Your first hour

Before you start

When you sign up you land on a checklist headed Let's get your venue live. It counts the steps that are done and links straight to each one, so you can work down it and stop when the count is full. Nothing you enter is visible to guests until the last step.

Have your table list to hand — how many tables, and how many people each one seats. That is the only part you cannot guess your way through.

Working the checklist

1. Verify your email. Click the link we sent. If it has not arrived, press Resend email → on the checklist and check the junk folder.

2. Venue profile. Your name and address, so guests know where they are going.

3. Rooms & tables. At least one active table. Availability is worked out entirely from these, so an empty floor plan means an empty booking page.

4. Shifts. Your opening hours — at least one service on at least one day.

5. Turn times. A sensible default was created for you, so this step is already ticked. Worth opening anyway: it is the setting most likely to be wrong for your room.

6. Review & go live. The owner presses this. Until then guests cannot see or book the venue.

What can wait

Deposits, staff logins, pacing caps and the rest of the settings can all be set up after you are taking bookings. The order above is the shortest path to a working booking page; everything else is tuning.

One thing worth doing early rather than late: if you are the only person with a login, add your manager under Settings → Staff before your first busy service, not during it.