FooodPosWiki

Dining Shifts

The services a table can be booked into, such as Lunch and Dinner. Every field (Starts, Ends, Active days, Booking interval, Sitting length, Max covers per slot, Minimum notice, Book up to, Online booking), how they make the times a guest can book, and a service that crosses midnight.

Who uses it:OwnerManagerWhere:Back officeOnline booking
On this page

A dining shift is a service a table can be booked into: Lunch from 11:30 to 14:30, Dinner from 18:00 to 22:00. Each outlet has its own. The shifts decide which times a booking can take, on which days, how far ahead, and whether guests may book them themselves on your booking page.

An outlet with no dining shift takes no bookings, and is not listed on the booking page. A new restaurant has none.

Before you start

  • Dining Shifts is part of Bookings and queue. With that switched off for the restaurant, the screen is not in the menu.
  • You need Reservations, View to see the screen, and Reservations, Edit to change it (Back office access groups).
  • For guests to book online, the outlet also needs tables that can seat them. See Table Plan: a table's settings.

Open Dining Shifts

  1. In the menu, under MASTERS, click General Setup, then Dining Shifts.
  2. The page Dining Shifts opens, on the outlet you are working in.

The screen, part by part

General Setup, Dining Shifts: one outlet's services, and whether guests can book them online.
  1. Dining Shifts: under MASTERS, in General Setup. Search… and Show inactive beside the title find shifts and list the switched-off ones, greyed.
  2. Outlet: the outlet whose shifts are listed, and the one a new shift is made for. It shows only when you work at more than one outlet. Choosing another here switches the outlet you are working in.
  3. + New: adds a shift to this outlet.
  4. Window: when the service starts and ends. (next day) when it ends after midnight.
  5. Days: Every day, or the days it runs, such as Fri, Sat.
  6. Slot: the Booking interval, the minutes between two times a booking can start.
  7. Sitting: the Sitting length, how long a table is held for a booking.
  8. Covers/slot: the Max covers per slot, or Unlimited.
  9. Online: Open when guests may book it on the booking page, Phone only when only staff can.
  10. Edit and Delete.

Add a shift

  1. Choose the outlet in Outlet (if you have more than one), then click + New. The window New Dining Shift opens, filled in for a lunch from 11:30 to 14:30.
  2. Type a Code, such as DINNER, and a Name, such as Dinner.
  3. Type when it Starts and Ends, in minutes past midnight. See Times as minutes past midnight.
  4. Type its Active days. 127 is every day. See Active days.
  5. Set the booking rules: Booking interval, Sitting length, Max covers per slot, Minimum notice, Book up to.
  6. Tick Online booking if guests may book it themselves.
  7. Click Save. The big green SAVED shows.
New Dining Shift: when the service runs, and the rules a booking follows.
  1. Code: required, different from the outlet's other shifts.
  2. Name: required. Staff and the booking page see it, such as Lunch.
  3. Starts (minutes past midnight): required, 0 to 1439. 690 is 11:30.
  4. Ends (minutes past midnight): required, up to 2880. Past 1440 is the next day: 1560 is 02:00 after midnight, for a supper service.
  5. Active days (bitmask): the days the shift runs, as one number: add up the days' numbers. 127 is every day.
  6. Booking interval (min): 5 to 240. The times offered start at Starts and come every this many minutes: 11:30, 12:00, 12:30…
  7. Sitting length (min): 15 to 600. How long a booking holds its table. The last time offered is the last one whose sitting still ends by Ends: with 11:30 to 14:30 and 90 minutes, that is 13:00.
  8. Max covers per slot: the most guests booked in at the same time, across the outlet. A time that a party would take over it is full. 0 means no limit but the free tables.
  9. Minimum notice (min): a guest cannot book a time sooner than this many minutes from now. 60 keeps the next hour free of surprises.
  10. Book up to (days ahead): how far ahead a guest can book, 1 or more days.
  11. Online booking: Guests may book this service themselves. Unticked, it is Phone only: staff can still book into it, guests cannot.
  12. Display order: the order on the list.
  13. Active: ticked, the shift takes bookings.

Times as minutes past midnight

Starts and Ends are minutes after midnight: the hour times 60, plus the minutes.

TimeMinutesTimeMinutes
07:0042018:001080
11:0066018:301110
11:3069021:001260
12:0072022:001320
14:3087023:001380
17:00102002:00 the next day1560

A supper from 21:00 to 02:00 is Starts 1260 and Ends 1560. The list shows it as 21:00 – 02:00 (next day).

Active days

Each day has a number. Add up the days the shift runs.

SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
1248163264
  • Every day: 127.
  • Monday to Friday: 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 32 = 62.
  • Saturday and Sunday: 64 + 1 = 65.
  • Friday and Saturday: 32 + 64 = 96.
  • Every day but Monday: 127 − 2 = 125.

The Days column says what the number means, such as Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri. Check it after saving.

How the shifts make the booking times

A guest on your booking page is shown times at an outlet only when:

  1. the outlet has a switched-on shift with Online booking ticked;
  2. the day is one of the shift's Active days;
  3. the time is at least Minimum notice minutes away and at most Book up to days ahead;
  4. a table that seats the party is free for the whole Sitting length, and Max covers per slot is not reached. A full time is shown struck through.

Staff book from Reservations in the back office and from Bookings on the POS. Their bookings must fall inside a switched-on shift of that day too, but need not be open online.

The Your booking link box in Reservations says when an outlet is not ready, for example No dining shift takes online bookings yet, so guests will see no times.

Change, switch off or delete a shift

  • Edit, change it, Save. Bookings already made keep their time and table.
  • Untick Active to stop taking bookings into it.
  • Delete asks Delete "Supper"?, If it has already been used it will be deactivated instead, so existing records stay intact. A shift with bookings is switched off instead: Deactivated — still used by reservations.

What if…