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Your first shift on DrinkLync

Let's learn to
work the bar.

No memorizing screens. Just scroll, and we'll walk the whole flow with you — from a ticket landing in your queue to the drink in a customer's hand. By the end, you'll run a Friday rush without ever getting in the weeds.

ClaimMakeBatchHand offGet tipped
Your station

The make-queue is your whole world.

Orders stream in here the second a customer taps. You never take a verbal order again. Here's every part of a ticket, called out one by one.

Make-queue · live
Espresso Martini
Extra shot
In queue
Table 12 · Maya R.3:18
Old Fashioned
No bittersNut allergy
In queue
Bar 3 · Dev P.1:36
Margarita
Tajín rim
In queue
Patio 5 · Jordan L.0:41
1
The drink
What to make, biggest and first. Tap it to see the full recipe.
2
Mods & flags
Customizations and allergen warnings ride along, never a separate note to chase.
3
Seat & customer
Where it goes and whose it is, so the runner and gatekeeper can match it.
4
The SLA timer
Your countdown to the promised handoff. Green is healthy, red means hurry.
5
Order in line
The queue sorts by urgency, so the top ticket is always the one to grab next.
The make-queue lists each order as a ticket showing the drink, its mods and allergen flags, the seat and customer, and an SLA countdown timer. Tickets sort by urgency, so the top ticket is always next.
One drink, start to finish

Claim it. Make it. Move on.

Watch a single ticket travel the rail. Scroll to advance it from waiting, to yours, to built.

Espresso Martini
Extra shot
In queue
Table 12 · Maya R.4:00
Waiting to be claimed
1
It's in the queue
The ticket sits unclaimed at the top of your rail.
2
Tap to claim
Claiming it tells the bar it's yours, no two bartenders make the same drink.
3
Build itThe SLA timer is the promise the customer sees. It starts when you claim and counts down to the target handoff time. Staying green keeps your speed score up, which feeds the tips section later.
The SLA timer is now ticking. Pour, shake, garnish, the recipe is one tap away.
4
Mark ready
Done. We'll hand it off in the next section.
To make a drink: claim the ticket so no one else takes it, which starts the SLA timer; build the drink with the recipe one tap away; then mark it ready for handoff.
When it gets busy

Make four at once. That's the superpower.

When identical drinks pile up, DrinkLync groups them for you. One shake, four pours. Scroll to watch four mojito tickets collapse into a single batch.

Mojito
MintLime
In queue
Bar 1 · Sam K.2:30
Mojito
MintLime
In queue
Bar 2 · Ali T.2:30
Mojito
MintLime
In queue
Patio 4 · Noor F.2:30
Mojito
MintLime
In queue
Table 9 · Rae M.2:30
0:00savedFour mojitos one at a time is about 5:00 of hands-on work. Batched, one round of muddle, shake, and pour split four ways, it's about 2:00. That's 3:00 back on the rail, every batch.

The queue spots the matches and offers the batch. Tap it once and the four tickets move together — claimed, made, and marked ready as a group. Each customer still gets their own handoff.

Identical builds group automaticallyNear-matches (same base) suggested, your callSplit the batch back apart anytime
Batching groups identical or similar drinks so you make them in one pass. Making four mojitos one at a time takes about 5:00; batched it takes about 2:00, saving roughly 3:00.
The handoff

Tap ready. The pickup wall takes it from here.

The moment you mark a drink ready, DrinkLync mints a pickup token and pushes the order to the gatekeeper's pickup wall. You never leave the rail to deliver.

1You: Mark ready
Espresso Martini
Ready
Table 12 · Maya R.DONE
2Token minted
DL-7Q42Pickup code
3Pickup wall
Espresso MartiniDL-7Q42
MargaritaDL-3K10
IPADL-9X55
4Handed to customer
Maya scans & collectsCleared from your rail

The gatekeeper scans the customer's code against the token to confirm the right person gets the right drink — the same check that keeps alcohol going only to verified customers.A name shouted over the music gets mis-heard; a token can't. The pickup code also doubles as the age-verification handshake, so the gatekeeper confirms identity and order in one scan.

Marking a drink ready mints a pickup token and moves the order to the gatekeeper's pickup wall. The gatekeeper scans the customer's code to confirm identity, hands off the drink, and it clears from your rail.
Getting it exactly right

Mods, allergens, and 86'ing.

The details that used to live in your head now live on the ticket. Three things to always read before you build.

ModsMods are part of the order the customer built, so what you read is exactly what they paid for. Tap any mod to see why it was added (allergy, preference, upsell).
Customizations come pre-attached
Extra shot, sub the syrup, light ice, every change the customer picked is already on the ticket. No scribbled notes, no shouting it down the bar.
Extra shotOat milkLight ice
AllergensAllergen flags pull from the customer's saved profile and the recipe's ingredient list. If a mod would re-introduce an allergen, the ticket warns you before you can mark it ready.
Allergen flags are loud on purpose
A nut, dairy, or gluten flag turns red and sits up top. Treat it as a hard stop, confirm the build before you pour, every time.
Nut allergyDairy-freeGluten-free
86 it86'ing hides the item from ordering and pings the manager's inventory view. Set an optional 'back at' time and it re-lists itself automatically.
Out of something? 86 it in two taps
Marking an item 86'd pulls it from the customer menu instantly, so new orders stop the moment you run dry, no more making a drink you can't finish.
Out of stockBack at 11pmNotify manager
Why this all matters to you
Tonight's tipsWorking the queue well pays three ways: you pour more, the app auto-prompts a tip on nearly every order, and a faster speed score earns you the busier sections. It compounds into a much bigger jar by last call.
The same shift the old way lands around $273. Working the queue is worth roughly $214 more in your jar tonight.
Speed scoreBeating the SLA timer raises your speed score. Managers route the busiest, best-tipping sections to the fastest bartenders.
GreenSLA met
Attach rateEvery order auto-prompts a tip, so almost no one slips out without leaving one, versus a cash drawer where most don't.
97%auto-prompt
More poursCutting the payment dance and batching like orders more than doubles the drinks you personally hand off in a shift.
210vs ~95
Working the queue well earns more: a green speed score wins busier sections, a 97 percent tip attach rate from auto-prompts, and more than double the pours. The night lands near $487 in tips versus about $273 the old way.
Your turn, try it

Run a ticket yourself.

This one's live, not a scroll trick. Tap through the flow as many times as you like, and flip on batching to feel the difference.

Margarita
Tajín rim1 round
In queue
Bar 2 · Ali T.2:30
Waiting in the queue
Flip batching on to serve 4 customers with the same effort as 1.
Interactive demo: a button advances a ticket through claim, make, and ready, with a running SLA timer while making. A batching toggle switches between making one drink and a batch of four.
When something's off

The edge cases, handled.

Real shifts get messy. Here's how DrinkLync covers the moments that used to mean flagging down a manager and losing the thread.

A drink came back, how do I re-fire a remake?Re-fires are tracked so the manager can spot a recipe or station issue if remakes cluster. You don't get dinged for an honest remake.
Open the order, tap Re-fire. A fresh ticket drops into your queue flagged REMAKE with the original mods, and the customer's wait timer resets. The first one is logged as a remake for the manager.
Customer wants a comp or void, what do I do?Comps and voids always require a reason code, and larger ones need manager approval, this keeps your drawer clean and protects you if there's ever a question.
Tap Comp / Void on the ticket and pick a reason. Anything over the house threshold pings a manager for one-tap approval; small comps you can clear yourself if your role allows.
How does end-of-shift handoff work?Your tips, pours, and speed score for the shift are totaled on the handoff screen so you can confirm your numbers before you clock out.
At cut, tap Hand off shift. Any open tickets transfer to the bartender taking over with full context, claimed state, timers, and mods intact. Nothing falls on the floor between shifts.
The internet drops mid-rush, am I stuck?Tickets you complete offline show a small sync icon until they confirm. Nothing is lost and nothing double-fires.
No. The rail keeps working from the local cache: you can still claim, make, and mark ready. Everything syncs the second you're back online, in the right order.

You're ready to work the rail.

That's the whole loop. Do it once and it's muscle memory. Here's the shift, in six moves:

1Read the ticket2Claim it3Beat the SLA4Batch the matches5Mark ready6Let the wall hand off
Run it again
DrinkLync · every pour, in sync