kitchen orders

[maozen]

Hi've

First of all compliments for the grat job you've done!

I own a Japanese restaurant in Roma and i'm thinking to adopt SAMBA instead of my actual POS.

I've bought it.... but it's one year that i'm fighting with assistance that never solve problems..... even the stupid one!!

I was a programmer and software analyst for company management software for something like 10 years so i've a bit of knowledge in accounting and storage matters....

Anyway

I've a couple of questions about the kitchen orders

I give to all my guest a "Chef Welcome" this is gift and should not go on the bill.
It's possible to have some article not printed on the bill ?

The second question is regarding the customer orders, here usually people order all the food in one time but they don't want all the food at the same time.
It's possible to have all the order in one ticket with the food divided according the requested exiting order ?

For me this is very important because some preparation needs a lot of time, so if the kitchen receive all the order togheter could start some preparation even if they are for the second or third course.

If could be possible to have items not printed on the bill even if they are on the ticket send to the kitchen, could be possible to manage even the courses order.

Simply creating a group in the menu with articles called like *****COURSE 1**** or something like that and use this articles when u need to have a break in the order.

Many thanks
MAO

[JohnS]

Hi,

Have a look here for product grouping http://forum2.sambapos.org/index.php/topic,218.msg1146.html#msg1146

Setup your products in groups as entrees, mains, dessert, etc to split them on the kitchen order.

[emre]

If you leave Gift Line Template empty on Ticket Template, it will skip printing all gifted lines.

If you want to disable printing for individual items on Bills :

• Navigate to Settings > Printers
• Add a new printer, name it as "Null Printer", save it.
• Navigate to Settings > Print Jobs and open "Print Bill" by double clicking on it
• Add a new line on Print Mapping section, select "Ticket Printer" and "Ticket Template" on new line, leave all other values as *
• On first line change printer to "Null Printer" and select "Chef Welcome" from Product Column.
• Save it.

Since Null Printer not configured to a physical printer it should skip all mapped printouts.

[maozen]

Hi,

Have a look here for product grouping http://forum2.sambapos.org/index.php/topic,218.msg1146.html#msg1146

Setup your products in groups as entrees, mains, dessert, etc to split them on the kitchen order.

Hi Johns,
Thanks for the answer but this solution don't solve my problems, i've some products like sashimi that could be ordered as appetizer first or second course so grouping as entrees is not a solution, i will get wrong exit order from the kitchen or i should replicate the same product under different groups and this will be a mess....

Thanks for the help!
MAO

[JohnS]

I have come across the same problem.

Duplicate the items, because most of the time if an entree is ordered as a main, you would increase the portion size and cost. Yes its messy.

[emre]

This feature is called "March" in our country. In some restaurants Chef Waiter tracks table status with eye and manually advances ticket to the next state. That prints a small note something like "March Course 2 for Table B24!" and waiters start to serve course 2. To be able to handle such cases I've implemented Order Tags feature for V3 but it might be possible for V2 too.

How can we group items by courses?
There is a hidden tag data stored for ticket items. I normally implemented it for storing promotion info with ticket items but it can be used for that purpose. To be able to expose that I've added two little features. One of them is "Update Ticket Item Tag" action and the other one is {ITEM TAG} placeholder for group templates.

How we'll tag items?
We can choose a ticket tag for activating a course, store that tag value as a setting and tag new orders with that setting on "Line added to Ticket" event . It will display tag next to price tag in square brackets.

How we'll march?
We'll need an additional print job here. User will change active course by choosing ticket tag and click "March" button for printing march note.

I'll test that and if everything works fine you'll receive it on next update.

[maozen]

Hi emre,

Thanks for your answer, i've also found a way for manage the courses using the gift option.

I've done in the following  way :

1) Create a Ticket Tag called "COURSES" or wathever you need and add how many sub tags as courses you need and call then "COURSE 1" "COURSE 2" "COURSE 3" and so on

2) create how many articles how many sub tags you created and call them  "COURSE 1" "COURSE 2" "COURSE 3" and so on

3) assignt them to the group "COURSES"

4) Edit all the department where you need to manage courses and the ticket tag you created

5) create so many actions as articles you created each action must be in this way :
       Actione Name : same name of the article you created EG "COURSE 1"
       Action Type : Add Ticket Item
       Menu Item Name : the article you created "COURSE 1"
       Gift : True

6) create so many rules as action you created each rule must be in this way :
       Rule Name : Same of the Action
       Event Name : Ticket Tag Selected
       Tag Name : "COURSES"
       Tag Value : the name of the sub tag you created EG : "COURSE 1"
       Actions : select the action with the same name of the rule you're creating EG: "COURSE 1"

6) Create a NULL PRINTER like explained in the previuos emre post

7) Modify the Gift Line Template in the Kitchen order template in the way you want the courses will be printed

Modify the print job for the bill as emre explained in the previos post with the only difference to select the product group you created instead of a single product. 

In this way works quite fine the only problem i'm having is that if the same product is ordered 2 times 1 time like first course and one time like second course they are printed togheter as 2 portions in the first course.

I've 3 doubt about the printer template

1) what's the use of the check box "merge lines" in my template is uncheked but lines seems be merged.
2) Whats the group template
3) it's possible to leave a blank line between two section or before/after each line?

Hope not forget nothing....
I'm testing this solution and looks works good but your solution looks better! waiting news!
Thanks
Bye
MAO

[emre]

Today we talked with Mehmet (my partner) about the case and created a setup. The main idea is similar to yours but I've tweaked some actions for better handling of the case. When I finish preparing the release I'll write a tutorial about it. Thanks.

[maozen]

GREAT!!
THANKS!!
MAO

[emre]

OK. This tutorial uses most new automation improvements and while creating that setup I've remembered all people who helped me while building them. Thanks to everyone...

This is something we experienced even we started building SambaPOS. One of our restaurant customer requested our help about this topic and we tried to find a solution but their software was not flexible enough for their need. Today we tried it again with SambaPOS and succeeded on building a reasonable solution. You can configure it for your need.

The case is waiter receives order, groups them and serve them in that group order. We'll see how we'll handle this case..

Course Tags
First we'll need ticket tags for choosing groups. We'll call these groups as Courses. I created a ticket tag group, name it as "Courses" and added "Course 1, Course 2, Course 3, Course 4" sub tags. Added it to Restaurant Department. Now I'll have "Courses" button and when I click it I can select a course.


Storing Active Course
I have to store last selected Course Tag value somewhere so I can tag new ticket lines with that value.

Action for Storing Active Course Value

• Create a new action, Name it as "Save Course Setting"
• Action Type will be "Update Program Setting"
• Setting Name : COURSE
• Setting Value : [COURSE VALUE] (hint: we use variable here because we'll pass this value when ticket tag selected.)
• Update Type: Update
• IsLocal: True

Rule for Updating Active Course Value

• Create a new Rule, name it as "Update Course Tag Setting"
• Event Name: Ticket Tag Selected
• Tag Name: = Courses (Will work with only Courses tag)
• Click "Select Actions" and choose "Save Course Setting"
• Expand blue box with drop down arrow. Requested value from action appears. COURSE VALUE will be [Tag Value] (Hint: that means rule will pass selected tag value to save setting action)

Updating Ticket Item Tag
We'll configure ticket to tag Ticket Item with selected Courses Tag.

Action for Updating Ticket Item Tag

• Create a new Action, Name it as "Update Ticket Item Tag"
• Action type is : Update Ticket Item Tag
• Parameters: Tag = [Tag] (Hint: Again we'll receive that value from rule)

Rule for Updating Ticket Item Tag

• Create a new Rule: Name it as "Update New Line Tag"
• Event Name: Line Added to Ticket
• Click select Actions and choose "Update Ticket Item Tag" action.
• Expand parameters Tag = {:COURSE} (Hint: This is a special typing for reading COURSE setting which we created with previous rule).

You can create additional action and rule for updating new Ticket's Course Tag and Setting to "Course 1" automatically. So you won't select a tag for Course 1 orders after creating a new ticket. For keeping tutorial short I'll skip this part. If asked I can tell details.

At this stage order lines will be tagged with last Selected Order Tag value. You should be able to see tag values next to prices in square brackets.

Printing Orders in Groups
Grouping kitchen orders by Ticket Item Tag is easy. Just open Kitchen Orders Template and enter these values in Group Template:

<C00>
{ITEM TAG}
<F>-

<C00>: Creates a blank line
{ITEM TAG}: Prints Course Value. You can use <L11> for printing it bigger or write it as **{ITEM TAG}** for easier reading.
<F>-: Creates a full line with - character

-------------
End of first part...

[emre]

Kitchen received orders grouped by courses but how they'll know when to serve? In this tutorial we'll implement Marching feature. The term "March" used in our country for defining next course serve. I don't know the exact term used in English. You may name it as you wish

We'll use another set of Ticket Tags for starting next course serve. When we choose a Marching tag it will automatically print a small note from Kitchen Printer for notifying them about upcoming serve.

We'll create Ticket Tags for triggering March notifications.

• Create a Ticket Template, Name it as "March"
• Create sub tags named as "Immediate Serve", "Serve in 5 minutes", "Serve in 15 minutes"
• Save it and include it in Restaurant Department.

Printer Settings For March Notification
We need a print template for notifications. 

• Create a new Printer Template, Name it as "March Notification Template"
• Header template:

<T>SERVICE NOTIFICATION
<L10>{TICKETTAG:March}
<L10>{TICKETTAG:Courses}
<L10>Table : {TABLE}


You can format it as you need...

Additionally we'll need a print job.

• Create a new Print Job, name it as "Print March Notification".
• Untick Close Ticket, Display at POS Screen,  Display at Payment Screen settings.
• Add a new mapping line
• Choose "Kitchen Printer" for Printer
• Printer Template will be "March Notification Template"

Printing Notification
Action for Printing Notification

• Create a new action, name it as "Execute March Print Job"
• Action Type: Execute Print Job
• Print Job Name: Print March Notification

Action for Toggling Course Tag
We'll use this action for advancing Course Tag to next Tag.

• Create a new action, name it as "Toggle Course Tag"
• Action Type: Update Ticket Tag
• Tag Name: Courses
• Tag Value: Course 1,Course 2,Course 3,Course 4

Hint: When we enter multiple tags separated with comma this action will cycle tag values on each call. If it gets called when Ticket Course Tag is "Course 2", ticket tag becomes "Course 3"

Rule for Printing Notification

• Create a new Rule, name it as "Print March Notification"
• Event Name: Ticket Tag Selected
• Tag Name: = March
• Click Select Actions and choose "Execute March Print Job" at first and "Toggle Course Tag" will be the second. (hint: when a march tag selected it will first execute the print job and advance course tag to next value)

Waiter will choose desired Course and click March for printing a notification. Courses tag will also advance to next tag...





Note: Gert J. Thank you for the backup

[CafeCuppio]

Hmmm, I thought that screenshot looked too fimiliar, hehehe

My pleasure Emre!

Great job, once again

[JohnS]

Emre,

Love it!

Can we have two Item Tags? One for Course & one for Seat?

I have setup a Seat Ticket Tag and it appends to the Course (ie, [Course 1 - Seat 1], [Course 1 - Seat 2]), but the grouping on the Kitchen tickets will not be by Course alone, but also by Seat as the grouping is on the whole tag.

Could we use a separator in the Item Tag to designate first sort, second sort like [Course 1|Seat 1] for the grouping?

[emre]

John, I'm asking to be ensure I'm understanding it right. You have no problem with handling tagging but you need to sort items properly while printing. Is it true?

[JohnS]

Because we only have one Tag per item, both Course & Seat make that one Tag - No issues with adding extra info to the Tag, that was easy.
When you group to print, it will group by the whole Tag which will display (now I haven't fully tested every possibility and it should print but I can't get my receipt printer running under Win7 64Bit to test)

** Course 1- Seat 1 **
     Dish
** Course 1- Seat 2 **
     Dish
** Course 2- Seat 1 **
     Dish

Whereas we need

** Course 1 **
    Seat 1 - Dish
    Seat 2 - Dish
** Course 2 **
    Seat 1 - Dish

So, is it possible to either have two Item Tags, or to have a separator that will allow the Tag to be sorted twice.

[Course 1|Seat1]
[Course 1|Seat2]
[Course 2|Seat1]

** Course 1 **
    Seat 1 - Dish
    Seat 2 - Dish
** Course 2 **
    Seat 1 - Dish

I don't beleive there is a need for more than 2 parts to an Item Tag. This should complete any requirements for a Restaurant and for table service for a Bar.