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Running service

Once you are open, your dashboard becomes a counter screen. Sign in on the phone or tablet by the door; it works the same on both.

Service or Bookings?

The two front tabs hold the same bookings and answer different questions. Service is tonight, live — who is in now, who is next — and shows nothing from any other day. Bookings is the diary: any date, forwards or back, plus a search for finding a party whose day you do not know. Use Service during service; use Bookings when someone asks about next Tuesday.

The Service tab

The front screen for tonight. Across the top, four numbers: bookings today, covers, how many are in now, and who is next. Beneath, two lists:

In now — parties whose sitting has started. A red rim means they are seated.
Coming up — the rest of today, in order.

It refreshes itself every minute, so a booking made online while you are talking to someone appears without you touching anything. If the wifi drops, the screen keeps showing the diary it last fetched, marked with the time — see When the wifi drops.

The Floor plan tab

If you drew your room, this is it, live: green tables free, red tables taken, amber on the way. It follows the same bookings as the Service tab. Tap a table to see whose it is, move that party or cancel them.

This tab only shows the room. Drawing it, redrawing it or removing the drawing is under the cog, in Edit floor plan — see Tables and the floor plan.

The Bookings tab

Every booking, by day. Use ‹ and › for the next or previous day, or tap the date itself to pick any day from your phone's own calendar — a booking in November is one tap, not forty.

To find a booking whose day you do not know, type into the search box: a reference is found whenever it is, and a name, phone number or email is matched across the diary from a week back to two months ahead.

Phone numbers and email addresses

A booking row never prints them. It shows the time, the name, the party size and any note, and a Contact details link — tap it and the number and the address open in a panel, where the number dials and the address opens a new email.

That is deliberate. This screen spends the whole service face up on the pass, in front of whoever happens to be standing at it, and a diner's phone number does not need to be readable from a metre away for the two minutes a night you actually ring someone back. The waitlist works the same way.

Notes stay in the open, because an allergy is something the kitchen has to see without anyone tapping anything.

Taking a booking over the phone

Press Add a booking.
Choose the day — the arrows, or tap the date to pick one — then press Find times — you see the same times a diner would, and only those.
Pick a time, enter the party size, the diner's name and, if they give one, a phone number and email.
Press Add.

If they gave an email, they get the same confirmation a diner who booked online would. If not, nothing is sent and nothing is lost — it is just a phone booking.

Cancelling

Press Cancel on the booking. If the diner gave an email, they are told. If the booking had a card hold, you will be offered the choice to charge or waive the fee — see No-show cover.

Moving a party to another table

Press Move on the booking and pick the table. Same time, different table; the diner is not emailed, because nothing they were told has changed.

Changing the time is a cancel and a new booking. The diner gets a cancellation and a new confirmation, which is right — they need to know.

The Waitlist tab

Switch it on under Tables and a Waitlist tab joins the front row. It is the notebook by the till, typed:

Type who is waiting, how many, and a phone number if they give one. Press Add.
When a table comes free, press Seated. If they gave up, Left. Changed their mind? Back on.

Nobody on the list is holding a table and nobody is texted. It is a list of who is standing there, in order, that clears itself overnight. Walk over and tell them.

Everyone at the venue uses the same login for now. Every change is recorded with when it happened. Individual staff logins are planned.

Still stuck? hello@thezi.app reaches a person, usually the same day.