In some restaurants, employees at one prep station need to be aware when other prep stations are involved in fulfilling items in an order. An example is a kitchen that does not have an expediter, and that either relies on employees at a particular prep station to coordinate order fulfillment or on close communication among employees to synchronize order fulfillment. Including information about other involved prep stations directly on the ticket can help ensure effective cooperative effort.
For printed kitchen tickets, you specify which other station(s) you want to monitor at a given prep station. When an order includes items that are routed to both stations, kitchen tickets print the name of the monitored prep station and a list of menu items routed to that station at the end of the ticket. For more information about configuring printed tickets, see Configure printing of other stations' items.
In addition, this Toast Central article provides an overview of printing items on kitchen tickets.
You configure your prep stations individually to monitor other stations so that only stations that need this additional information see it on their tickets. In the following example, employees at the cold prep station know from looking at the ticket when an order includes menu items routed to the hot station.
In this case, the employees at the hot station do not need information about menu items at other stations. The tickets that they see include only the menu items that they are responsible for fulfilling. However, if the employees at the hot station do need to monitor the participation of another station, you can then configure the hot station as well.
Now, the cold station is configured with the hot station as its other station and vice versa.
To limit unnecessary distractions, when an order includes menu items from a single station, a ticket only prints for that station.
This section uses the example orders and configurations illustrated above to show tickets that include information about items at another prep station.
In the example for a prep station showing other stations working on a ticket, employees at your cold station need to know about items prepared at the hot station. The following illustration shows the tickets that print at the two stations when an order includes a cobb salad (routed to the cold station) and crab cakes (hot station).
The ticket for the cold station prints the cold menu item first followed by the hot item, and the ticket for the hot station prints only the hot item.
In the example for two prep stations showing other stations working on a ticket, employees at your cold and hot stations need to coordinate order fulfillment when they both are involved in producing menu items for an order. The following illustration shows the tickets that print at these stations when an order includes a cobb salad (routed to the cold station) and jalapeno poppers (hot station).
The ticket for the hot station prints the hot menu item first followed by the cold item (the reverse of the sequence used for the cold station's ticket).
The purpose of configuring a prep station to monitor another station is to make collaboration easier when both stations are involved in fulfilling a single order. In the example for a ticket with an item at a single prep station, the order includes only one item. The following illustration shows that when only one prep station is involved in fulfilling an order, a ticket prints only at that station.
Employees at the cold station are not distracted by a ticket for an order that does not require work at their station.
This option affects printed kitchen tickets only.
Before you enable this feature for a prep station, verify the settings for these configuration options. These options can affect whether information for another station prints.
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The Individual Tickets for Every Item in an Order configuration option must be set to either Don't print or show individual tickets on the kitchen display system device or Print individual tickets including a master ticket at each prep station. If you choose to print a master ticket, only the master ticket lists items from the other prep station(s).
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If your restaurant has Course Pacing set to Enable course pacing, the system determines the information to include on a ticket on a course-by-course basis. If all of the appetizers in an order will be prepared at a single station, for example, a ticket for those appetizer items prints only at that station, and not at any of the other stations.
To configure a prep station so that its tickets include items at another station, you must have the Web Setup > Kitchen / Dining Room Setup access permission. Then, follow these steps.
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Choose Kitchen > Kitchen stations > Prep stations.
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For the prep station that needs to monitor work at one or more other stations, use Other Stations to select those stations.
In the following example, the hot station is configured to see cold station items and the cold station is configured to see hot station items.
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Save and publish your changes.
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On the Kitchen > Printers, tickets, & KDS devices > Kitchen page, verify that the Individual Tickets for Every Item in an Order is set to either Don't print or show individual tickets on the kitchen display system device or Print individual tickets including a master ticket at each prep station.
For more information about working with prep stations, see Add a prep station.