Ordering · 7 min read
Managing orders: oversight, cancellations, and troubleshooting
Use the admin live board to watch every branch in real time, cancel orders cleanly when needed, and diagnose the rare case where an order seems to go missing.
Who this is for
Owners and managers.
The admin live order board
- 1
Open Orders in the admin sidebar.
- 2
Switch to the Live tab.
- 3
Pick the branches to include — typically all of them — and the board renders one column-set per branch, side by side.
How it differs from the staff screens
- It shows every branch at once; kitchen and runner screens show only their own branch.
- It is read-mostly — you can drill into a card, but the primary purpose is oversight, not fulfilment.
- You can filter by status, order type, and time window without affecting what staff see.
- During a busy service, watch it on a desktop and step in by phone if a column gets crowded. It is also the right tool when a customer calls — reading the order live beats interrupting a runner.
Cancelling an order
- 1
On the staff order screen, tap the card you want to cancel.
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Open the Actions menu and tap Cancel order.
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Pick a reason from the list, or write a short free-text reason.
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Confirm. The card moves out of the live columns (cancelled orders remain visible on the admin Orders page) and the customer tracking page updates with the reason.
When to cancel — and what it affects
- Cancel when the customer changes their mind before prep starts, when you cannot fulfil due to stock or staffing, for duplicate orders from the same customer, or for suspected fraudulent orders that match no real vehicle or phone.
- The customer tracker shows a cancellation notice with the reason you entered — if a phone number is on the order, expect a call and explain directly.
- Reports track cancellation rate as a separate metric. Watch for spikes: they usually signal stock issues or training gaps.
- Cancelling after an online payment requires a manual refund through your payment provider; DashDine does not auto-refund customer payments today.
Troubleshooting: a customer ordered but staff saw nothing
- 1
Ask the customer for their order reference. If they cannot find one, the order was probably never submitted (a network drop on their phone).
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Open admin Orders and search by reference. If the order is there with status "new", staff are missing the alert — check the points below.
- 3
If it is not in admin Orders at all, it was never submitted. Reassure the customer and place a manual order if appropriate.
Order is in admin but not on the staff screen
- Wrong branch on the staff tablet — the order is at branch A but the tablet is signed into branch B. Sign out and back in at the right branch.
- Connection-lost banner — the screen is offline. It reconnects automatically; waking the tablet usually restores the live feed and the card appears.
- The tablet was asleep, or audio was muted so the arrival went unnoticed even though the card is visible. Unmute and test the speaker before each service.
- On iOS, push notifications only fire when the staff app is launched from the home-screen icon, not from a Safari tab.
Frequently asked
Can I cancel an order from the admin dashboard?
Order cards are actioned on the staff screens, while the admin Orders page gives you the full searchable history and the Live tab for oversight. For day-to-day cancellations, use the order card actions on the staff screen.A customer says their order disappeared. Did the system lose it?
Orders are not lost once submitted — every submitted order appears in admin Orders with a reference. If the customer has no reference, the submission never completed (usually a network drop on their phone). Search admin Orders by reference first; that tells you which side the problem is on.Do cancelled orders disappear from my records?
No. Cancelled orders stay in the admin Orders history with their reason, and Reports track your cancellation rate separately so you can spot patterns over time.