Kitchen Display System

The Kitchen Display System (KDS) is the bridge between your front-of-house team and the kitchen. When a server sends an order, it appears on the KDS as a ticket. Kitchen staff read the ticket, prepare the dishes, and bump items as they complete them. The KDS replaces paper tickets with a real-time, color-coded display that helps the kitchen stay organized during even the busiest services.

This guide explains how tickets appear, how timing and color coding work, and how both kitchen and front-of-house staff interact with the system to keep food moving at the right pace.

How orders appear on the KDS

When a server sends items from the order screen, the order data travels instantly to the KDS screens in the kitchen. Each order becomes a ticket —a card on the display that contains everything the kitchen needs to know.

Ticket contents

Every ticket shows:

• Table number (or "Room Service" / "Takeaway" for non-table orders) displayed prominently at the top.
• Items listed with their names, quantities, and modifiers. A line might read "Ribeye Steak x1 —Medium Rare" or "Caesar Salad x1 —No Croutons."
• Seat numbers, if assigned, group items so the kitchen can see all dishes for a given guest.
• Course number, indicating when the items should be prepared. Course 1 items are active and need immediate attention. Higher courses are held until fired.
• Order time, showing when the ticket was received.

Timer

Each ticket has a running timer that starts when the order arrives on the KDS. The timer tells the kitchen how long the ticket has been waiting. This is the primary tool for managing urgency —if a ticket has been on screen for twelve minutes and the target time is ten, the kitchen knows they are behind.

Color coding

The KDS uses color to communicate ticket urgency at a glance, so kitchen staff do not need to read every timer individually.

• White or default —The ticket is within the normal preparation window. No action needed beyond standard workflow.
• Yellow or amber —The ticket is approaching the target time. The kitchen should prioritize it to avoid going overdue.
• Red —The ticket has exceeded the target time. It is overdue and needs immediate attention. Managers and expediters watch for red tickets to identify bottlenecks.
• Green —All items on the ticket have been bumped (completed). The ticket remains briefly on screen as confirmation before disappearing.

The time thresholds that trigger color changes are configurable. A fast-casual outlet might set the warning at five minutes and overdue at eight. A fine-dining restaurant might use fifteen and twenty.

KDS workflow

Basic flow (no coursing)

For outlets that do not use coursing, the workflow is straightforward:

Flow with courses

When orders include multiple courses, the KDS respects the course structure:

Kitchen staff usage

Kitchen staff interact with the KDS primarily through three actions: reading tickets, bumping completed items, and prioritizing their work based on color and timer.

Reading tickets

Tickets are displayed in chronological order —oldest on the left (or top), newest on the right (or bottom). This natural ordering means the kitchen works left to right, ensuring first-in, first-out preparation. Each ticket shows the table number, items, modifiers, and course. Kitchen staff scan the board at the start of each new rush to assess volume.

Bumping items

When a dish is plated and placed on the pass, the cook bumps the corresponding item on the KDS by tapping it. This signals to the rest of the team that the item is done. On a busy line with multiple cooks, bumping is how the expediter knows which dishes are still pending for a given table.

To bump an item, tap it once. Each item has its own bump button, so the cook bumps items individually as they are completed.

Prioritizing with color

During a rush, the kitchen should scan the board for red tickets first, then amber, then white. Red tickets represent orders where guests have been waiting too long. Addressing them first prevents complaints and keeps service recovery manageable. If multiple tickets are red, prioritize the one with the longest timer.

Managers and expediters can use the KDS overview screen (Restaurant > KDS > Overview) to see all active tickets across all stations on a single display. This is especially useful during high-volume service when tickets span multiple kitchen stations.

Front-of-house usage

The KDS is not just for the kitchen. Front-of-house staff —servers, managers, and food runners —interact with it to coordinate the dining experience.

Firing courses

Servers control the pacing of a meal by sending courses at the right moment. When a table finishes their starters and the plates are cleared, the server opens the table's order on the POS and sends the next course items. This action pushes the next set of items to the active KDS display.

Timing the fire is a judgment call. Fire too early and the mains arrive while guests are still eating their starters. Fire too late and there is an awkward gap. Experienced servers watch the table, coordinate with the kitchen verbally, and fire when the moment is right.

Pickup notification

When all items for a course are bumped on the KDS, the front-of-house receives a pickup notification. Depending on your configuration, this can be an audible alert on the POS terminal, a notification on the server's device, or both. The food runner checks the pass, collects the plated dishes, and delivers them to the table.

The pickup notification ensures that food does not sit on the pass cooling while the server is unaware. It closes the loop between kitchen completion and table delivery.

Station routing

In a professional kitchen, different sections handle different types of dishes. A grill station prepares steaks and burgers. A cold station handles salads and desserts. A bar station makes drinks. Station routing sends each item to the correct KDS screen based on the station assigned to the menu item.

When you set up a menu item (see Menu Management), you assign it to a station. The KDS then displays that item only on the screen assigned to that station. A single order with a salad, a steak, and a cocktail generates three separate ticket fragments —one at cold, one at grill, one at bar.

The expediter's screen shows all fragments for a given table, making it easy to coordinate timing. The expo knows the salad is done (bumped at cold), the steak is still cooking (active at grill), and the cocktail is ready (bumped at bar). They hold the salad until the steak is close to done, then plate and send everything together.

Configuring station routing

Station routing is configured through the menu editor. When you set up a menu item (see Menu Management), you assign it to a station. Items without a station assignment appear on all KDS screens, which is useful for expo or general items.

Scenario: busy Saturday managing overdue tickets

It is 7:45 PM on a Saturday. The restaurant is full, and the KDS shows eighteen active tickets across three stations (grill, cold, and bar).

Identifying the problem. The expediter scans the KDS overview and spots three red tickets —tables 8, 14, and 22. Table 8 has been waiting fourteen minutes for two grill items (a ribeye and a lamb burger). Table 14 has a cold station item (a tuna tartare) that has been sitting for twelve minutes. Table 22 has a full order with items across all three stations, the oldest being eleven minutes.

Prioritizing. The expediter calls out to the grill cook: "Table 8, fourteen minutes —ribeye medium rare and lamb burger, where are we?" The grill cook responds that the ribeye needs two more minutes. The expediter then checks the cold station —the tuna tartare for table 14 was actually plated five minutes ago but never bumped on the KDS. The cold cook bumps it, and the expediter sends a food runner to deliver it immediately.

Clearing the backlog. With table 14 resolved, the expediter focuses on table 22. The bar cocktails were bumped three minutes ago and are sitting on the bar. A food runner delivers them. The grill items are still cooking. The expediter tells the cold cook to hold table 22's salad on the pass so everything can go out together once the grill items are done.

Recovering. Table 8's ribeye and burger are plated. The grill cook bumps both items. The ticket turns green. The food runner delivers. The expediter checks the overview —two red tickets cleared, one (table 22) dropping to amber as the grill cook plates the last item. Within five minutes, all three overdue tables have their food.

Preventing recurrence. After the rush, the manager reviews the KDS timing report and sees that grill station tickets averaged twelve minutes tonight versus the usual eight. The cause: a new grill cook who is still learning the station. The manager schedules additional training and adjusts Saturday staffing to add a second grill cook during peak hours.

The KDS turned a potentially chaotic rush into a manageable sequence of priorities. Without the color coding and timers, those three overdue tables might have waited twenty minutes or more before anyone noticed.