# Kitchen Display

The kitchen display (KDS) is a live ticket screen for the kitchen, at **Admin → Kitchen display** (`/admin/kds`). It's built for a tablet mounted where cooks can see it, and it refreshes on its own — nobody needs to reload anything.

You can run the KDS instead of paper tickets, or alongside them. Many kitchens do both: the screen for timing and the [printed chit](/receipt-layout) for the pass.

## The three lanes

| Lane | Meaning |
|---|---|
| **New** | Just arrived, not started |
| **Preparing** | Being made |
| **Ready** | Done, waiting for handoff |

A ticket moves left to right. Tapping it advances it to the next lane — one tap, which is all anyone with full hands is going to do.

Moving a ticket to **Ready** notifies the customer their order is ready. That's automatic.

## Timers and urgency

Every ticket shows how long it's been waiting, and tickets change appearance as they age so an old one is visible from across the kitchen without reading a clock.

Order matters: the lanes are sorted so the most urgent ticket is the one you should be working on. On a scheduled order, the timer reflects when the food is *due*, not when it was placed — an order placed at 2pm for 6pm pickup shouldn't look late all afternoon.

## What's on a ticket

- Order number and the customer's name
- Every item with quantity
- **Modifiers** under each item
- **Combo selections**, itemized — see [Bundles & Combos](/bundles-and-combos)
- **Item notes** (allergies, "no onions")
- The order type — pickup, delivery, or dine-in — and the pickup time

Tickets show what's needed to cook, not prices.

## Setting up the tablet

1. On the kitchen tablet, open the ForkLine admin and sign in with an account that has kitchen access.
2. Go to **Admin → Kitchen display**.
3. Use **fullscreen** to hide browser chrome.
4. Set the tablet's display to **never sleep** — the single most common KDS complaint is a screen that went dark.

### Install it as an app

On iPad: **Share → Add to Home Screen** while the kitchen display is open. On Android Chrome: **Install app**.

This gives you a chromeless app icon with no address bar, and staff stay signed in inside it.

> **On iPad, be on the kitchen display page when you add it.** iOS pins whatever page is open at that moment. Adding it from the dashboard gives you a dashboard icon.

## Kitchen-only accounts

Staff who only work the line should have the **Kitchen** role. They can use the display and move orders through prep, and see nothing else — no menu, no settings, no revenue, no customer data.

Create these under **Admin → Users**. See [Users & Roles](/users-and-roles).

## Troubleshooting

**Tickets aren't appearing.** Check the tablet's network first. Then confirm orders are actually arriving in [Admin → Orders](/orders) — if they aren't there either, it's not a KDS problem. Check the [dashboard](/dashboard) for alerts.

**The screen went to sleep.** Set the tablet to never sleep while charging.

**Staff got signed out.** Sessions expire eventually. Sign back in; installing as a home-screen app makes this much rarer.

**A ticket won't advance.** Confirm the account has kitchen permissions. Kitchen accounts can move orders forward, not backward.

## Where to go next

- [Managing Orders](/orders) — the manager's view of the same orders
- [Receipt Layout](/receipt-layout) — printed kitchen tickets
- [Users & Roles](/users-and-roles) — kitchen-only accounts