# The kitchen display

> Send orders from the till to the kitchen's screen and move them from pending to preparing to completed.

*Section: Selling · Updated: 2026-10-19 · Needs the plan feature: pos*

For a shop that prepares food or drinks to order, the kitchen display shows each order sent from the till, so the kitchen knows what to make and the counter knows what is ready. By the end you will have sent an order to the kitchen and moved it to done.

## Switch it on

Open [Settings › System Settings](/app/settings/System_settings), the **Feature Toggles** tab, and turn on **Enable Kitchen Display**. The POS then offers a **Kitchen** choice at payment, and **Sales › Kitchen Display** opens for staff whose role allows it.

## Send an order from the till

1. **Ring up the sale** in the POS as usual and click **Pay Now**.
2. **Under Kitchen, choose Send to Kitchen.** **Save Without Sending** saves the sale without a kitchen ticket.
3. **Take the payment and click Pay.** The order appears on the Kitchen Display straight away.

![Payment Checkout with the Kitchen choice set to Send to Kitchen, beside Save Without Sending and Send Later.](https://armpos.online/storage/help/059f987648-kitchen-display-1-send.webp)
*Only Send to Kitchen puts the order on the kitchen's screen.*

> **Warning:** **Send Later** saves the sale without a ticket too, and today nothing can send it afterwards. Use **Send to Kitchen** for anything the kitchen must make.

## Work the board

Open [Sales › Kitchen Display](/app/kitchen-display). Orders sit in four columns, with their count at the top: **Pending**, **Preparing**, **Completed** and **On Hold**. Each order card shows the sale's reference, how long ago it came in, the customer and each item with its quantity.

1. **Click Start Preparation** when the kitchen starts on an order. It moves to **Preparing**.
2. **Click Mark Completed** when it's ready. It moves to **Completed**, where **Reopen** brings it back if something was missed.
3. **Put On Hold** parks an order, for example while you wait for an ingredient.

![The Kitchen Display: Pending with one order, SL\_0380 for walk-in-customer with 1 Ice Cream and 2 Juice, and Start Preparation and Put On Hold under it; Preparing, Completed and On Hold empty.](https://armpos.online/storage/help/f6b56f2413-kitchen-display-2-board.webp)
*A new order arrives in Pending.*

![The same order in the Preparing column, with Mark Completed and Put On Hold.](https://armpos.online/storage/help/f93aa6dfda-kitchen-display-3-preparing.webp)
*Once started, the order shows Mark Completed.*

The board updates by itself (**Live**); **Refresh** reloads it now. **From** and **To** show the orders of other days, and **Clear** goes back to today.

## What's next

[A customer display beside the till](/app/help/customer-display).