How does your restaurant accept payments and take orders? For many restaurateurs, the days of using paper tickets and receiving only cash payments are long gone. Restaurant automation has taken orders into the digital space. Devices like Square KDS and point-of-sale systems have made it possible for restaurant managers to fully digitize their order process, simplifying the ordering system and allowing for better communication between staff.
But how does Square KDS work, and how can it help your business? We’ll answer these questions and provide a helpful comparison with other KDS options in this essential guide to Square KDS.
A KDS is a kitchen display system — a screen that shows kitchen staff information about incoming orders and facilitates communication between the back-of-house (BOH) and front-of-house (FOH) teams.
Square’s Kitchen Display System is a KDS app available on Android and the iOS app store. Installing the app lets you turn your tablet or iPad into a fully functional KDS device.
Instead of printing out order tickets, Square KDS displays orders (and a few handy statistics relating to your Square account) on the tablet screen in the kitchen, giving real-time updates about orders to your BOH team.
By removing the step of printing or writing order tickets by hand, your wait staff can more quickly send digital order tickets to the kitchen. This is a faster way of providing your chefs with instant updates about orders they must prepare and which customers they’re going to.
Square KDS works with Square Restaurant POS and other POS systems to help you simplify your BOH workflow and increase your restaurant’s efficiency.
Square KDS can replace paper tickets in your restaurant by synchronizing with your Square POS.
Square takes orders placed on your Square point-of-sale system and automatically displays them on the KDS so your kitchen team can see incoming orders. Your BOH staff can also view completed tickets to see how many orders they’ve fulfilled during a service period. There’s even a timer system so you can see how long each order took to complete.
Square KDS also has excellent reporting functionality, allowing your management team to see how well your restaurant operates. Sales reports from your Square dashboard are visible on the POS system, but the KDS goes a step further by showing you average prep times for meals and shift reports. It’s a fantastic way to get greater visibility into your food operations.
The KDS is also customizable, meaning you can tweak the system to be most beneficial to you. You can change ticket layouts and text sizes or adjust your notifications.
Regardless of your restaurant’s size, model, or menu, Square KDS can help you reduce wasted time and improve efficiency. Restaurants that switch to Square KDS enjoy the following:
Improved order accuracy: Paper tickets often lead to inaccurate orders. Handwriting may be tricky to read, and printed tickets can be lost. By digitizing your order tickets, you can rest assured that your prep station cooks the right food for the right table or customer.
Reduced food waste: By improving the accuracy of your orders, you can reduce the amount of food waste in your restaurant. This is good for the environment and can help your bottom line.
Seamless POS integration: Square KDS works with Square’s POS and other POS systems, so you don’t have to transfer your POS software if you’re already working with another provider.
E-commerce capability: If you accept online ordering from e-commerce sites like DoorDash or GrubHub, you can integrate this with your KDS to make all orders visible in one place.
Self-service functionality: Restaurants with self-service kiosks like KioskBuddy can also use Square KDS. The KioskBuddy app sends customer orders straight through to the KDS so your chefs can start preparing food as quickly as possible.
Some KDS apps cost more than $100 a month, but a single Square KDS has a low monthly price of just $20. It’s a fantastic solution for small businesses that only need one screen in their kitchen, as it’s affordable and highly efficient.
However, larger restaurants with big kitchens may benefit from more screens in their kitchen space. For example, you can set up two prep station screens and one expeditor screen with three devices. A prep station KDS lets your kitchen staff see what orders they need to prepare, and the expeditor screen allows a kitchen manager to update third-party delivery apps that an order is ready to collect, all at the touch of a button.
With that in mind, a Square for Restaurants Plus subscription might be a good idea. A Plus subscription costs $60 per month and includes unlimited KDS devices in addition to the following:
The use of one countertop POS device per location
More advanced team management functionality
24/7 support
Detailed reporting, such as close-of-day reports, menu reports, and live sales
These extra features give you a big-picture view of your restaurant and could help you save time on additional reporting that you’d otherwise have to do manually.
Just as there are various POS systems on the market, you’ll find several different KDS options available.
Fresh KDS: Like Square, Fresh KDS is an internet-based KDS with an affordable monthly plan. You can subscribe to either the Basic or Advanced plan depending on your needs. The Basic option is $19 per location per month, including one screen. The Advanced plan costs $35 per location per month and has additional tools, such as custom notifications, order tracking, and cross-screen communications.
Lightspeed KDS: Lightspeed is a highly visual KDS that displays images of dishes on the screens to help your staff quickly select the correct menu items. It’s only available as part of a larger Lightspeed Restaurant subscription as a paid add-on. Prices for Lightspeed Restaurant start at $69, not including the KDS add-on.
Simple KDS for Clover: If you use Clover as your point-of-sale software, you’ll have access to the Simple KDS for Clover. This KDS app is free to use but doesn’t work as a standalone KDS. You can only use it with Clover’s POS, which costs upward of $90 per month for quick-service restaurants or $150 per month for full-service restaurants. The KDS has relatively basic functionality, but the lack of additional costs makes this a good option for Clover POS users.
There are various KDS providers on the market, but Square's software is an excellent choice if you’re looking for a KDS that integrates with Square POS software. It’s an affordable solution with the functionality to simplify your FOH-BOH communications and reduce the risk of wrong orders.
Square KDS provides a more efficient way to manage restaurant orders than paper tickets. Restaurants of all sizes can benefit from a good KDS, as it can reduce order inaccuracies and improve the customer dining experience.
Square KDS also seamlessly integrates with third-party kiosk tools like KioskBuddy. KioskBuddy works with Square KDS and Square’s Restaurant POS so that all orders made, whether from a staffed checkout or a self-service kiosk, appear on the KDS.
Discover how KioskBuddy and Square KDS can help your restaurant business. Download the KioskBuddy app now.