Each order contains one or more blocks. The block information is displayed in the information window when the cursor selects the Service Line.
Let us illustrate the application of block pre-printing (Print At/After), reminder (Remind At/After) and serving (Ready At/After) times.
For example, a tour guide is ordering 5 portions of the Lunch dish at 10 a.m. to be served at 2 p.m.
When taking the order, the employee enters the order pre-printing time — 10:05. The preparation time of the ordered dish is 30 minutes. In this case, the reminder time must be set at 1:30 p.m., and the serving time is at 2:00 p.m.
If the pre-printing time and the reminder printing time were not set for the block through the Service Line menu, then, when exiting the order, the block is saved according to the current system time, and its automatic printing on the service printer(s) — according to the settings. In this case, the pre-printing time will be the same as the reminder time, and the block serving time will not exist.
When adding a Service Line, the employee chooses the serving order. If editing times is allowed for the assigned serving order, these time values may be entered. If the pre-printing time and the reminder time are entered manually, the printing is done according to the entered data. After entering the service print time and the order saving time, the block is saved; that is, when exiting the order "without saving changes", the content of this block will be saved.
After any service printing, the block is called a printed block. Printing of a block being edited (open) is not possible.
The worker at the station may create blocks in the order manually, if the guest is asking to serve, for example, a snack – earlier, and the dessert – later. Such blocks will belong to the same period, but they will have different sets of printing and serving times that characterize the block.
Different blocks may have similar values of printing, reminder, and serving times (for example, if the dishes of the order are distributed according to the serving order).
Besides printing the block, its automatic saving happens in the following cases:
Bill printing;
Prepayment printing;
Adding (deleting) dishes into the block using switching between orders.
Assigning the period to the block happens according to the block reminder time. In other words, the block belongs to the period, to which the reminder time belongs.
One trade group exists within a block. The employee, for whom the trade group is defined, is the main waiter of the order. For an employee temporarily registered in the order, the objects available are the ones that he has the rights to use within the current trade group.
If the blocks are formed as a result of the Split by Courses operation, it is possible to automatically calculate the reminder time, considering the serving time – taking into account the dish preparation time (the Cooking Time property of the dish).
If the Reminder Time Calculation parameter's value is "True", then the reminder time is calculated as the serving time minus the value of the Cooking Time property.
The colors of the blocks and other order elements depend on the color scheme in use. The colors described below belong to the standard black and white color scheme.
Printed Block
A printed block has a light-gray background; its font is black (color scheme setup). It is forbidden to edit dishes in such a block. Deleting a dish from a printed block is only possible using the "Reason to Cancel" operation – selecting the dish deletion reason. In the figure, the not printed block contains the dishes: "Chicken Soup", "r_keeper Soup" and "Vegan Soup".
If the block is not closed, N minutes ahead (the number of minutes N is determined by the setting of the Print Warning Before parameter) of its printing time (pre-printing or reminder), the following message is displayed.
If the order is not closed for saving after its printing time, then in N (N is the value of Minutes less than the current) minutes after the printing time, the block printing time will automatically begin to shift along with the current system time with a delay of N minutes. For example, the value of Minutes less than the current is 3 minutes. The set printing time is 18:40. At 18:41, if the order is not closed, the printing time will become 18:41, at 18:45 the printing time will change to 18.45, etc.
Changing Periods When Saving a Block
It is possible that during the order editing a change of periods may happen, which entails a change of the active trade group, and the change of the list of available objects along with it. If all objects of the order are available in the coming trade group (or the coming period), the user may continue editing the order without problems.
If some objects of the order are unavailable in the coming trade group, a respective warning message is displayed. The number of minutes until the objects become unavailable is specified in the Warn about deletion before parameter.
If the order is not saved within the time limit specified in the warning, the objects that become unavailable in the coming trade group or in the coming period will be deleted from the order and the corresponding message will be displayed.
If there is a change in the price scale during the order editing, a respective message is displayed.
Paid Dishes
The paid for dishes are highlighted by a dark background. During order calculation by seats, the seat "1" is paid, and paid dishes are: "Big Spicy Burger", "Double Burger", "Black Tea". The dishes "Beer" and "Crisps" are only partly paid, because they are common dishes for all seats.
The icon on the left in the Dish Line, where a seat is not assigned, indicates that a partial payment was made for this dish, i.e. a calculation is done using "Check by seats" and one or more seats were paid for.
Prohibition of Changes to Not Printed Dishes
If the block printing time has not come, but the cashier has printed the bill, the order is made unavailable for editing, but is not saved.
The dishes also have the same highlighting during the bill printing (the time period, in which the bill printing process happens) – while the dishes are still not paid for (paid dishes have a special highlighting), but are closed for editing.
The materials are prepared in collaboration with R-Keeper Finland, Pankkih Oy, the authorized dealer www.rkeeper.fi