How to call out ready orders on the dining-room TV

What the ready orders screen is

It's a public page of your restaurant, at qmen.us/your-restaurant/m/, made to stay open on a TV in the dining room or at the counter. Each order with a dish ready becomes a card: the table or the order number in giant type, the dishes with their quantity, and how long they've been ready. Whoever has waited longest comes first. The screen updates by itself the moment the kitchen marks something Ready.

You choose what it shows: by table or by the day's order number, with or without the dishes, their photos and the customer's name. And you choose what it plays: a sound alert, a voice reading out the order, both or neither. So the TV isn't idle while nothing is ready, it can also play your menu animated; that's covered in the screensaver guide.

Why it's worth turning on

• Waiters see what to pick up without walking to the kitchen. One look at the TV and they know which table has a dish waiting.
• Guests at the counter know when it's their turn. With the day's order number, each order gets a number (#1, #2, #3…) that also shows on the guest's page, in the kitchen, in the waiter app and on the printed ticket.
• Nobody has to shout. The sound alert plays when something is ready, and the voice says "Order 23 is ready" or "Table 5, order ready", in the restaurant's language.
• The screen clears itself. An order leaves the TV when the waiter serves it, and an order left open by mistake disappears three hours after it was ready.
• It runs on old TVs and costs nothing. The page is light, works in the browser of older TVs, and is part of qmen.us, which is free for the restaurant.

How to turn it on in 6 steps

Six steps, from Settings to the TV calling out the first order.

1. Turn the screen on in Settings

   In the dashboard, open Settings and scroll to Ready orders screen. Turn on Turn on the ready orders screen: the screen's address and options show up right below, along with the Open the screen button.

2. Pick how each order appears

   Under How each order appears, pick By table number (or By tab number, if your place uses tabs) or By the day's order number (#1, #2, #3…). With the day's number, it also shows on the guest's page, in the kitchen, in the waiter app and on the ticket, so everyone knows which one is theirs.

3. Decide what else goes on the card

   Turn on Show the dishes to list what's ready in each order, and Show the dish photos to use the item's photo from the menu, when there is one. Show the customer's name puts the name given to the order on the card; remember the screen is public.

4. Turn on the sound alert and the voice

   Play a sound when something is ready rings a gong for every new dish on the screen. Announce orders by voice has a voice read out the order right after the alert, in the restaurant's language. Under Voice, pick one of that language's voices and tap Listen to hear a sample before you decide.

5. Save and open the screen on the TV

   Tap Save at the bottom of the page. In the TV's browser, open qmen.us/your-restaurant/m/ and tap the Full screen icon. If the TV won't let sound play on its own, an Enable sound button appears: tap it once. From then on the screen updates without anyone touching it.

   Tip: If the TV loses its internet connection for a while, there's no need to reload: the screen starts updating by itself again when the connection comes back.

6. Adjust it from the Kitchens page

   With the screen on, the Kitchens page gets a Ready orders screen card, with the Screen link to copy, how many orders are ready right now, How it appears and Sound. Under Set up you change the same options without leaving the page, and an open TV follows at once.

Frequently asked questions

Glossary

Ready

An item's status after the prep station marks it done; the waiter is alerted right away.

Serve

The waiter app button that takes a Ready line and marks it Served, with the tab staying open.

Settings

The screen where the owner edits the restaurant's details: name, logo, photo, description, phone numbers, address and opening hours. You get there from the gear icon on the Dashboard.

Kitchen

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

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