How do I go live and get my first bookings?

The Your set-up list, what guests see until you go live, what Go live checks, getting your first bookings, and the set-up reminders.

Part of How do I sign up and set up my venue?. This part covers getting live: the Your set-up list, what guests see until you go live, what Go live checks, getting your first bookings, and the set-up reminders.

Your set-up list

Getting live happens from ONE list, Your set-up, reachable from the sidebar: until you press Go live the entry counts the steps left on that same short list, 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; opening hours you saved in Settings show on the Opening hours row with Looks right (one tap ticks the step) and Change; 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, 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) and, beside it, Read the guide for that step's Help Centre guide. Pressing Go live 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, that Stripe is connected and can take card payments if you've switched on deposits paid online, pay in full or a card to hold for no-shows (otherwise it says Connect Stripe first), and a time someone could book anywhere in your booking window (worked out exactly as your booking page works it out) — so a venue opening in a few weeks can go live now. 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 → Open Your set-up (shown while set-up is incomplete), and Home's set-up bar says Open Your set-up too. 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.

Until you go live: what guests see

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 "Online booking opens soon" (with "To book now, give them a call." and a Call button when your page shows a phone number, so guests can still book today), a booking form you've pasted into your own website shows the same small card instead of a blank, 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.

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.

If Go live names something to fix first

Pressing Go live names one thing to fix at a time, with a button that takes you straight to it:

Fix it, then press Go live.

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. On a plan without staff logins or deposits (Free), the card and the email suggest reminders, adding your link to Google and printing a QR for your window instead, with one line saying deposits and staff sign-ins come with Plus.

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

Your welcome email, sent when you finish signing up, says how far you've got by the same count as Your set-up (for example "The Bistro is 3 of 7 done. 4 steps to go live:") and names the steps left, then Go live; its Start set-up button opens the first of them.

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 twice, never two within two days: the morning after you sign up, if you haven't pressed Go live yet — it counts the needed steps you still have and names them ("3 steps to go live — The Bistro is nearly ready", by the same names as Your set-up), or says "One step left — press Go live" when Go live is all that's left, and its button opens the first step it names; 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). A venue without a booking page gets only the first. They stop for good at your first online booking.

ResoFlow also sends the owner a short note about how it's going: a week after you sign up ("Your first week at The Bistro" — whether you're live, your bookings so far and where they came from, and the one next step worth doing; if you're not live yet it lists the steps left and offers a free 30-minute call, or, if we set your venue up with a setup code, "Questions about your set-up? Book a 30-minute call."); after two weeks only if something important is still missing — you haven't gone live, or no guest has booked — with the one next step; and after a month ("Your first month at The Bistro" — the month's bookings and where they came from, up to three things your plan includes that you haven't tried yet, and, where your plan has them, the weekly summary or the monthly accounts pack by email if they're off). Each one only suggests what your plan and products include. In your first month ResoFlow sends you at most one of these emails a day: if a billing email (such as your free trial ending) goes out that day, the set-up email waits until the next morning.

When you add a product — gift cards, tickets, loyalty, Order & Pay, your website, your domain or Team — to a venue that's already up and running, a note in the bell (and a card on Home for owners and admins, until you open it or press Not now, for up to two weeks) says it's ready — for example "Your Gift cards are ready — set them up" — and opens its pack on Your set-up; moving up to a paid plan does the same ("Pro unlocked: here’s what’s new", opening Included in your plan). Rezo also says hello once, to each person, the next time they open the dashboard or the staff app: owners and admins get Set it up and the product's getting-started guide (for a new plan, three things it adds); everyone else gets only what their role does with it — for example how to take a gift card at the Scanner — and nothing if their role doesn't use it. Got it puts it away for good. 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 and note here. It's there while one could still come (up to your first-month note), and every reminder email's Turn these reminders off link (the notes' Turn these emails off) opens it.

Related: How do I sign up and set up my venue? · What happens after I sign up? · How do I take my first booking? · How do I open Your set-up again or replay the tour?