The manager panel is the Manager view in the KDS. It lets you run the menu from a tablet in the kitchen – add products, change prices and stock, organize categories and product tags, set the schedule and the TV screens – without signing in to the WordPress dashboard.
The view is available to people with the Menu management permission (the Manager profile). Open the KDS menu and choose View → Manager.
Day to day you see four tabs: InPlate dishes, Products, Categories and Schedule. You open the others with the See more → button – they show in a second row, in groups:
- menu: Badges, Add-ons, Variants, Allergens, Cross-sell and – on a multilingual site – Translations,
- sales: Promotions and Happy hours (each when you turn the feature on),
- screens: TV.
The tablet remembers whether the list is open. ← Less hides it again; if one of the hidden tabs was open, the panel goes back to InPlate dishes.
Adding products and changing categories and product tags require the Shop manager role – the Manager profile has it. Staff accounts, QR tables, delivery zones, payments and the other settings are changed in the WordPress dashboard. See Team and permissions.
Pausing orders
When something goes wrong suddenly – no water, a broken oven, no driver – you pause order-taking with one button, without changing the schedule.
- In the Manager view tap Pause in the KDS header.
- Choose the channels: All channels or only selected ones, e.g. delivery alone. The channels are the enabled fulfillment methods and QR tables.
- Choose for how long: 30 min, 1 h, 2 h or Until resumed.
- Optionally enter a reason for customers, e.g. “Technical problem – sorry”.
- Tap Pause orders.
What happens while orders are paused:
- All KDS screens show a red “Orders paused” bar with the channels, the start time, the end of the pause and the person who turned it on. Other tablets see it within about 20 seconds.
- Customers see the message “Ordering is paused for now.” in the menu and in the order form, with the reason and the time ordering resumes. A paused fulfillment method is visible but can't be chosen. The others work normally.
- The server rejects an order on a paused channel, even if the customer's page was open earlier.
- Orders placed before the pause are fulfilled normally.
The Edit button on the bar changes the channels, the time or the reason. Resume brings back ordering straight away. A pause with a time limit ends by itself. The schedule doesn't change – after resuming, everything works as before.
A person with the Pausing orders permission (the Manager profile) or a shop manager can pause and resume orders. You can do the same in the WordPress dashboard: the top bar has a Pause orders item, and during a pause Orders paused with a Resume orders option. Pausing works regardless of the license – in an emergency you can always stop orders.
InPlate dishes
The same functions as InPlate → Dishes in the WordPress dashboard, with a tab for each dish type:
- adding and editing dishes with active dates,
- the list of dishes for today and tomorrow,
- turning a dish off for today or until it is turned back on manually,
- the archive and reusing a dish with new dates.
The Dish types button opens dish type management, the same as InPlate → Dish types. Shop managers and administrators see it.
See Daily specials and time-limited offers.
Products
The list of menu products with a search field and a category filter. If the list doesn't load, the panel shows an error with a Retry button.
Availability:
- the switch next to each product turns the dish on and off,
- after you choose a category, the bar above the list turns all products in that category on or off at once. The bar shows whether all of them are on, off or only some.
A dish that is off disappears from the menu or shows as unavailable – depending on the setting.
Allergens: a dish without allergen information has the note “Allergens: not filled in”. The Without allergen information field narrows the list to such dishes, and the Allergen for the products shown bar adds or removes an allergen in all products in the list (e.g. Gluten in the whole Pizza category). See Allergens.
Sizes: a dish with sizes has a row for each size under it, with the price and its own switch. Customers see a size that is off greyed out; the other sizes work. A product that has a size set assigned but no prices yet has a note that its sizes are waiting for prices.
Adding a product
The Add product button opens the new product window. The product is published straight away as a regular WooCommerce product (without variations).
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The dish's name in the menu |
| Categories | At least one – without a category the product won't appear in the menu |
| Description | A short description of the dish, e.g. what it is served with |
| Weight / portion | A number or a range and a unit, e.g. 300 g or 2-3 pcs |
| Photo | From the media library |
| Badges | E.g. “Vegan” – see Product tags |
| Allergens | The dish's allergens and Ingredients with the allergens highlighted – see Dish allergens |
| Add-on templates, Cross-sell template | Templates assigned to categories work automatically – there is no need to tick them here |
| Regular price, Sale price | An empty sale field = no sale |
| Stock | Described below |
A new product goes to the end of its category. If the category already has a product with the same name, the panel warns you. You can still add it with the Add anyway button.
Editing a product
The edit button next to a product opens a window with the same fields as when adding.
- The sale price must be lower than the regular price. An empty field means no sale.
- During a sale the menu and the list show the regular price struck through.
- Only the changed fields are saved.
- A sale schedule from WooCommerce: if the sale has dates set in WooCommerce, the window warns you. Saving the price in the KDS removes the schedule – the new price applies straight away.
- Allergens: a section with the 14 allergens and your own, the Ingredients field and the Highlight button – see Dish allergens.
- Products with sizes: you set the prices of all sizes in the Variants → Prices tab, and each size's availability with the switch in the list. Variations created in WooCommerce are edited in WooCommerce.
Stock
The Stock field is in the product window, under the prices:
- an empty field – unlimited quantity,
- 0 – the product is unavailable,
- a number – that many pieces can be ordered. Every order reduces the stock, and at 0 the product can no longer be ordered. Setting a number turns off backorders for the product.
The list of products shows the stock under the name, e.g. “Stock: 5 pcs”, and at zero in red “Stock: 0 – unavailable”. Products without a limit don't have this line.
The field works for regular products. For products with variations, and when stock management is off (Sales panel → Settings → Products → Inventory), a hint shows instead of the field.
Categories
Product categories, i.e. the sections of your menu:
- Add category – a window with the Name and Slug fields. An empty slug field = a slug created from the name,
- editing – the pencil icon opens the same window: changing the name and the slug. Described below,
- order – the up and down arrows. The order in the list is the order of the sections in the menu,
- TV only – a category visible only on TV screens, not in the menu on your website. See TV-only categories,
- deleting – an empty category only. The default WooCommerce category can't be deleted.
Each category shows its number of products and its slug.
Changing a category's slug
The slug is the category's identifier in addresses, e.g. desserts. After the slug changes, the dish types and TV screens that use this category update themselves. The anchors of the menu sections change too (e.g. #menu-desserts), so old links to a specific section no longer scroll to it. The window warns you about this before saving. A slug already used by another category can't be saved.
Badges
Product tags, e.g. “Vegan”, “Spicy”:
- Add tag and editing (the pencil icon) – a window with the name, icon and appearance, and a preview of the tag,
- Icon – an image from the media library, or a character or emoji typed on the keyboard (a text icon). The image takes priority. Without an icon, only the name shows,
- Appearance – your own background (a color or transparent), text color and outline. Without ticking Custom appearance, the tag uses the theme's appearance,
- deleting – the panel asks for a confirmation and says how many products the tag will be removed from.
See Products, categories and availability.
Allergens
The same list as Products → Allergens: the 14 allergens of the regulation with hints, your own allergens and the number of dishes without information. See Allergens.
Translations
The tab shows when you turn on a multilingual site with an extra language in Settings → System → Translations (the KDS reads this when it opens – refresh the tablet). It is the same screen as InPlate → Translations: the menu texts in the main language next to their translations, filters for missing ones and ones to check, DeepL suggestions and a CSV file. See The Translations screen.
Add-ons, Variants and Cross-sell
The editors of add-on templates, size sets (with the price table) and cross-sell templates – the same as in the WordPress dashboard, in the KDS colors, across the full width of the screen. Each tab starts with a short description of what it is for, and every template and set can be duplicated (Duplicate). In a cross-sell template the search is on the left and the added products are on the right. The search also finds products by category name. See Add-ons, Sizes and variants and Cross-sell.
Schedule
The full schedule form, the same as InPlate → Schedule: the order-taking hours, the hours at tables, the fulfillment methods, the fulfillment windows with switching off single times at peak hours, ordering for the next day, preparation time, delivery window, closing days, holidays.
For a sudden breakdown don't change the schedule – use pausing orders, which brings everything back as it was after you resume. Change the schedule for planned changes, e.g. shorter hours in the summer. See Schedule for all options.
TV
The dishes on TV screens, the same as in TV Manager:
- choosing the screen and the slot,
- adding dishes with a search and a category filter (several dishes in a row),
- the order by dragging – with the mouse and a finger,
- hiding a dish on the screen without removing it,
- badges next to a dish, e.g. “Promotion”, “Today's pick”.
The TV badges button opens editing of the badge catalog (name, icon, colors, outline). Shop managers and administrators see it. A change of name or color applies straight away on all screens. See Badges on TV screens.
Changes appear on the TVs at the next refresh, usually within a dozen or so seconds. See TV screens.
If there are no screens yet or a screen has no slots, the panel suggests creating a screen in TV Manager or adding slots in the screen editor.
Happy hours
The tab shows when the feature is turned on in Settings → Sales → Happy hours. An automatic discount on chosen days and at chosen times: the Happy hours on switch, the list of rules (days, hours, discount, categories and products, channels) with the Active switch, editing and deleting, and the Add rule button. The same panel is in the WordPress dashboard in InPlate → Happy hours. See Happy hours.
Promotions
The tab shows when the feature is turned on in Settings → Sales → Promotions. The list of promotions (type, conditions, days, hours, channels) with the Active switch, arrows for the order, editing and deleting, and the Add promotion button. The same panel is in the WordPress dashboard in InPlate → Promotions. See Promotions.
License
Changes to InPlate dishes, adding products, changes to categories, product tags and templates, happy hours, and changes to the schedule and TV screens require an active license or a trial. See License.