Prep time

Prep time is how long an outlet takes to get an order ready. It is one number, and it drives more than most people expect: the time quoted to the customer, when a driver is called, and the colour of the ticket in the kitchen.

Where to find it

Dashboard → Network → Outlets → (outlet) → Edit (/outlet/edit/:outletID) — Admin, Co-Admin

Where it comes from

Level	Where	Applies to
Tenant default	Dashboard → Settings → Configuration → Feature (/settings/settings/feature-settings) → Order Automation	Any outlet with nothing of its own
Per outlet	The outlet’s Configurations section	That outlet
Right now	The partner app, the POS register and the kitchen display	That outlet, until changed again

The last row is the important one. Prep time is not a setting you configure once — it is a dial staff turn during service. When a rush hits, raising it from 15 to 35 minutes immediately changes what new customers are promised, which is far better than quietly running late.

What it drives

• The time the customer is quoted at checkout and on the tracking screen.
• When a driver is dispatched, so the driver arrives as the food does rather than waiting fifteen minutes at the counter.
• Ticket colour on the kitchen display: green inside the prep time, a warning colour past it, and a pulsing danger colour at 1.5× — the kitchen sees which order is slipping without reading timestamps.
• Auto-accept, if you use it: an automatically accepted order is accepted with the prep time as its promise.

Setting a realistic number

Use the time from accepting the order to the food being ready to leave — not the cooking time. Ticket queue, packing and bagging are all part of it.

A number that is too low is worse than one that is too high. Too low and every order is late, the kitchen display is a wall of red, and drivers wait. Too high costs you a few conversions and nothing else. Start slightly pessimistic and tighten it once you can see real timings in the reports.

Different numbers for different hours

Most kitchens need two numbers, not one — a quiet-afternoon figure and a peak-service figure. Rather than trying to average them, let staff raise it at the start of a rush and drop it after. That is exactly what the toolbar control in the partner app is for.

Scheduled orders

For an order placed for later, prep time decides when preparation should start — counted back from the requested time — not when the order was placed. A pre-order for 7pm on a 20-minute prep time surfaces in the kitchen around 6:40pm, not the moment it was placed.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Try this
Customers are quoted a time nobody can hit	Raise the outlet’s prep time; the tenant default only applies where the outlet has none
Drivers arrive far too early	Prep time is set below reality — dispatch is timed off it
Every kitchen ticket goes red immediately	Same cause, seen from the kitchen
A change didn’t take effect	Prep time is per outlet — confirm which outlet was being edited
Auto-accepted orders promise the wrong time	They use the prep time in force at acceptance; check the default under Order Automation

Related: Order automation · Order lifecycle · Availability · Kitchen display