You've been given a setup code — what now?

If we set your venue up with you, a setup code applies all of it to your account — after you've looked it over and pressed Apply.

If we went through your venue with you — in person or over the phone — we saved everything we agreed and turned it into a setup code. Entering that code applies the whole setup to your ResoFlow account, so you don't have to type any of it in again.

We send the code to you privately, ourselves. ResoFlow never emails it out automatically.

Nothing changes until you press Apply

This is the important bit. Entering the code does not change anything. It opens a review screen that shows you exactly what we prepared — your opening hours, tables, booking rules, deposit settings and so on — and only when you press Apply is any of it saved.

You can open that screen, read it, close it, and come back later. The code isn't used up by looking at it.

Three ways to use your code

Any of these work — use whichever is easiest:

You may also see a pink notice across the top of your dashboard — "A setup is ready for The Bistro. Review what it sets up before anything changes." (your venue's name) — with a Review setup button; its arrow (⌃) folds it to one line until you're ready. That appears by itself when a code is waiting for your email address — handy if you've lost the message we sent. It tells you which venue the waiting setup is for, but you'll still need the code itself: we can't read one back to you.

What happens when you press Apply

Your setup is applied in steps, and you'll watch them tick off on screen — your account, your plan (if your code includes one), then your settings, tables and anything else we prepared.

Your menu may be in there too. If we read your menu in during your setup — from your printed one, a photo or your website — the dishes and sections come across with it, allergens and dietary marks included. You'll see them tick off as dishes added, and the review screen tells you how many are coming before you press Apply. Menus need the Pro plan or above, or the Order & Pay or Your website product; if your plan doesn't include them we say so plainly rather than dropping the dishes quietly.

Your room may arrive already laid out. If we drew your room during the visit, your tables land where we placed them, with the shape, size and seat count we agreed — and any decorations we drew come with them (walls, doors, windows, stairs, a bar counter and stools, plants, pillars, parasols, fences, a fireplace, a stage, and labels with their own words), drawn exactly as if you had added them from Decorations in your own floor-plan editor. Tables are only ever placed, never invented: a table we laid out that you have since renamed simply stays where it was, and the review screen tells you which one.

Your floor plan may be in there too. If we photographed your floor plan during your setup visit — one picture per room — the tables we read from it (numbers, seats and shapes, checked with you in a list at the time) come across as their own floor plan for each picture, exactly as From a picture in your floor-plan editor would create them. Tidy the positions in the editor afterwards. A picture read this way costs you nothing; the picture itself is deleted the moment it has been read.

Your special dates and booking rules may be in there too. If we set your closed days with you — every day until you open, Christmas, a run of days in January — or a day with different hours or with online bookings closed, they arrive on your Special dates page exactly as if you had added them there yourself, each with the name we agreed. So do the cancellation deadline (when guests can still cancel or change online) and longer bookings for bigger parties, if we set those with you — and, with your opening hours, a daily break (closed for it, or We stay open — just pause online bookings) and any day's own online booking times. Closed days work on every plan; the cancellation deadline and booking lengths by party size need the Plus plan or above, and if your plan doesn't include them the review screen says they're waiting rather than dropping them quietly.

If every step works, you land on a Your venue is ready summary telling you what was set up and what's still worth doing. It also offers you a quick tour of the dashboard — Show me around if you'd like it, or just carry on to your dashboard if you wouldn't. Because we set your venue up with you, the tour never starts on its own; you can take it any time later from Help and support in the sidebar with Show me around.

If one part doesn't apply, we tell you plainly which part and offer a button that tries just that bit again — Try that part again when it's one thing, Try those parts again when it's more than one. Whatever already landed stays put; trying again only picks up what didn't. You will never be shown "all done" over something that only half-worked, and we're told automatically so we can sort it.

Your booking page stays hidden until you press Go live

A setup code never makes your venue public on its own. Guests can't see your booking page until you press Go live yourself — so you choose when you open for bookings.

If you haven't gone live yet, the summary after your setup says your venue is set up (rather than ready) and puts Press Go live first on its list, with an Open Your set-up button that takes you straight there. Pressing Go live checks everything is in place first — a table guests can book online, your opening hours, how far ahead guests can book — and then tells you when guests can first book you, or names the one thing to fix. Nothing is published until the check passes.

If you're already live, the summary says your venue is ready and leaves that line out. Opened from the setup-code page itself, it can't always tell, so the line reads "Press Go live, if you haven't yet".

If you already had a ResoFlow account

A code applied to an existing account is more careful:

The rules on every code

If it doesn't work

See setup code problems for what each message means and how to fix it.