Kitchen Routing

Send every order to the right part of your kitchen — automatically. Kitchen Routing is how SSP Manager knows that a burger belongs on the grill screen, a martini belongs at the bar, and a tiramisu belongs at the cold/pastry station.

Why Kitchen Routing Matters

Without routing, every ticket lands in one place and your team sorts it out by hand. With routing, each item shows up only on the station that cooks it — the grill cook sees grill items, the bartender sees drinks, the salad station sees salads. Less shouting, fewer missed items, faster tickets.

The Big Picture

Kitchen Routing connects three simple things:

1. Routing classes are the sections of your kitchen — GRILL, FRY, COLD, BAR, PASTRY. You define these once for your whole business.
2. Kitchen stations are the screens in your kitchen. Each station subscribes to the routing classes it should cook. See Kitchen Stations.
3. Printers turn a station's tickets into paper chits (optional). See Kitchen Printing.

You tag each menu item with a routing class, each station subscribes to the classes it handles, and at order time SSP Manager routes every item to the right screen (and printer).

This page covers routing (the "what goes where")

• This page: routing classes + tagging your menu.
• Kitchen Stations: setting up the kitchen screens that receive the items.
• Kitchen Printing: printing paper chits from those stations.

What Is a Routing Class?

A routing class is a label for a type of prep — a section of your kitchen. Think grill, fry, cold line, bar, pizza oven, expo. You create the ones your restaurant actually uses.

Routing classes are shared across your whole business — define "GRILL" once and every location and menu can use it. That keeps your kitchen language consistent, whether you run one restaurant or fifty.

Good routing classes:

• GRILL — burgers, steaks, anything on the flat-top or char
• FRY — fries, wings, calamari
• COLD — salads, cold apps, charcuterie
• BAR — cocktails, beer, wine
• PASTRY — desserts, plated sweets
• PIZZA — anything from the pizza oven

Managing Routing Classes

Navigation Prerequisite

Routing classes are shared across your whole business, so you manage them at the business (Group/Chain) level, not inside a single location. If you run a single restaurant, you still have a business/group view — that's where routing classes live.

Navigation Path: Group/Chain Dashboard → Routing Classes

Required Permission: Manager with Manage Kitchen Routing

Create a Routing Class

1. Go to your Group/Chain Dashboard
2. In the sidebar, click Routing Classes (under Operations)
3. Click + Add Routing Class
4. Enter a Name (e.g., GRILL) — short, all-caps names read best on kitchen screens
5. Make sure Active is on
6. Click Save

Names Must Be Unique

Each routing class name must be unique across your business. "grill" and "GRILL" count as the same name — you'll be asked to pick a different one if it already exists.

Reorder, Rename, and Deactivate

• Reorder: Drag classes into the order you want them to appear in the dropdowns and on screens.
• Rename: Click a class to edit its name.
• Deactivate: Turn a class off to retire it without deleting it — it stops appearing in the dropdowns but keeps any history intact. Turn it back on anytime.

Delete a Routing Class

1. Click the class and choose Delete
2. If the class is still in use, SSP Manager shows you exactly what's affected — for example, "Used by 4 menu items and 1 category."
3. Confirm to delete anyway, or cancel and reassign those items first

Deleting Doesn't Break Anything — But Items Become Unrouted

When you delete a class that's in use, the menu items and categories that used it simply become unrouted — they'll fall back to your default station (see below). Nothing is lost, but those items won't route to a dedicated screen until you re-tag them.

Assigning Routing to Your Menu

Once your routing classes exist, you tell SSP Manager which class each menu item belongs to. This happens right in your Menu, in the same place you edit an item's name and price.

Navigation Path: [Your Location] → Menus → open an item or category

Two Ways to Route (Item Override + Category Default)

You don't have to tag every single item. Routing follows a simple, forgiving order:

Level	What it does	When to use
Item	Routes this one item	A one-off — e.g., a salad that gets seared, so it goes to GRILL not COLD
Category	Routes every item in the category	The efficient default — tag "Burgers" → GRILL once, and every burger inherits it
Location default	Catches anything still untagged	A safety net for the whole location

How SSP Manager decides where an item goes:

1. Does the item have a routing class? → use it.
2. If not, does its category have one? → use that.
3. If not, does the location have a default class? → use that.
4. If none of the above → the item is unrouted and goes to your default station.

Tag Categories First

The fastest way to route a whole menu is to tag your categories — "Burgers" → GRILL, "Salads" → COLD, "Cocktails" → BAR. Then only override the rare exceptions at the item level. Most restaurants route their entire menu in a few minutes this way.

Tagging an Item

1. Open the menu item
2. Find the Kitchen Routing dropdown (next to the item's other kitchen settings)
3. Pick a routing class, or choose None to let it inherit from its category
4. Save

The editor shows you where the item's routing actually comes from, so there's no guessing — e.g., "Routes to GRILL (from category)", "(item override)", "(location default)", or "Unrouted — goes to the default station."

Tagging a Category

Open a category and set its Kitchen Routing the same way. Every item in that category inherits the class unless the item overrides it.

Predefined vs. Your Own Categories

Categories you created yourself can be tagged directly. Some categories are predefined (shared building blocks). For those — or when you want a category to route differently at just one location — use the Kitchen Routing option on the category's menu (the "⋮" menu) to set a routing class for this location or this group. It works exactly like a per-location price override.

Routing a Modifier (Advanced, Optional)

Sometimes an add-on is cooked somewhere other than its main dish — "Add Fries" on a sandwich belongs at the fry station. If you use customization templates, you can give a template its own routing class so that add-on fires to the right station independently of the item it's attached to. Leave it blank and the add-on simply follows its parent item.

The Location Default Class

Your default class is the last-resort catch-all for a location. If an item isn't tagged and its category isn't tagged either, it routes to whatever class you set here (and from there to the station subscribed to it).

Navigation Path: [Your Location] → Kitchen → Routing tab

• Set a default class so nothing ever falls through the cracks, or
• Leave it empty and let untagged items land on your default station (the "Main" screen).

The "Unrouted Items" Check

On the KDS an item with no routing class carries an Unrouted badge on its line, so cooks can tell you which dishes still need a class.

Because unrouted items land quietly on one station instead of showing up everywhere, a half-tagged menu is easy to miss. The Routing tab shows you a health check.

Navigation Path: [Your Location] → Kitchen → Routing tab

It lists any:

• Menu items with no routing class (their own, their category's, or a location default)
• Categories with no routing class
• Customization templates with no routing class

Read This Before a Busy Shift

Check this list after you build or change a menu. If you've set a location default class, the check tells you that everything is covered anyway — nothing is truly unrouted, it all falls to the default. If you haven't, this is your to-do list.

Example: Setting Up a Burger Restaurant

Step 1 — Create routing classes (Group/Chain → Routing Classes): GRILL, FRY, COLD, BAR

Step 2 — Tag your menu categories (Menus → each category):

• Burgers → GRILL
• Sides (fries, rings) → FRY
• Salads & Starters → COLD
• Drinks → BAR

Step 3 — Override the exceptions (Menus → the odd item):

• "Blackened Caesar" lives in Salads but gets seared → override to GRILL

Step 4 — Set up your stations so each screen subscribes to its classes → see Kitchen Stations.

Result: Every order automatically splits — grill items to the grill screen, fries to the fry screen, salads to the cold line, drinks to the bar. No manual sorting.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to tag every menu item?

No. Tag your categories and you're mostly done — items inherit their category's class. Only override the exceptions.

What happens to an item I forget to tag?

It becomes unrouted and goes to your default station (the "Main" screen), or to your location default class if you set one. Nothing disappears — check the Unrouted Items list to find and fix these.

I run several locations. Do I set up routing classes for each?

No — routing classes are shared across your whole business. Define them once. Each location then sets up its own stations and decides which classes each station cooks.

Can one item go to two stations?

Yes — indirectly. If two stations both subscribe to the same routing class (say a grill screen and an expo mirror screen), an item tagged with that class shows on both. See Kitchen Stations.

I deleted a routing class by accident. Did I lose anything?

No. The items and categories that used it just become unrouted. Re-create the class (or pick a different one) and re-tag them.

Related Features

• Kitchen Stations — the kitchen screens that receive routed items
• Kitchen Printing — printing paper chits from your stations
• Menu Management — where you tag items and categories

Getting Help

• 💬 Live Chat: Click the chat icon in your dashboard
• 📧 Email: support@ssppos.com
• 📚 Help Center: docs.ssppos.com

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Route it once, and every order finds its own way to the right station.