Coursing groups a table's items into courses, like starters, mains and desserts, both on screen and on the kitchen ticket. The kitchen gets one ticket with the courses grouped in serving order, so they can read the shape of the table's meal at a glance instead of a list organised by product category (Seamless' default way of printing)
Turning coursing on
In the backoffice, go to Printing then Print Routes.
Turn on Coursing. The first time you enable it, Seamless automatically creates three courses: Starters, Mains and Desserts.
Tap Manage courses to rename courses, change their colours, or add more with Add Course. Drag courses to re-order them: the order here is the order they are served in, and it sets the print order on tickets.
Choosing how each route prints
Each print route has a Group tickets by setting with two options:
Category: items group by product category, in whatever order you drag the categories into on that route.
Course: items group by course, using the global course order you set in Manage courses.
When coursing is enabled on a route, one more option appears: Uncoursed items as one block. Turn it on and anything rung up without a course prints together at the top of the ticket, if off everything that has not been assigned a course will print by category.
Taking a coursed order
Coursing works just like seating on the till. Above the order area you get a scrollable tab for each course, plus No course for anything outside the meal structure.
Tap a course tab, then ring up the item: it is assigned to that course.
Tap an item in the order to assign it to a course or change its course, the same way you change a seat.
Coursing and seating work together, so an item can carry both a seat number and a course.
Common questions
Is this the same as hold and fire? Not quite - Seamless coursing groups and orders items by course on the kitchen ticket, so the kitchen can pace the table from one clear ticket. There is no separate fire button that releases each course to print or KDS later
Do I have to use the default Starters, Mains and Desserts? No. Rename them, recolour them, delete them or add your own in Manage courses. Sunday roasts, tasting menus and two-course lunch deals all work.
What happens to items I do not put in a course? They print in the No course group. With Uncoursed items as one block turned on, they appear together at the top of the ticket. If turned off, they print by category, the default way that seamless prints.
Does coursing work with seat numbers? Yes, fully. An item can have a seat and a course, and routes can print either or both depending on your settings.
Coursing and print routing are included with Seamless. See plans at seamlesspos.co.uk/pricing.