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Every item on the KDS moves through a defined lifecycle from the moment it’s added to a cart until it’s paid for and archived. Understanding each status is essential for kitchen throughput, waiter coordination, and honest analytics.

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The full lifecycle

DishInk uses seven KDS statuses, stored on table_order_items.kds_status: printed is a peer of sent_to_kitchen, not a successor — it’s the path for kitchens that print rather than run a KDS screen. served follows either ready (KDS mode) or printed (paper mode).

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Where each status appears

Each status has a distinct visual treatment across DishInk surfaces:

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KDS ticket board

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Waiter Bill Summary

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Floor plan card border

The floor card border encodes the mix of statuses on the table’s active items: This lets a waiter see at a glance whether a table is “all preparing” (uniform amber) vs “some ready, some still cooking” (green/amber split).

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Colour coding — the traffic-light rule

Prep timers use a three-band traffic light against each item’s prep_time_target_minutes: Overdue detection is driven by prep_started_at + prep_time_target_minutes — the item must be preparing for the timer to run. Items sitting in sent_to_kitchen don’t count against the prep target, but they do count against the station queue alert (alert_after_minutes).
Kitchen statuses

Kitchen statuses

Not every status can follow every other status. The valid transitions are:
  • pending → sent_to_kitchen — the waiter taps Send to Kitchen.
  • sent_to_kitchen → preparing — the kitchen taps Prepare (per item or bulk).
  • preparing → ready — the kitchen taps Ready.
  • ready → served — the kitchen taps Served, or the waiter serves it.
  • sent_to_kitchen → printed — for stations with thermal_print_enabled, the item skips the KDS screen and goes to the printer.
  • printed → served — the waiter ticks the served checkbox on the Bill Summary as food lands.
  • Any → cancelled — a void by the waiter (with manager PIN) or POS.
Status changes travel two ways: server realtime and LAN broadcast. If you see a status change back-track (e.g. ready → preparing), it’s almost always an offline device catching up. Wait a beat before overriding.

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Sync fabric — how a status change reaches every screen

Every tap on the KDS goes through the same three-layer sync:
  1. Optimistic local write — the UI updates immediately.
  2. Supabase realtime — the update fans out to every subscribed KDS, POS, and Waiter device via the waiter_kds_${restaurantId} channel.
  3. LAN side-car broadcast — in parallel, a broadcast fires over the local Wi-Fi so on-network devices update even when the cloud is slow.
If both fail (fully offline), the change queues locally and syncs on reconnect. The X QUEUED badge on the KDS header shows the pending count.

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Automatic session transitions

Item statuses drive session statuses on the table: See Table Statuses for the parallel table-level lifecycle.

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Voids and cancellations

A cancelled item is not deleted — the record is kept for audit and fiscal purposes. It shows on the Bill Summary with a strike-through and does not count toward the “every item served” transition. See Editing Orders for the void workflow.
Cancelled items with a cancel_reason land in the shift report so managers can see what got voided and why.

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Tips & best practices

Train the kitchen to update statuses in real time, not in batches. A single tap per item at the right moment gives clean analytics and instant floor visibility. A batch of taps at the end of the rush destroys both.
Read the border colour on the floor plan before walking to a table. A diagonal split means the food is arriving in stages — don’t promise the guest a single arrival.
Set a queue alert on every station. Even a 20-minute threshold is better than none — it catches abandoned tickets before the guest catches you.

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Common mistakes

Do not use one status for two purposes. “Ready” means plated and hot — not “almost done” and not “the waiter’s on the way”.
Do not skip preparing. Jumping straight from sent_to_kitchen to ready breaks every prep-time metric and hides slow starts.
Do not treat cancelled as reversible. Once an item is voided, the fiscal record excludes it — if the guest changes their mind, add a fresh line rather than trying to un-void.
Last modified on July 19, 2026