Get Started with Square KDS for iOS

Square KDS displays items based on the categories you assign. To assign categories:

1. Open Square KDS.
2. Tap ≡ to open the launchpad.
3. Tap the settings gear icon.
4. Tap Items on Tickets.
5. Toggle on the categories that you want to display

Note: If you don’t have categories assigned to items on your online Square Dashboard, you can refer to this support centre article to create new categories for your items. Keep in mind that categories for Square Online are completely separate from your KDS categories.

With Square KDS, you can toggle different layouts based on your preferred text size and the amount of tickets you want displayed. To set your layout settings:

1. Open Square KDS.
2. Tap ≡ to open the launchpad.
3. Tap the settings gear icon.
4. Tap Layout.
5. Select your appropriate text size.
6. Select your preferred layout.

You can enable alerts and timers on your display. To do so:

1. Open Square KDS.
2. Tap ≡ to open the launchpad.
3. Tap the settings gear icon.
4. Tap Timer & Alerts.
5. Select the appropriate time frame for Yellow and Red alerts.

You can easily send orders from your POS devices right to your KDS. To get started:

1. Open Square KDS, and tap ≡ to open the menu.
2. Tap the gear icon to view your settings, then tap Orders.
3. Toggle on View Online orders.

Orders placed on your POS will now show up on your Square KDS.

You can also have online orders sent directly to your Square KDS. Customise how you want to display your online orders with three different view options:

Show online orders when they’re placed: Once a customer places an order, the ticket will automatically appear on your KDS.

Show online orders when marked in progress: Orders will appear on the KDS station when they are marked as in progress.

Show online orders based on collection time: Set how far in advance of an order’s collection time you want orders to appear on your KDS station.

Choose the best view for you, or switch between filters as you need. To display your online orders:

1. Open Square KDS, and tap ≡ to open the menu.
2. Tap the gear icon to view your settings, then tap Orders.
3. Toggle on View online orders, then choose how you want to see your online orders: when an order is placed, when an order is marked in progress or based on the order collection time.
4. If you choose Show online orders based on collection time, tap Edit to change your time before collection.
5. Set your time before collection in hours and minutes, then tap Done. The time you choose will display under the view option.

Connect a printer to your KDS to print order tickets for your customers for in-person, delivery and collection orders. Learn more about Printing with Square KDS.

If you’re using Square for Restaurants, you can add an internal kitchen facing name to any item, variation or modifier. Setting up kitchen facing names creates an efficient kitchen workflow and allows creating names in the preferred languages of your kitchen staff.

Tap the completed item directly on the display. If you selected the wrong item by accident, tap that item again to deselect it. Keep in mind that you only have three seconds to undo the item completion. After that, you can view the ticket in the completed tab.

Tap the top banner of the ticket you want to complete and confirm by selecting Complete Ticket. If you completed the wrong ticket by accident, tap the white area below the blue Completed banner. Keep in mind that you have three seconds to undo the ticket completion. After that, you can view the ticket in the completed tab.

To view your completed tickets, tap Completed on the top of your screen.

To mark all of your tickets as complete, tap Settings > General > Clear tickets and then tap the box again to confirm that you do want to clear all. Once you have cleared all tickets, the last 100 tickets received will appear in your completed ticket list.

Restaurants can recall completed tickets if they accidentally completed the ticket or need to remake an item on a ticket. To recall a ticket, tap the Recall button at the bottom of the ticket in the completed view. The ticket will now appear in the live view. To recall an item in a ticket, select the item and tap Recall item. You can also recall an item even if the ticket is still in the Open view.

Note: If you have the Automatic Order Update feature enabled on your Expeditor station, recalling a completed ticket will not remove the ticket from Ready status on third-party platforms.

Kitchens can also prioritise tickets and move orders to the front of the queue. For instance, an order may come out incorrectly, or the kitchen may miss an item. When you enter the order in the POS again, you can bump the ticket to the front of the queue. Or, if someone joins a table late and the ticket for their meal comes in behind the rest of the party, you can bump up this ticket so the meal comes out with the rest of the table.
To prioritise an order:

1. On an expeditor station, tap the ticket you want to edit to view ticket actions.
2. Tap Prioritise Order on the ticket.
3. A cancel loader will appear. You will have three seconds to cancel the prioritisation and keep the ticket in its current queue position.
4. Once the cancel loader times out, a confirmation message will display on the screen that the order has been sent to all related prep stations.

Note: You can only prioritise a ticket from the expeditor station. On the Completed view, the prioritised ticket will now have a Prioritised banner. The same header will read Make Now on tickets visible at other kitchen displays. Once a ticket shows the Make Now banner, you can mute the ticket by tapping it at any prep station.

Coursing helps you and your team manage the flow of bills – for both the front and back of house. Coursing is designed to easily group items, add items and let the kitchen know when to hold or start sending dishes.

Coursing is an optional setting, so you’ll need to visit your POS Device settings on your Square Dashboard to turn on Coursing and Hold/Away.

Once Coursing with Hold/Away is turned on, you can set up Coursing Holds on the KDS:

1. On the KDS, select Devices > Courses.

1. Toggle on ‘Printed hold/away courses’.

1. Select ‘Print away or held course’ for printed tickets to show both away and held courses on the same ticket. Select ‘Only print away courses’ if you want printed tickets to only show away courses.

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:

• 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 drop-down, then select POS Devices.
• 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.

1. Select which POS sources you would like to send orders to your KDS.
2. Tap Save.

Learn more about setting up POS routing for online orders with Square KDS.

Expeditors and head chefs use the term All Day to refer to a count of a particular item that requires preparation across all tickets in the queue. To view a specific item across all open tickets:

1. Open Square for KDS.
2. Tap the three horizontal lines.
3. Tap the item(s) you want to see All Day Counts for. Items will be highlighted across all tickets, and you’ll see the All Day Counts.

Once you mark an item as completed, it will automatically be subtracted from the All Day Count.

Sold Out is commonly used in restaurants to temporarily mark an item as unavailable, usually when an ingredient runs out. You can mark an item as Sold Out from either a Prep station or an Expo station in your Square KDS App. When you mark an item as unavailable from Square KDS, it will update your ordering platforms so that item appears as sold out to your customers.

Note: Item availability is determined by the amount of stock set within Square Dashboard. Any item with inventory tracking turned on cannot be marked as available or unavailable with the Sold Out feature.
To mark an item as Sold Out from a Prep or Expo station:

1. Open Square KDS, and tap the three horizontal lines to open the menu.
2. Tap View all items’ availability.
3. Use the search tool to find an item, or select an item from the list.
4. You can choose to make the item Available or Unavailable. To mark the item as Sold Out, select Unavailable, then tap Save.