One display, however many channels
Whichever tablet beeps loudest wins, and the ticket that was promised first goes out third.
Industries · Food and beverage
Payments for ghost kitchens, where four brands share one line and one display
The orders arrive from platforms that do not know about each other, the line has exactly one capacity, and the only question that really matters is what each brand is making on labour it shares with three others.
The day, end to end
What several brands on one line ask of the system
Six places a delivery-only kitchen either keeps its sequence or loses the evening.
86 once, everywhere
The refund and the one-star review both come from the channel somebody forgot to update.
Quoted times stretch with the line
Accepting at full speed into a backed-up line is how a forty-minute quote becomes an hour and ten.
Brand margin on shared labour
Without an allocation you can name out loud, a brand that looks profitable is a brand nobody has measured.
Menu parity is a standing job
A description changed in one place and not the others is a complaint waiting for a slow Tuesday.
The shelf is a handoff, not a hope
Two couriers, one counter and no labels is the origin story of most missing-order tickets.
Buying guide
Before you sign anything for a delivery-only kitchen
Seven questions worth asking any provider, us included.
Do marketplace orders reach one display in promise order?
Ask to watch two channels land on one screen.
Does 86ing propagate to every channel at once?
86 something in the demo and count how many menus change.
Can quoted times stretch when the line is deep?
Ask what the customer sees when you are twenty tickets down.
How does the report allocate shared labour between brands?
Ask for the method, not the chart.
What keeps menus in parity across channels?
Ask who notices the drift, and how quickly.
Is courier handoff labelled and confirmed?
Ask to see a shelf at seven on a Friday.
What is the export when you leave?
Menus per channel, order history and brand records. Ask up front.
Questions
Ghost kitchen questions we get asked most
Why does a rack of tablets fail even when every order is accepted?
Because a rack has no queue. Each tablet knows its own orders and none of them know the promised times of the others, so the line works whichever screen is loudest rather than whichever ticket is due next. Every order can be accepted on time and the sequence can still be wrong for the whole evening.
What actually breaks when an item is 86ed on one channel only?
The order comes in anyway, gets refunded, and the review lands on the brand rather than on the platform. Running out is normal and forgivable; selling something you have already run out of is neither. Propagation has to be one action, not a loop a person performs from memory under pressure.
How should promised times respond to a backed-up line?
They should stretch on every channel from the same signal, based on what is actually on the display rather than on a fixed number somebody set in a calmer week. A quote that never moves is a quote that becomes wrong at exactly the moment being wrong costs the most.
How do you get an honest margin per brand when the labour is shared?
By choosing an allocation you can defend and applying it consistently, whether that is by ticket count, by production minutes or by station time. The method matters less than being able to name it. Splitting evenly across brands flatters the small ones and punishes the one carrying the volume.
Does menu parity across channels have to be manual?
The publishing does not, but the checking does, because each channel keeps its own copy and each has its own rules about what it will accept. The realistic goal is one source of truth, an obvious way to push it out, and a way to see which channel is out of step before a customer finds it for you.
Free tools
Two tools to run before the next brand launches
Both are open access, and neither needs platform credentials.
Check what fits your business
The questionnaire asks a delivery-only operator the boarding questions — several brands out of one kitchen, several platforms settling on their own timetables, and one merchant account underneath all of it. Which legal entity each brand trades as is the first thing boarding will want, and most operators answer it late.
Statement audit
The statement audit reads a statement you already have and lines the platform settlements up against your own card volume. Operators running several brands usually find the reconciliation, not the rate, is where the money goes.
Talk to someone who has run a pass with four brands on it
Tell us about your kitchen
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 brands and your line are working and the only gap is that every channel gets 86ed by hand, that is one action wired to many menus, not a new kitchen.
Payco · Industries · Food and beverage · Ghost kitchen
Last updated: 2026-08-17