How do I create a booking for a customer?

Create a staff booking from the dashboard, step by step — the customer, their details, when, the table, any payment link, then a review of what will happen.

To create a booking yourself (for example, a customer phoning up), click New booking in the top bar — it's available on Home, Bookings, Timeline and Floor plan. While Enable staff bookings is switched off (Settings → Bookings → How people book), every add-booking button is hidden and the booking form says why. If a pop-up asks "Will this be a scheduled booking or a walk-in?", choose New booking.

You need the booking-create permission (Owners, Admins, Managers and Hosts have it by default), and Enable staff bookings must be on in Settings → Bookings → How people book (it's on by default — switched off, every "add a booking" button is hidden and the form says why; walk-ins and the waitlist still work).

Which day and time New booking opens on

New booking opens on the day you're looking at: from Bookings, the Timeline or the Floor plan it's the day the page is showing (a day that has already gone opens on today instead), and from Home or a customer's profile it's today. It never moves itself on to the next day — not late in the day, and not when you're closed — so check the Date before you save; Today and Tomorrow on the When step are one tap away. The time starts at the next 15 minutes from now on today (your opening time if you haven't opened yet), and at your opening time on any other day. If you're closed on that day, you're told so before the booking is saved.

Steps

New booking opens as a sheet — from the right-hand side on a computer, the whole screen on a phone — with numbered steps along the top and, on a computer, a summary beside them that fills in as you go. Next checks the step you're on (a missing first name or party size is said under its box), Back or a finished step's number takes you back, and closing keeps what you've typed: open New booking again and choose Carry on to pick up where you left off. The draft stays in that browser tab for 30 minutes — it's never saved to the device.

• Who is it for? Type a name, phone or email and pick the customer (customer search is on every plan): their contact details and preferences fill in, marked with a From profile badge, and the sheet moves on to their details. Someone new? Choose New customer — skip.
• Their details — First name (required) and Last name, the customer's Email (for the confirmation and the manage-booking link) and Mobile if you have them. When your staff-booking confirmation setting asks each time, Send the confirmation by offers Email and Text (a text needs a number) so you can choose per booking. Once there's an email, Offers by email or text? asks you to put that question to the customer (with only a UK mobile and no email, it asks Offers by text? — see phone-only customers) — Yes, No or Didn’t ask (the default). Their answer goes on their customer record with your name; Didn’t ask leaves the record as it is, and a customer who was never asked gets no offers. Then Allergies, Dietary (vegan, halal and the like — kept separately from allergies) and Customer notes.
• When, and how many? — the Date (Today, Tomorrow and the coming Saturday are one tap away), the Time, the number of Guests (required) and How long. The Time box lists every 15 minutes that the whole booking fits before you close (and before your team's last-booking cut-off) — type a time or pick one from the list. If you use pacing rules (Settings → Bookings → How many at once), each time is tagged: Busy when this booking takes a rule to three quarters of its limit, At your limit when it would go over a rule that warns your team (you can still book it — you'll be asked), and Full when a rule stops your team (it can't be picked); No table when no table is free for them then (see Checked as you pick). Guests has one-tap numbers for 1–8 and − / + (or type the number) for bigger parties. How long starts at your standard length for the party (Settings → Bookings → How long a booking lasts — lengths by party size apply if you've set them up); tap one of the lengths from 1 hour to 3 hours or use − / +. Changing the time keeps the length.
• Which table? — the tables your team could give the booking, best first. The one ResoFlow would choose is marked Best fit and is chosen until you pick another: your seating preference first, then a table rule for this kind of booking, then the smallest table that fits. Each shows its seats and when it's free; a table free for only part of the booking says "free from" or "free until" a time, and picking it asks "Book it anyway?". A table kept online for bigger parties says so — your team can still seat anyone there. When no single table seats the party and your team's bookings may join tables, the tables that join are offered. Choose Leave it unassigned to place it later — it waits in the Unassigned tab on the Bookings page (if your venue doesn't auto-assign tables, that's where it starts). Choose on the floor plan opens the floor plan to pick any table, and Join tables seats one party across several; a table that already has a booking at that time asks "Book it anyway?" before it's picked — see How do I change a booking — time, table, party or length?. Table availability includes your turnaround (cleaning) time, so a table that's just been cleared isn't offered until the gap has passed. If you've switched on seating preferences, Seating preference lists your seating types, and Booking type (Food or drinks only) appears when you take both.
• Payment and the rest — if the same booking made online would have required a deposit or full payment (and the confirmation email goes to the customer), choose Send a payment link to include a secure "Pay securely" button in the confirmation email, an at-venue choice, or Skip — no charge to take no payment; the choice is recorded on the booking and in the Activity log. When the booking qualifies for pre-ordering, a tick box offers to invite the customer to pre-order. Then the Customer agreed to the cancellation policy and terms (verbal / in person) tick — recommended when deposits or no-show protection are on (it's the record if there's ever a dispute); it records their agreement but never blocks the booking, and View terms shows what to read out. Choose How they booked — Phone, In person, Email, Walk-up or External platform by default (you can edit this list in Settings → Bookings → How people book, under Booking sources) — and optionally record an Occasion and Staff notes (internal only). Under More are Repeat this booking, a Promo code, the loyalty sign-up and the internal-only tick, where your plan and settings include them.
• Check it, then save booking — every answer (the time, how long, the table — or "Unassigned") with a Change link beside it, and under When you press Save booking, exactly what will happen (the confirmation, any payment link, a pre-order invite, a card link, a repeat). Press Save booking. While the booking saves, the sheet greys out with "Adding booking…" — nothing can be tapped or closed until it's in, so a second tap can never create two bookings. If it's taking longer than usual, a message says so and asks you to check the bookings list before trying again.

You can also type it into the search: "book Sarah Jones for 6 on Friday at 7, birthday" opens New booking with the party, day, time, name and occasion filled in — see What can I type into the search?.

Taking the payment at the venue

On the payment step, Paid in person records money the customer has already paid you in cash or on your own card machine — on the booking, with your name (it needs the permission Record payments taken at the venue). They'll pay at the venue by a date appears where your venue lets customers pay at the venue: they get one reminder, and if it's still unpaid it's flagged to your team — never cancelled. The confirmation email says which applied. On a date that asks for the rest of the payment, the step also shows the rest and when it's due. Staff bookings never take card payments through ResoFlow at the desk — card money is collected by payment link, which you can still send from the booking's details at any time; money taken in cash or on your own card machine is recorded from the booking's Payments card with Take a payment → Mark paid in person. See How do payment plans and paying at the venue work?

Checked as you pick

New booking checks the tables while you answer, not only when you save:

• A time with no table. In the Time list, a time when no table is free for the whole booking — for that many guests, for that long — is tagged No table. You can still pick it.
• A time that stops fitting. If the time you've picked stops fitting — you change the Guests, How long or the day — the When step says so straight away, for example "No table for 6 at 19:30 for 2 h.", with the nearest times that do fit, one tap each (such as Make it 21:00). When nothing that day fits, it says so: make it shorter, or pick another day.
• Booking it anyway. You can still book a time with no table on purpose: choose a table on the floor plan (a table that already has a booking asks "Book it anyway?"), or leave it unassigned.
• A table you picked yourself. If you change the time, how long or the guests so your chosen table no longer fits — too small, or someone's booked there then — the When and Table steps say so at once, name the booking in the way, and offer the best fit instead. Keep it, and Save booking asks "Book it anyway?". That answer is for that time: change the time and you're asked again.

A customer who didn't turn up before

If the customer didn't come to an earlier booking, a chip such as "1 past no-show" shows under their name in their details once you've picked them or typed their email — only where your team mark customers as arrived. When your venue holds cards for no-shows, the last step then offers Ask for a card for no-shows: as soon as the booking is saved, the customer gets a link to save a card — by email, or by text when there's no email. Nothing is charged, and it isn't offered alongside a payment link. See How do I ask a customer to save a card after they've booked?.

When a rule gets in the way

Your team isn't held to most of the rules online customers are — each rule's Applies to: line on its settings page says who it covers. The form checks your rules as you book (and the server checks them again when you save, so an old tab or a regular booking can't slip past):

• Always stopped: a time outside your opening hours, a date or time that has already gone (beyond Allow staff to book slightly in the past — the When step says so as soon as you pick it, and offers Add them as a walk-in for a party who's there now), a new booking that starts after your team's last-booking cut-off (Last booking before you close — a start exactly at the cut-off is fine), a party bigger than your Maximum party size when Apply max party size to staff bookings too is on, and a pacing rule set to Block staff too.
• By default, a warning you can go past: a closed day (including a special date you've closed), a date blocked for online bookings, your break, short notice, a date further ahead than customers can book online, a party bigger than your online limit or smaller than your Smallest party online (or a day-and-time rule's smallest party), a table kept online for bigger parties, a full room (Most guests seated at once) and a pacing rule set to Warn staff, let them proceed. Each warning names the rule; choose Book anyway to go ahead.

Seven of those warnings can become a stop, one switch at a time — each is off until you turn it on, and nothing changes until you do:

• a closed day — Also stop your team on days you're closed (Settings → Venue → Hours);
• your break — Also stop your team during your break (Hours);
• a date blocked for online bookings — Also stop your team on blocked dates (Settings → Bookings → Special dates);
• short notice and a date further ahead than online — Also stop your team, beside Minimum advance booking and Maximum advance booking (When people can book);
• a party smaller than your smallest party online — Also stop your team, beside Smallest party online (How many at once);
• a full room — Also stop your team, beside Most guests seated at once (How many at once); walk-ins are held to it too.

A table kept online for bigger parties only ever warns — your team can seat anyone at any table.

A booking you add without an end time gets your standard booking length.

Under More there's also Internal-only booking (a table block, training…) — internal bookings send no emails or texts, are left out of your figures, and show as a block on the Timeline.

Related: How do I take my first booking? · How do I change a booking — time, table, party or length? · How long does a booking last? · What does the customer see when paying a deposit or saving a card?