Scheduled orders

A scheduled order is placed now for a slot later — tonight’s dinner ordered at lunchtime, Friday’s office order placed on Monday. It waits out of the way and surfaces into live orders near its slot, so the kitchen starts at the right time rather than the moment it was placed.

For the customer

At checkout they pick a future slot instead of “as soon as possible”, and pay exactly as they would otherwise — online, wallet, or a pay-on-arrival method. Once the order goes live they get the same updates and tracking as anyone else.

From their side it feels identical to a normal order. The only difference is when the kitchen springs into action.

For your kitchen

The order does not interrupt service when it is placed. It sits in the upcoming view, where staff can see what is coming — dishes, quantities, slot times — and plan prep and staffing around it.
Near the slot it surfaces into live orders and behaves like any fresh order: the alert sounds, staff accept, and it moves through the normal lifecycle.
The date picker on the orders screen jumps to a specific day, which is how you review tomorrow’s pre-orders during a quiet moment.

Timing

A scheduled order follows the same statuses as any other; only its entry into the live flow is different. When it surfaces, Prep time is counted back from the requested slot, so a 7pm order on a 20-minute prep time reaches the kitchen around 6:40pm rather than when it was placed.

Accepting commits you to the customer’s slot, so prep should target that time, not “as fast as possible”. Driver assignment works exactly as usual, timed against the slot.

If you use Order automation, decide deliberately what auto-accept does with scheduled orders: accept them when preparation should start, or leave them for a human. Accepting a Friday order on Monday helps nobody.

Editing, cancelling and payment

Edits and cancellations follow the same windows, permissions and refund rules as any other order. Advance orders are where editing earns its keep — the customer who booked Friday’s office lunch on Monday often rings on Wednesday to add two more.

Prepaid scheduled orders are paid at placement, days ahead if need be. Pay-on-arrival orders are collected at handover, exactly as usual.

Printing

Printing follows acceptance, not placement. With auto-print on, the receipt and kitchen ticket print when staff accept the surfaced order — so a pre-order placed on Monday does not leave a ticket curling on the printer for four days. Staff can print on demand at any point. See Receipt & kitchen printing.

Common questions

Does the kitchen ticket print when the order is placed? No — on acceptance, as the order surfaces.

Do scheduled orders look different once live? No. Same statuses, same documents, same actions.

Can staff see them before they go live? Yes, in the upcoming view, and by date on the orders screen.

Can customers pay on arrival? Yes, wherever you have those methods enabled.

Why offer them

Capture demand you would otherwise lose — somebody deciding at 10am what to eat at 7pm orders from whoever lets them lock it in.
Smooth the rush — pre-orders give the kitchen a head start instead of stacking everything into the same twenty minutes.
Win larger orders — office lunches and gatherings are planned ahead, and skew bigger than impulse orders.

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