A guest scans the table QR, builds a cart in their own language, and sends the order. From there every order follows the same path:
pending). If
the table has an assigned waiter, a push lands on their phone.{primary} Manual confirmation of guest orders is on by default — so staff decide what reaches the kitchen.
{info} Guest comments on the order and its items are translated into the staff language automatically; when the translation differs from the original, the original is shown in small print next to it.
In a venue with no kitchen the Ready stage is skipped: whoever takes the order serves a cooking order directly — see The Ready stage.
| Screen | Purpose | Permission |
|---|---|---|
| Orders | The shift board: intake, confirmation, statuses, the feed, the floor map, settling and guest calls. | Take orders |
| Kitchen | The cooking queue: tickets and per-line readiness. | Mark food ready |
| Hall | What to run and where: the by-table queue, the floor map, the serve checklist, guest calls. | Take orders |
Voiding a line and cancelling an accepted order take a separate Void orders permission. Permissions are configured on the Roles & access screen (three states: none · view · manage).
Not every venue needs a separate Ready stage. The kitchen switch in Settings → Screens has three positions:
{success} This is what keeps a solo venue without a kitchen screen from getting stuck: whoever takes the orders walks them through to serving, skipping Ready.
Printing tickets is switched on separately from the kitchen screen — in Settings → Till & printing, the "Kitchen ticket" row (any choice but "Don't print"). It combines with any position of the kitchen switch: the cook can work from the screen and still get a paper ticket, or the screen is off and the kitchen works from paper alone — then, as with "Off", the order is served straight through without a Ready stage.
Every confirmed order prints a ticket, and an addition prints an "Addition to order" ticket. Who prints is chosen in the same "Kitchen ticket" row: a print agent printer (no dialogs, see below) or a device. With "Device that took the order", the device that placed or confirmed the order prints on its default printer.
Cancellations. When a dish or a whole order the kitchen already has on paper is cancelled, a "Cancelled" ticket prints: the title on a black band, the quantity with a minus ("−2 Borscht") and the reason. If the ticket had not printed yet, the cancelled dish simply stays off it — no extra paper. Voiding a dish that was already served prints nothing for the kitchen. Cancellation tickets are off by default — switch on "Print cancellations": under the "Kitchen ticket" row press "More" (it shows while tickets are printed). A reprinted ticket is marked "REPRINT" so it is not cooked twice.
A second kitchen language. If the cooks do not read the menu's language, pick "Kitchen second language" in Settings → Till & printing, under the "Kitchen ticket" row → "More": every dish name on the ticket and on the kitchen screen gets its name in that language underneath, and chosen options and add-ons get their translation after " / " ("Size: Large / Lớn"). The line appears only where the dish has a translation in the chosen language; without one the ticket stays as it was. Add-on group names are not translated. The list holds only the languages the active menu is translated into. If that language is later removed from the menu (or the menu is deleted), the setting resets to "None, main language only" by itself. The default is "None, main language only" — tickets and the screen do not change.
Changing an order the kitchen already has.
What the ticket shows. The table in words ("Table 7", a named table by its name), the zone when the venue has several, the order number, date and time, who took the order (a person or a device; a guest's order reads "Guest QR order" and who confirmed it). Dish and modifier names print in the printer's language when the menu has that translation, otherwise as ordered.
The most reliable way to print kitchen tickets works like classic till software: a small program, Qreaty Print, on the till computer picks up tickets by itself and sends them straight to the printer — over the network (IP address) or to a printer installed in Windows (USB, for example). No browser is involved at all: no print window, no open tab, no Chrome settings.
You need a Windows computer that stays on during the shift and sits on the same network as the printer, and any common ESC/POS thermal printer (Epson, Xprinter, Rongta, Bixolon, Sunmi and the like).
Everything happens in Settings → Till & printing. At the top of the section is one line: “Everything prints”, or what to do next with a “Show” button. Below are three parts: “What we print”, “Computers and printers”, “Without the internet”.
QreatyPrintSetup.exe and
enter the code when asked. Pairing from a phone, type the installer's
address shown under the download button into the browser on the computer
in the hall. The program installs as a Windows service: it starts with the
computer and works even when nobody is logged in.DESKTOP-0UHLSLB) with “Computer … is connected”. Press
“Add printer” — the agent finds network printers and Windows printers by
itself; pick yours, the paper width (58 or 80 mm) and the ticket language.
To call the computer your own way (“Bar”, “Front till”), use its “⋯” menu →
“Rename”.The ticket is drawn on the server as a picture, so Vietnamese and Russian text prints correctly on any printer, whatever its code pages.
If the printer does not respond (switched off, out of paper), the agent retries several times. A ticket that still did not print does not vanish silently: the till screen shows a “ticket not printed” card with “Retry” and “Dismiss”.
A late ticket doesn't print by itself. If a ticket or receipt hasn't come out within 3 minutes of the order (the printer was off, the agent wasn't running, the computer was asleep), it no longer prints by itself — otherwise old tickets would come out in a batch ahead of the new one. It shows up on the till under «Needs attention» with «Print now» and «Kitchen already knows». A ticket printed more than a minute after the order carries the line «DELAYED · taken at 12:03», so the cook can tell it's an old order. At the foot of every ticket, in small print, it says how it got there: «server», «server · backup» (a copy of the till's ticket) or «till» / «till · offline».
If one printer doesn't answer, tickets for the other printers don't wait for it — the server hands those to the agent first.
The printer got a new IP address. A network printer usually gets its address from the router (DHCP), and after the router restarts the address may change — settings then show an error under the printer saying it does not answer. The printer prints its new address on a slip when switched on. Press “Change address” under the error (or the pencil by the printer) and pick the printer under “Found on the network” or type the address in. Tickets still waiting go to the new address. To keep the address from changing again, reserve it for the printer in the router: “DHCP reservation” by the printer's MAC address.
The Qreaty Print icon and window (from version 1.3.0). On the till computer, next to the clock, there is a Qreaty Print icon: green — everything prints; yellow — no internet, but the till on this computer prints by itself; red — a printer isn't answering or the computer isn't linked. When a printer goes away or comes back, Windows shows a notification. Click the icon → «Open Qreaty Print»: the window shows every printer and when it last printed («Test print» tells you which printer is which), the latest jobs and how each one got there (straight from the till, through the server, or as a backup copy), what of the kitchen, receipts and drawer works without the internet — and why not, if it doesn't. «Download diagnostics» collects the log for support. Printing doesn't depend on the icon: close it and Qreaty Print keeps printing.
Updating. Settings show the Qreaty Print version next to the computer; when a new one is out, «Update available» appears there with a link. Download the installer on the till computer and run it over the old one — the link is kept, no code needed.
Reinstalling. The installer checks by itself whether Qreaty still accepts the earlier link. If it does, no code is asked. If not (the computer was removed from settings or given a new code), it asks for one: press «Reinstall» next to the computer and enter the new code. No restart is needed after reinstalling.
The computer is online, but the till cannot reach it. That happens when the program's address on the computer is taken by something else. A warning shows on the computer's card; the program keeps retrying every few seconds, and if that does not help, restart the computer.
When the till runs on the same computer as Qreaty Print, it can hand tickets to the agent directly — not via "server → agent". Tickets come out faster, and the tickets the till placed print on the spot through the agent.
The «Till» panel. The till has a printer icon in the bottom-right corner. Tap it to open the «Till» panel: connection, work without the internet, Qreaty Print (with its version), receipts, the kitchen and the cash drawer. Each row has a green tick when it works, or a note and a button when it does not. A dot on the icon means something is worth fixing. The owner sees the same from any browser: in Settings → Till & printing every till of the hall says whether it prints directly and is ready to work without the internet.
A shared till account (a device created in "Staff → Devices") prints through the agent by itself, with no settings: it is enough that the kitchen or receipt printer is connected to Qreaty Print. The installer grants the browser permission in advance. If the browser still asks, the «Till» panel shows an «Allow printing through this computer» button. Press it and choose "Allow" in the Chrome or Edge «Apps on this device» prompt. If Qreaty Print is not on this computer, the panel says so and offers to download it.
A personal account on the till computer: open Settings → Till & printing, press «Check this computer» and, in the «Till» panel, «Allow printing through this computer».
Nothing gets lost: the server records every ticket the till prints. If the till's agent didn't take the ticket, the till hands it back to the server at once, and the server prints it through the kitchen agent — once. If the agent already printed it, there is no second copy.
Receipts and pre-bills. When a Qreaty Print printer prints receipts and the till reaches it, «Print receipt» and «Print pre-bill» also go straight to the agent: the receipt comes out at once, in the printer's language, exactly as the server would print it. The server only records that the till printed it and makes no copy of its own. Receipts have no back-up copy — you stand at the printer and see whether it came out. If the till says «The till's printer did not print the receipt», press «Print» again. If a receipt lands in the «not printed» list, «Print again» first takes it off this till's queue and only then asks the server for a copy. If the till's agent does not answer, the till asks «Print anyway?» — the agent may still print it later, and then there would be two.
The till opens the cash drawer through the agent directly too — at once and without the internet (cash drawer).
{info} The agent's installer sets Chrome and Edge policies, so the browser shows «Managed by your organization». That is expected: it lets the till print without prompts and install itself as an app.
The cash drawer plugs into the receipt printer, not the computer — a cable into the port on its back (usually labelled "DK" or "Cash Drawer"). The printer opens the drawer on command, so you need the print agent, and its printer must print receipts: pick it in the "Guest receipt" row in Settings → Till & printing. The browser print window cannot open the drawer.
When the till prints through Qreaty Print directly, the drawer opens at once — without the internet too. Such an opening goes into the log as soon as the till or the agent itself reaches the server again, with the time the drawer really opened.
Every opening goes into the log under the day's tally: the time, the reason and who opened it (on a shared till, the device name). If the drawer did not get the command (the agent is off, the printer does not answer), the row is marked "did not open" and the till shows a notice with a "Retry" button. A command that did not get through within a minute is never sent later: the drawer must not pop open on its own with nobody at the till.
By default the browser shows a print window for every ticket — unacceptable on a busy pass. This is configured once per station, in about five minutes.
chrome://policy (in Edge, edge://policy). Both policies
must be listed with status "OK".Download the policy file and put it,
as root, into your browser's managed-policy directory:
/etc/opt/chrome/policies/managed/ (Chrome), /etc/chromium/policies/managed/
(Chromium) or /etc/opt/edge/policies/managed/ (Edge). Restart the browser and
check chrome://policy. The receipt printer has to be the system default
(lpoptions -d printer-name).
SilentPrintingEnabled — printing with no window. Requires Chrome or Edge
144 or newer.PrintPreviewUseSystemDefaultPrinter — send that print to the system default
printer. Do not skip it: without this policy silent printing goes to
whatever destination the browser would have preselected, and on a fresh
profile that is "Save as PDF" — tickets pile up in the Downloads folder and
nobody notices until the end of the shift.{info} On older browser versions a launch shortcut with
--kiosk-printingis used instead of the policy. Two catches: do not add--disable-print-preview— despite the common advice, it breaks silent printing; and give the station its own--user-data-dir, otherwise an already-running browser just opens a tab and the switch is ignored.
On Android the print window cannot be bypassed — but it can be left out of the picture entirely. If the receipt printer is paired to the tablet over Bluetooth (or plugged in over OTG), the app writes to it directly instead of printing:
In this mode the ticket is printed as a picture, so Vietnamese and Russian guest notes come out correctly even on cheap printers that have no matching code page. Chrome or Edge is required; Safari on an iPad cannot do this.
{warning} An iPad has no direct printing at all: neither Chrome nor Safari there gives access to the printer, and printing only goes through the AirPrint dialog. The print station has to be a computer, a mini PC or an Android tablet.
If a station is printing through the window, the app says so: a "printing through a dialog" mark appears on screen.
Printer roles. With more than one printer, Settings → Till & printing can pin roles to devices: a device in the "Kitchen ticket" row prints the kitchen tickets (orders travel to it on their own, even when placed on another device), and a device in the "Guest receipt" row adds a "Send to the till" button to the receipt print dialog. A role can only be held by a shared device (a station tablet), and a device always prints to its system's default printer. While the rows are on "Device that took the order" and "Device where “Print” was tapped", everything prints on the device where the action happened.
A role can also go to a print agent printer. Then "Print receipt" or "Pre-bill" asks nothing: the receipt prints on the till printer straight away, with no dialog. After a split, one receipt prints per new bill.
A small venue can run everything from the Orders screen. In Settings you can hide the Hall screen (a toggle) and manage the Kitchen (the three positions above): hidden screens disappear from navigation, and a direct URL redirects to Orders. The Orders screen itself can't be hidden — it's the base board.
From the order detail you can print a guest receipt (an order receipt, not a fiscal one): the items with modifiers, the total, the table number, plus the guest's name and room if the venue asks for them. The paper is picked right in the print dialog — a 58 mm or 80 mm roll, or A4 — and voided lines don't make it onto the receipt.
The full story of printing and what goes on the receipt is in Printing a receipt.
Every screen chimes on its own event, and a push goes first to the waiter who is assigned to the table and currently on shift. Volume and the on/off switch live in Settings → Notifications.
How to turn notifications on, who exactly receives them, what to do when the browser has blocked them and what the connection banners mean — on the Notifications, sound & connection page.
There is no separate "complete order" button. An order completes itself once every live line is served — so the board clears on its own, with no manual step.
{success} Served is a log, not a work stage: the Board keeps a slim "Served" recall rail, and the Feed a collapsed "Served · today" section. Past days live in the Feed's Archive scope (requires "Analytics · View"): search, date/status/waiter filters and the CSV export. The live queues (New / In progress / Ready) clear through the normal actions.
An order is one trip to the kitchen; a bill is the whole sitting at a table. The bill opens by itself with the first order, and every later order from that table joins it — a table always has exactly one open bill. You reach it from the Orders screen: the Table bill button sits on the table card in the hall map, in the order panel, on the ticket card and in the Till view, which gathers every table waiting to be settled.
There are five things you do with a bill: print it (at any point, including before settling — that is the pre-bill, where the venue prints one), edit it (remove a dish, discount a dish), close it, split it between guests and merge two tables into one.
The rights differ on purpose: printing is open to any staff member, adding a dish rides "Take orders", removing one and discounting it "Void orders", while closing, splitting, merging and flagging "Waiting to pay" need their own "Settle bills" — the till's right.
The details, with every warning and limit, are on the Bills & receipts page.
{primary} The app adds the bill up but takes no money: there are no payment methods, change, tips, taxes or fiscal receipts — the guest settles at your till. A discount is possible on a single dish only (editing the bill). That's why every receipt is printed with a "not a fiscal receipt" line.