group by order: one card per order, with its kitchen tickets stacked inside (off by default)
- Lock station: hides the outlet and kitchen switches so they can't be tapped by accident
- Layout: Grid (auto height) (default) / Grid (equal height) / Masonry
- Item font size: Small / Medium / Large
- Cards per page: 10 (default) / 20 / 50 / 100
Settings are saved on the device, separately for each kitchen, and stay in place when you sign out. The kitchen you last picked is also remembered on the device.
6. Live updates and sounds#
- New orders, status changes and cancellations appear on the board on their own — no reload needed. If the connection drops, the board keeps checking for new tickets about once a minute until it's back. When you switch back to the KDS tab, it updates straight away.
- Sounds: a new-order bell and an order-ready alert. Browsers only allow sound after someone taps the screen — if nobody has touched it since a reload, the first bell may be silent. Use Test sound in the header to check audio works.
- Clear cache & sync reloads the tickets fresh without losing your outlet and kitchen choice. Use it if the board looks out of date.
Prerequisites#
At least one kitchen set up for the outlet with menu items assigned to it, and orders that contain those items — otherwise the board stays empty. See Kitchen Display System — Prerequisites (including plan limits on kitchens per outlet).
Key concepts#
- Outlet picker — one screen shows one outlet at a time, and returns to the last one you used.
- Kitchen picker — within the outlet, show one station only; tickets show just the items routed to that kitchen. Remembered on each device.
- Status tabs: Open / Preparing / Completed / Cancelled, with counts.
- All Day — running item totals across tickets, with started/total per product.
- TV mode — a read-only display for screens nobody should touch.
- Urgency colours — 5/10/15-minute thresholds, with a pulsing critical state.
Common questions#
Q: What's the difference between this and the kitchen screen in the counter app? A: Same tickets, different app. The KDS is a standalone app at kds.foodops.io with an outlet picker, kitchen filter, TV mode, layout/font/page-size settings, and sounds. The counter app no longer has its own kitchen screen.
Q: What do the four tabs mean? A: Open: tickets still being worked on, including ones already started; Preparing: tickets where cooking has started; Completed: every item on the ticket is ready; Cancelled — cancelled orders (with a printed cancellation slip per kitchen if printers are set up).
Q: Does it refresh on its own? A: Yes. New tickets and changes appear automatically, and the board catches up the moment you return to it. No manual reload needed — Clear cache & sync is there if the display ever looks stale.
Q: Why did a ticket disappear from Open and Preparing when I marked it ready? A: It hasn't vanished, it has moved to the Completed tab. As soon as every item on a ticket is ready, the ticket leaves Open and Preparing and appears under Completed. It does not wait for the order to be paid or closed at the counter. If you marked something ready by mistake, use Undo in the message that appears for about 5 seconds after the tap.
Q: How should I set up a wall screen for a busy period? A: Pick the kitchen for that station so it only shows its own items, and raise Cards per page in Settings so nothing hides on a second page. The board shows the oldest tickets first by default. New tickets are added at the end, so the cards you are working on stay where they are. Date (Newest) is available in the Sort menu, but with it every new ticket takes the first slot and pushes the other cards along.