Order Throttling
Order Throttling protects the kitchen during a rush by capping how many orders can be active at once and how many can come in per hour. When either limit is hit, new orders are blocked, selected channels (Delivery and/or Takeaway) are paused, and guests see a friendly capacity message instead of an order that would take an hour to cook.
Overview
Two limits work together: Max Concurrent Orders (how many KOTs can be active at any one time, default 10) and Max Orders Per Hour (orders in a rolling 60-minute window, default 30) — hitting either one triggers throttling while the master toggle is on.
Two live capacity gauges show Active (Concurrent) Orders and Orders This Hour against their limits, with a marker line at the Alert Threshold percentage (default 80%) — the bar turns amber once past the threshold and red at 100%.
A status banner at the top reflects the current state: grey "Throttling disabled" when the master toggle is off, green "Monitoring — Capacity within limits" when on but under the limits, and a pulsing red "THROTTLED — Blocking new orders" when a limit has been hit; it also shows the live active-KOT and last-hour order counts.
The "Pause Channels When Throttled" checkboxes choose what gets paused during a throttle: Delivery (on by default) and/or Takeaway (off by default).
The Customer-Facing Message is the text guests see when throttled (default: "Kitchen is at capacity. Please try again shortly.") — fully editable.
Nothing takes effect until the master "Enable Throttling" toggle is on and you click Save Settings; the gauges keep displaying live capacity either way, so you can watch load without enforcing limits.
Before You Start
- You must have the Billing feature enabled on your plan, along with the Delivery feature specifically (the sidebar entry is gated behind the delivery feature key).
Step-by-Step Guide
1 Set up throttling for the first time
- Open Order Throttling and set Max Concurrent Orders and Max Orders Per Hour to what your kitchen can realistically handle.
- Set the Alert Threshold — the percentage of capacity at which the gauges turn amber as an early warning (default 80%).
- Tick which channels should pause when throttled (Delivery, Takeaway, or both).
- Edit the Customer-Facing Message if you want different wording.
- Switch on "Enable Throttling" and click "Save Settings."
2 Monitor capacity during a rush
- Watch the two Live Capacity gauges — amber means you are past the alert threshold and approaching a limit; red means the limit is reached and new orders are being throttled.
- Click Refresh to pull the latest active-order and last-hour counts.
3 Turn throttling off after the rush
- Switch "Enable Throttling" off and click "Save Settings" — the limits stay saved for next time, but nothing is blocked while the toggle is off.
Every Field & Button, Explained
| Field / Button | What it does |
|---|---|
Enable Throttling | Master switch. When off, the page still shows live capacity but no orders are ever blocked, regardless of the limits. |
Max Concurrent Orders | How many KOTs may be active at the same time (1–200, default 10) — the first of the two limits that can trigger throttling. |
Max Orders Per Hour | How many orders may arrive in a rolling 60-minute window (1–500, default 30) — the second limit. |
Alert Threshold | Percentage of either limit (10–100, default 80) at which the gauge turns amber and shows an "approaching limit" warning — an early heads-up before actual throttling starts. |
Pause Channels When Throttled | Delivery (default on) pauses delivery orders on aggregator portals; Takeaway (default off) pauses takeaway orders. Dine-in is not a pausable channel here. |
Customer-Facing Message | The text guests see while throttled; defaults to "Kitchen is at capacity. Please try again shortly." |
Tips & Best Practices
- Set the Alert Threshold well below 100% (the default 80% is a good start) so the floor gets an amber warning with time to react before orders actually start being blocked.
- Leave "Enable Throttling" off but keep the page open on quiet days to learn your kitchen's real numbers before committing to limits — the gauges show live load either way.
- Only Delivery and Takeaway can be paused — walk-in dine-in orders are not blocked by this feature, so staff the floor accordingly during a throttle.