Nine at night: who is still waiting?

By nine o'clock the sample kottu counter in this tour has been busy for three hours. The counter is lined with bags, some with names scribbled on them, some with order numbers, and a few people are standing to one side looking at their phones. The owner's question is simple: whose food is ready and has not been collected, and who has been waiting too long for food that is still on the plate? This tour answers it from the Orders list in four stops.

Each stop is expanded below into what you look at, what it tells you and what to do. Then come tips, common mistakes and where to go next.

What does the Orders list show at 21:00?

The header gives the night so far: five orders still open, two ready to hand over, Rs 148,200 taken in cash and Rs 45,900 on card. Underneath is a row of status chips (All, New, Confirmed, Preparing, Ready, Served, Completed, Cancelled) and a search box for an order number, a customer or a table.

The main area is called Needs doing. It holds two groups, ready orders and orders still in the kitchen, and one folded line for everything already handed over.

Step by step

1. Open Orders and read the header. Five open, two ready. Two ready bags means two customers who could be walking away with their food right now.
2. Look at Ready to hand over. The label reads: food is up, take it to the table or the counter. Order #224, a takeaway of two chicken kottu and an iced Milo for Rs 3,350, has been ready for twelve minutes, so its waiting time is highlighted. Order #226, a cheese kottu for Rs 1,650, has been ready for three.
3. Call the oldest ready order first. Twelve minutes is long enough for kottu to go soft in the bag. The owner calls 224. If nobody answers, check the board and call again rather than moving on to 226.
4. Mark it handed over. Once the bag has gone, mark the order served. It drops out of the ready group and the header updates.
5. Read In the kitchen, oldest first. New, confirmed and cooking orders follow in the order they came in. #227, a takeaway of a dolphin kottu and four egg hoppers for Rs 2,460, has waited eight minutes. #228, a chicken fried rice eaten in for Rs 1,350, five minutes. #229, a vegetable kottu and two iced Milo for Rs 2,000, has just come in and is marked New.
6. Ask the hot station a precise question. Instead of "how long for the rest?", ask "where is 227?". Eight minutes for a kottu and four hoppers may be fine; the number lets you judge.
7. Ignore the folded line until you need it. Everything collected tonight sits in one line at the bottom, 119 orders in the sample. The list on screen stays short.
8. Search when someone comes to the counter. A customer says they ordered twenty minutes ago. Type their number into the search box and see whether the order is ready, cooking or already handed over.

What does the night look like in the sample?

The five open orders add up to Rs 10,810. Notice that the order needing attention most, #224, is not the oldest in the kitchen; it is the one already cooked. Putting ready bags first is what keeps it from being buried under newer orders.

Notice too the cash and card split in the header. More than three quarters of tonight's money so far has come in as cash. That is typical of a busy counter, and it is why the cash count at closing deserves care.

Why look at waiting minutes, not just status?

Status tells you where an order is; minutes tell you whether that is a problem. "Ready" for one minute is good service. "Ready" for twelve minutes is a customer who has wandered off, or a bag nobody called. "Preparing" for eight minutes is normal on a Saturday rush and worrying on a quiet Tuesday.

Over a few weeks the minutes show patterns. If ready bags often wait more than ten minutes, the problem is the handover, not the cooking: the number is not being called loudly enough, or the ready board is not where customers can see it. The evening rush tour shows the ready board, and our guide on how to run a restaurant covers setting up the counter so handovers flow.

Tips for late in the night

• Check Orders every fifteen minutes. A quick look at the ready group is enough. It takes a few seconds and catches forgotten bags.
• Mark bags handed over straight away. If you hand over a bag and forget to mark it, it stays at the top looking ready, and you will call a number nobody is waiting for.
• Use the Ready chip during a crowd. When the counter is packed, tap Ready to see only bags waiting to go.
• Keep dine-in separate in your head. Dine-in orders go to a table, takeaways to the counter. The type is on every row.
• Glance at cash before closing. The header's cash figure is roughly what the drawer should hold, before the float. It is the number to have in mind when you cash up.

Common mistakes

• Calling the newest ready bag first. The oldest one has the cross customer. Work from the top of the ready group down.
• Leaving cancelled orders open. A cancelled order left in the kitchen group makes the night look busier and confuses the hot station.
• Reading takings as the night's total. Open orders are not in the cash and card figures yet. Judge the night after the last order is paid.
• Using Orders as the kitchen screen. The cook needs the ticket view with dishes and notes. Orders is for the counter and the owner.

What should you do next?

The night ends with the shutters going down, and how the night went reads it from the Home screen: takings, anything left waiting, takeaway against eat-in, cash against card and the week. If you want to see how these orders started, the counter till tour follows one takeaway from the till to the kitchen. For the money side, cash flow for a small business explains why cash in the drawer and card payments reach your account at different times.

How EasyTaskr helps

EasyTaskr's Orders list shows ready orders first, the kitchen oldest first, minutes waiting on each, and cash and card taken so far. Collected orders fold away and any order can be found by number. The counter and figures in this tour are sample data.