Breakfast has finished, but the TV is still selling it. A daypart menu board should change with the kitchen, including the gap before lunch starts.
Check how your software ends a menu. Yodeck warns that an expired layout can keep playing when assigned directly to a screen. Putting an end time in a dashboard is not enough.
Write down the kitchen hours first
Use service times rather than opening times. You might open the door at 07:00 but stop breakfast at 10:45 so the kitchen can change over. Write that gap down. Do not let the display invent an extra fifteen minutes of breakfast.
The example below uses Europe/Zagreb local time. Adjust these planning times to your café.
| Local time | Screen content | Operational check |
|---|---|---|
| 07:00 to 10:45 | Breakfast | Breakfast items are ready |
| 10:45 to 11:00 | Drinks and lunch start time | No unavailable breakfast offer |
| 11:00 to 15:00 | Lunch | Lunch prices and availability checked |
| 15:00 to 17:00 | Drinks and cakes | Lunch offers removed |
| 17:00 to 21:00 | Dinner | Evening menu approved |
| After 21:00 | Closing notice or approved default | No promise of food after service |
Decide separately what happens on Sundays, public holidays and days when you close early. Recurring rules save work only while the underlying hours remain true.
Make each menu readable on its own
Keep category positions consistent across services. If drinks stay on the right during breakfast, leaving them there at lunch helps returning customers. Change the dishes and prices without rearranging the whole shop in miniature.
You can switch from breakfast to lunch without running a rotating slideshow. Keep essential choices visible for the whole service. Reserve a separate area or screen for an offer if space allows.
Start with the menu board templates and review the reading-distance guide before setting the schedule. A perfectly timed menu still needs legible prices.
A Yodeck layout can keep playing after its end time
Yodeck’s schedule documentation describes events that determine the content and timing:
A Schedule is a collection of one or more Events
Its calendar also handles conflicting events through priority. Check how your lunch rule interacts with an all-day menu or a one-off promotion. Another event may take priority over your lunch rule.
There is a more specific Yodeck detail to watch. Its layout guide says layout availability works correctly inside a playlist; directly assigning that layout to a screen can leave it showing after expiry. Follow the documented playlist route and check the end time.
Kinosign makes a competing product, so weigh our view with that in mind. Its pre-launch plan includes breakfast, lunch, dinner and late schedules, set once. Keep Yodeck if your playlists already handle those changes correctly.
Rehearse the breakfast-to-lunch changeover
Set a temporary change a few minutes ahead, using two approved menus. Watch the TV switch, then restore the real service times. Check the weekend exceptions too.
Use the venue’s named time zone rather than a fixed UTC offset where available. Lunch follows the kitchen’s clock, not the account owner’s laptop.
Prepare for a disconnected player
A player cannot receive an edited schedule while disconnected. That is different from running a previously downloaded schedule without internet. Verify both behaviors on your exact setup instead of assuming one proves the other.
Before service, confirm that the menus and schedule have reached the player. During a network problem, use a printed menu or a locally available approved fallback. Do not tell staff a sold-out dish has disappeared until someone has checked the screen.
For a shorter promotional window, use the happy-hour checklist and check what returns when the offer ends.
Prepare your breakfast and lunch PDFs in the free menu maker. Check the imported items, then rehearse one changeover on the TV before service.
Sources
Vendor prices and plans were checked against each linked page in November 2026. They change often, so open the page before you buy.
