How an order works

The full order process end to end — who places an order, who accepts it, who cooks it, who serves it, and who takes the money.

This is the most important process in Food Magic. It explains who does what, and in what order.

What it is

An order goes on a journey from the moment it's placed to the moment it's paid and closed. That journey runs across several parts of the system: the Billing/POS till, the Orders and My Orders/My Deliveries screens, the Kitchen Display, Notifications, and Loyalty. Up to four different people can touch one order — the person who places it, the waiter or rider it's assigned to, the kitchen, and a manager. Each one works from their own screen.

The short version

An order is placed, then accepted by a person, cooked by the kitchen, handed over to the customer, and paid for.

flowchart LR
    A[📝 Order placed] --> B[✅ Accepted]
    B --> C[🍳 Kitchen cooks it]
    C --> D[🔔 Ready]
    D --> E[🤝 Handed to customer]
    E --> F[💳 Paid & completed]

Who places the order?

An order can start in three different ways.

How it works

The process is the same for a while, then splits depending on the order type. All three types share the same first stages — Placed → Confirmed → Preparing → Ready — and then go different ways when it's time to hand the order over.

flowchart LR
    A[📝 Waiter or customer places order] --> B[✅ Manager confirms it]
    B --> C[🧑‍🍳 Order assigned to a waiter]
    C --> D{🤔 Waiter decides}
    D -->|Accepts| E[🙋 Waiter is responsible]
    D -->|Declines with reason| C
    E --> F[🍳 Sent to kitchen]
    F --> G[👨‍🍳 Kitchen cooks and bumps items]
    G --> H[🔔 Ready to Serve]
    H --> I[🍽️ Waiter serves the items]
    I --> J[💳 Payment taken]
    J --> K[✅ Table freed, order completed]

flowchart LR
A[📝 Order placed at counter or online] --> B[✅ Manager confirms it]
B --> C[🍳 Sent to kitchen]
C --> D[👨‍🍳 Kitchen cooks and bumps items]
D --> E[🔔 Ready]
E --> F[🛍️ Customer collects: Picked Up]
F --> G[✅ Completed]

flowchart LR
A[📱 Customer orders online or by phone] --> B[✅ Manager confirms it]
B --> C[🧑‍💼 Manager assigns a delivery rider]
C --> D{🤔 Rider decides}
D -->|Accepts| E[🏍️ Rider is responsible]
D -->|Declines with reason| C
E --> F[🍳 Kitchen cooks it]
F --> G[🔔 Ready]
G --> H[📦 Picked Up by rider]
H --> I[🚴 Out for Delivery]
I --> J[📍 Reached]
J --> K[🏠 Delivered]
K --> L{💳 Paid?}
L -->|Yes| M[✅ Completed]
L -->|No| N[❌ Cannot complete until paid]

Where the order status comes from

This is why a waiter serves items one at a time instead of just flipping the whole order to Served. It's also why pulling back one dish on the Kitchen Display — if it was bumped by mistake — can pull a Ready order back down to Preparing automatically.

What the waiter sees

When a waiter signs in, they land on a dashboard built around their part of the job, showing a live count at each stage:

Their quick actions are New Order, My Orders, Tables, and Kitchen Display — the four screens the job actually needs. Below the counters, a live My Active Orders list shows what they're currently working on. When there's nothing in progress, it says "No active orders — take one from Billing / POS."

What the rider sees

When a delivery rider signs in, they land on their own dashboard, built around one question: what am I carrying right now?

Their only quick action is My Deliveries — the one screen the job needs. Below the counters, a live panel shows their current work. When there's nothing in progress, it says "No active deliveries assigned." The My Deliveries screen refreshes itself automatically every 14 seconds.

What the kitchen does

The kitchen works from the Kitchen Display.

flowchart LR
  A[📥 Items arrive from Send KOT] --> B[🔀 Routed to a station]
  B --> C[🍳 Cooked]
  C --> D[✅ Bump]
  D --> E[🔔 Item is Ready]
  E -.->|Bumped by mistake| F[↩️ Recall]
  F --> C

Each dish goes to a station — Tandoor, Grill, Fryer, Bar, Dessert, or Main Kitchen — set up under Kitchen → Stations. The station shows on the dish tile at the till, so whoever takes the order can see where it will be cooked.

• Bump — mark the dish as done and clear it from the screen.
• Recall — bring back a dish that was bumped by mistake. Since the order's stage is calculated from its items, a recall can pull the whole order's stage back down too.
• Reassign — move a dish to a different station, one at a time or in bulk.

If something goes wrong

How it is secured

Once an order is Cancelled or Completed, it's frozen. No further status change, item edit, or reassignment is allowed on it, anywhere in the system.

Every step below is controlled by its own switch on the Roles & Permissions screen. Day to day, a waiter or rider only sees the ones relevant to their job. An owner decides which role gets the rest.

One branch at a time. Every order belongs to a single outlet, and that's enforced automatically everywhere in this process. A manager, waiter, or rider only ever sees — and can only ever act on — their own outlet's orders. Only the platform's super-admin account, which isn't tied to one outlet, can see across outlets.

Notifications. A status change can trigger a message to the customer or to staff, but not every stage has a message set up by default. See Notification templates and rules for exactly which stages currently send one.

Related pages