How does pre-ordering work for large bookings?

Let larger parties choose their dishes in advance — set the party size, the cut-off, day/time rules and special dates (with their own menus), choose invited or required wording, pick how the food is paid for, and print the kitchen prep counts.

Pre-ordering lets larger parties choose their food from your menu before they arrive, so your kitchen knows exactly what's coming on the night. Qualifying parties can now choose their dishes while booking — the booking page shows a Pre-order your food step that starts with two buttons — Choose your food now or Choose later — and "now" opens your menu the way your Order & Pay menu works (a tab for each category, a search box, per-guest picks and a running total), with a note for the kitchen on each dish. Or they choose later on their manage-booking page, from the link in their confirmation email. Either way you see the order on the booking and on your printed day sheet, with per-dish totals for the kitchen.

If they pre-order while booking, the money follows your existing payment model with no new settings: on Paid at the venue the dishes are simply recorded; on the two online-payment models the food total is paid with the booking payment itself. Gift cards can't currently be combined with a paid pre-order made while booking — those guests can add their pre-order after booking instead.

It needs the Pro plan or above and a menu with dishes on it (menu management itself also comes with the Order & Pay product, but pre-orders stay a Pro-and-above plan feature). If you choose one of the online-payment models below, you also need Stripe connected.

Pre-orders also have their own Pre-orders page in the sidebar's Front of house group, built around the day:

Setting up pre-orders, step by step

Everything lives in Settings → Payments and deposits → Pre-orders (the gear at the top right of the Pre-orders page opens it).

The quickest way is Set up pre-orders at the top of that page: a step-by-step window — the same kind as New promotion — that asks one question at a time: Who → By when → How firmly → The menu → Money → Each guest chooses → Kitchen → Review. The Review says exactly what will happen; click Save pre-orders to keep it. Every row on the page stays for fine-tuning. Or set the rows one by one:

The page also spells out how its pieces fit together, and it's worth knowing by heart: the switch offers pre-ordering every day; the Day and time rules under When it applies restrict it to just those days and times; Special pre-order dates always apply on their dates — even when the everyday switch is off. (Deposits and pay-in-full follow exactly the same model.)

Choosing when pre-ordering applies

The hidden-menu trick: the Menu page's category form has a Hide from customer menus switch. A hidden category never shows on your public menu, ordering or TV screens — but a special date that picks it as its menu still serves it to that date's pre-ordering customers. Build your Christmas menu as a hidden category, point the special date at it, and it stays private until it's needed. (The same trick works for an event's linked menu and for shareable menus — see menus.) The category form's separate Available for pre-orders switch does the reverse: the category stays on your ordinary menus but leaves the pre-order list — see "Which dishes can be pre-ordered" below.

Short-notice large parties, reminders and staff flags

Invite or ask larger parties to pre-order — can pre-orders be compulsory?

By default every customer message is a friendly invitation ("your party can pre-order…"). Switch on Ask larger parties to pre-order (instead of inviting them) (it used to be called "Pre-orders are required for larger parties") and the wording firms up across every surface — the booking page says parties "must choose their food in advance", the emails say "please complete your pre-order" and quote the date it must be chosen by. Pre-orders can't be made compulsory — It changes the wording only: a booking is never cancelled over a missing pre-order — customers still get a reminder on the last open day and your team is flagged, exactly as before. Each special date can override the wording on its own date.

The three payment models

On a special date with The rest of the payment set (Christmas Day, say), the food a party chooses is recorded, not charged — the deposit is the only money when they book, and their pre-order's food total less what they've paid is "the rest", due by the date's own due date (online from their manage-booking page, or at your venue). See How do payment plans and paying at the venue work?

Nobody is charged twice for the same food. A priced pre-order chosen while booking is paid instead of a full payment. A party that books without choosing its dishes pays whatever your other settings ask when they book — in full if Require full payment applies to them (Pay in full), otherwise your deposit — and that money counts towards the dishes they choose later (under Deposit, then pay for the food online, only a full payment counts; the deposit stays its own hold). Money for paid extras never counts towards the food, and money already refunded never does. When the customer chooses their dishes, the pre-order card shows the booking money counted and asks only for the difference, and a reduction shows exactly what will be refunded. Customers are told plainly what they'll pay and when, whichever model you pick. Online pre-order payments go straight to your own Stripe account, and ResoFlow currently charges no platform fee on pre-order payments (Stripe's normal processing fee still applies).

Which dishes can be pre-ordered

Your whole menu is offered by default, priced exactly as it appears — including any choices a dish has (a dish's choices price precisely: the base price plus whatever priced choices the customer picks, so even "From"-priced dishes with choices come out at the exact price of the selection). To keep a dish off the pre-order list, open it in Menu and turn off Available to pre-order. To keep a whole category off, edit the category in Menu and turn off Available for pre-orders — the category and every dish in it leave the pre-order list (on the customer page and staff phone entry alike) while still showing on your ordinary menus. Categories you've marked Hide from customer menus are left out of the everyday pre-order list too — their dishes only appear when a special pre-order date picks that category as its menu. On a special date with its own menu, customers choose from just the picked categories (and the server enforces it — a dish outside the date's menu can't be submitted, and an explicit pick even serves a category you've switched off for everyday pre-orders). A category's serving times (set for at-table ordering — see Order & Pay) hold for pre-orders too, checked against the booking's own day and time: a 12:30 party can pre-order the weekday-lunch section days ahead, while a 7pm booking can't — the category stays visible in the picker with its serving times shown, its dishes just can't be added, and the refusal says why.

What customers see

While booking, once a qualifying party size and date are picked, the booking page shows a short notice — "Parties of N+ choose their food in advance — pre-orders close N days before your visit" (with required wording: "…must be chosen by {date}"). When pre-ordering is offered from 1 guest, it says "Every booking" instead — "Every booking chooses its food in advance" — and the same goes for the settings' own words (Let each guest choose their own food says "On — every booking gets a link for each guest") and the short-notice line ("Every booking chooses its food in advance, so we take online bookings at least 3 days ahead."). If the chosen date's pre-order window has already closed, the page shows a quiet grey "Pre-orders have closed for this date" note instead (on venues that require pre-orders and have a phone number set, it adds "— call us on {number} to arrange your party's food"; venues that block such bookings entirely show their call-us gate rather than both messages at once). Drinks-only bookings never see the pre-order notice, the confirmation screen's dishes card or the email invitation — pre-ordering is a food thing. After a qualifying party books online, the confirmation screen shows a prominent Choose your dishes card linking straight to their pre-order page, the confirmation email invites them to pre-order, and a Pre-order card appears on their manage-booking page. The organiser fills it in for the whole party.

How customers choose their dishes

Every screen a customer chooses on — the booking page, their manage-booking page and a party's own links — uses the same picker. It starts with Choose your food now or Choose later: "later" tells them how to come back (the link in their confirmation email, the manage-booking page, or their own party link) and by which day; a party that must pre-order sees its deadline there too ("Your party's food must be chosen by Friday 16 October."). "Now" opens your menu the way your Order & Pay menu works: a strip with a search box (a dish, a category, "vegan", or an allergen to avoid like "nuts") and a tab for each category that lights up as they scroll, then each dish with its description, its allergens in words and its dietary marks, and Add (or Choose for a dish with choices). On a table of several, chips along the top — Whole table, Guest 1, Guest 2 … — say whose plate the next dish is for (a name already on an older order keeps its own chip). A dish with choices opens a step-by-step picker from the bottom of the screen — one question per screen, each option with its short description underneath when you've given it one and its own allergens and dietary marks ("Contains: tree nuts", "Vegan" — see menus), progress dots, the count stated plainly ("Pick 2 — 1 of 2 chosen"), a live running price, and an Allergies or a note for the kitchen box on the last screen; the priced Add to pre-order button stays off until every step's count is met. Where a step lets guests take the same item more than once, its options carry − and ＋ buttons instead of one-tap picks — the running count and any per-item limit are stated plainly, each extra one adds its cost again, and the order (and the kitchen's prep counts) show repeats once with a count, like "Hash brown ×3". Everything chosen is listed under Your food — each dish with one "Contains: …" line for the dish's allergens plus those of the choices picked — each with its own Allergies or a note for the kitchen box (one box per dish, up to 120 characters — "no peppercorn sauce, dairy allergy") and − / ＋ for how many, and the running total sticks to the foot of the screen as they go — then they submit. The note goes to your kitchen beside that dish (the ticket, the docket and the day sheet); it is the customer's own words, so your team should still ask about allergies as you always do. Whenever a pre-order is paid online, the organiser is emailed a receipt itemising every dish with its quantity, chosen options, price, any per-guest name and their own note for the kitchen; if they later increase a paid order, the extra charge gets its own receipt showing the order total, what was previously paid and what was just paid. If you've entered your VAT number on Settings → Payouts and Stripe, the receipt also breaks down the VAT included in the dish prices (using each dish's VAT rate as it was when the customer submitted). They can change the order (wholesale — the new version replaces the old) until pre-orders close. Reducing an order they've already paid for works differently — see the refunds section below. While the picker is open it also shows the standard allergen notice — allergen and dish information comes from your venue, customers are asked to tell you about any allergy or intolerance before ordering, and cross-contamination is flagged as possible. It always shows and can't be switched off; allergen accuracy stays your venue's responsibility.

Or each guest chooses their own food. If you've switched on letting each guest choose their own food (in the same pre-order settings), a big enough party — or every party on a special pre-order date — can do it differently: the organiser shares one link, each guest adds their name and chooses their own dishes on their own page, and, if you take pre-order money online, pays their own share. The kitchen still gets one order for the table, with every plate named. See How do guests choose their own food by link for a big party?.

For bookings your team records by hand (a phone booking, for example), open the booking and use Email pre-order request in its detail panel — or on the Pre-orders page (Email request on the party's row, or Take a pre-order → Email them the link to choose) — it emails the customer a link to choose their dishes, and you can re-send it until the cut-off. When your team creates a qualifying booking (or an edit makes one qualify — the party grows, say), the save asks "Invite the customer to pre-order?" — it's always a manual tick, never sent automatically. And if you use Food and drinks-only bookings, drinks-only bookings never receive pre-order invitations — pre-ordering is a food thing.

Your team records a pre-order

Your team can also record the pre-order themselves — for a party dictating their choices over the phone, the booking's detail panel opens Record a pre-order: the same step-by-step screen your team uses to take a collection or delivery order, with the booking's name, day, time and party size at the top. The dishes step has the same menu search, category chips and dish rows (sold-out dishes shown greyed) — each row says what the dish contains ("Contains: gluten, milk") and carries its dietary marks ("Vegan", "Gluten-free option"), so you can answer "is it gluten-free?" on the phone — choices for dishes that have them, and a Who's it for? box and an Allergies or a note for the kitchen box on every dish (a note the customer typed online is already there); any allergies or dietary notes already on the booking are shown so you remember to ask — "Still ask" — and the running count sits at the bottom right beside Next. It uses exactly the customer flow's menu, prices and rules (on the Pre-orders page it opens from Take their order, or Take a pre-order → Take their order now). On the pay-at-the-venue model the order applies immediately; on an online-payment model the picker counts the booking money in the same way, the customer is emailed a payment link for anything it doesn't already cover (when it covers the dishes, the order is recorded straight away — no link and no email address needed), and nothing counts as paid until it's paid — though staff can explicitly override to pay at the venue instead, in which case the booking clearly shows the food as not yet paid. Or Paid now at the venue — £X, on any booking, when they've paid the whole order at the venue in advance: the dishes apply and the payment is recorded, as Mark paid in person does.

Set menus in a pre-order

A pre-order can offer set menus as well as single dishes — "Christmas Day — Adults · £56.99 a head", then one dish per course from your real dishes. You build them on the Menu page under Set menus & deals (see How do I build my menu and share it with customers?); a set menu is offered in a pre-order when you've said it can be ordered in pre-orders, or when a special pre-order date picks it for its own menu (a date can pick set menus as well as categories — Christmas Day's "Adults" and "Kids" set menus, say, kept hidden from your everyday menu). A date that picks only set menus offers no single dishes. A set menu with its own days and times is offered only when the booking's own day and time fall inside them. Set menus come with the Pro plan or above, like pre-orders themselves. The Set menus row on Settings → Pre-orders links straight there: make a set menu and tick “Pre-orders” under “Where it can be ordered” to offer it on every pre-order, or leave it unticked and tick it in one date's pre-order menu on Special dates.

What customers see. The picker shows a Set menus section above your dishes — "Choose one for each person, then a dish for each course." Each set menu says its price per person and how many courses. Choose opens it: every course on one screen ("Choose your starters", "Choose your mains"), each with its real dishes — their own description, allergens in words, dietary marks and photo — and any supplement beside a dish that costs more ("+£4.00" for the steak). A dish with choices of its own (how it's cooked, a sauce) asks them the usual way, with its own Allergies or a note for the kitchen box. The price at the bottom is one person's — the set menu's price, plus any supplements and paid choices — and Add to pre-order adds it for the person whose chip is selected (Guest 1, Guest 2 …). Each chosen set menu then shows under Your food with that person's courses, a note box for the whole set menu, Change courses, and − / ＋ for how many people chose exactly the same. Above the list the order reads per person: "2 adults' set menus · 1 kids' set menu — £134.97" (the "Adults" and "Kids" are each set menu's own "who's it for" word; without one it says "2 × Sunday lunch").

The money. Each person's set menu is priced from the set menu as it is when they submit — the price you set, plus supplements and paid choices — never from anything the browser sends. The pre-order total is simply every person's price added up, so your payment rules treat it exactly like dishes. Refunding dishes from a paid pre-order refunds a whole person's set menu (one at a time), never a single course. If you've entered your VAT number, the receipt splits each set menu's price across its courses by their menu prices and VAT rates.

What your team sees. The booking reads "Christmas Day — Adults × 2 · Kids × 1", then each person's courses ("1 × Christmas Day — Kids: Turkey nuggets · Ice cream — Max"). On the phone, Record a pre-order has the same set menus at the top of its dishes step: Add a set menu opens the same course-by-course box, and each one gets a Who's it for? box, its own note, Change courses and how many.

The kitchen counts real dishes. Kitchen prep, the kitchen tickets, the docket, the stock count and the kitchen/bar split all read each set menu's courses: fifteen "Christmas Day — Adults" set menus are prepped as Roast turkey × 15 (and whatever else they chose), never as "set menu × 15". On a kitchen ticket each course dish carries a small line saying which set menu and course it belongs to. Each course dish also keeps its own "Contains: …" line for the dish's allergens plus those of the choices picked (fixed when the customer submitted) on the kitchen tickets and the docket, and the booking's panel, the manage-booking page and the receipts show one line for the whole set menu. The day sheet prints each booking's set menus as a headline, then its plates grouped by course — "Set menus: Christmas Day — Adults × 2 · Kids × 1", "Starters: Parsnip soup ×1, Chicken liver pâté ×1", "Mains: Roast turkey ×2 (Sam, Alex)…" — with the names beside the plates (each guest's own, on a party choosing by link) and any note; ordinary dishes keep their one line each.

Refunds, changes and cancellations

What your team sees

Related: How do guests choose their own food by link for a big party? · How do pay-in-full bookings work? · How do I build my menu and share it with customers? · How do I sell extras with bookings? · How do I take booking deposits?

If the booking, menu or another person's changes need reviewing

When a customer or staff member submits a pre-order, ResoFlow checks the current booking, menu and pre-order settings again. If a price, option or saved selection has changed, their draft is kept and the latest saved choices and total are shown. They review those details before submitting again. If the latest details cannot be loaded, they can retry the refresh without losing their draft.

An existing valid payment link keeps the prices quoted when it was created. If the booking or the pre-order it replaces changes, a new link will ask the customer to return and review before payment. If payment has already completed during that change, the existing payment follow-up process handles the return; a newer selection is not overwritten. Older links keep their existing payment checks.

Already-paid dish reductions retain their frozen prices and existing refund rules. These checks do not create a new table or stock reservation.