Multi-location restaurant order management: a guide

You run three venues and orders arrive at all of them: a catering job by email, a birthday booking by phone, a tray of pastries for the shop across town. Each venue keeps its own notebook, so nobody sees the whole week. Multi-location restaurant order management fixes that with one list, one set of statuses and one screen every manager can read.

What multi-location restaurant order management has to do

Your POS already handles the coffee and the sandwiches paid for at the counter. The orders that go missing are the ones taken ahead of time: catering, functions, pre-orders, wholesale, and anything one venue makes for another.

A system for those orders has five jobs.

• Put every order in one place. Not one list per venue, and not one per staff member's inbox.
• Tag each order with its venue. The venue that makes it and, where it differs, the venue it goes to.
• Show where each order is up to. A status everybody reads the same way.
• Name who owns it. One person per order, so a question has somewhere to go.
• Put a due date on everything. Orders are planned by date, and a list sorted any other way hides the urgent ones.

Set up one order list for every venue

The heart of multi-location restaurant order management is the list itself. Start with the fields, and keep to what the kitchen and the front counter actually use.

• Order number, generated automatically so two venues never issue the same one.
• Customer, with a phone number and an email address.
• Venue, a dropdown with one option per location.
• Due date.
• Status, a dropdown with the steps below.
• Items and notes, including allergies and pickup or delivery details.
• Total and deposit paid.
• Owner, the staff member responsible.

In Diract this is a table of your own. Click Settings, then Schema configuration, then New table, and add the fields: Auto ID for the order number, Dropdown for venue and status, Date for the due date, Currency for the money and Text for the rest. You can also ask the assistant to set it up: click Build your process in the sidebar, describe the order list, and reply yes when its plan is right.

Statuses that match the kitchen

Use the steps an order really goes through, and no more. For most venues that is:

1. New
2. Confirmed, once the deposit is taken
3. In prep
4. Ready
5. Collected or delivered
6. Cancelled

Resist adding a status for every exception. A status nobody uses is a place orders get stuck.

Take every order the same way

Consistent intake is where multi-location restaurant order management starts. When each venue takes orders its own way, the list fills with gaps: no phone number, no deposit, a due date written as "Friday".

Agree one routine and put it on the wall at every venue.

1. Enter the order in the list while the customer is still on the phone or at the counter.
2. Read back the date, the venue, the items and any allergies.
3. Take the deposit and record it on the order.
4. Give the customer the order number.
5. Set the owner before you hang up.

An order entered later from a scribbled note is an order with something missing. Entering it at the time takes a minute and saves the phone call back.

See every venue's orders on one screen

A list is where orders are entered. A dashboard is where you run them, and it is where multi-location restaurant order management pays off. Build one with three parts.

• A board grouped by status. Each column is a status and each card is an order. Change the status on a card and it moves to that column.
• A board grouped by venue. The same orders split by location, so each manager finds their own at a glance.
• A data grid of the orders. The plain list, sorted by due date, for whoever is planning prep.

Add a summary tile for the total you want in front of you every morning. In Diract these are the Board, Data grid and Summary tile widgets, and they read straight from the order table, so nothing is copied or rebuilt.

Staff each venue to match its orders

Rosters are the other half of multi-location restaurant order management. The orders tell you how busy each venue will be, and the roster is where you act on it.

Add each venue under Locations on the Company tab in Admin, then give every staff member a main working location. A manager assigned to one venue sees and edits only that venue's shifts and staff. Admins see every venue.

Build the week in the Calendar, start from a known pattern with Copy last week, then click Publish week. Staff check in at a shared kiosk with their own PIN, so you can see who actually turned up.

One thing Diract does not do is connect to your POS. Keep counter sales where they are, and use the order list for everything booked ahead.

Checklist: running orders across locations

• Every order taken ahead of time goes in one list, whichever venue took it
• Each order names its venue, due date, status and owner
• Statuses match the steps the kitchen really follows
• Each manager can find their own venue's orders without scrolling past the others
• Each venue's roster is built after checking that venue's orders for the week
• Deposits are recorded on the order, not in a separate book
• Cancelled orders are marked cancelled, not deleted

Mistakes that break multi-location restaurant order management

• One list per venue. You lose the whole picture, and an order moved between venues falls into the gap.
• Statuses typed as free text. "Nearly done" and "almost ready" cannot be grouped or counted. Use a dropdown.
• Orders living in inboxes. If it is not in the list, the kitchen does not know about it. Make entering the order part of taking it.
• No owner. An order everyone can see and nobody owns is the one that gets missed.
• Deleting cancelled orders. You lose the record of what was booked and why it fell through.

Conclusion

Good multi-location restaurant order management comes down to one list, a venue and a status on every order, and a screen each manager can read in seconds. Get that right and each venue's roster can follow its orders instead of guessing.

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Questions

Does this replace my POS?

No. There is no POS connection. Keep walk-in sales in your POS and use the order list for catering, functions, pre-orders and anything else booked ahead.

Can each venue manager see only their own venue?

For rosters and staff, yes. Assign a manager to a location and they see and edit only that venue's shifts and staff. For orders, a board grouped by venue lets each manager find their own in one column.

How do I stop two venues using the same order number?

Make the order number an Auto ID field. It is generated for each new order across the whole list, so it never depends on which venue entered it.

Current as at 13 September 2026. The product changes often, so check the screen before relying on a detail here.