Filter orders by category with Square KDS
About filtering orders
Filtering orders by kitchen routing category on your Square KDS app helps you route items and orders to specified Square KDS screens, increasing your team’s efficiency to prep orders faster with the relevant order information available for each kitchen station.
In addition to filtering, you can use colour-coded modifier text to help kitchen staff visually distinguish between different modifiers on order tickets. When modifier text colours are configured, modifiers appear in their assigned colours on the KDS screen alongside your filtered orders.
Colour-coded modifiers work with both kitchen routing categories and dining option filters, giving your team an additional visual layer to quickly identify preparation requirements at a glance.
To set up modifier text colours, learn how to set up Square KDS.
Before you begin
Download the Square KDS app on a compatible Android tablet.
Make sure you’ve created at least one Kitchen Display device code. Learn more about how to set up device codes.
You can create and enable kitchen routing categories from your Square Dashboard. You can choose which categories to route from your Square Dashboard and Square KDS app.
Step 1: Create kitchen routing categories
You can set up kitchen routing categories to send your menu items to different Square KDS screens. These categories will not affect your menu or reporting settings.
Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Settings > Restaurant settings > Kitchen settings > Kitchen routing.
Toggle on Use kitchen routing categories on KDS.
Click Create new categories and give a name to your new category.
Click Save and assign items.
Assign items to the category, then click Done.
Step 2: Filter orders by kitchen routing category
You can select which kitchen routing categories you want to route to your Square KDS app screens.
- Sign in to Square Dashboard and go to Settings > Device management > Devices.
- Select your device then, next to Assigned modes, click Manage.
- Click Items & categories, then toggle on the categories you want to route to the Square KDS screen.
- Click Save.