New booking
Take a booking at the counter or on the phone. Name, guests and time, a phone number and a special request if you have them, then Take the booking. The cloud gives it a free table. Needs the internet. On the Windows and the Android POS.
On this page
A guest at the counter, or on the phone, wants a table for later. New booking takes it in a few seconds: only the name, the number of guests and the time are needed. Everything else is optional, so a queue does not build up behind the caller.
The booking goes straight into the restaurant's booking book in the cloud. It shows on every POS's Bookings screen and in the back office's Reservations at once.
Before you start
- A new booking needs the internet. It is made in the cloud, never on the POS, so two POS cannot promise the same table.
- Bookings and queue must be part of your plan. Without it, New booking is not shown.
- The outlet must be open for bookings at that time. The times come from the back office: General Setup, Dining Shifts. A time outside every dining shift is refused. See Dining Shifts.
- Choose the day first. A new booking is for the day the Bookings screen shows. For tomorrow, press ▶ before New booking. See Bookings.
Take a booking
- On the table screen, press 📅 Bookings.
- Move to the day of the booking with ◀ and ▶ (it opens on today).
- Press New booking (on Android: New).
- Type the guest's Name.
- Key how many Guests. It starts at 2.
- Set the Time. It starts at the next half hour.
- Type the Phone, if you have it, and anything they ask for in Anything special?.
- Press Take the booking. It says Saving… for a moment.
- The form closes and the screen says Booking taken for Tan Mei Ling. The booking is on the list, Confirmed.
The form, part by part
This is the Windows POS. The Android form is below.
- New booking, and the date under it: the day the booking is for, the day the Bookings screen showed.
- Name: who the booking is for. Needed. It is what the list shows, and what you call when they arrive.
- Guests: how many are coming, 1 or more. It starts at 2.
- Time: the booked time, on the outlet's clock. It starts at the next half hour (at 18:10 it says 18:30).
- Phone: the guest's phone number. Optional, but it lets you call them if they are late.
- Anything special?: a request, such as a high chair or a birthday. Optional. It shows in amber on the booking in the list.
- Cancel: closes the form. Nothing is booked.
- Take the booking: makes the booking in the cloud. While it is sent it says Saving….
Each box has the keyboard button at its right end, as every typing box on the POS has: Name and Anything special? open the POS's keyboard, Guests and Phone its number pad. A keyboard plugged in works too. See The on-screen keyboard.
What the cloud does with it
- It gives the booking a table: the smallest free table with enough seats at that time. The list then shows it, for example 4 guests · table T5.
- It holds the table for the dining shift's sitting length, so another booking cannot be given the same table at an overlapping time. See Table colours for how a booked table shows on the table screen.
- It starts the booking as Confirmed. A booking taken on the POS needs no confirming.
- It takes no deposit. To take one, press Deposit on the booking afterwards. See Bookings.
On Android: the New booking form
The Android form has the same boxes, with these differences:
- It slides up from the bottom of the screen, and shows no date: the booking is for the day the Bookings screen shows.
- The time is typed in its box, Time (HH:mm), as four figures with a colon: 19:30.
- There is no Cancel button. To leave without booking, swipe the form down or tap outside it.
- When the booking is taken, the screen says its number too: Booking R26-00012 taken for Tan Mei Ling.
- On a phone, or a tablet held upright, the form scrolls, so Take the booking can always be reached with the keyboard up.
- Time (HH:mm): type the time as 19:30.
- Take the booking: makes the booking. There is no Cancel: swipe the form down to leave it.