Toast KDS Average Time Doesn't Follow Your Course Filter: What to Compare Before Changing the Shift

Quick answer: No. Toast's product update dated October 29, 2026 says that from Toast POS 2.115, the average fulfillment timer on a KDS device includes every ticket assigned to that device's prep stations, whatever its Ticket display options filter shows. Before, it only counted the tickets the filter let through. So if you run an appetizer-only screen and a mains-only screen at the same prep station, on 2.115 or later both are showing the station's average, not the course's. Don't use it to judge one course, and don't change the shift on it alone. Treat it as a station number, compare readings only when the screen, version, settings and service match, and get course times somewhere else.

We wrote this from Toast's update and its platform and support pages as they read on November 6, 2026. We haven't run any of it on a Toast device, and Toast doesn't publish the exact formula behind the timer.

What the number covers now

• Version. The update says the change is first available in Toast POS 2.115. Toast tags it as a bug fix, generally available at all locations. That doesn't tell you when a given screen got it, so read the version on the device.
• Which tickets. Toast's timer guide says a prep station KDS shows averages for the prep stations assigned to that device. An expediter KDS shows averages for the prep stations that send to the expediter, plus the expediter's own. Your Send to setting for each prep station changes which ones appear there. The update says a device's Ticket display options no longer narrow its average.
• Which minutes. The timer only uses fulfillment times from the last 120 minutes, and the Recently Fulfilled Timeframe setting can shorten that. Toast's support article puts the setting in Toast Web under Ticket Screens and uses 30 minutes as its example. The kitchen settings reference adds that during high-volume periods the system may use a shorter timeframe for that setting. It doesn't say whether the average shrinks with it.
• Which clock. Prep time runs from when an item is fired to when it's fulfilled at the prep station, or at the expediter if that's where it gets fulfilled. Expediter time is measured differently, and how depends on your fulfillment setup. In a single-level expo where every prep station on the ticket has fulfilled, it runs from the last prep station's fulfillment to the expediter's. If the ticket wasn't sent to prep stations, not every prep station fulfilled it, or a prep station is set to Expediter only, the timer guide says the expo clock starts when the item was first sent to the kitchen instead. With two-level fulfillment, the second expediter has its own timing and fallbacks. Check the timer guide linked above, or ask Toast, for your setup before you read an expo number. Neither prep nor expo time is how long a guest waited.
• Which view. The support article, last updated September 30, 2026, before this change, says Dynamic View counts in-progress tickets and Grid View waits until tickets are fully fulfilled. Screens on different views can show slightly different averages.

Four settings that get mixed up

Only some of these change what goes into the average.

Why hiding a course doesn't give you a course average

Toast's own filtering example is a kitchen that wants appetizers out within 8 minutes and mains within 15. It puts two KDS devices at each prep station, one showing only appetizers and one only mains. On 2.115 or later, both screens at a station show the same prep station average, built from both courses. The appetizer cook can be looking at a number that includes mains nobody at that screen ever saw.

Here's a made-up example of what that does to a manager's read. To keep the arithmetic simple: one prep station, two screens, and the average treated as a plain mean where every ticket counts once. Toast doesn't publish its formula, and with individual item fulfillment each item gets its own time, so a real screen won't match these numbers.

• In the window, the station fulfilled 12 appetizer tickets at 7 minutes each and 8 main tickets at 16 minutes each.
• Station average: (12 × 7 + 8 × 16) ÷ 20 = 212 ÷ 20 = 10.6 minutes. Under these assumptions, both screens show 10.6.
• The appetizer screen looks 2.6 minutes over its 8-minute target, though every appetizer came out in 7.
• The mains screen looks 4.4 minutes under its 15-minute target, though every main took 16. That's the one that gets missed.

Now change the mix. On another night the window holds 4 appetizers and 12 mains, cooked at the same speeds: (4 × 7 + 12 × 16) ÷ 16 = 220 ÷ 16 = 13.75 minutes. The average rose by more than 3 minutes and nobody got slower. Add a cook on that number and you've staffed for the menu mix, not for a slowdown.

Don't compare across the update

Before 2.115, a course-filtered screen averaged only the tickets it showed. From 2.115, it averages everything at its prep stations. So an appetizer-screen reading from before the update and one from today measure different tickets. If it jumped after the update, the mains joining the average can explain that on its own. Don't call it a slowdown.

The same goes for anything else that changed between two readings: the version, the KDS view, the Recently Fulfilled Timeframe, routing or prep station assignment. On a device still below 2.115, a different course filter counts too. Each one changes what's in the number or how it's counted. Note when you first see 2.115 on each device and start your comparisons from there.

How to read it before you change anything

None of this needs a settings change.

1. Write down the screen's context. The device, the prep stations it's assigned, its POS version, KDS view and course filter, and the Recently Fulfilled Timeframe value.
2. Read the number at set times. It's a rolling average, so record the time, the day-part and roughly what the kitchen was sending: mostly appetizers, mostly mains or a mix.
3. Write expected next to observed. Expected means what you'd expect from that station with that mix, not one course's target.
4. Check the one thing the update predicts. On 2.115 or later, two screens assigned the same prep stations should show the same prep station average at the same moment, whatever their filters. If they don't and both are on the same view, write down both readings and the time and take it to Toast.
5. Get course times somewhere else. Toast's calculation guide points to Reports > Kitchen operations > Tickets by fulfillment for prep station fulfillment times, and to Ticket details for how long an order took from its first item fired to its last item fulfilled. The pages we read don't say either report splits by course, uses the same window as the screen or measures guest wait. Look at what yours shows, and ask Toast if you need course-level times.
6. Decide after comparable services. Compare the same day-part over several services with nothing in step 1 changed. The screen number on its own isn't a reason to add or cut a cook.

Stop at step 1 if a device is below 2.115 or you can't confirm its version. Its filtered screen may still average only what it shows, so the population rules above don't apply to it.

Don't change routing or fulfillment settings to move the number, and don't let anyone bump unfinished food to bring it down. A time from an early bump is just a wrong time.

Toast's update has its own check: send and fulfill two orders with different courses, filter to one course, and the average shouldn't change. We haven't run it. It means sending and fulfilling orders, so only do it in a setup your restaurant has approved and confirmed can't text guests, take a payment, or show up in your reports or order records. A Test Mode label doesn't prove that by itself. If you can't confirm it, skip it. If you have two screens on the same prep stations, step 4 gets you most of the way without placing an order.

Copy this manager note

KDS AVERAGE TIME - MANAGER NOTE
Per Toast update, Oct 29, 2026: POS 2.115+.
Not tested on our devices.

ON 2.115+ the average on a KDS screen counts
every ticket at that screen's prep stations.
A course filter hides tickets. It does NOT
make the average a course average.

WINDOW: last 120 min, or less if Recently
Fulfilled Timeframe is set lower.
PREP time = fired to fulfilled at station.
EXPO time is measured differently.
Neither one is guest wait time.

RECORD EACH READING
Screen / prep stations: ________________
POS version (read on device): __________
KDS view: _________ Filter: ____________
Recently Fulfilled Timeframe: _____ min
Date / time / day-part: ________________
Mix (apps / mains / both): _____________
Expected (station, not one course): ____
Observed average: ______
Owner who decides: _____________________

COMPARE ONLY LIKE WITH LIKE
Same screen, version, view, window,
routing and day-part. Readings from before
2.115 counted filtered tickets only. Don't
compare them with today's.

STOP - DON'T JUDGE A COURSE OR CHANGE
STAFFING IF
- version is below 2.115 or unknown
- anything above changed between readings
- the screen number is all you have
Two screens on the same prep stations and
view show different averages at the same
time? Record both and the time. Manager
takes it to Toast.

NEVER
- bump unfinished food to lower the timer
- change routing or fulfillment settings
  to move the number

Sources

• Toast product updates, "Average fulfillment timer includes all tickets, regardless of ticket display options", October 29, 2026 (CPPL-617).
• Toast Platform Guide, "Understanding average fulfillment timers" (undated page).
• Toast Platform Guide, "Calculating prep station fulfillment times" (undated page).
• Toast Platform Guide, "Filtering tickets on a KDS device" (undated page).
• Toast Platform Guide, Kitchen settings reference, Ticket Screens section (undated page).
• Toast Support, "Item and Order Fulfillment on KDS", last updated September 30, 2026, before the update. Used for the window setting's location and the view difference only.

All read November 6, 2026.