Order management
An order management screen built for the Friday night rush
Every order placed through your online ordering system lands on one screen with an alert, the items, the customer's notes and a status your team moves forward. Delivery, pickup and table orders sit in the same list, so nobody checks three places to find out what the kitchen owes.
- Alert when a new order arrives
- Accept with a preparation time the customer can plan around
- Statuses from new to ready to handed over
- Customer name, number and notes on every order
Orders · Today
Accepting ordersNew 2
Delivery
Rider to assign
$24
Pickup
Ready by 13:15
$8.50
Preparing 2
Dine-in · Table 6
Scanned QR 12:48
$33
Delivery
Own rider · Sam
$16
On the way 1
Delivery
Picked up 12:40
$41
Illustrative view.
Four things the screen has to do well, every shift
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Make a new order impossible to miss
A new order triggers an alert on the screen. The person running the pass sees it without checking, which matters more at 8:15pm than at 3pm.
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Accept with a time, not a guess
Each order is accepted with a preparation time. On a quiet Tuesday that might be 15 minutes; on a Friday with twelve tickets up, 40. The customer sees the time you chose.
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Statuses that mean something in the kitchen
New, preparing, ready, and out for delivery or collected. Moving an order forward is one tap, and the customer-facing status follows.
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Contact details right there
When the customer's gate is locked or the address is a landmark, the number is on the order. No searching a marketplace dashboard for a masked line.
The life of an order on the screen
From the moment a customer pays to the moment the bag leaves, this is what the team sees and does.
- 1
An order arrives
It appears in the New column with an alert. The card shows the order type (delivery, pickup or table number), the items with their sizes and add-ons, the customer's notes, and whether it is paid. Orders are not accepted automatically; someone looks at it first.
- 2
Accept and set a preparation time
Tap accept and choose how long it will take. The time should reflect what is on the pass right now. If a group of twenty has just sat down, say 45 minutes rather than the usual 20; a customer told 45 is calmer than a customer told 20 who waits 45.
- 3
Move it to preparing
The kitchen works the ticket. The order sits in Preparing alongside the table orders and the pickups, so one person can see the whole load without asking.
- 4
Mark it ready
For a pickup order, the customer knows to come in. For delivery, the order is ready for the rider: request a Porter rider where the service runs, or assign one of your own. For dine-in, it goes to the table as usual.
- 5
Hand it over
Once the bag leaves with the rider or the customer collects, mark the order complete. The order, with the customer's details, stays in your account.
- 6
Fix problems from the same screen
A customer calls to say they are stuck in traffic and will collect instead: switch the order from delivery to pickup. Someone adds a note after ordering: the number is on the card. The screen is where the shift gets run, not just where orders are read.
What is on every order card
The screen is designed so the person at the pass never has to open a second view to find out what is going on.
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Items, sizes and add-ons
Exactly as the customer built them in the menu builder: a large with extra cheese and no olives reads as a large with extra cheese and no olives.
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Customer notes
Typed by the customer at checkout and shown on the card as written. Allergy notes are the obvious case; 'leave at reception' is the common one.
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Order type and timing
Delivery with the address, pickup with the ready time, or dine-in with the table number from the QR code.
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Payment status
Whether the order was paid online through your gateway. Paid orders are the norm on the ordering page, so the kitchen never cooks on a promise.
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Fulfilment choice
Request a Porter rider where available, assign your own rider, or mark for collection. Chosen per order, changeable until it leaves.
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Customer contact
Name and phone number on the card for the rare occasions you need to call, and saved with the order afterwards.
Fulfilment is decided per order, on the card
Delivery is not a global setting you pick once. Each order shows the fulfilment options available to you, and the one you choose can change until the order leaves.
- Porter rider request where Porter operates; automated booking and live tracking are pending technical validation, so the Porter page says what is live
- Your own rider assigned by name, with the order details on their phone; see self-delivery
- Switch a delivery to pickup when the customer decides to collect
- Pickup orders show the ready time so the counter knows who is due when
Order #1047 · Delivery
3 items · $24 · Paid online
Fulfil with
- Order placed 12:31
- Accepted by kitchen 12:32
- Rider assigned 12:44
- Picked up 12:58
- Delivered —
Running service from one screen: a practical setup
The screen is simple. Making it work on the busiest night of the week is about habits as much as software. These are the ones that hold up.
Decide who owns the screen on each shift
One person accepts orders and sets preparation times. If it is everyone’s job, it is nobody’s, and the first order on a Friday sits in New for six minutes while two people assume the other has it. Write the name on the shift rota next to the pass.
Set preparation times for the kitchen you have right now
The preparation time is a promise to the customer. Base it on how many tickets are up, not on how long the dish takes on an empty pass. A rule of thumb many kitchens use: count the tickets, add the dish time, round up to the next five minutes. Customers rarely complain about an honest 40; they complain about a 20 that takes 40.
Keep delivery, pickup and dine-in in one list
The temptation is to run the website orders on one device and the tables on another. One list is better. The kitchen sees the total load, pickups are not forgotten behind table service, and the counter can tell a walk-in customer honestly how long takeaway will take.
Mark ready when it is ready, not when it is plated
For pickup orders, “ready” tells the customer to come in. If the order is marked ready while the naan is still in the tandoor, the customer stands at the counter for five minutes and remembers it. For delivery, “ready” is the cue to request or assign the rider; requesting too early leaves a rider waiting, and that costs you either goodwill or money.
Use the notes
Customers type notes because they matter to them. “Extra spicy” and “no coriander” are the easy ones. “Gate code 4421” and “call on arrival, baby sleeping” are the ones that save a delivery. Read the note before accepting, not after the rider has left.
Plan for the rush, not the average
A rush is when the screen earns its keep and when habits break. Agree in advance what you do when the pass is full: set longer preparation times rather than guessing, and if you need to stop taking orders altogether, ask us how that is handled in your setup before the night you need it.
Keep a backup connection
The screen needs internet. A phone hotspot kept charged behind the counter is the cheapest insurance there is. Orders placed while the screen is offline appear as soon as it reconnects, but the alert you missed is the one the customer is waiting on.
Review the week’s orders
Completed orders stay in your account with the customer’s details. Once a week, look at which items were ordered most, which notes kept recurring, and which preparation times were wrong. That is the start of running the direct channel well, and it needs no dashboard, only ten minutes.
Questions about managing orders
Where should the screen live during service?
Wherever the person who decides preparation times stands. In most single-location restaurants that is the pass or the counter, on a tablet or an old laptop. The alert needs to be heard over a kitchen, so test the volume at 8pm, not at opening.
What happens if nobody accepts an order?
The order stays in New with the alert until someone acts on it. It is not auto-accepted, so a customer is never promised food nobody has seen. Part of setup is agreeing who owns the screen on each shift.
Can more than one person use it at once?
The screen is a web page, so it can be open on more than one device at once: the counter accepting and setting times, the kitchen marking ready. If you want separate roles or permissions for each, ask us how that is handled.
Can I see past orders and the customer's history?
Completed orders and their customer details stay in your account. Reporting beyond that, such as dashboards or exports for marketing, is something to ask us about rather than assume.
Does it work with my POS so orders are not retyped?
It depends on the POS. Each system in the integrations directory has a status: what syncs today, what is in development, and where to talk to us first. We do not list an integration as live because the vendor publishes an API.
What if the internet drops?
The screen needs a connection to receive orders, as does any online ordering tool. A phone hotspot as a backup is a cheap precaution; the ordering page itself keeps taking orders, and they appear when the screen reconnects.
Is this a POS ordering system?
No. A POS ordering system records sales at the counter and runs the till. This is the order screen of an online ordering system: it takes the orders placed on your website and QR codes. Where a POS integration exists, direct orders can be pushed into the POS; the integrations directory shows the status for each system.
Run service from one screen
Set up your menu and fulfilment, put a tablet at the pass, and stop reading orders off three different devices.
Gateway fees, delivery and taxes are separate. Pricing
Last reviewed 29 October 2026.