Tap versus insert at the window
The reader's position matters as much as its speed. One on a coiled cord that has to be handed out of the window costs seconds on every car, and it costs them all day.
Industries · Food and beverage
Payments for quick service, timed to the drive-thru window
The timer on the wall is the scoreboard, and every second in it belongs to something: the order point, the production queue, the window. A card step that takes four seconds instead of one is a whole shift of cars.
The shift, end to end
What the timer is really measuring
Six places a quick service store loses time at the window, and what has to be true for it not to.
Lane identity on the ticket
Two order points, one production queue. Without lane identity, the crew is the memory, and the crew is busiest exactly when that memory is worst.
The order confirmation board tells the truth
A board driven from the same ticket catches the wrong entry before the car moves. A board driven from a separate feed catches it at the window, which is the expensive place.
Availability, not a whiteboard
If the kitchen tracks what is out on a whiteboard, the order taker sells it and the window apologises. Joining availability to the menu is usually a configuration change.
Dayparted boards from the same menu
Boards managed as artwork by one vendor and registers managed as data by another are how breakfast stays on the sign and rings up unavailable.
One drawer, one accountable person
Shared drawers make a shortage everyone's and nobody's. Assignment on sign-in and a blind count at handover is the version that actually settles.
Buying guide
Before you sign anything for a drive-thru
Seven questions worth asking any provider, us included.
Where does the reader physically sit at the window?
Ask for the mount, not the model. Reach and cord length are the whole answer for speed of service.
Does the ticket carry lane identity end to end?
Ask to see a tandem demo with two orders placed out of sequence.
Is the confirmation board reading the same ticket as the kitchen?
If the answer involves a second integration, expect the two to drift.
How does an item get marked unavailable, and where does it disappear from?
Order point, board, kiosk and app should all be one action.
Who controls the daypart schedule?
A store manager should be able to move it. If it needs a vendor ticket, it will not get moved.
Can drawers be assigned per sign-in with blind counts?
Ask to see the handover flow, including what a manager sees on a variance.
What runs when the network drops during a rush?
Ask specifically: order taking, card acceptance, the board, and the stored-transaction limit.
Questions
Quick service questions we get asked most
Does the payment step add time to the drive-thru window?
It can, and the cause is almost always the terminal rather than the network. A contactless tap completes while the bag is being handed over; a chip insert with a slow application selection does not. Where the reader sits matters too: a reader on a coiled cord that has to be passed out of the window costs seconds every car, all day.
How do tandem lanes keep two orders from colliding on one screen?
By lane identity carried on the ticket from the point of order. Both order points write to the same production queue, but each ticket knows which lane it came from and which window it is being handed to. Systems without lane identity merge the two lines and rely on the crew to remember, which works until it is busy, which is exactly when it matters.
Can menu boards change by daypart without someone in the store doing it?
Yes, when the board is driven by the same menu the register is driven by. Dayparting is a schedule on the item, not a second design file. The failure mode to avoid is a board managed as artwork by one vendor and a register managed as data by another, which is how a breakfast item stays on the board until nine thirty and rings up as unavailable.
How should cash drawers be assigned across overlapping shifts?
One drawer, one accountable person, one count. Shared drawers make a shortage everyone's and no one's. Where two people must work one register, the workable version is drawer assignment that changes with a sign-in and a blind count at handover, so the count is not anchored by the number the last person expected.
What happens to the order confirmation board when an item is 86'd?
If availability lives in the POS, the item disappears from the order point and the board at the same moment. If availability lives on a whiteboard in the kitchen, the order taker sells it, the board displays it, and the crew handles it at the window. Joining the two is usually one configuration change, not a project.
Talk to someone who has run a window
Tell us about your store
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 the timer is losing four seconds a car to a reader on the wrong side of the window, that is a mount, not a migration, and we will say so.
Payco · Industries · Food and beverage · Quick service
Two free tools, before you talk to anybody
Both are open to anyone, and neither takes longer than a slow drive-through car.
- Answer the boarding questions Tell it the terminal cannot be the slow part of the lane, and it returns a starting configuration chosen for time at the reader rather than for features.
- Get a free statement audit Send a month with a full weekend in it. We name every line and show which ones scale with count rather than with money.
Last updated: 2026-08-17