Take Control of Your Online Orders: Managing the Order Control Center 🚨⚡

Managing peak dinner rushes, kitchen delays, or unexpected short-staffing doesn't have to mean calling support or struggling with complex backend settings! With the Order Control Center in NX Online Ordering, you can adjust pickup ready times, handle sudden rushes with temporary surges, or pause incoming orders directly from your manager portal! 🍽️✨

What is the Order Control Center? 🤔

The Order Control Center is your central control dashboard for online order management. It allows restaurant owners and managers to control ordering availability and delivery-time promises across all your online ordering channels in real time.

Where to Find It 📍

Log into your NX Portal, select your venue, and click Order Control Center in the navigation menu.

🔒 Access Note: You need permissions to manage order channels to adjust these controls. If options appear greyed out, ask your venue administrator to grant you access!

Understanding Your Dashboard Layout 📊

The Order Control Center dashboard is split into two primary management hubs:

Online Ordering: Controls your venue's primary online ordering storefronts—managing both store availability and guest pickup quote promises.
DSP Integrations: Manages pause/resume states for connected third-party delivery services (such as DoorDash, Uber Eats, or Grubhub via KitchenHub).

1. Online Ordering Controls 🍔

Each card under Online Ordering controls one web destination area. If multiple online subdomains share a single kitchen, they are conveniently grouped into a single card together!

Reading Your Site Card Header

Name: The ordering site (or sites) managed by this card.
Mode Tag: Displays Static or Dynamic lead time mode.
Current Quote: The ready time a guest checking out right now would see. Displays whether the number is dynamic (calculated live) or fallback (a safe baseline used temporarily if live data is unavailable).
ASAP Paused / +N min Surge Tags: Displays active temporary overrides.
Accuracy Note: Shows historical quote accuracy stats once enough order volume is collected (e.g., ±3 min typical · 214 orders (7d)).

The 4 Everyday Control Levers ⚙️

Below the card header, you'll find four quick-action levers to manage your kitchen flow:

1. All Ordering 🛑

Pauses or resumes every single order type on this site (ASAP, scheduled, everything!).

When to Use: Use this when your kitchen must completely stop taking online orders (e.g., emergency equipment repairs, power outages, or closing early).
How It Works: Tapping Pause opens a duration window. If multiple sites share a card, each site gets its own Pause/Resume button so you can pause one store without affecting others!

2. Lead Time Mode ⏱️

Switches your site between Static and Dynamic order quote calculations, and sets your baseline prep time.

Static Mode: The simplest, most predictable option. Guests always receive your set Base Prep Time (e.g., 20 minutes). Perfect for venues with steady, predictable order volume.
Dynamic Mode: Intelligently calculates live pickup times based on current kitchen order volume, ticket sizes, and real-time Kitchen Display System (KDS) prep speeds.

💡 Switching Modes: Select your desired mode, enter your Base Prep Time (in minutes), and click the Checkmark to apply! Switching to Dynamic will display a brief confirmation window detailing your store's historical accuracy numbers.

3. Surge Time 📈

Adds temporary extra minutes on top of every quote immediately—in either Static or Dynamic mode!

When to Use: When you know a rush is coming before the system sees it (e.g., a 20-person walk-in party sits down, a printer jammed, or a line cook called out).
How to Apply: Click Add Surge, enter the extra minutes (e.g., +15 min), and select how long the surge should last.
Clearing: Tap Clear to remove extra time instantly when the rush settles.

Note: Applying Surge multiple times adds time together (entering 10 minutes twice adds +20 minutes total). Surge can never push a quote past your venue's set Ceiling guardrail limit!

4. ASAP Ordering Pause ⏸️

Temporarily pauses new immediate (ASAP) orders without shutting down your whole site!

When to Use: When walk-in line orders choke the kitchen, but you still want to allow guests to place scheduled orders for later in the evening.
How It Works: Tap Pause to stop incoming ASAP orders. Existing placed orders and future scheduled orders remain completely untouched. Tap Resume when your kitchen is caught up!

The Pause & Surge Duration Dialog ⏳

Whenever you tap Pause or Add Surge, a pop-up window allows you to select how long the override should last:

Quick-Pick Buttons: Choose 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, Rest of the day, or Until manually resumed.
Specific Time Picker: Set an exact time in your venue's local time zone.
Reason (Optional): Enter a brief internal note (e.g., "Kitchen backed up - dinner rush").

2. Advanced Settings & Accuracy Reports 📈

Click Manage at the bottom of any site card to expand advanced options and performance data.

Reading Your Accuracy Report 📊

Even while your store runs in Static mode, NX quietly records what a Dynamic quote would have been for every order. This gives you real data to evaluate before switching modes!

Metric	What It Measures 💡
Median Variance	The typical difference (in minutes) between the quoted pickup time and actual completion time.
P95 Variance	The variance on high-volume days—95% of orders were completed within this timeframe.
Late Rate	The percentage of orders completed past their quoted time.
Fallback Rate	How often live signals were unavailable, causing the system to rely on baseline defaults.
KDS Coverage	The percentage of orders with real Kitchen Display Screen timestamps.
Sample Size	The total number of orders evaluated in the report window (toggle between 7d / 30d).

Advanced Configuration (Dynamic Mode) ⚙️

These fine-tuning options adjust how Dynamic Mode calculates promises during service:

Kitchen Capacity / 15-min Window: The realistic number of orders (or items) your kitchen line can turn around in a 15-minute stretch.
Capacity Unit: Choose whether capacity measures total Orders or total Items.
Size Threshold (items): The item count that flags an order as "large" (orders at or below this add no extra time).
Size Minutes / Item: Additional minutes added per item once an order exceeds the Size Threshold.
Floor (min): The absolute shortest ready time promised, even during quiet shifts.
Ceiling (min): The maximum ready time promised before offering scheduled future slots instead.
Rounding Step (min): Quotes round up to this interval (e.g., a 5-minute step displays ~25 min, never ~23 min).
KDS Calibration: Toggle On if your venue uses an NX Kitchen Display Screen so quotes automatically calibrate against real ticket completion speeds!

Click Save Configuration when finished. Changes apply immediately to all future calculated quotes.

3. Third-Party Delivery (DSP Integrations) 🚗

Pause or resume incoming orders coming through third-party delivery apps (such as DoorDash, Uber Eats, or Grubhub via KitchenHub).

How It Works: Pausing a delivery app here stops that specific service from sending new orders to your kitchen without affecting your direct web ordering storefronts. Choose a pause duration using the exact same duration dialog!

Recommended 5-Step Rollout Strategy 🚀

Follow this smooth transition plan when launching online ordering at a new venue:

Start in Static Mode:Establish your baseline.
Keep new sites set to Static mode and set a realistic Base Prep Time along with your Floor and Ceiling guardrails.
Let Data Build:Gather real order history.
Run in Static mode for 2 weeks. NX will record background dynamic calculations for every order placed.
Check Your Accuracy Report:Review performance.
Click Manage and review your store's Median Variance and Late Rate metrics.
Switch to Dynamic Mode:Enable live quotes.
If the accuracy report demonstrates improved quotes, switch Lead Time Mode to Dynamic and confirm.
Use Live Levers:Manage daily rushes.
Use Surge and ASAP Ordering Pause as your day-to-day levers for unexpected surges or floor delays!

Need Help? Troubleshooting Common Issues 🔍

🔴 Pickup quotes seem consistently too short or long?
- Check your Base Prep Time or review your Kitchen Capacity settings under Manage. Verify if your capacity bottleneck is based on Orders or total Items.
⚠️ Site displays a "Fallback" tag?
- Fallback quotes occur temporarily when dynamic signal data is briefly unavailable. It is a safe fallback system and not a system error!
🔒 Controls appear greyed out?
- You need channel management permissions assigned to your user profile. Ask your venue administrator to update your permissions in NX Portal.
💬 Still Need Assistance?
- Reach out directly to your NX Restaurant Support Representative with your venue and site name for personal assistance! 🌟