Route Orders to the Kitchen with Square KDS and Square for Restaurants

Before You Begin

Routing orders from different order sources to your KDS increases your staff’s efficiency to prep orders with the relevant order information available for each kitchen station. 

Your customer’s orders can be routed from point of sale devices and from online orders to kitchen displays or printers.

Before setting up order routing with Square KDS:

• Make sure your kitchen display hardware and software are set up correctly. If you need to review Square KDS setup instructions, visit Get Started with Square KDS for Android.

If you choose to print orders in the kitchen, review the options below:

• If you have a KDS device and plan to print orders, learn how to Print from Square KDS.

• If using kitchen ticket printers and no KDS device, learn more about printing orders in the kitchen with Square for Restaurants.

Set up order routing

Route orders from multiple points of sale

Set up your KDS to filter which POS devices (with Square Point of Sale and Square for Restaurants) to show incoming tickets.

1. On the KDS, tap Settings > Orders.

2. Toggle on View Point of Sale Orders.

3. Tap Edit next to receive orders from all points of sale.

4. Select which points of sale send orders to this KDS station. You have the option to toggle on:

   1. Receive orders from all unnamed Square points of sale: Unnamed points of sale cannot be individually identified by KDS. To route by a POS not listed, create a device code from your Square Dashboard. Tap Devices from your navigation dropdown, then select POS Devices.

   2. Receive orders from all future named points of sale: If selected, all future named POS added at this location will send orders to this KDS.

5. Select which POS sources you would like to send orders to your KDS.

6. Tap Save.

Route online orders

To filter for online orders on the KDS:

1. Tap Settings > Orders and toggle on View online orders.

2. Select from the following: Show online orders when they’re placed, Show online orders when marked in progress, and/or Show online orders based on pickup time.

3. Select Edit to specify the amount of time tickets show up on the KDS before pickup time. The default setting is tickets will appear 30 seconds before pickup time.

Note: Filtering by POS source with Square KDS does not include third-party order sources (i.e. Square Online vs. Uber Eats).

Next Steps

Learn more about order routing with Square for Restaurants from one of these Support Centre articles:

• Filter orders by category with Square KDS

• Filter orders by dining option with Square KDS

• Prioritise Orders with Square KDS

• Troubleshoot missing orders with Square KDS