# POS setup for a drive-thru: order point, kitchen, board and window

> Canonical: https://maple.inc/blog/pos-for-drive-thru

*By Maple Team · Published 2026-09-26*

How to set up a POS for a drive-thru lane, station by station, from Toast and Square help pages, with the headset, timer and board links to check and a test.

A drive-thru needs four things from the POS: a drive-thru order type, so every lane ticket is tagged; an order terminal at the headset position; kitchen routing that shows drive-thru tickets in car order; and a window terminal that shows only lane checks for payment. The confirmation board, headsets and timer link to it. Toast and Square both publish step-by-step drive-thru setups.

This guide covers setting up the lane with your own crew on the headset. For how an AI order taker hands orders to the POS, see our guide to [drive-thru AI and the POS](https://maple.inc/blog/drive-thru-ai-pos-integration). For plan prices and which POS to buy, see our [quick-service POS guide](https://maple.inc/blog/best-pos-for-quick-service).

## What does each drive-thru station need from the POS?

    Station What to set up Toast Square
  Order point (headset) A terminal whose default order type is drive-thru Order terminal in Quick Order mode, default dining option Drive-Thru Drive-thru mode assigned to the device; asks for car color and type
  Kitchen Drive-thru tickets routed to the right screen or printer, in order KDS filtered to the Drive-Thru dining option; preview tickets show items before the order is sent Send & Stay sends items while the order is still being built; car details print at the top of the ticket
  Confirmation board The guest sees items and total as they are entered Advanced Order Confirmation Screen, part of Toast Drive-Thru; older Delphi screen through a video encoder Order confirmation screen in Square for Drive-Thru, built with The Howard Company and Nanonation
  Window Only lane checks, oldest first, ready for payment Payment terminal filtered to Drive-Thru, sorted oldest first; finished orders turn green A Drive-thru tab in Order Manager

Headsets and the timer sit outside the POS. HME, PAR and Panasonic sell headset systems; our [headset guide](https://maple.inc/blog/drive-thru-headset-systems) compares them. HME says its ZOOM Nitro timer can show each car's POS transaction number next to its wait time, so the window hands the right order to the right car, and that POS links vary by brand.

Sources: Toast's [drive-thru hardware and setup guide](https://support.toasttab.com/en/article/Drive-Thru-Hardware-and-Operational-Best-Practices), [new KDS overview](https://support.toasttab.com/en/article/Grid-KDS-Overview) and [Advanced Order Confirmation Screen guide](https://support.toasttab.com/en/article/Get-Started-With-the-Advanced-Order-Confirmation-Screen); Square's [Drive-Thru mode guide](https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/8647-set-up-drive-thru-mode-and-fulfillment), [Send & Stay guide](https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/8612-set-up-send-stay-for-your-restaurant) and [May 2026 announcement](https://squareup.com/us/en/press/square-for-drive-thru); HME's [ZOOM Nitro page](https://www.hme.com/qsr/zoom-nitro-drive-thru-timers/).

## How do you set up a drive-thru on Toast?

Toast recommends one to two payment terminals with cash drawers, one to two order terminals and one to three kitchen screens, adjusted to your prep routing. Then, in the order its guide gives:

1. In Toast Web, create a dining option named Drive-Thru with the Dine In behavior, and a revenue center named Drive-Thru. A group with several stores first puts its drive-thru stores in a location group.
2. If you use printers instead of a kitchen screen, set item routing by the Drive-Thru dining option.
3. On the order terminal, set Quick Order as the primary mode and Drive-Thru as the device default dining option, then filter the check list to Drive-Thru.
4. On the payment terminal, set Payment Terminal mode, the same default dining option, sort by oldest and filter to Drive-Thru. Add any pickup dining options you hand out at the window.
5. On each kitchen screen, set Kitchen Display/Expo Screen mode and filter to the same dining options.

With that done, the order taker sends the order, the kitchen sees it on the KDS, and the finished ticket shows green on the payment terminal for the window. Toast's newer KDS adds preview tickets, which it also calls "fire on next", so cooks can start before the order is complete. The Advanced Order Confirmation Screen needs Toast's outdoor digital menu board and media player, and Toast says Toast Drive-Thru is only available to customers with 15 or more drive-thru locations. A single store should ask Toast which board works with its standard POS.

## How do you set up a drive-thru on Square?

Square's Drive-Thru mode needs the Square for Restaurants Premium plan and runs on Square Register, iPad and Square Terminal.

1. In Dashboard, go to Settings, Device settings, Modes, and create a mode of the Drive-thru type. Square attaches the drive-thru fulfillment method for you.
2. Assign that mode to the device at the lane.
3. Turn on Drive-thru under fulfillment methods for each store that has a lane.
4. Turn on Send & Stay on the order device and the kitchen screen. It is off by default and set per device.
5. At the lane, pick Drive-thru as the fulfillment method, enter the car color and type, add items, then send.

The car details appear at the top of the kitchen ticket and in Order Manager, and stay off the guest's receipt. If the crew skips them, the order may show as "Unknown vehicle". Square's May 2026 announcement said Square for Drive-Thru, with its confirmation screen, was in an early access program with broader availability planned for the summer; ask Square whether it is open to your store.

## What if your POS has no drive-thru mode?

Most of the setup still works with an order type. Clover's developer documentation, for example, says merchants can create custom order types in the Clover Setup app. A Drive-Thru order type lets you filter checks, route kitchen tickets and split sales in reports. What you may lose is a car description field, a built-in confirmation board and a link to the timer. Ask your POS company three questions:

- Can the confirmation board show items as they are entered, and which board hardware works with it?
- Can the timer read POS order numbers, and does the timer maker list your POS?
- Can items fire to the kitchen before the order is paid?

## How do you test the setup before the lane opens?

1. Place ten test orders in a row at the order terminal. Each should reach the right kitchen screen, tagged drive-thru, in the order entered.
2. Build a long order and check that the first items reach the kitchen before you press send, if you use preview tickets or Send & Stay.
3. Read the confirmation board from the driver's seat. Every modifier and the total, with tax, should match the check.
4. Take payment at the window for a cash order and a card order. The check should close with no second open check left behind.
5. Mix in a walk-in or pickup order and confirm it stays off the drive-thru screens, or shows up there if you meant it to.
6. Start the timer and check that the POS order number shows against the right car.
7. Pull the sales report and confirm drive-thru sales sit under their own order type or dining option.

Once the lane is live, our [timer guide](https://maple.inc/blog/drive-thru-timer) shows how to read service times, and our [KDS guide](https://maple.inc/blog/kitchen-display-system) covers kitchen screen setup in more depth.

## Which POS systems does Maple work with?

Maple's phone ordering and its early-access [drive-thru unit](https://maple.inc/drive-thru) write orders into the POS systems on its [integrations page](https://maple.inc/integrations), including Toast, Square, Clover, SkyTab (now Shift4 Dine) and Lightspeed. If you add one later, test that its tickets carry the same drive-thru tag as the orders your crew keys in.

*Published by Maple, which sells AI phone ordering and an early-access drive-thru ordering unit. This AI-assisted guide combines Toast and Square help pages, Square's announcement, Clover's developer documentation and HME's product page with an original station table and test list. It does not report a Maple test of any POS or promise how any system performs in a lane.*

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