What goes on a KOT
A good KOT answers the kitchen’s questions and nothing else:
| Field | Why it is there |
|---|---|
| KOT number and round | So the second round for table 7 is not mistaken for a reprint of the first |
| Table, token or order type | Dine-in table, takeaway token, delivery order — or a room number for room service |
| Items and quantity | Named the way the kitchen names them, not the way the menu markets them |
| Notes | “Less spicy”, “no onion”, “Jain” — the instructions that cause remakes when they are missed |
| Time sent | So the kitchen can see what has been waiting longest |
| Who took it | The waiter or cashier, for questions now and for the record later |
| Station | Tandoor, curry, cold, beverages, halwai — where each item is made |
Prices do not belong on a KOT. The kitchen does not need them, and a KOT with prices on it soon starts being handed to customers as if it were a bill.
KOT, pre-bill and bill are three different papers
- KOT — for the kitchen. No prices, no tax. One order can have several KOTs, one per round.
- Pre-bill (an estimate) — shown to the table before payment so the guests can check it. It is not the tax invoice and should never be numbered as one.
- Bill (the tax invoice) — issued when the customer pays, numbered in its own series. A GST-registered restaurant’s invoice has to carry the particulars listed in rule 46 of the CGST Rules, such as a serial number unique for the financial year, the date, the GSTIN and the tax charged.
Keeping them apart matters because each one settles a different argument. The KOT shows what the kitchen was asked to make; the bill shows what the customer was charged. When the two come from the same order, they cannot quietly disagree.
Where orders get lost
- Verbal orders. “One more naan for table 4”, called through the pass, never reaches the bill.
- Additions written on the old slip. The kitchen makes the extra dish; the cashier, billing from the first slip, never charges it.
- Cancellations that stop half way. The guest cancels a dish; the waiter tells the kitchen but not the counter — or the counter but not the kitchen.
- Two queues. Delivery-app orders arrive on a separate tablet and are keyed in again by hand, late, or not at all.
- Items at different stations. The tandoor finishes its half; the curry section never saw its half of the order.
- No clock. A ticket slides behind the others on the rail and is found twenty minutes later.
Most of these are not dishonesty. But the same gaps are where dishonesty lives: a dish served, taken off the order after the KOT, and paid for in cash that never reaches the drawer. Closing the gaps protects the honest staff as much as it protects the owner.
Send every order in rounds
Treat each table’s order as a series of rounds. The first KOT carries what was ordered first. When the table asks for two more rotis, the waiter adds them to the same order and sends round 2 — a new KOT carrying only the new items, marked as round 2 of that table.
- Take the order against the table on the counter or on the waiter’s phone.
- Send round 1. Each station gets a KOT with only its own items.
- Add items later to the same order and send round 2, round 3 — only the new items go in.
- To cancel something the kitchen already has, void it with a reason. The kitchen is told that item is cancelled; nothing disappears.
- When the table asks for the bill, show the pre-bill; on payment, issue the bill from the same order.
Because every round and every void hangs off one order, the bill cannot drift away from what the kitchen was told to cook.
A KOT printer or a kitchen display?
| Question | KOT printer | Kitchen display (KDS) |
|---|---|---|
| What you buy | A thermal printer per station, and paper | A tablet or screen per station, mounted where it can be read |
| What has waited longest? | Whatever is furthest along the rail | Each ticket shows its age on screen |
| Several stations | One printer per station | Each station sees only its items; the order is ready when every item is |
| Changes and cancellations | A new slip — the old one may still be on the rail | The item changes on the screen |
| Heat, oil and water | Paper copes; printers jam | The screen needs a safe spot and a case |
| Power or network cut | Keeps what has already printed | Needs its device and the network |
| The record afterwards | Thrown away at night | Every ticket, time and change is kept |
A small kitchen with one cook and a printer that works rarely needs a screen. A kitchen with separate stations, delivery orders and an evening rush is where a display earns its place — because the question it answers is not “what was ordered?” but “what has been waiting longest, and where?”.
Stations, and tracking the item rather than the order
In most Indian kitchens one order is made in more than one place: the naan in the tandoor, the dal in the curry section, the raita at the cold counter, the lassi at the beverage counter. If the whole order is one ticket, the tandoor waits for nothing and the curry section waits for a ticket it has not read.
Route each item to the station that makes it, and track the item through four states:
- Queued — sent, not started.
- Cooking — somebody has picked it up.
- Ready — at the pass.
- Served — at the table or in the bag.
The order is ready for the pass when every item on it is ready. Name the stations the way your own kitchen does — tandoor, curry and cold in one restaurant; halwai, namkeen and packing in a sweet shop — rather than picking from somebody else’s list.
Controls that stop leakage
- Every KOT ends in exactly one of two places: on a bill, or in the void report with a reason.
- A void after an item has gone to the kitchen needs a manager’s approval — a PIN, not a shout across the room.
- Read the void report at the end of every day: who voided what, when, and why.
- Count bill reprints. A bill printed three times is a question worth asking.
- Discounts beyond a set limit, complimentary items and price changes carry a name and a reason.
- Once a week, compare what the kitchen made of two or three expensive items with what was billed.
Delivery orders belong in the same queue
Delivery-app orders need exactly the same treatment: into the same order list, onto the same kitchen screen or printer, into the same sales record. If the platform’s tablet is the only place an order exists, the kitchen is working from two queues and the day’s sales report is missing a channel. Our guide to Swiggy and Zomato commission covers what those orders actually leave you once the platform has taken its share.