Last updated: Jan 12, 2026, 1:43 PM
Prioritized printing (item sorting priority) allows you to arrange individual menu items to be printed to a prep station or shown on a kitchen display screen in a specified order. This helps cooks to be more efficient in fulfilling orders. There are 3 possible settings: by seat number, by sort order, or by input order. You can also organize items in a secondary way. There will be examples shown for each setting.
Note: If courses are enabled, items will be sorted by courses first and then by option selected for Item Sorting Priority.
In Toast Web, navigate to Kitchen > Printers, tickets, & KDS devices > Kitchen. In the Printed Tickets and Ticket Screens section, you'll see the Item Sorting Priority setting with the following options:
With this option, items are sorted sequentially according to the assigned seat number. All S1 items will be listed first first, then S2, then S3, etc. Seat Number must be enabled in UI options in order to use this sorting method. This setting is good for a large full-service restaurant that want to make sure every item ordered for each seat gets to the seat appropriately.
Secondary Sorting: If sort order is assigned to individual items (in Advanced Properties), the items will first be sorted by seat number, then within each seat number they'll be assorted by sort order. For example, if seat 1 ordered two dishes, the dish with the higher sort order assigned will appear at the top, regardless of the sequence the server range the items in on the check.
This setting allows you to sort items on the kitchen ticket or Kitchen Display System device in your preferred order, such as in order of urgency or prep time. This will also result in similar items being grouped together on the ticket (e.g. all chicken sandwiches in a row on the ticket, regardless of input order or seat number).
Sort order is assigned at the item level in advanced properties. To learn more, check out this Toast Central article: .
Secondary Sorting: If you also have seat numbers enabled, orders will be prioritized by sort order first, then seat number second. For example, let's say seat 1 orders a chicken salad and a sandwich, seat 2 orders a chicken sandwich, and seat 3 orders a salad. If the chicken sandwich has a higher sort order, the ticket would be organized like this:
The items are sorted in the order the waitstaff entered the items on the ordering screen. If seat numbers are enabled, they will show on the ticket or screen next to the item, but they don't affect sort priority. No further configuration is required for this setting.
Note: If option 1 or 2 are chosen, but their corresponding sort order and seat number setting are not enabled, sorting will default to this third option.