Kitchen tickets and course grouping

Also known as: kitchen tickets, tickets de cocina, KP tickets, course grouping, fire to kitchen, mandar a cocina, A cocina, starters / mains / desserts.

When a server taps Send on a table, brasio groups the new products by course (starter, main, dessert) and prints a separate ticket for each course that has items. The kitchen gets one ticket per course, in order, instead of one long list of everything.

You can also show these orders live on a tablet, alongside the paper, with the kitchen display screen.

How courses work at order time

On the table order screen, the server selects a course for each food item before tapping Send. Three courses are available:

• Starter (Entrante)
• Main (Principal)
• Dessert (Postre)

Drinks are not course-grouped — they go directly to the bar without a kitchen ticket.

If the table orders a starter and a dessert at the same time, two distinct tickets come out: one labelled Starter and one labelled Dessert. The kitchen prepares each in turn.

Highlighted notes

When a server adds a note to a product (no salt, rare, takeaway), brasio prints it highlighted on the kitchen ticket — usually in uppercase or with an inverted background — so the chef doesn't miss it.

Modifier options (from required or optional modifier groups) also appear clearly on the ticket under their product. See Modifiers: optional and required.

Per-dish totals at the end of each course (optional)

When a table orders the same dish across several lines — each diner their own way — the ticket can end each course with a TOTAL block that adds up what to prepare, one item per line:

> MAINS
  1x Kiwi Beef Burger
  2x Chicken Wings (3 units)
     + 4x Picante
     + 2x Honey
  1x Kiwi Beef Burger
  1x Chicken Wings (4 units)
     + 4x Picante
  -------- TOTAL --------
  8 Chicken Wings Picante
  2 Chicken Wings Honey
  2 Kiwi Beef Burger

• It adds up real pieces: 2 × "3 units" + 1 × "4 units" = 10 wings.
• If the dish has flavours with quantities (mini burgers, wing sauces…), each flavour gets its own line.
• Each course gets its own total, counting only what is on that ticket.
• It only prints when it helps: if no ticked dish appears on more than one line in the course, there is no block.
• Kitchen ticket only — it never appears on the customer receipt or the kitchen screen.

How to switch it on (owner or manager):

1. Admin → Venue settings → Kitchen docket section → switch on Show totals on kitchen dockets and save.
2. Admin → Catalog → edit each dish you want counted (wings, ribs, burgers…) → tick Include in kitchen docket totals (just above Menu fields) and save. Drinks and sides are usually left unticked.

It is off by default: until you switch it on, tickets print exactly as before. It works with both printing modes (browser PDF and ESC/POS bridge). Tills pick up the change the next time someone logs in with their PIN.

Printing kitchen tickets: from the device or straight to the kitchen printer

Each venue chooses how kitchen tickets print, in Admin → Venue settings → Kitchen dockets:

• Print from this device (the default): the till opens the ticket as a PDF and the browser prints it on the device's default printer. Unless Chrome is set up for silent printing (kiosk mode), you see a print preview every time — and phones and tablets always show one.
• Straight to the kitchen printer: tickets go through the brasio print bridge to the printer chosen as each category's Print destination — no preview, from any till or phone. Only the food goes; drinks on the same order don't.

With the bridge option, brasio makes sure a ticket is never lost:

• If the print bridge is offline, the till prints the ticket from the device, as before.
• If the kitchen printer doesn't confirm within about 25 seconds (switched off, unplugged, wrong address), the till prints the ticket itself and shows a notice asking you to check the kitchen printer.
• A ticket still waiting after 5 minutes is never printed late (so no surprise tickets in the next service).

The setting also shows whether your print bridge is connected. To install the bridge and add your printers, see Connect your thermal printer, Part B. Note that a printer that has run out of paper still reports the ticket as printed, so keep an eye on the roll.

Manually firing a kitchen ticket

On the table detail screen, the Cocina button fires the current pending items to the kitchen. You can also use this to test that the printer is working.

Not working?

• Kitchen tickets don't come out but receipts do: check that the OS default printer is set correctly and that Chrome is in kiosk-printing mode. See Printer not printing.
• A note isn't highlighted: make sure it was written in the product's Note field on the order, not in the table's general comment (which goes on the receipt, not to the kitchen).
• No TOTAL block: check it is switched on in Admin → Venue settings, that the dishes have Include in kitchen docket totals ticked, that the till was reopened with a PIN after switching it on, and that a ticked dish appears on more than one line of the same course.
• One long ticket with everything mixed: this can happen if all items were added without selecting a course. Re-order or void and re-add with a course selected.
• A print preview appears every time: switch Admin → Venue settings → Kitchen dockets to Straight to the kitchen printer (needs the print bridge), or put Chrome in kiosk-printing mode.
• "The kitchen printer didn't confirm this order, so it's printing here instead": the kitchen printer didn't print it in time — check it's switched on, has paper and is connected to the network. The ticket printed on the device, so nothing was lost.