Set up Square KDS and Square for Retail
About Square for Retail POS and Square KDS
You can connect to your Square Retail POS to Square KDS to access the retail-specific features you need to run your business while also getting you what you need to run your kitchen. This setup can be used by retail businesses that also sell made-to-order food such as grocery stores with delis or bookstores with coffee shops.
What you need
To get started, you’ll need to have an active Square for Retail subscription and an active Square KDS subscription. You will need a compatible Android tablet to run Square KDS in addition to your main Point of Sale device with the Square for Retail app. Make sure to update your device software on all devices before you begin.
Set up your Square KDS
First, view the Square KDS Guide in our Support Centre to set up everything you need for Square KDS. This guide will walk you through selecting and setting up your hardware, logging in, creating your stations and setting up your display and layout. Once you have completed the Square KDS setup, proceed to the section below for features specific to Square for Retail.
Features of Square KDS and Square for Retail
With Square for Retail, saved carts function as open tickets. Saving a cart with kitchen-eligible items will create a Square KDS ticket. Adding new items and re-saving or charging the cart will also send those updates to the kitchen.
If you have Square KDS enabled, some Square for Retail POS cart functionality will be either disabled or different.
- Once a saved cart is sent to Square KDS, order preparation details cannot be edited. The relevant fields will be locked in item details.
- To change an order after it has been saved and sent to Square KDS, the whole item must be voided and re-added to the cart with the desired details. Information such as price and taxes can still be edited.
- Items and Carts cannot be deleted, only voided. This allows you to keep track of orders that change after already being sent to Square KDS.
- These changes will apply to all of your saved carts, regardless of whether they include kitchen items.
Remove an item or charge from the customer bill without losing track of those details. Voided items will appear in Items > Settings > Comp and void in your online Square Dashboard.
When using Square KDS with Square for Retail, only fulfilment types such as in-store and pickup can be used to complete orders. Dining Options are not compatible with the Square for Retail app. The fulfilment type will be displayed on the KDS ticket. Learn more about setting up fulfilment types with Square for Retail.
Manage your devices from your Square Dashboard by selecting Kitchen Settings. You can also adjust device profile settings with Square for Retail.
Kitchen Performance reports show your completed ticket count, average completed ticket time and average item completion time across all tickets by KDS device name, location and timeframe. You can see your kitchen performance report from the Reports tab on your Square Dashboard.
Related articles
Review the following Support Centre articles for more information about Square KDS: