Configure Ticket Routing and Filter Tickets on Your KDS Device

Last updated: Mar 25, 2026, 1:49 PM

Learn how to configure separate prep stations for dining options and/or course types.

In this Article:

 

Ticket Routing (Item Routing) Overview

In many cases, restaurants have dedicated prep stations for specific dining options (e.g. takeout, delivery, etc.) and courses (e.g. appetizers, desserts, etc.). The ability to route these kitchen tickets to the appropriate station makes for a much more streamlined and efficient back-of-house setup. Check out this article to learn how item routing can be configured for your restaurant.

If you find that your printers are printing more tickets than they should be (for example, if your expo printer is printing all tickets when you only want takeout orders to be printed there), check your item routing settings by following the steps below.
 

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Ticket Routing by Dining Option

Routing tickets to specific prep stations based on the selected dining option can be helpful if you want to keep kitchen tickets for takeout and other orders separate from those that are prepared for a dine-in experience. For example, you may want to have your expediter KDS device only show your online orders. Or, if orders for specific dining options are prepared at their usual prep stations, but a separate station is dedicated to packaging these kinds of orders, routing by dining option can also be used to route items to both the usual prep station as well as the packaging station. 

To learn more about configuring custom dining options, check out this Support Center article: Get Started with Custom Dining Options.

Once you've already assigned menu items to print/appear at a specific prep station, you can then configure an order's dining option to override the menu settings in terms of which prep station(s) the items should route to.

To set this up in Toast Web:

  1. Navigate to Kitchen > Kitchen stations > Item routing.
  2. Select + Add.
  3. Enter a Rule Name that describes the routing rule (for example, "Online Order Drinks").
  4. Ensure that Dining Option is selected from the Category drop-down menu. Note that this may be the only option currently available at your location.
  5. From the Condition drop-down menu, choose the dining option that should trigger a ticket to re-route.
  6. Select the desired Reroute From prep station. This is where the tickets would route to normally, before rerouting rules are applied. Note that only one selection can be made from this drop-down.
  7. Choose the Reroute To prep station(s). This is the prep station to which tickets will be re-routed if the selected dining option is applied to an order. You do have the option of rerouting a single prep station to multiple prep stations, so multiple selections can be made from this drop-down. You can also select the same station in this list that the ticket is being routed from if you want the item to appear on that particular station in addition to another station.
  8. Save and publish your changes. 


Note: If you have multiple prep stations, you will need to create a new rule to reroute each one to the dining option-specific prep station.

For example, if you have a Grill prep station, a Desserts prep station, and a Drinks prep station, you'd need to create a separate rule for each ("Online Orders - Grill", "Online Orders - Desserts", and "Online Orders - Drinks", for example). 

If you want to print all takeout and delivery orders at one printer, enter a separate rule for each takeout and delivery dining option that is set up at your restaurant. This means you may have multiple rules that send orders from different takeout/delivery dining options to the same printer.


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Ticket Routing by Service Area

In some scenarios, you may want to use different prep stations for different areas within the restaurant. This is helpful if you want to divert tickets to the closest prep stations to optimize operations or manage a complicated floor layout. 

Similar to how menu items can be assigned to a specific prep station, entire orders can be routed to print at specific prep stations based on which service area the order is placed in (learn more about service areas here: Create Service Areas and Table Setup). For example, you may want drink orders taken on your outside patio to go to one bar, while drink orders from your dining room go to another bar inside. 

This means that if you have already assigned menu items to print to one prep station, you can select a service area and override the prep stations that orders are assigned to by rerouting them to another. 

To set this up in Toast Web:

  1. Navigate to Kitchen > Kitchen stations > Item routing.
  2. Select + Add.
  3. Enter a Rule Name that describes the routing rule (for example, "Online Order Drinks").
  4. Select Service Area from the Category drop-down menu. 
  5. From the Condition drop-down menu, choose the service area that you would like to trigger a re-route for.
  6. Select the desired Reroute From prep station. This is where the tickets would route to normally, before rerouting rules are applied. Note that only one selection can be made from this drop-down.
  7. Choose the Reroute To prep station(s). This is the prep station to which tickets will be re-routed if the selected service area is applied to an order. You do have the option of rerouting a single prep station to multiple prep stations, so multiple selections can be made from this drop-down. You can also select the same station in this list that the ticket is being routed from if you want the item to appear on that particular station in addition to another station.
  8. Save and publish your changes. 


Note: If you have multiple prep stations, you will need to create a new rule to reroute each one to the service area-specific prep station.


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Filter Tickets on Your KDS Device

You can further customize the way you filter kitchen tickets shown on both your prep station and expediter Kitchen Display System (KDS) devices. To do this, you'll filter tickets to specific devices based on dining option or course.

For example, say your restaurant’s kitchen has one KDS designated for Takeout and another KDS for Delivery. Or, say your kitchen has one KDS designated for Entrees and another for Desserts. 

Note: This setup is device-specific and must be configured at the individual device level.

This configuration option gives you the ability to apply a filter on the KDS device that will show tickets for a given dining option/course.

  1. On your device, navigate to Setup > Device Setup from the main menu of the Toast app.
  2. Scroll down to the Kitchen Setup settings and select Ticket Display Options.
  3. Select the Dining Option(s) or Courses you’d like to display on the device.
  4. Select Continue to confirm your selections.


Note: If no dining options are selected, ALL options will display on the device.
 

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