Manage Online Order Volume (Delaying/Snoozing Orders)

During peak business hours (such as the lunch rush), it may be necessary to put a hold on orders coming in from Online Ordering by adding a delay. By using this tool, you will be able to add a delay (in minutes) to online orders.

Learn more about the Online Ordering dashboard here and how to turn off Online Ordering for a specific time period.

Snooze Online Ordering

In some cases, you might need to snooze your Online Ordering page to temporarily stop guests from placing orders online. Use the snooze feature to disable Online Ordering for 20 minutes, 40 minutes, or snooze Online Ordering for the rest of the day.

Online Ordering will return to its normal function after the selected snooze period. Therefore, if you snooze Online Ordering for 20 minutes, it will return to its normal function after that time. In addition, snoozing Online Ordering for the rest of the business day will mean that Online Ordering will resume functioning upon opening the following business day.

There are two ways to snooze Online Ordering. Follow the steps below to enable order throttling from a device and from Toast Web.

Snoozing is only available for orders placed through Toast Online Ordering, Toast Delivery Services, or for GrubHub, DoorDash, or UberEats integrations. For all other providers, visit your applicable third-party delivery support for available options for your restaurant.

Snooze Online Ordering on a Device

Note: The following permissions are needed to snooze online orders: 1.5 Pending Orders Mode/Orders Hub Mod, 3.29 Throttle Online Orders, 6.4 Publishing, and 6.6 Restaurant Operations Setup. See our for questions about back-end permissions.

Learn how to snooze your orders from below.

Snooze Online Ordering in Payment Terminal (All Checks)

Managing your online orders in Payment Terminal (All Checks) can only be done on tablet devices.

To snooze your orders in the Payment Terminal (All Checks):

From the main menu dashboard on your POS, navigate to the Payment Terminal (All Checks).
From here, select Manage Online Orders in the upper right corner.
Select Snooze and the corresponding time increment, or select Off instead.
Select OK to save your changes.

Snooze Online Ordering in Pending Orders

To snooze your orders in Pending Orders:

From the main menu dashboard on your POS, navigate to Pending Orders.
From here, select Throttle Online Orders in the upper right corner.
Select Snooze and the corresponding time increment, or select Off instead.
Select OK to save your changes.

Snoozing Online Ordering from Toast Web

Navigate to Toast Web >Takeout & delivery > Toast online ordering.
On the Toast Online Ordering dashboard, select the desired option in the dropdown menu.
- Changes made to the settings for Online Ordering using the dropdown will automatically be saved and published to your Online Ordering page and the Local by Toast app.

Snooze Third-Party Online Ordering from Toast Web

Navigate to Toast Web >Takeout & delivery > Third-party ordering.
Use the links on the left or scroll to the Third-party ordering section.
Select the dropdown button and select your desired snooze option.

What Guests Will See

When snoozed, your Online Ordering page will display the following message, and guests won't be able to order.

Add Delays

Add Delays from a Device

Note: The following permissions are needed at this point: 1.5 Pending Orders Mode/Orders Hub Mod, 3.29 Throttle Online Orders, 6.4 Publishing, and 6.6 Restaurant Operations Setup. See our for questions about back-end permissions.

From the main menu dashboard, navigate to Payment Terminal (All Checks).
From here, select either Manage Online Orders (in Payment Terminal/All Checks).
On the right side of the screen, under Toast Online Orders, you will see a label called Added delay in both the Takeout and Delivery sections. Tap the dropdown to select your desired delay.
Then select Update to save your changes.

Add Delays from Toast Web

1. Navigate to Toast Web > Takeout & delivery.
2. On the Online Ordering dashboard, add a delay to the Takeout section for takeout and pickup orders. If you use Toast Delivery Services, a delay added here will also affect the quoted time for delivery orders.

If you manage deliveries with your own drivers, you will be able to add a delay specifically to the quoted time for guests.

3. You must select Publish all changes at the top of the page to apply these delays to your Online Ordering page and the Local by Toast app.

What Guests Will See

Guests will just see the quoted time on the Online Ordering page account for that delay. They won't see anything to indicate that throttling is in effect, or that the restaurant is busy.

Adding a delay to takeout (pickup) orders:
Adding a delay to (self-managed) delivery orders: (see note about Toast Delivery Services below)
Turning off delivery (for both self-managed delivery or Toast Delivery Services):
- When delivery is turned off, your Online Ordering page will not display the delivery option to guests

Note on Toast Delivery Services: If your restaurant uses Toast Delivery Services and you'd like to add a delay, you will need to add a Takeout delay to adjust the quote time for Toast Delivery Services. The takeout/pickup quote time will adjust automatically as a result.