Two kottu to take away, one extra spicy

At 18:28 the queue at the sample kottu counter in this tour already reaches the door. Every customer wants something slightly different: one extra spicy, one with no egg, one with extra cheese. Most pay cash, often with a large note. The person on the counter has to take each order correctly, give the right change and get the order to the hot plate without shouting. This tour follows one takeaway order, number 148, through four stops on the food till.

Each stop is expanded below into what you tap, what you see and why it matters. A worked example of the order and the change follows, then tips, common mistakes and what to look at next.

What does the food till show first?

Along the top are the four ways an order can be taken: Dine In, Takeaway, Delivery and Online. Below them are tiles for every dish available tonight. Dishes switched off on the Menu screen are not there, so if the seafood kottu was taken off before opening, the counter never sees it. On the right is the order itself: the lines, the total, and the buttons to pay.

Step by step

1. Pick Takeaway. The customer is not eating in, so the counter taps Takeaway first. The order panel shows the type, and the kitchen ticket will too, so the hot station knows to pack it.
2. Tap the first dish. The customer wants a chicken kottu. Tapping the tile opens the dish's choices.
3. Answer the required choice. Chicken kottu asks "How spicy?" with Mild, Medium and Extra spicy, and the panel says Choose one. The till will not add the dish until one is picked. The customer wants extra spicy.
4. Add anything else in Special Instructions. Add-ons such as an extra egg are listed as options. Anything else, like "cut small" or "sauce separate", goes in Special Instructions. Set the quantity and add the dish to the order.
5. Add the second dish. A cheese kottu, no special requests. The order now has two lines and a total of Rs 3,100.
6. Choose how they pay. The buttons are Cash, Card and Mobile. The customer hands over a Rs 5,000 note, so the counter taps Cash.
7. Enter the cash received. Type the amount or tap one of the quick buttons: Exact, Rs 5,000 or Rs 10,000. The till shows the change due: Rs 1,900.
8. Leave Send to Kitchen ticked. On the payment-complete step, Send to Kitchen is already ticked. Order #148 appears on the kitchen screen, with "extra spicy" printed next to the chicken kottu. Tap Print Receipt & Done and serve the next customer.
9. Untick it for items that need no cooking. If the next customer only buys a bottle of water, untick Send to Kitchen. The note under the box says it: uncheck for pre-made items such as drinks and snacks.

How does order #148 add up?

Prices on the till are the prices on your menu board, the amount the customer pays. The change is the cash received less the total. It is simple arithmetic, but in a queue of twenty people it is exactly the sum that goes wrong, and every error comes out of the drawer at closing time.

Why ask the spice question at the till?

Because the person who knows the answer is standing in front of the counter, and the person who needs it is at the hot plate. If the choice is optional, a busy counter will skip it, and the kitchen will make medium because that is the default in their head. A customer who asked for extra spicy and gets medium comes back. Making it a required choice moves the question to the one moment when it is easy to ask.

It also helps later. Over a month, the choices tell you what your customers actually want. If most chicken kottu goes out extra spicy, that is worth knowing when you buy chillies and when you think about the menu.

Tips for a fast counter

• Tap the type first, every time. It becomes habit within a night and stops takeaway orders being plated for eating in.
• Use the quick note buttons. Most customers pay with a round note. One tap on Rs 5,000 is faster and safer than typing.
• Say the change out loud. Read the change due from the screen as you count it into the customer's hand. Disputes drop when both of you have heard the number.
• Keep drinks off the kitchen screen. Unticking Send to Kitchen for drinks and snacks keeps the hot station's screen for food only.
• Write requests the kitchen can act on. "No leeks" is clear. "Make it nice" is not.

Common mistakes

• Forgetting the order type. A dine-in order sent as takeaway gets packed in a box; a takeaway sent as dine-in gets plated.
• Typing the change instead of the cash received. Enter what the customer gave you, not what you think you owe them. Let the till do the subtraction.
• Putting a set choice in Special Instructions. If extra egg is an option, use the option. Free text is for things the menu does not already offer.
• Sending drinks to the kitchen. It fills the kitchen screen with tickets nobody needs to cook and slows the bump for real orders.
• Closing the sale without the receipt step. Print Receipt & Done is what finishes the order. Walking away before it leaves the order hanging.

What should you do next?

Order #148 is the same ticket the evening rush tour opens on, so you can follow it from the counter to the ready board. Later, who is still waiting shows the Orders list at nine o'clock, and how the night went reads the takings at closing. Because most of the counter's money is cash, our guide to the end-of-day cash up is worth reading next, and choosing a POS system covers what to test on a till before a busy night.

How EasyTaskr helps

EasyTaskr's food till takes the order type, asks a dish's required choices, works out the change on cash payments and sends the order to the kitchen display screen. End-of-day closing then lets you cash up and lock the day. The counter and prices in this tour are sample data.