During service
Using the kitchen screen
Paid orders enter the kitchen screen on their own, in the order they were paid. Nobody types or retypes them: it is the same information the customer entered, with no intermediate step to get lost in.
What you see, and in what order
The queue runs by arrival, oldest first. Each card carries the collection code, the table where there is one, the items with their options and how long it has been waiting. That waiting time is the most-watched number at peak: it is what tells you who to attend to now.
Marking in preparation and ready
You mark an order as being prepared when you start it, and ready when you finish. That change reaches the customer's phone immediately, so they can come and collect without asking at the bar. Marking something «ready» before it is is exactly what makes people crowd the bar again.
When an item runs out
If something cannot be served, mark it unavailable from the screen itself: it disappears from the menu instantly and stops entering new orders. For an order already paid, talk to the table and settle the swap or the refund; marking it unavailable does not change what has already been charged.
Pausing incoming orders
If the kitchen is overwhelmed you can pause new orders. The menu stays visible, but a payment cannot be started. That beats piling up a queue you will not be able to serve in a reasonable time.
If the connection drops
The screen retries on its own and recovers anything pending when it returns. Meanwhile, fall back on the venue's usual procedure. Nothing already paid is lost to a network outage.