Restaurant Table Management: Running Your Floor with a Live Floor Plan

By the DeskoPOS team · Updated 29 October 2026

Short answer: Table management means knowing, at a glance, which tables are free, ordering, waiting on the kitchen or ready for the bill. A POS floor plan drawn like your real room, with colour-coded table status, guest counts and the ability to shift a table without losing its order, lets the captain run the floor from one screen.

The questions a floor plan should answer instantly

• Which tables are free right now?
• Which tables have ordered but have nothing from the kitchen yet?
• Which tables have asked for the bill?
• How many guests are seated in total?

Table status stages

A simple, consistent set of stages works best: free, ordering, in kitchen, bill printed, then free again after settlement. Colour each stage differently so the floor reads from across the room.

Draw it like your real room

Tables should sit on screen where they sit on the floor, with the right shapes for two-tops, four-tops and long tables. Staff should never have to translate "table 14" into a place in the room.

Shifting and merging tables

Guests move. A good POS lets you shift an open order to another table and keep every item and KOT history with it, so the kitchen and the bill stay correct.

Turning tables faster

Most of the time lost between guests is waiting: for an order to be taken, for the kitchen, for the bill. Visible status shows the captain where the wait is. Printing the bill as soon as it is asked for, and settling by UPI or card at the table, shortens the last step. QR ordering can shorten the first; see QR table ordering.

Floor plan in DeskoPOS

DeskoPOS draws tables as they sit in your restaurant, coloured by stage (ordering, in kitchen, bill printed), with guest counts and table shifting that keeps the ticket. The interactive tablet on the homepage is the real floor plan: tap a table to try it.

Frequently asked questions