Ordering · 6 min read
Order status and lifecycle
Every state an order moves through from submission to handoff, what each transition signals, and how the customer, kitchen, runner, and admin each see it.
Who this is for
Everyone — owners, runners, kitchen staff.
The five primary states
Just submitted by the customer. Flashes on the kitchen and runner screens with a one-time audio alert. Staff have not acted on it yet.
Staff have acknowledged the order and the kitchen is actively cooking. The customer sees "We are preparing your order".
Food is bagged or plated and waiting for handoff. The customer sees "Your order is ready".
Carside — the runner is walking the food to the customer’s vehicle. Optional for dine-in and takeaway.
The customer has the food. The final state, counted in your reports.
Exception states
Orders that do not finish end as cancelled — by the customer, by staff, or because they could not be fulfilled. Always record a reason; the customer sees it on their tracking page, and Reports track your cancellation rate as a separate metric.
What each role sees
- Customer — the order tracking page shows a clean status timeline with friendly labels; vehicle or table details appear prominently for carside and dine-in.
- Kitchen and runner — order cards live in columns by status on the staff screens: flashing in New, calm in Preparing, highlighted in Ready.
- Owner or manager — the admin Orders page lists orders as filterable rows, and its Live tab shows a real-time column board across all branches.
How status changes happen
Status only changes when a staff member taps the next state on the order card — there is no auto-advance, so a forgotten "ready" order stays in that column until someone notices. For dine-in and takeaway, the typical path is new → preparing → ready → completed; out-for-delivery is meaningful mainly for carside, where the walk to the car is its own step.
In kitchen mode, item-level progress drives the order forward: starting the first item moves a new order to preparing, and marking the final item ready moves the whole order into the ready queue automatically.
The customer tracking page
Right after submission, the storefront opens a live order tracker showing the order reference, items, total, and the status timeline. When staff change the status, the customer page updates within a couple of seconds in real time — no refresh needed.
- Every order has a permanent URL the customer can bookmark and return to.
- A tap-to-dial phone number connects them to the branch for questions.
- One-tap reorder prefills the cart with the same items.
- Adding the page to the home screen gives an app-like reordering experience.
When the tracker seems stuck
If the customer page stops updating for more than thirty seconds, their connection probably dropped. Real-time reconnects automatically; if it cannot, a banner asks them to refresh. Staff screens show the latest state regardless of the customer’s connection.
Frequently asked
Does the order status advance automatically?
No. A staff member taps each transition, which keeps the board honest — a status always reflects a real action. The one exception is kitchen mode, where marking the last item ready moves the whole order to ready automatically.Do we have to use the out-for-delivery status?
Only for carside, where walking food to the vehicle is its own step worth tracking. Dine-in and takeaway orders can go straight from ready to completed to keep the board uncluttered.How fast do customers see a status change?
Within a couple of seconds. Status updates sync in real time over a live connection, so the customer tracker, staff screens, and the admin live board all stay aligned without refreshing.