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Multiple KDS, one expo. How to make the expo not complete until Expo says so

We use multiple KDS stations, e.g., Salad, Grill, Sauce, and an Expo. Each station sees its own items, the Expo sees all items. When all the stations complete their individual items, the Expo ticket also moves to "Completed." Is there a way to create the Expo station so that it does not move to complete until the Expo actually marks the whole order complete. The expo is having to go back and forth a lot between open orders and completed orders.

 

In other words, the "order" isn't really complete until the Expo says it is. 🙂

 

Any suggestions would be helpful.

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Alumni

Hi hi @diedtric - and welcome to the Seller Community! Supporting expo capabilities is currently considered a feature request, so I'll be sure to drop by with an update for you when one becomes available.

 

In the meantime, if you'd like to try replicating this capability while working around the current system limitations, our Square for Restaurants team recommended adding an item to every order that is in a special category that only the expo sees. Let us know if questions come up about this!

 

Valentina
Community Moderator, Square
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Beta Member

Thank you for the reply. I had thought of the "add an item" solution - I was hoping there was something else. I will give it a try!

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Alumni

Not yet, but we'll be sure to post here when this is an available feature 💫

Stay tuned for an update @diedtric!

Valentina
Community Moderator, Square
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Super Seller

@Valentina This is DEFINITELY BY NO MEANS NOT a feature request.  It is a glaring design hole that makes Square KDS utterly useless, even for operations that don’t have expos.  A case in point from my real world use of this.

 

In my operation we have “adult” versions of all of our shakes/slushes/malts.  The preparation of these items is split between two prep stations — Ice Cream Prep and Bar Prep.  Ice cream prep creates the shakes and sends them to the bartender, who finishes them.  However, when Ice Cream Prep completes the item, it completes on the bar KDS, causing complete and total chaos since the bar can no longer (without toggling) see the incomplete item.

 

At the time that I beta tested Square KDS, I only needed one prep station (it was winter), so I didn’t see this.  Now, in my real world situation, Square KDS is completely lacking because of the MAJOR DESIGN FLAW.  I’m going to have to go back to paying additional money for FreshKDS which actually works as a real world KDS should.  It sucks, but it is true.

 

I can’t stress this enough.  This should be categorized as a MAJOR BUG that completely makes Square KDS useless, even dangerous, for most real-world uses.  It should be prioritized as needing an immediate fix, scheduled for a due date of yesterday.  There was some seriously bad decision making going on somewhere on the design team on this one.  Sad, but very true.

 

Chip

Chip

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Piper’s Ice Cream Bar, Covington KY USA
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Thanks for the feedback @TheRealChipA.

Bea_
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