Alliance WebPOS: Kitchen Monitoring

by Geoffrey Sy

Alliance WebPOS Kitchen monitoring module allows an establishment to keep track of the status of food as they are being ordered, prepared and served to the customers.   This is primarily an interface that is placed inside the kitchen or  in the bar.  The staff can update the status of the incoming orders to reflect its actual stage in the food preparation cycle.

This is an alternative setup to the conventional kitchen printer that aims to shorten the turnaround time from order to delivery.  Orders are properly grouped, queued and staffs are alerted to long overdues.

I will give a short walkthrough on how to this work.

Before that, please go through  Step by Step Demonstration of Alliance WebPOS and Walkthrough Demo of Alliance WebPOS - Food and Beverage for instruction on how to set up your operation before proceeding with this walkthrough.

Step 1:  Setting a Kitchen Station

The first step is to set up a kitchen station.   A station can either be placed inside the kitchen (hot) or in the bar (cold).   We can configure as many stations as we want.

Kitchen station is configured under each branch.   So, let's open the headquarter system and navigate to the branch master.

Select a branch and open its detail.   Click kitchen station as shown below.

This will bring up the kitchen station listing for the branch.  Let's create a new record by clicking the "New" button.  Fill up the items as shown below.

Name -  Enter any name (ie. Bar, Main Kitchen, Grill Station)

Active -  Whether this kitchen is active or not

Catch all products - when checked, all orders will be routed to this station.  

Ideal Queue Time (mins) - ideal time a product should be served upon order in minutes

Interval every (mins) - next elapse time that will indicate urgency.  For example, given ideal queue time of 20 minutes and interval time of 10 minutes, the following color indication will be shown in the station.

Catching Specific Products

Alternatively, you can also specify which items will be shown in which particular station.  This is useful if you have several areas for food preparation (ie. hot, cold, etc).

Uncheck the "Catch all products".  A list will be displayed where you can either add a particular product  or category. 

Adding a Product or Category

To add a product or category, click on "Add" button.

This example shows that we are adding a particular product called "Coke 330ml".

Hierarchy - specify whether adding a product or particular category

Product ID - single product

Category - product category

The Enabled checkbox indicates whether this will be routed or not.  This is useful when you choose a particular category and wishes to exclude some items in that category.

Batch Selection

To add by batch, click "batch select" and this will bring up the product batch selection window.  You can only select individual products (not by category) here.

Hit "Save" and that's it!   We have created our kitchen station.

Step 2:  Assigning Station to POS Terminal

The next step is to assign the newly created station to the POS terminal.  Open the terminal record in headquarter system as shown below.

In the terminal detail, check "This is a kitchen station", then select the appropriate station.

Please note that when a terminal is assigned as a kitchen station, it can no longer function as a cashiering module.



Routing Slip
You have an option to print a routing slip when status of order is change to "served".  This will help the waiter identify and bring the item to appropriate location.

To do this, select the hardware interface tab in the terminal detail and choose appropriate setting for "Printer".

Hit save when done.  We have finished all the necessary preparations.  It's now time to look at the actual kitchen monitoring module.


Step 3:  Running Kitchen Monitoring Station


Install the F&B module as described in Demo of Alliance WebPOS - Food and Beverage.

Running WebPOS FB will show you the actual kitchen monitoring station.

We have options to display the incoming orders by "Group Order" or "Single Order".  Group layout allows us to view orders from the same source.  This helps us decide which item will take precedence over others (ie. appetizers, salad, entree, dessert) that could be particular useful in fine dining setup.

In single layout, it  allow us to queue product as they are ordered.  This is ideal for fast food setup.

Group Box
Each item is displayed in a container called group box.

Here, all items for "Table 2" have an average queue time of  "21 mins".   Earlier, we set our ideal queue time to 20 mins, so this group box is now tagged with "yellow" urgency.

The next line is the source of order - 1st Floor, Table 2,  followed by the list of products.  Aside from the product name, there is an indicator named "(total of 7)".  This means that there is a total of 7 orders of the same product from different groups.  It enables us to prepare them altogether.

Kitchen monitoring is designed to be used with keyboard or touch screen.  The guide is shown below.

Status Dialog
The status dialog allows you to update the status of the item.  

The cycle of the product preparation is described below:

Group Order Dialog
Group order dialog displays list of all orders from a particular source (ie. table, delivery).  In fine dining, you can use this to decide which order should be prepared first.

Group order from Sam to be picked up, indicated by header "PICK UP: Sam"

The operation is almost identical as the group box's.

Similar Products Dialog
This dialog allows you to view similar products from different sources.

Orders for Hamburger from different sources as indicated in the header "Hamburger (Similar Products)"

The operation for this dialog is described below:

Status in Pickup and Delivery

The general status displayed in pickup and delivery tab of Cashiering module will also be updated accordingly.

Status will automatically be changed from "Preparing" --> "Ready" once all items are prepared.


View Status of Product in Cashiering

The status of the product can also be viewed in cashiering module.

You can also override the status.  Click appropriate row to open up product detail, then select "Status".

That is all to know about kitchen monitoring.   Visit the live site at http://www.alliancepos.net and start using Alliance WebPOS.

Walkthrough Demo of Alliance WebPOS - Food and Beverage

by Geoffrey Sy

In this article, we will take a quick tour of the Food & Beverage Module of Alliance WebPOS.
This module is designed to handle restaurant operations.   And it supports touch panel operation.

Note:  Please go through  Step by Step Demonstration of Alliance WebPOS before proceeding with this.

Create Floor
First step is to create a  floor layout.
Login to you headquarter system and navigate to Branch Master as shown below.

Open a branch record and hit the shop floor button.

This will open the floor list for a particular branch.  A branch can have multiple floors (ie. 1st floor, 2nd floor, etc.).  You can further subdivide sections of a floor to function room 1, 2 and so on.

Let's try to create a shop floor, and populate it with tables.   Click "New" in the floor list screen and you will be presented with a layout of the floor as shown below.

Fill up the following fields:
  Name:  Any name like 1st floor
  Active:  Leave as default, this is an active record
  Background:  You can change the background of your floor for easy identification
  Width and Height:  Dimension of your floor.  Each unit represents one table.  So 10x10 can hold up to 100 tables.

To add table, make sure the "Add/Remove Table" is selected, and click on the floor layout  to place the position of each table.

To edit the information of a table (name and # of pax), make sure "Add/Remove Table" is not selected and double click on the table to show the property.

To arrange the table, make sure "Arrange Table" is selected, then drag and drop each table to their desired location.

Product Menu
This option allows you to group products to locate them easily.  It's like creating your "Menu" book.  You can separate it by page or category (ie. dessert, main dishes, drinks, etc).

From the branch detail, select "Product Menu".

This will open the product menu record.

Here are the basic navigation and controls:

Show Headers: Click to show the different categories during product browsing.
Main Menu Header:  Any label for header (ie. My Menu, Main Menu, etc)
Page Name: this will be the different groupings that will be shown under Main Menu
Product Line, Division, Brand: these are the default product hierarchies.  You can toggle them if you want to show them or not.

Scroll up and down the page name to show the products associated with each grouping.

Adding products to a group

First, select the appropriate grouping (in this case, "Appetizers")

Use the following options to add/remove products
Batch Select - select this if you want to add products by batch.
Select/Unselect All - this toggles the checkbox for the listed products
Add - select this if you want to add single product at a time
Remove - select this to remove the selected product (checkbox is marked)

Hit save when you're done with editing.

The result will be something like this when you browse your product.

Install F&B Module

Next, we need to install the F&B module.  Let's open our browser and navigate to Alliance WebPOS.

Go to Step 4, and click on F&B Module.

This will download the F&B Module and install it in your computer.   The following shows the step by step installation process.

Click "Install" in the first screen as shown below.

Click Continue on the next screen, accept if there are any security popup screen.

That's it!   It will automatically run the application once the installation is done.

(If prompted with registration key, follow the registration process described in this blog :

Step by Step Demonstration of Alliance WebPOS)

To execute F&B Module, just click on the WebPOS FB icon.

F&B - Dine In

This is the main screen of F&B module.

This tab shows you that you are in the "Dine In" section.  You can switch to different sections by clicking on the labels.

This shows you which floor is selected.  The arrow keys allow you to navigate through different floors.

There are 2 types of images that can be seen here.  One for occupied, and another for vacant table.  This allows you to identify them easily.  Another type would be "RESERVED", which will be labeled in place of table name.

To add orders, select any table and hit "Add Orders" on the lower right pane.  This will bring up the product browsing window.

To locate a product, choose the "Product Hierarchy" then "Product Groupings".  The actual product is located in the middle pane.

  Product Hierarchy (top pane)  >   Product Group (left pane)  >  Product (middle pane)

Click the product to select and add to the basket in the right pane.

After the selection, hit "Add Products" to add the products in the basket to the actual order.  The resulting screen will show something like this.

You can click on this pane if you want to edit some of the products.

To print the bill that will be presented to the customers, click "Print Bill".  This will not settle the order yet.

Note:  You must setup printer (HQ > POS Terminal) correctly.

After receiving the payment, click settle.

Enter the received amount (usually cash or credit card), and hit "Settle" button.   You will be prompted with confirmation - click "Yes".  This is the resulting screen after it is posted.

Try to explore other options such as Group Table and Reserve.  In table grouping, you can join, break or transfer tables located in different floors.

F&B - Individual

This is designed to take orders from individual person (ie. bars).

Click "New Customers" in the lower right pane to create an order.

This will bring up the a new popup window.

You can select from your old records, or create new one (F11-Add Customer).   Alternatively, you can also enter the name only.

Click OK and it will be presented per individual as shown below.

The rest of the operation is pretty similar to Dine in operation.

F&B - Pickup

Pickup is designed for those calling to place order in advance and personally come to pick it up.  You can easily see the pickup time and the status of each order.

F&B - Delivery

Delivery is designed to take orders for delivery.  It can show you the time that the order has been placed, its status and location.

F&B - Queue

This screen allows you to manage the waiting area.  It can give you  a quick glance on the available tables as soon as they are updated.

F&B - Counter

This is similar to over the counter POS.  It gives you options to sell things like souvenirs or cigarettes.

F&B - Options

This section allows you to perform basic housekeeping operations such as X/Z reading.   Use this section to sign off.

That's it.  Try to explore the different options available.

The system is free to try for 60 days.  Once you're satisfied, you can create a new terminal or contact Alliance Sales to clean up your terminal data and start using it for commercial purpose.