Courses • Hold • Delay • Manual Hold • System Hold

Created 07 May 2025 • Updated 07 May 2025

Managing Courses with Hold

Depending on the requirements of the organisation there can be many different ways that courses are taken off hold when using Kitchen iQ, the following options can be used, a course delay, message action or manually using the bump bar or touch screen, this guide will show all 3 options and how they can be setup.

There are 3 types of hold that are used:

  • System Hold (SH) - where an order is held by the system based on the configuration set

  • Manual Hold (MH) - where an order is manually held by a user (where it had previously been active)

  • Pending Active (PH) - an order that was previously on system hold can go into a pending active state, giving more advance note that an order is going to be active shortly as the previous course has left the kitchen

Course Configuration

Navigate to Configurations → "Select a Configuration" → Courses

Course are used within the configuration to set the order in which courses are presented and when they should be prepared, the courses in Kitchen iQ are mapped to those courses used within Aztec, you might have multiple Aztec courses mapped to 1 Kitchen iQ course.

The important settings to consider are:

  • Course Order - setting the course order enables the configuration to know when to present the order on screen (other settings in channels also control this)

    If a course is set to Immediate it will automatically display regardless of any other course number ordering

  • Delay Next Course - using this time setting will enable the control of courses becoming active after the previous course has been served

Example 1:

When an order is placed for starters and mains I want my mains to become active as soon as the starters leave the kitchen

  • Against the starter course set the delay next course time to be 00:00

Example 2:

When an order is placed for starters and mains I want a few minutes before my mains become active after the starters leave the kitchen

  • Against the starter course set the delay next course to be for time needed, MM:SS

Example 3:

When my starters have left the kitchen I want visibility of the mains but I don't want the order to be active immediately

  • Against the starter course set the delay next course to be for the time needed, MM:SS and select the Pending Active Time, this will display the mains but they will be showing as pending active, and become active based on the delay time set

Message Actions

Message actions are used to perform a particular function without having to visit a physical screen to perform that option, this is useful in busy service environments where you might want your front of house teams to be in control of when a course is to come off of hold.

Navigate to Configurations → "Select a Configuration" → Message Actions
Zonal recommends for taking courses off hold a specific instruction is created in Aztec that is always used for this function for example "Mains Away"

  1. Click Add | select an action of Take Course Off Hold

  2. Select the required Course

  3. Set the Message Text to match the instruction created Product Modelling

  4. Click Save

Example 1:

When an order is placed for starters and mains I want my mains to become active when the front of house team send a message action

  • Create the message action to take the required course off hold

  • Set an appropriate time against delay next course needed, MM:SS - if no time is set the course will come off hold immediately, if after the given time no message action was received the course will come off hold

Hold Options via Bump Bar or Touch Screen

If configured within a channel view configuration (allowed actions) a screen operator can put items on to hold or take off hold.

For more information how to manage order or items using hold view the help topic here.