Coursing lets you control the order in which dishes are sent to the kitchen. Instead of firing everything at once, staff can hold items and fire them course by course — starters first, then mains, then desserts.
Setting up coursing
Go to Settings → Pacing
Toggle on Coursing
Configure your default courses (e.g. Starter, Main, Dessert)
Optionally toggle Allow items without a course if some items don’t need course assignment
Toggle Show course on tickets if you like to have each course printed separately
How to use Coursing in Orders
When adding items to an order, staff can assign each item to a course
Held items appear in a separate tab on the order panel
Staff selects which items to fire when it’s time for the next course
Fired items are sent to the kitchen as a ticket
How to select Course in Order
Use the Move items to another course feature to rearrange the order before sending. Staff can Hold or Fire an entire course to control when orders are sent to the kitchen. Each course is displayed as a collapsible section, making it clear which items have been sent and which are still pending.
Ticket behaviour
Setting | What it controls |
Show courses on tickets | Group items by course name on kitchen tickets |
Show held courses on tickets | Include held items on the ticket with a "hold" note (items won’t reprint when fired) |
Hold & Fire levels
Papaya supports two levels of hold and fire:
Order-level — hold/fire the entire order (print separate hold and fire tickets)
Item-level — hold/fire individual items within an order (more granular control)
Both can be enabled independently in Settings → Pacing.
‼️ When using item-level hold and fire with "Include held items on ticket" enabled, held items print once with a "hold" note. They do not reprint when fired — this avoids duplicate tickets.