How to create prep stations and give each one a display

What a kitchen is in qmen.us

Creating prep stations means telling qmen.us how many stations your restaurant has and what comes out of each one. Prep station is the everyday name: the grill, the cold station, the bar, the pastry corner. Inside the system, each of them is a kitchen — and each kitchen has its own display, at an address like qmen.us/your-restaurant/k/2, protected by a password.

Every restaurant starts with one kitchen already created, simply called Kitchen. If everything comes out of a single station, you can leave it that way: the app keeps the option out of sight and nobody has to choose anything. From the second one on, every item in the Menu gets the Default kitchen field, the waiter sees the station's name next to the item, and each display shows only its own queue.

Why splitting the stations changes service

• Each screen shows only its own items. The grill display doesn't fill up with caipirinhas. The queue stays short, it reads from a distance and nobody wastes time hunting for the right item in the middle of a whole order.
• The bar moves at the bar's pace. When the waiter sends the order, each item lands instantly on its station's display. The drink goes out in seconds while the dish stays Preparing, without one station waiting for the other.
• READY per item, not per order. Each station marks its own items done with the READY? button, and the waiter is notified right away — even if the rest of the order is still in another station's queue.
• You can see each station's load. In the Dashboard, the Load per kitchen block shows how many items each one has in its queue right now. The same number appears on the card's label, under Kitchens.
• Adding another one costs nothing. There's no limit on kitchens and no charge per display: qmen.us is free for the restaurant with no commission per order, because we're not a marketplace.

How to create prep stations in 7 steps

Seven steps, from the Dashboard to the menu item pointing at the right station — and what to do when a station changes its name or stops operating.

1. Open Kitchens in the Dashboard

   In the restaurant Dashboard, under Manage restaurant, click the Kitchens card. You land on a grid with one card per station. Each card shows the Display link with a copy button, the Display password, the Printing line and a label with the current queue: No orders, 4 queued or inactive.

2. Tap New kitchen

   The New kitchen button is at the top of the page. The last square in the grid, the one with the plus sign and the caption Creates a new display, opens the same window. Two fields and that's it.

3. Name the station

   In Kitchen name goes the name the team uses every day: Grill, Cold station, Pantry, Pastry, Bar. Free text, no format rules — this is the name that appears at the top of the display, on the Dashboard card and next to the item on the waiter's screen.

   Tip: A typo is no problem: you can rename it later without losing the display link.

4. Set the display password

   The Display password field is required and needs at least 4 characters. It keeps the orders safe from anyone who only has the link. Click Create kitchen and the card appears instantly, with the display address ready, in the format qmen.us/your-restaurant/k/2.

5. Open the link on the station's TV or tablet

   Copy the Display link and open it in the browser of the device that sits at the station. The first time, it asks for the password; after that the screen stays unlocked for 30 days, with no sign-in in the middle of service. Forgot the password? The card has an eye icon that shows it so you can pass it on to the team.

6. Point each menu item to its station

   From the second kitchen on, the item form in the Menu gets the Default kitchen field — where the item is prepared. Draft beer goes to the Bar, picanha goes to the Grill. When the waiter sends the order, each item lands only on the display of the station in charge, and its name appears next to the item in the waiter's list.

7. Rename, deactivate or remove it when needed

   At the bottom of the card are Rename and Remove. Rename opens the Edit kitchen window, which also has the Kitchen active switch — inactive kitchens don't receive new items, handy for a station that only runs on weekends. Remove asks for confirmation, doesn't work on your restaurant's last kitchen and, if the station already has items in its history, deactivates it instead of deleting it.

Frequently asked questions

Glossary

Prep station

The station that makes one kind of thing: grill, cold station, bar, pastry.

Kitchen

The display where orders show up and move from Preparing to READY.

Kitchen display

The wall screen that shows that prep station's queue live, protected by a password.

Default kitchen

The field on a menu item that says which prep station makes that item.

Custom item

An item the waiter types in on the spot, picking its prep station by hand.

Preparing

The stage the guest sees on the table page while the kitchen works on the order.

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