Kitchen stations
A kitchen station is a named part of the kitchen — Grill, Fryer, Bar, Expo — and the catalog it is responsible for. Define the stations once for an outlet, then point each kitchen display and each kitchen printer at one, and every ticket is split so each station sees only its own lines.
Defining a station
Section titled “Defining a station”Fill in the form at the top of the page and choose Add.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Station name | Up to 40 characters, unique among the outlet’s active stations |
| Categories | Whole catalog sections this station prepares |
| Individual products | Single products on top of the categories |
A line belongs to a station if either its category or the product itself is selected, so “everything in Mains, plus the side salad from Starters” is one station. The arrows on each row set the order stations are listed in.
The catch-all station
Section titled “The catch-all station”Leave both pickers empty and the station is a catch-all: it receives the full ticket. That is what an expo screen or pass printer wants, so it is a real setting, not a mistake.
Pointing devices at a station
Section titled “Pointing devices at a station”- Kitchen displays — choose the station on the device record under Devices & staff PINs. The screen shows its station read-only, so it cannot be changed mid-service by whoever is standing nearest. See Kitchen display.
- Kitchen printers — on the POS register and in the partner app, each kitchen printer is assigned a station in the printer settings, and prints only that station’s lines. A line that belongs to no station prints on the catch-all station’s printer — or on every station’s printer if there is no catch-all — so nothing is dropped. See Receipt & kitchen printing.
A device that is not pointed at any station keeps working exactly as before: a kitchen display shows everything (or its own filter), and a kitchen printer prints the whole ticket.
When a station cannot be found
Section titled “When a station cannot be found”Stations are built to fail towards printing too much, never too little:
- A kitchen printer whose station has been deactivated, or cannot be read, prints the whole ticket. A duplicate ticket costs paper; a lost dish costs a table.
- A kitchen display whose station cannot be found falls back to its own display filter rather than going blank.
Deactivating and restoring
Section titled “Deactivating and restoring”Deactivate takes a station out of use. Printers mapped to it go back to full tickets and kitchen displays to their own filter until you map them again or restore the station. Deactivated stations stay on the page with Restore; adding a new station with the name of an inactive one asks you to restore the old one instead, so the devices still pointing at it pick it straight back up.
Kitchen Station Reports
Section titled “Kitchen Station Reports”Kitchen Station Reports (/reports/kitchen-stations) shows, per station, how
much was prepared and how fast:
- Lines Ready and Orders Touched — volume.
- Avg Prep — from the moment a round was fired to the moment the dish was marked ready. For a table, the clock starts at that table’s own round, not when the table first sat down.
- Stations Active — how many stations produced anything in the window.
The figures come from dishes marked ready on a kitchen display. A station that works only from printed tickets has nobody marking dishes ready, so it produces no rows. Ready marks from a screen with no station show up as Unassigned.
Troubleshooting
Section titled “Troubleshooting”| Symptom | Try this |
|---|---|
| A printer prints the whole ticket | Its station is deactivated, unset, or could not be read — check the printer’s station, then this page |
| A screen shows another station’s lines | Check which station the device is set to, and that station’s categories and products here |
| A dish appears on no station’s screen | It is in no station’s categories or products — add it, or keep a catch-all expo screen |
| The station report is empty | It is built from dishes marked ready on a kitchen display; printer-only stations have no data |
| A new station cannot be added | The name is already used, possibly by an inactive station — restore that one |
Related: Kitchen display · Receipt & kitchen printing · Devices & staff PINs · POS register
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