Restaurants
What Is a KOT? Kitchen Order Tickets Explained for Restaurants
KOT stands for kitchen order ticket. It is the instruction from the floor to the kitchen: what to cook, for which table, with what changes. A good KOT system gets food out faster and closes the most common leak in a restaurant — food cooked but never billed.
Key takeaways
- A KOT carries the table or token, the items with quantities, notes, the time and who took the order — and no prices.
- Each item should reach only its own station: tandoor, Chinese, bar, desserts.
- A KOT is not a bill. The bill is made from all KOTs for the table when the guests are done.
- Every void after a KOT should need a reason and a name, so the kitchen-to-bill gap is visible.
What a KOT shows
Prices are deliberately left out: the kitchen does not need them, and leaving them off keeps the ticket short.
| Field | Why |
|---|---|
| KOT number | So the kitchen and floor can refer to it |
| Table or token | Where the food goes |
| Items and quantities | What to cook; sizes and add-ons spelled out |
| Notes | “Less spicy”, “no onion”, “pack separately” |
| Time | How long the ticket has been waiting |
| Waiter | Who to ask when something is unclear |
How a KOT should flow
- 1The waiter adds items to the table’s order on a tablet or phone.
- 2Pressing Send creates a KOT for the new items only — items already sent are not repeated.
- 3Items split by station: the tandoor printer gets the kebabs, the bar gets the drinks.
- 4The kitchen marks items ready; the floor sees it and serves.
- 5When guests ask for the bill, it is built from every KOT for the table, with discounts and taxes.
KOT vs bill
| KOT | Bill | |
|---|---|---|
| For | The kitchen | The guest |
| When | Every time items are ordered | Once, at the end |
| Prices and tax | No | Yes |
| GST document | No | Yes (tax invoice or bill of supply) |
Changes and voids
Guests change their minds. An item not yet sent can simply be removed. Once it has gone to the kitchen, cancelling it is a void: the kitchen should be told, and the void should be recorded with a reason and the name of the person who did it.
The void report is where leakage shows up: the same waiter voiding cooked dishes night after night, or a pattern of voids just before the bill.
If your system lets anyone delete a sent item without a trace, you cannot reconcile what the kitchen cooked with what you billed.
Printed KOT or kitchen display?
Many kitchens use both: a display on the line and a printer at the pass.
| Printed KOT | Kitchen display (KDS) | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | A thermal printer per station | A tablet or TV per station |
| Ageing | Not visible | Tickets change colour as they wait |
| Totals | Count by hand | “8 butter naan across all tickets” |
| Changes | A new slip each time | The ticket updates in place |
QR orders and KOTs
When guests order from a table QR, the items still become a KOT. Decide whether staff confirm QR orders before they go to the kitchen, or whether they go straight through — and make sure the counter and the kitchen are alerted, with a sound or a spoken “New order from Table 5”, so nothing waits unseen.
Frequently asked questions
What is the full form of KOT?
Kitchen Order Ticket.
Is a KOT a bill?
No. A KOT tells the kitchen what to cook and has no prices. The bill is made from the table’s KOTs at the end.
Can one order produce several KOTs?
Yes. Each round of ordering creates a new KOT, and each is split by kitchen station.
What is a BOT?
Some restaurants call the bar’s ticket a BOT (bar order ticket). It works the same way as a KOT for the bar station.
About the author
Written by the TripleBill team, the people who build the billing and accounting software this site is about. We check competitor prices on their own websites on the date shown above, and we say so when our product is the weaker choice. This article is general information, not tax advice.
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Related pages
KOTs that go to the right station.
RESTO POS splits each KOT by station, shows tickets on a kitchen screen and records every void with a name.