One queue, three doors
Counter, kiosk and app orders belong on one bump bar in the order they were placed. Two queues means the guest standing in front of the line waits behind an app order nobody can see.
Industries · Food and beverage
Payments for fast casual, paced to the make line
A guest walks the line, a kiosk takes an order behind them, and an app order lands from four blocks away. All three end at the same sneeze guard, and the system either merges them into one queue or gives you three.
The service, end to end
What a lunch rush asks of the system
Six places a fast casual counter loses time, and what has to be true for it not to.
Modifier trees grouped by station
A bowl with a base, a protein, four toppings, two sauces and a swap is eleven flat lines or six grouped ones. The line reads the grouped version at a glance; the flat one it reads twice.
Prep-time throttling on order-ahead
Left at its default, the app quotes the same ready time at eleven and at half past twelve. That is how you get a shelf of cold bowls and a guest who blames the food.
The second digital make line
Once digital orders pass a certain share of the rush, running them off the same rail slows both. The decision is a floor plan decision as much as a software one, and it should be made with numbers you already have.
Curbside arrival on the line's screen
The runner should go out once, at the right moment. Arrival that pings a phone in an office produces two trips and a guest watching the door.
Loyalty scanned before payment
Scanned at order, the earn attaches cleanly and the reward applies. Scanned after, you are doing a reconciliation nobody staffed for.
Buying guide
Before you sign anything for a counter
Seven questions worth asking any provider, us included.
Show me a kiosk order and a counter order on one screen.
Ask for the demo in that exact order. If they arrive on separate screens, you are buying two lines.
How does the kitchen screen group modifiers?
Bring your own worst bowl. Build it in the demo and read the ticket from six feet away, which is how it will be read.
Where is prep-time throttling configured, and who can change it?
A manager should be able to move it mid-rush without calling support.
Which delivery channels inject, and which stay on a tablet?
Get the list by name and by market. Coverage differs between the two.
Can a kiosk take a reward, and can it take a split payment?
Both are common gaps. Find them now rather than on day one of the promotion.
What does the line do when the network drops mid-rush?
Ask what still takes orders, what still takes cards, and what the stored limit is.
Who owns the menu build when you leave?
A modifier tree is months of work. Ask for the export format up front.
Questions
Fast casual questions we get asked most
Do kiosk orders and counter orders reach the make line in the same queue?
They should, and on most platforms they do by default. The failure mode is the opposite one: a kiosk configured as its own revenue centre prints to its own screen, so the line works two queues and the guest who ordered second is served first. Ask to see a kiosk order and a counter order arrive on one bump bar in the order they were placed.
How deep can a modifier tree go before the make line stops reading it?
Depth is not the problem; layout is. A bowl with a base, a protein, four toppings, two sauces and a swap reads fine when the screen groups modifiers under the component they belong to, and becomes unreadable when it prints eleven flat lines. Build the tree by station and the line reads it at a glance.
Can order-ahead be throttled when the line is already backed up?
Yes, through prep-time throttling: the app quotes a longer ready time as open tickets pile up, which spreads arrivals instead of stacking them. The setting exists on most digital ordering platforms and is very often left at its default, which is why a lunch rush produces a shelf of cold bowls.
What happens to a curbside order when the guest arrives before it is ready?
The arrival signal has to reach the same screen the line is watching. A geofence that pings a manager's phone is not that. When arrival lands on the make-line screen as a status change on the existing ticket, the runner goes out once, at the right moment.
Does loyalty have to be scanned before payment?
With most programs, yes, because the reward is applied to the check rather than to the settled transaction. Scanning at order also means the earn is attached before a split or a partial payment complicates it. Programs that allow a post-transaction claim exist, and they trade convenience for a reconciliation step later.
Free tools
Two tools to run between services
Both are open to anybody, and neither needs your delivery logins.
Check what fits your business
The questionnaire asks the boarding questions a counter-service operator gets — kiosks, the counter itself, and delivery platforms all landing in one day-end total. If three order channels settle three ways, that is the thing to establish before anybody demonstrates hardware.
Statement audit
The statement audit reads a statement you already have and separates the in-store card volume from what arrives through the platforms. Operators running both usually discover the two were never priced as one business.
Talk to someone who has worked a line
Tell us about your counter
Four fields. A person reads it, looks at what you are running now, and comes back with what they would actually change.
The promise
We will implement whatever is right for you — including keeping what you have. If your kiosks and your counter already share one queue and the only fix is a throttle setting, that is the recommendation you will get from us.
Payco · Industries · Food and beverage · Fast casual
Last updated: 2026-08-17