Dynamic Online Pick-up Order Fulfillment

[SandoShop]

Hello!

We are a local sandwich shop in the throes of growth. We can only afford a certain level of staffing, so online orders can completely break us if they're large and during the dine-in lunch rush.

We would like Square to seriously consider tweaking the Fulfillment/Pickup Settings so that Orders over X amount (by items or dollar amount) automatically show a larger prep time. For example if our regular prep time is 20 minutes, we'd like orders over 6 items to be 40 minutes. And if there is a way to do this where additional items over X add a specific number of minutes, even better!

Thank you!!

[tulanejeff]

This area is ripe for AI-powerered innovation. 

Currently, all orders have the same prep time, which for us is 15 minutes. We can extend this as needed via the POS app under order timing.

Square does offer the ability to only accept X orders per 15 min period, however that will forcibly push back pickup times longer than a guest is willing to wait, especially when you have a high volume of orders flowing in.

I think the preferred method would be to smartly calculate the "real" prep time based on the total item count on the order. For example, 8 items would take 30 min, and not 15 min.

Let me know what you all think.

[jodigriego219]

This is a smart and much-needed suggestion, especially for small but growing businesses like your sandwich shop. Dynamic online pick-up fulfillment would help balance customer satisfaction with kitchen reality—because when a big order hits during peak hours, it can really throw things off.

Adding the ability for Square to auto-adjust prep times based on order size or value is not just practical—it’s essential for maintaining quality and sanity during rushes. Tiered or item-based prep time logic would be a game-changer.

Also, speaking of managing busy systems—just like how you'd need an NBI Clearance to streamline background checks and identity verification in formal processes, a smart order management system helps "clear" the path for smoother operations. Let’s hope Square listens and gives you that digital flexibility!

[HoneysFCP]

This is a critical area for us, that we're hoping can be developed sooner rather than later. 60% of our business is takeout, and setting kitchen capacity by number of orders is useless. Allowing say 5 orders per 15 minutes could dump 5 items to the kitchen, or it could dump 50, which are obviously not the same thing. Setting limits by number of orders runs the risk of either under-using staff (if those orders happen to be light) or burying them (if each order has a large number of items). We need to be able to set kitchen capacity limits by number of items, not number of orders. Even better, would be the ability to set the capacity as the aggregate total prep time for the items ordered.

I'm sort of appalled that Square doesn't already have this functionality, while Toast does. I don't expect Square to be playing catchup to Toast on anything, and especially not on such a key core piece of functionality. As more and more restaurants shift major portions of their sales to takeout, much more robust kitchen capacity controls are sorely needed.