The order board: what guests see
The order board on the wall, part by part. The top bar, Preparing and Ready, each order's number and the guest's name, the order newly ready, "Now calling A101" with the chime and the voice, how an order moves from one column to the other and when it leaves, and the lines the board shows when something is wrong.
On this page
An order board is a screen for your guests: a TV on the wall, a Windows PC or an Android box running FooodPos, paired as an Order board. It shows every order in big type, in two columns: Preparing while the kitchen cooks it, then Ready when it can be collected. Each order that turns ready is called on the board, with a chime and, if you want, a voice.
Nobody signs in on a board, and the guests have nothing to press. Staff reach its few settings with three taps on its top-left corner. See The order board's own settings.
Before you start
- The board is added at the outlet with the operation mode Order board, and its device is paired. See Pair a POS terminal.
- What it shows, which orders, when a ready order leaves, the sound, the look, the logo and the photo are all set on its Order board tab in the back office. See POS terminals: Order board tab.
- An order reaches the board when it is sent to the kitchen. It turns ready when the kitchen screens bump it, or when a cashier calls it from a POS. See Calling orders from the POS.
The board, part by part
- The link dot: a small dot in the top-left corner. Green while the board gets its orders: from its Main POS on your own network, or from the cloud through the internet. Red while it cannot. A tap on it says which, for a few seconds, such as Connected to Main POS T01 or Main POS T01 not reachable since 12:01. Three taps on this corner open the staff's settings.
- Your logo: the logo chosen on the board's Order board tab. With none, the Windows board shows its own name there.
- Your welcome words: one line, up to 60 characters, such as Welcome to Kopitiam Demo.
- The clock: the time now, as 24 hours. On Windows only.
- Preparing: the orders the kitchen is still cooking, the oldest first. At most 60 are shown.
- An order: its number in big type. Under it, the guest's name, when the order has one (a kiosk or QR guest's, or the name on the bill). When any order in the column has a name, every number stands on the same line.
- Ready: the orders the guest may collect, the newest first. At most 30 are shown.
- An order just ready: lit and pulsing for its first moments, so the guest's eye finds it. The board also calls it (see below).
- Your photo: the photo chosen on the tab, Beside the two columns (on a wide screen) or Behind the two columns, faded so the numbers read.
What the number is
The number is what the Show orders by setting on the board's tab says:
| Show orders by | What a guest sees |
|---|---|
| Order number | A kiosk order by its kiosk number (A23). Any other order by its queue number (42), or else the last four digits of its bill number. |
| Table | A table bill by its table (T05). An order with no table by its number. |
| Name | The guest's name, when the order has one. Otherwise its number. |
Only the orders the board's Show ticks allow are on it: for example, only take-away orders, or only kiosk orders.
How an order moves
- The order is sent to the kitchen. It appears under Preparing.
- The kitchen finishes it. When every kitchen screen with a dish of it has pressed Done, it moves to Ready. Where an expeditor station is set to be ready when the expeditor serves it, the expeditor's Served moves it instead. See The pass (expeditor): Served and Collected.
- Or a cashier calls it. Call on a POS moves it to Ready at once, whatever the kitchen screens say. See Calling orders from the POS.
- It is called on the board. "Now calling A20" across the board, the chime, and the words in the board's own voice (below).
- It leaves the board, as the tab's A Ready order leaves says: after a number of minutes; when the bill is paid or closed; or when somebody presses Collected on the expeditor or a POS. With the last two, a number nobody pays or collects leaves an hour after it became ready.
An order that has been under Preparing for more than three hours leaves the board by itself. A new round sent to the kitchen after an order was called takes it back to Preparing until it is ready again.
"Now calling A20"
- Now calling A20: across the middle of the board, in its biggest type, for about ten seconds, and for as long as the chime and the voice last.
Every order that turns ready is called this way, whatever made it ready: the kitchen, the expeditor or a POS. A Call again on a POS calls it once more. When several turn ready together they are called one after another, the oldest first, never on top of each other. An order already called is never called again by the board itself, after a restart or when the link comes back.
What is heard is the tab's Sound when an order is ready:
- Off: no sound. The banner still shows.
- Chime only: the chime, such as Ding dong or Airport paging, four tones.
- Chime and voice: the chime, then the words in the device's own voice, such as "A, 1, 0, 1, your order is ready to collect." A code like A101 is said letter by letter; a guest's name is said as it is.
To hear nothing on one board only, or to test the sound there, see The order board's own settings. If the board stays silent, see Turn on the board's sound.
The Windows board has no button on it at all. Its top bar holds the logo, the welcome words and the clock. A line in amber under the top bar says when the board cannot get its orders.
The Android board's top bar also holds three buttons at its right: the speaker (sound on or off on this board, shown while the board makes a sound at all), − and + for the size of everything, and the Day mode / Night mode button. Each column's heading has the number of orders in it beside it, such as Preparing 3. With no welcome words, the top bar shows the outlet's name. A line in amber along the bottom says when the board cannot get its orders.
- The speaker: sound off here, or on again. The banners still show. Turned off, it is drawn red.
- − and +: smaller or bigger, on this board only.
- Day mode / Night mode: the other look, on this board only.
- The count: how many orders are in the column now.