How do I sign up and set up my venue?

The sign-up wizard step by step — account, email verification, you and your venue, choosing the package or products and your plan, paying, the venue-essentials screens (hours, tables, booking basics) and the setup checklist.

You sign up through a short wizard, then Your set-up gets your venue ready to take bookings. ResoFlow is UK-only for now — you'll confirm your business operates in the United Kingdom during sign-up.

A row of steps across the top of the sign-up card shows where you are — Account, Verify, Your venue, Choose, Payment (only when you're paying for something), then Hours, Tables and Basics for a venue — ticking each one off as you go. On a wide screen, your guests' booking page builds itself beside the form as you answer (your venue's name, and the days you're open once you've told us); guests can't see it until you press Go live.

• Create your account. Use Continue with Google (one tap — a Google account is already verified, so you skip the email-check step), or enter an email address and a password (at least 8 characters, with letters and numbers — a strength bar under the box tells you when it's good) and click Create account. Either way, tick the one box above the Google button first — it agrees to the Terms and Privacy Policy and confirms your business operates in the UK; the product-updates box under it is optional. Forget the tick and the page tells you so, right beside it. Got a code? Have a code? takes a setup code, a referral code or a promo code and tells you which kind it recognised.
• Check your inbox. We send a verification link and a 6-digit code — click the link, or type the code on the sign-up screen and press Verify (handy when the email is open on another device). The link opens a ResoFlow page that says "Your email is verified" — press Carry on setting up to go back to where you were (opened on another device? the sign-up tab moves on by itself). The email comes from [email protected], so check spam if it hasn't arrived; you can also click Didn't get it? Resend, and if you mistyped your address, Change email address re-points your account and sends a fresh email — no starting over.
• You & your venue. One screen: your First name, Last name and your Mobile number — a UK mobile is needed to sign up (these stay private — only ResoFlow uses them; customers never see them). We confirm the mobile is yours, just like your email, to keep your account secure: press Text me a code, type the 6-digit code from the text and press Confirm (the code works for 10 minutes; Resend code sends a fresh one). You can't carry on until it's confirmed. We can only text UK mobiles (they start 07). If you don't have one, or a text won't come through (press Try again first), use Contact us or ask Rezo — it opens our contact page in a new tab — or email [email protected], and we'll help you sign up. Then your Business name, What kind of business are you? and your Address, with Venue phone (shown on your booking page so guests can call), Venue email (this is where guest replies go: when a guest replies to one of your booking emails, it comes here — it starts as your sign-up email, and you can change it; leave it empty and guests can't reply to your booking emails) and Website — all three optional. As you type the business name, the wizard shows your venue's web address (like resoflow.co.uk/venue/the-bistro) — your free venue page, which your booking, gift card and menu links hang off. Check it looks right before you press Continue, because that's the address your venue starts with. The owner can still change it later on Settings → Venue profile → Web address: freely until the venue goes live, and after that only in the first 14 days while the venue has no bookings — otherwise get in touch and we'll change it with you. A change moves every page and link to the new address, the old one forwards to it for good, and everyone signed in to the venue is signed out once while it moves. To choose the address yourself (for example, if it's already in use by another venue), click Change the address (lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens), or tweak the name.
• Pick a plan. For the full package, all four plans are shown under Your plan — Free (free), Plus (£39/month), Pro (£79/month) and Complete (£129/month) — with a Monthly / Annual · save 2 months switch and a Promo code box. Any products you added are itemised with a total. Click Start free for Free (the button reads Continue to payment when you've added paid products alongside it), or Continue with [plan] for a paid plan. Paying moves you to Complete your subscription, a step of its own that shows exactly what you'll pay and takes your card there and then (payment is handled by Stripe — your card details never touch our servers); paid plans come with a 14-day money-back guarantee on your first paid period. You can change your plan and products any time later.

Hours, tables and booking basics

Venue sign-ups then walk three quick screens so you can take bookings from day one:

• When are you open? Every day starts as not set yet — nothing is guessed. Tap Use typical hours (12:00–22:00) to fill them all, or choose Open, Open 24 hours or Closed for each day, then adjust the times (you can add a break for an afternoon close — more breaks, up to four a day, are added on the Hours page). Once Friday is set, Copy Friday to the weekend copies it to Saturday and Sunday. If you picked your venue from Google's suggestions on the step before, the hours on your Google listing may be offered at the top — Save this? fills in only the days you haven't set yet (check them, then press Continue), and Not now leaves them. Your hours are saved only when every day has an answer and at least one day is open. Your day runs from 5am to 5am, so an opening time before 5am isn't accepted — the day explains why, and Open 24 hours is the answer if you never close.
• Roughly, what tables do you have? Rough counts by size are enough — the counts stay within your plan's table allowance, and they're laid out in a simple grid you can drag into your real layout later. …or photograph your floor plan reads your tables from a picture instead, on every plan — the tables go on your first floor plan, and on Free and Plus the picture is paid for from your 10 welcome Rezo credits (it uses 2).
• Booking basics — Largest party bookable online (6 to start), How long does a booking last? (90 minutes) and How far ahead can guests book? (30 days to start — up to 30 on Free, up to a year on any paid plan). On plans that include them you also set the Cancellation deadline (how late customers can cancel or change their booking online — right up to the booking to start with) and whether to Confirm bookings automatically (on to start with). Press Finish setup when you're happy.

Each screen has its own skip link — Skip for now — set your hours later, Skip for now — add tables later and Skip for now — keep these defaults — which skips just that screen; anything skipped waits on Your set-up in your dashboard. Product-only sign-ups, and sign-ups using a setup code (the code brings your set-up with it), skip these screens entirely.

Welcome to ResoFlow

Click Let's get you started to open your dashboard.

Above it sit a couple of optional questions — answer them or not, they never hold you up. Moving from another booking system? asks which one you're leaving (OpenTable, ResDiary, Collins / DesignMyNight, TheFork, SevenRooms or Quandoo — or pen and paper). Pick a system and Open the switching kit takes you to the import screen to bring your guest list across, with a link to our guide to switching from that system; pen and paper skips the import. Either way you can have us do the whole move with you instead — it's free on every plan while ResoFlow is new, on a 30-minute call. How did you hear about us? helps us know what's working.

If you leave part-way through, just sign back in — the wizard resumes at the step you left. The plan, products, promo code or referral code you brought with you from our website are kept with your new account, so opening the verification link in a new tab (or carrying on on another device) never loses them.

After the wizard: going live

The dashboard opens straight onto a working Home — nothing is blocked. The first time you open it, Rezo shows you round by himself: a short tour, about a minute, built for what you bought — he stands beside each part of your dashboard and points at it (Home, Bookings or your product's page, Your set-up, where to ask him, and Settings), with Skip tour on every stop. It waits until you've answered whether to stay signed in on this device. Its last button, Start setup, opens your first set-up step; until you start, Home keeps a small welcome card with Start setup and Show me around again. Anyone who joins your venue later gets the tour once too, showing only the pages they can open. The first time you open Bookings, the timeline, the floor plan, Customers or Settings, a one-line tip says what that page is for; Got it puts it away for good. It waits until any welcome window — Rezo's tour, or the question about staying signed in on this device — has closed, so only one shows at a time. Pages that teach a feature — Gift cards, Promotions, Payments, Extras, Pre-orders and a few settings pages — carry one line under the page title, How this works, that opens a short explanation when you want it. Getting live happens from ONE list, Your set-up, reachable from the sidebar: until you press Go live the entry counts only the steps needed to go live, and it stays until you've pressed it. The list opens with Let's get you live — the needed steps (venue info, opening hours, tables and policies on the full package; product venues get their own short list), each ticked once it's done and each answered right there in its own step — only what that step needs, with a link to all its settings (tables, your first event, your staff, your domain, the data importer, your table QR codes or pairing the door iPad open their own tool over the step and bring you back; the menu editor opens as its own page, and its back link brings you to the step; a step that only explains something has Show me and Got it). If you completed them during sign-up they arrive already ticked; anything you skipped waits here as one big screen, with "Leave this as it is" always an answer on every question that has one. Anything optional can be waved off with Not for us (reversible with Add it back). Until you go live the list shows just those needed steps and Go live (plus, with a plan that also bought products, a Your products group) — with Rezo beside them saying what's next in one line, and Ask Rezo for help (his chat can fill in your opening hours, your venue's details or your tables for you — he checks with "Save this?" first). Going live is a deliberate button: your public booking page stays hidden until you press Go live. Until then your venue page — and your menu, ordering, gift card, waitlist and What's on pages — say "Opening soon", and nothing can be booked, ordered, bought or joined online (a paired door kiosk still takes waitlist joins, and you can still sell and take orders yourself at the venue). If your website is all you have with ResoFlow, there's no Go live: its Publish is your going live. If Team is all you have, there's no Go live either: it's for your staff, so it works from the moment you add it. If you only sell products and take no table bookings, they name just what you'll offer (for example "Gift cards from your venue are coming soon"), and your booking link says you don't take table bookings online. Pressing it first checks that a guest can really book you: your venue's name and address, a table that takes online bookings, a booking window of at least a week, and a time someone could book in the next 7 days (worked out exactly as your booking page works it out). If something's missing it names the one thing to fix, with a button that takes you there; otherwise it publishes the page, and a You're live window tells you when guests can first book (for example, Guests can book you from Fri 26 Sep at 12:00), with three quick ways to your first booking: Show me how for adding your link to Google, Copy link for your Instagram bio, and Print the QR for your window. The needed steps that tick themselves once they're really done — like Add tables, which ticks as soon as you have a table — can't be ticked off by hand. After Go live, Your booking link appears (with Copy and Print the QR), and everything else arrives as Optional packs — a few quick decisions each (Money, Messages, Get more bookings, Fine-tune bookings, Your team and the door iPad, Included in your plan, and a pack for each product you own), each with a Start button (a products-only venue gets Get your first sales instead) — plus a nudge to click through Settings to see everything you can switch on and tune. The list is also reachable from Help and support → Reopen setup wizard (shown while setup is incomplete). You can take the tour again any time with Show me around in Help and support, which also brings the one-line page tips back and shows each How this works explanation whole again, once.

Make a test booking before you go live. On Your set-up, Make a test booking opens your booking page's private preview in a new tab — only you can see it, and it says so — where you book a table exactly as a guest would. It's a test: no card is taken (any payment step just shows its words), no text, bell or phone alert goes, the confirmation email comes to you alone, and it isn't counted against your plan or shown in your reports. It waits at the top of Bookings, marked Test, where one tap deletes it; going live removes any that are left. The step ticks itself once you've made one.

After going live: get your first bookings

Once you have pressed Go live, Your set-up adds a short section, Get your first bookings: add your booking link to Google (Show me how), put it in your Instagram bio (Get the link) and print a QR for your window — each button opens that channel on Get more bookings, and the step ticks itself off here once you mark it done there. On a plan with staff logins (Plus and up — Free is the owner's one login) there is a fourth: give your first member of staff a PIN (Add staff), which ticks itself as soon as anyone on your team has one. The section goes away once everything it can check is done. When the first guest books on your booking page, ResoFlow says so once: an email to the owner and a bell alert for owners and admins ("Your first online booking!", with the booking in one line — for example "4 people, Fri 2 Oct, 7:30pm"), and a card on Your set-up with three next steps: reminders, your team and deposits.

A quick check of your booking page. If your venue was already live when ResoFlow's new dashboard arrived, Your set-up shows the same check once, as cards: for example "Guests can only book up to 3 days ahead" with a button to change it to 30 days in one tap, a table guests can book online, or the days you open. Nothing changes unless you press the button; Not now puts a card aside. Once every card is done or put aside they don't come back — a window you later choose yourself is yours to keep.

Set-up reminders

If your set-up stalls in your first two weeks, ResoFlow sends a short reminder — an email to the owner and a bell alert for owners and admins — at most three times, never two within two days: the morning after you sign up, if you haven't pressed Go live yet ("One step left — press Go live"); three days after you go live, if no guest has booked online yet ("Three ways to get your first booking" — the same three ways as Get your first bookings); and a week after you sign up, if no guest has booked online yet ("Want us to set it up with you? It's free" — book a free 30-minute call and we'll set it up with you). A venue without a booking page gets only the first. They stop for good at your first online booking.

If it still isn't live three days later, you get one more reminder for it ("Finish setting up Gift cards"), saying what's left: for gift cards, connecting Stripe and turning on online gift card sales; for tickets, publishing your first event (a paid event needs Stripe connected before it can be published; a free one never does); for loyalty, setting up your scheme; for Order & Pay, your menu, your tables, Stripe and turning Order & Pay on; for your website, publishing it; for your domain, connecting it — and pressing Go live, if you haven't yet (never for your website: publishing it is its going live). One reminder per product, only in the two weeks after you add it, and never within two days of another reminder; two products due on the same morning share one email.

Rather not have them? Turn off Set-up reminders on Your set-up — one switch for every reminder here. It's there while a reminder could still come, and every reminder email's Turn these reminders off link opens it.

Related: How do I take my first booking? · What's included in each plan? · How do I set my opening hours?