Payments company Square recently made its restaurant software stack a little more versatile when it launched its Square KDS back-of-house display system as a standalone item available via subscription. The company says doing so will make Square KDS available to restaurant and kitchen operations that don’t necessarily have a POS system, or even a front of house.
Square’s KDS digitizes the ticket stream coming to into the back of house that chefs use to manage and fulfill orders. The system replaces paper tickets and can process orders coming from multiple different ordering sources, including the restaurant’s POS system, third-party online ordering platforms, and third-party delivery marketplaces. Kitchen staff can view all of these orders on a single screen, which provides a centralized place to see all incoming orders at the same time.
The system also includes features like ticket timers and alerts, performance reports, and customized notifications.
The product was originally released in November of 2020 as part of the Square for Restaurants POS software stack. Nowadays, though, not every business needs a POS system, since not every business has a front of house. Square says that offering KDS as a standalone product is “especially useful” for delivery-only kitchens (aka ghost kitchens) and businesses.
Tech that specifically caters to back-of-house-only operations is becoming more commonplace as more delivery-only restaurant concepts surface. While some of the bigger names in the business, like Kitchen United or iKcon, have developed their own in-house tech stacks, plenty of smaller delivery-only operations may find it easier to license software from third-party companies like Square.
Square KDS is now available as a standalone product in the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia, and Ireland. In the U.S., businesses can take advantage of a special price of $10/month per device through the remainder of 2021. Square for Restaurants Plus subscribers can access unlimited Square KDS devices at no additional cost.
