Visual Indicator for Courses on Hold in Square for Restaurants

[Maccaroni]

Hi everyone, I'm currently using Square for Restaurants and I'm trying to find a way to improve our dining room workflow. Specifically, I'd like to know if there's a way to visually indicate—preferably with color; when a table has a course that is currently on hold (e.g., a second or third course that's been entered but not yet fired).

The goal is to help our waitstaff stay on top of active orders and know which tables have pending items that still need to be sent to the kitchen. Having a color change or icon on the floor plan or ticket list would make it much easier for the team to manage timing, especially during busy shifts.

Is there a setting, integration, or workaround that could help with this? Or is this something that might be available through Square KDS or another Square feature?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Katie_SQ · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your question, @Maccaroni! 

Square for Restaurants floor plan indicators allow you to display how much time has passed since a bill has been opened, with colour indicators appearing on the Square Restaurant POS app after predetermined intervals. However, this feature doesn't support changing table colours based specifically on course status.

As an alternative solution, you could consider setting up a separate KDS station for your wait staff. This would provide them with comprehensive oversight of all held and fired courses when tickets are sent from the POS:

1. Set up a Square KDS station by following the steps in this article on our Support Centre. 

2. Configure your KDS to show both fired and held courses:

- Open the Square KDS app and go to Settings > View all settings > Coursing. 
- Select the Show fired and held courses option.

For more information about coursing with Square KDS, check out: Set up coursing for bills.

If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to reach out. 🙂