How do I set up ordering at the table?

Switch Order & Pay on, choose how guests start an order, and set serving times, the tip suggestion, allergies and set menus.

Part of How do I set up and run Order & Pay?. This part covers getting ordering at the table ready: the switch itself, how guests start an order, typing a table number instead of scanning, serving times, the tip suggestion, allergies, and set menus & deals.

Switching it on

The master switch lives on Settings → Order & Pay (/dashboard/settings/order-and-pay — the gear at the top right of the Orders screen opens it, and the old /dashboard/orders/settings address forwards there). Switching ON is checked server-side and will be refused until your venue is genuinely ready:

If either is missing, the switch stays off and one sentence says what's missing; the Go live block then lists each item with a link to fix it.

The quick card. At the top of Settings → Order & Pay sit Ordering at the table, Collection and Delivery — the line under each says what's happening now — and Dockets, where you pick One docket or Kitchen and bar. They're the same settings as the sections further down the page (the allergen confirmation and Save changes work as they do there), and All Order & Pay settings takes you to the rest.

Setting up. While Order & Pay's set-up steps are unfinished, Settings → Order & Pay shows a Set up Order & Pay card at the top — the same steps as Your set-up (your menu, your tables, Stripe, switching ordering on and the table QR codes), with a tick on each one done. Each Start or Open button takes you to that step on Your set-up, and the card goes away by itself once every step is done or marked Not for us. Each step is answered right there: Turn on Order & Pay asks what happens when a guest can't show ID and has the one Order & Pay switch. Where your Order & Pay includes collection and delivery, Your set-up also has Set up collection and delivery — the Order & Pay page's own collection and delivery settings, in the step (it ticks itself once collection or delivery is on). Before your first service, do a test order yourself, set up your printer or the Orders screen, and show the team the Orders screen.

Separately — and never as a block — the page warns you if you'd be going live with nothing to order: no dishes on your menu, or no tables added (so there are no table codes to scan). You can still switch on; it's simply telling you that a guest scanning right now would find nothing. Both notes carry a link straight to the page that fixes them, and they disappear once there's something there.

Switching off is always allowed, instantly — new orders stop at once, and paid orders already on the board stay there until your team handles them (nothing is auto-refunded).

For a short breather mid-service, there's also a separate temporary pause: the Orders screen's Taking orders switch (on the Counter; on the Pass it's Pause new orders, the pause icon in the top bar) stops new orders in one tap without touching the master switch — and when collection or delivery is switched on too, it first asks which orders to pause: everything, at-table only, collection only or delivery only. Guests see "Ordering is paused — back shortly" on the menu, checkout refuses politely, and an amber strip on the board carries the one-tap Resume orders button. Orders already on the board are untouched — the pause only stops new ones. It stops them properly, too: a guest who was on the payment screen at the moment you paused can't slip an order through, and if their card was taken in that instant they're told plainly on screen and refunded automatically, so nothing lands on the board that your kitchen hasn't agreed to make. Pausing is always allowed; the master switch stays exactly as it was.

Strongly advised before going live (not enforced — it's your venue's legal responsibility): fill in each dish's allergen checklist and "Contains alcohol" flag on the Menu page. If you brought your menu in with the menu import, its review screen pre-ticks "Contains alcohol" for dishes that read as alcoholic drinks and lets you mark a whole drinks section in one go — check those ticks rather than starting from nothing. Guests ordering remotely must be able to see allergen information in writing.

Your printed QR codes just work. The per-table menu QR codes you've already printed start taking orders the moment Order & Pay is on — no reprinting needed. With it on, the QR codes page's per-table cards read "Scan to order and pay" instead of "Scan to view our menu".

How guests start an order

There is one way in. The Menu tab on your guest pages is for browsing only — no Add buttons, nothing to tap into. The Order tab (it sits in the same navigation as Home, Menu and Book) is the single door to ordering, and it appears as soon as any way of ordering is on — at the table, collection or delivery — including venues that only take orders at the table by QR code.

Tapping Order opens a small chooser that slides up over the menu with up to three big buttons — Order to your table, Order for collection and Order for delivery — showing only the ways you have switched on, each with one line underneath in your own words: the current collection wait ("Ready in about 20 minutes"), the delivery area and fee ("Within 3 miles · Delivery £2.50 — free over £25.00"), or that the channel is closed or paused right now. If only one way of ordering is on there is no chooser: the guest goes straight in.

To hide the Order tab, the venue-page card and the menu-page pointer together, switch off Show the Order tab and card on your venue page on Settings → Order & Pay — it always sits beside Let guests type their table number in the Go live section (while no way of ordering is on yet, it says it applies once one is). Ordering still works from your table QR codes, your website's Order online link and any direct ordering link — the switch only hides the entry points.

Typing a table number instead of scanning

The Let guests type their table number switch on Settings → Order & Pay is on by default and decides what Order to your table does for a guest who hasn't scanned a table code — switch it off and ordering becomes strict: a guest can only start an order by scanning their own table's QR code. With it on:

With the switch off, the Order tab, card and pointer still show (ordering is on, after all) but Order to your table — and a previously printed general code — leads to an honest "To order here, please scan the QR code on your table — or ask a member of the team" note above the browse menu, never a typed table and never a silent dead end (the per-table codes themselves are unaffected). Separately, whenever a guest scans a table QR (or the general code) while Order & Pay is switched off — or nothing is currently orderable — they now see a friendly "Ordering at the table isn't available right now — please order with our team" notice above the browse menu instead of nothing at all.

Serving times and category switches

Every menu category can be switched on or off for ordering, and scoped to serving windows — set days and times:

Outside a category's serving windows, its dishes show on the menu as browse-only and can't be added to an order — and the times are re-checked at payment, so a window closing mid-browse still holds. The category itself is never hidden: guests see it with its serving times shown against its name ("Served Mon–Fri 12:00pm–3:00pm" — on the 24-hour clock if that's the clock your public pages use), so tonight's dinner menu is still there to read at breakfast. The same windows also hold for pre-orders: a booked party can't pre-order dishes from a category that won't be served at their booking's time, and the picker says why (see How do I set up pre-orders?).

Tip suggestion

The guest checkout offers No tip, 5%, 10%, 15% or Other (their own amount) — tips are voluntary and go to the venue. Some venues prefer not to ask: switch off Offer a tip at checkout (on Settings → Order & Pay → Tip suggestion, on by default) and guests aren't asked for a tip at all — no tip row at the checkout, no "You can add a tip" line under the basket, and no tip offered after a collection or delivery order either (for orders placed while it's off). With tips offered, you can choose to preselect one of the percentages (5%, 10% or 15%) so it's highlighted when the checkout opens; the default is Off, meaning the checkout starts on "No tip". Guests can always remove the suggestion in one tap or type their own amount, and once they've chosen, their choice is never overridden.

Allergies — what happens when a guest has an allergy

Every order a guest sends from their phone asks "Does anyone in your party have a food allergy or intolerance?" with two buttons, No and Yes — neither is chosen for them, and one must be chosen before they can pay. No lets them pay as normal (the answer is kept on the order). What happens on Yes is your choice, on Settings → Order & Pay → Allergies:

A signed-in guest's saved allergy. If a guest who signed in at the checkout has an allergy saved on their profile, the checkout first asks "Your saved allergy: Sesame. Is it for this order?" with Yes and No — neither chosen for them, and they can't pay until they answer. A saved allergy is never added to an order by itself, because the person ordering isn't always the one with the allergy. Yes counts as a Yes to the allergy question — at Order with your team they're asked to order with your team; at Tell us with the order their saved words become the order's allergy note (anything they type is added), so the red ALLERGY label, the kitchen ticket and the receipt show it. No leaves it off, and they still answer the allergy question for the rest of the party.

Pre-orders are different. A party choosing its food in advance (see How do guests choose their pre-order?) can type an Allergies or a note for the kitchen on each dish it chooses — it reaches the kitchen ticket beside that dish — because the booking itself already takes an allergy note and your team speaks to the party before the meal; the allergy question above is only for orders sent from a phone at the table or for collection and delivery. Your team should still ask.

Under Extra allergy line you can add one line under the allergen line every venue shows — on your menu, at the checkout and on pre-orders — chosen from ResoFlow's list: "Our kitchen handles all 14 major allergens, so we can't guarantee any dish is completely free from them.", "If you have a severe allergy, please speak to a manager before you order.", "Full allergen details for every dish are available from our team — just ask." or "We're sorry — we can't safely cater for severe nut allergies." (None is the default). There's no box to type your own: choose the one that's true for your kitchen — you're responsible for it being accurate. The allergen line itself ("Allergen and dish information is provided by …") is always shown and can't be switched off.

Set menus & deals

Build set menus and bundles on the Menu page's Set menus & deals view — existing dishes grouped into slots with one bundle price and optional per-dish supplements, scoped to their own day and time windows (see How do I build set menus and deals?). When at least one deal is available right now, guests see a highlighted Set menus & deals section at the top of the ordering menu — or, for a deal you've placed inside one of your categories, its card inside that section with a compact deal chip (name and price) just under the category heading; a deal placed At the top AND in its category shows its card in both places — and pick their dishes step by step; with ordering off, the browse menu lists live deals read-only with their times shown. Every visible deal's Apply automatically switch (on by default) means a basket that fills the deal gets the deal price even when the guest never tapped the card — see How do I build set menus and deals? for how the automatic apply always favours the guest.

On the Orders screen a deal arrives as one line — the deal's name and price with each chosen dish listed beneath it (including any choice-step picks and supplements), so the kitchen sees exactly what to make. Deal orders behave like any other: they count in sales figures, earn loyalty for signed-in members on the money paid (where your venue runs loyalty), and appear itemised on the guest's receipt with the bundle price split across the chosen dishes' VAT rates where you've set them. Automatic promotions never discount a deal — on a mixed order they apply only to the individually priced dishes. Where your venue has Offers (the Pro and Complete plans), a promo code the guest types can also come off deal prices while the Promo codes can be used on deal prices toggle (Settings → Order & Pay, on by default) is on; codes limited to certain items never touch deals either way — see How do promotions, deals, rewards and gift cards work together?. With Offers, the Promo code box is always on the order checkout, whatever promotions you're running (without Offers it isn't shown — every code would be refused), so a guest holding a code from a poster always has somewhere to type it — and a code that's wrong, paused, used up, not started yet or meant for a different kind of order gets a plain one-line message under the box saying so. Guests with a code find it easily: whenever you have a live promo code that works on table orders, a Have a code? link sits in the basket, beside Add more dishes, and opens the checkout on the box.

Related: How do I set up and run Order & Pay? · How do I run the Orders screen? · How do I create and print QR codes for my venue? · How do I build my menu? · How do I connect Stripe?