What can I type into the search?

Examples of everything you can type into "Search or do anything" — a booking with the guest's name, a walk-in for 3, the waitlist, cancelling or moving a booking, a day's online bookings off, a closed day, one day's opening hours, a dish that's sold out, adding staff — what each one fills in, and what it needs.

What you can type into the search

"Search or do anything" (the magnifying glass at the top of the dashboard, Ctrl+K or ⌘K, or Search or do anything at the top of the menu) finds bookings, customers, settings and guides — and opens the right page already filled in when you type what you want to do. You check it there and press that page's own button. Nothing is booked, cancelled, sent or saved from the search itself — except the two switches it has always had (online bookings, and taking orders), which ask first.

Each row says what it will fill in before you press it. Anything the search can't be sure of — "next Friday", "5" with no am or pm, a name that could be a month — is left for you to fill in. You only see a row if your role can press the button it stands for.

Bookings and service

You type It opens "book 4 at 7", "table for 2 tomorrow at 8", "party of 6 on Friday" New booking with the party, day and time set "book Sarah Jones for 6 on Friday at 7, birthday" New booking with the name and the occasion set too "… 07700 900123", "… [email protected]", "… for 2 hours" the phone number, the email or the length of the booking set as well "walk-in", "walk-in for 3" Seat a walk-in — with the party of 3 set "add Smith, 2, to the waitlist" Add to the waitlist with the name and party (and a phone, if typed) "cancel the Smith booking at 7", "move the Jones booking", "mark Smith as a no-show", "refund Ann Smith" that booking, open — you press Cancel, Edit, No-show or Refund yourself, with any check it usually asks for (a password or a manager's PIN when money moves)

A guest's name, phone number or email is never put into the page's address. When two bookings match, both are listed — pick the right one. When more than four match ("mark the Jones booking as a no-show" with twenty Joneses booked), one row — "See all 20 Jones bookings in Bookings" — opens Bookings searching for them, across their dates, and you pick the right one there. "turn off walk-ins" finds the walk-ins setting, never the walk-in sheet.

Finding a guest or a booking

The search looks through the bookings from the last 14 days and the next 60, and through your customers. Besides a name, an email, a phone number or a booking reference, you can type:

You type It finds "friday 7pm", "16 oct", "tomorrow" the bookings on that day — with a time, those within half an hour of it, the nearest first "table 12", "t12" the bookings at that table "party of 6 saturday", "sarah jones for 6" the bookings for that many people (on that day, for that guest) "taylor friday", "sarah 8pm saturday" that guest's booking on that day or at that time "07867354930", "+44 7867 354930" the booking with that phone number, however its spaces were saved "zoe", "obrien", "mc donald", "jones sarah" Zoë, O'Brien, McDonald or Sarah Jones — accents, apostrophes, spaces and the order of the names don't matter

When nothing matches exactly what you typed, the search looks again forgiving one wrong letter in each word ("Sarha Jones", "Sarah Jnoes"). Those bookings carry a small "close match" tag, under a line saying nothing matched exactly. A short word like "Sam" is never stretched to mean "Pam". Customers are found the same forgiving way — by any part of their name, with or without accents and apostrophes, in any order, with one wrong letter tagged "close match" — and by their phone number however you type it (even its last four digits) or by their email or just its start ("sarah.jones@"). For this the search keeps a list of your customers' names, phone numbers and emails, read once and then searched as you type; only people who can see your customers can read it. A customer added in the last few minutes can take up to ten minutes to show here — their booking shows straight away.

When no booking in those 74 days matches, the last booking row reads Search every date for "…". Press it and the search looks through every booking your venue has ever had, there in the search: the newest date first, ten at a time, with Show more for the next ten (up to 50 — add more of the name to narrow it). Every date is searched by a first or last name or the start of one, a whole email, a phone number or a booking reference — so "Sam" finds Samantha too, "jones sarah" finds Sarah Jones, and accents and apostrophes don't matter ("zoe obrien" finds Zoë O'Brien). When nothing spells the name exactly, one wrong, missing, extra or swapped letter in a word of four letters or more is forgiven: "Sarha" finds Sarah, and a line says these are close matches. The middle of a name ("aman" for Samantha) only works within those 74 days. Press a booking to open it.

When no booking matches but the words name one of your customers — their whole name, their whole email, or the only customer the words find — the Bookings section offers that customer instead: "Sam Taylor — open their customer profile" while only those 74 days have been searched, and "No bookings for Sam Taylor — open their profile" once Search every date has found nothing either. Press it to open their customer profile. Only one customer is ever offered: when two customers share the name, or a name is only a close match, both are listed under Customers as usual. You only see this if you can see your customers, and it comes from the same list, so it reads nothing more.

When a first name matches lots of customers — forty Sarahs — the Sarahs with a booking the search already holds come first: a booking today or tomorrow, then one in the last 14 days or the next 60, then the rest in the usual order. A booking counts for a customer when its email or phone number is theirs. A whole name typed in full still comes before a partial one.

Your venue

You type It opens "turn online bookings off" the switch, in the search — it asks first "stop taking orders" (with Order & Pay switched on) the switch, in the search — it asks first "turn off online bookings tomorrow", "no online bookings Saturday evening", "online bookings off between 6 and 9 on Friday" Special dates with a new date added and online bookings closed — all day, or the times you typed ("evening" leaves the times for you) "we're closed Monday 12th", "closed Boxing Day", "closed Christmas Day" Special dates with a new date added, closed all day "open 12 until 10 on Sundays", "open 12 to 10 on Sunday", "Sunday hours 9am-5pm", "closed on Mondays" Hours with that day's row set "86 the salmon", "salmon's sold out", "only 5 sea bass left" your Menu, with one check for that dish — none left today, or the number left (without stock counting, "sold out" marks the dish as sold out) "add Jo to the staff" Add staff with the name set — you always pick the role "invite a new waiter", "new bar staff", "hire a chef" Add staff — you always pick the role

A special date opens in its step-by-step window and waits for Save date; Hours waits for you to press Save; the menu's check waits for you to confirm it.

Marketing, money and reports

You type It opens "message tonight's guests saying we're running 20 minutes late", "message Friday's guests between 6 and 8: the car park is shut" Message a day’s guests with the day, the times and your message (the words after "saying", "that" or a colon) set — without them the message box is left empty "send a marketing email to regulars about the new menu" a new email campaign on its Who gets it step, with "You typed “regulars”" shown — you choose who gets it; nobody is picked for you. "the new menu" waits, typed in, in Ask Rezo for a whole email on the Start step (on plans with Rezo) — nothing is designed until you press Design it "text our regulars" a new text campaign on its Recipients step, the same way "a 2-for-1 cocktails offer on Tuesdays", "20% off food on Mondays" New promotion, with your words waiting in Draft it for me (on plans with Rezo's writing help) — nothing is drafted until you press it "sell a £50 gift card" Sell a gift card with £50 set — nothing is charged until its payment step "reply to the 1-star review" Reviews on Needs a reply — when exactly one review needing a reply has 1 star, it opens; you write or draft the reply and press Post reply yourself "covers last Saturday", "takings this week", "September", "VAT last month" Reports on that report, for those dates "who changed the deposit?", "who changed the opening hours this week" the Activity log, searching for "deposit" (or the last 7 days)

Nothing is sent, charged, posted, designed or drafted from the search: Send on a day's message or a campaign still asks for your password or a manager's PIN when it goes to 10 or more people, and a draft by Rezo still tells you its price (one Rezo credit) first. A guest's name, your message and your brief are never put into the page's address — the Activity log only ever searches for a set-up word like "deposit" or "staff", never a person's name. Each row needs what its page's button needs: Message a day’s guests needs the Messages page (Pro and Complete) and permission to reply to guest messages; a campaign needs marketing on your plan and permission to draft emails (or to send, for texts); a promotion needs permission to create promotions; a gift card sale needs permission to sell gift cards; Reports needs permission to see financial reports.

Go straight to a screen

Type a screen's name — "timeline", "floor plan", "orders", "rota", "loyalty members", "gift cards" — and a Go to row opens that screen. "go to the timeline" or "open floor plan" work too. You only see the screens your own menu shows you: a screen your plan or your role doesn't open is never offered.

A setting in your own words works as well. When no single setting uses every word you typed, the search looks word by word — "make people pay upfront", "christmas closing" or "buy more texts" still find the right settings page. Roles and permissions only come first when you ask about roles, permissions or access ("floor plan permissions").

Under the box, a tip from this guide changes each time you open the search.

Dishes, staff, the rota, events and gift cards

The search also finds what's on your venue's own pages — only the pages your role can open (and your plan includes):

You type You see a dish's name, a category ("desserts"), an allergen ("gluten") or "vegan" Menu — the dish with its price, "Sold out" when it is, and why it matched ("Contains gluten"). Press it to open the dish on your Menu a name, a surname or a role ("manager") Staff — the person and their role, with their shift when they're on today's rota. Press it to open them on Staff "rota", "who's on", a position ("bar") On the rota today — today's published shifts. Press one to open the Rota (with the rota switched on, for people who can see the rota) an upcoming event's name ("quiz") Events — its date, time and tickets sold. Press it to open the event the name of one of your What's on entries ("quiz night", "live music") — or a word from its description Events too, marked "What's on" — when it's on ("Every Thursday", its date), its start time, and "Hidden" or "Finished" when it is. Press it to open the Events page at your What's on card, with the entry picked out (people who can edit What's on entries get it open, ready to edit) a gift card's code — "ABCD-EFGH-2345-JKMN", with its dashes or spaces, or in capitals Gift card — its balance, whether it's active and when it expires. Press it to open the card on Gift cards (for people who can redeem gift cards)

What's on entries work on every plan, so they're found for anyone who can open Events — even on a plan without ticketed events. The search reads your entries once each time you open it (at most 50, which is every entry you can keep), so an entry you've just added is found the next time you open the search.

These rows only open the page — nothing is changed, charged or redeemed from the search. Accents and apostrophes don't matter: "zoe" finds Zoë and "obrien" finds O'Brien. The menu the search looks through is refreshed every 10 minutes, so a dish added a moment ago can take that long to show (it shows at once when the search is open over your Menu).

Narrow it down

When what you typed finds more than one kind of thing, a row of chips appears under the box: All, Bookings, Customers, Settings, Guides, Menu, Staff, Rota and Events — only the ones with results. Pick one to see just that kind, up to 12 rows (customers stay at 5); All puts everything back. With a keyboard, Tab jumps from group to group and, after the last group, onto the chips; the left and right arrows to move between them, Enter to pick one and the down arrow to go back to the box. On a phone, swipe the chips sideways.

On the staff portal

The PIN staff portal has the same search — the magnifying glass at the top, Search or do anything at the top of the menu, or Ctrl+K / ⌘K — on every page except its Settings pages, which keep their own box. Each person sees only the rows their own role lets them do: a Host, for example, gets no marketing, gift card or report rows. A guide opens in the Help Centre in a new tab, so the portal stays where it was.

More than one venue

The search works on the venue that's open. On the All venues page it asks Which venue? first, then opens that venue's page. A switch picked from All venues opens its page at that venue rather than changing it from the search.

Questions, and when nothing matches

Type a question in your own words — "guest wants their deposit back", "how do I stop same-day bookings" — and the search finds the guides that answer it, even when one of your words isn't in the guide's title or has a slip in it. When one guide clearly answers a question of three words or more, it comes first as Best answer, with the guide's own one-line summary underneath (after anything the search offers to do, so pressing Enter still does what you typed). For a question where nothing offers to do it and no booking or customer matches, guides are listed above settings.

When nothing at all matches, the search says Nothing matched with what you typed. If a word looks like a slip, it offers Did you mean …? with the word it knows — press it to search for that instead — and for a long search it suggests Try fewer words. Work it out with Rezo and Ask Rezo are still there below.

When nothing offers to do it — Work it out with Rezo

When nothing in the search offers to do what you typed (bookings, customers or guides may still be listed), and you typed at least three words, one more row appears just above Ask Rezo: Work it out with Rezo — "free · opens the screen for you to check". It sends nothing until you press it.

Press it and Rezo reads your words once and picks the screen you mean from the ones your own role can open, with what to fill in. You get the same kind of row as above, marked Worked out by Rezo — check it before you press its button: "squeeze the Hendersons in next Saturday at 4", for example, can come back as New booking for 4 at 16:00 on Saturday 17 Oct. Press it, the page opens filled in, and nothing happens until you check it and press that page's own button. Anything Rezo isn't sure of is left blank for you. Rezo never turns online bookings or taking orders off or on for you — it opens How people book or the Orders screen, and you flip it there. If it can't tell what you mean, the row says Rezo couldn’t work that out: try other words, or ask Rezo below.

It's free — it uses no Rezo credits. Each venue can use it 500 times a month on Free and Plus, and 2,000 times on Pro and Complete, shared between the dashboard and the staff portal. After that the row says "Rezo will work out typed requests again on" the 1st of next month, and the search still finds and does everything else.

What Rezo sees: the words you typed, with any phone number or email address taken out first; the venue's dates for the next fortnight; whether you use the 12- or 24-hour clock; and the names of the screens you can open. Never your customer records, bookings, menu, settings or payments. A guest's name you type does go to Rezo, so type only what you need. It runs on Google's AI in the EU, and ResoFlow doesn't keep what you typed.

Recent searches, the keys and phones

With nothing typed, the search opens on Recent: your last 5 searches and the last 5 things you opened from it (a booking, a customer, a setting or a guide). Press a search to type it in again, or a booking to open it. Recent is kept on this device only, for you only and for the venue that's open, for 14 days. Clear recent, under the list, empties it. On the staff portal each member of staff has their own Recent, and it's wiped when they sign out, so on a shared tablet the next person never sees a guest's name you searched for.

With a keyboard, ↑ and ↓ move, and past the last row you go back to the top. Home and End jump to the first and last row, Tab jumps to the next group (Shift+Tab goes back) and Enter opens. Ctrl+Enter (⌘+Enter on a Mac) opens a booking, a customer, a setting or a guide in a new tab. Esc clears what you've typed; press it again to close the search.

On a phone the search fills the screen, with the list above the keyboard and Cancel beside the box. The magnifying glass stays at the top of the dashboard on every phone.

Anything else

The last row, Ask Rezo: "…", opens Rezo's chat and asks it exactly what you typed. Asking Rezo is free.

Related: How do I use the Home screen? · How do I create a booking for a customer? · What's different about Christmas Day? (Special dates)