How does my team run pre-orders?

The Pre-orders page, taking a pre-order for a party, what your team and kitchen see, changes to review, and refunds, changes and cancellations.

Part of How does pre-ordering work for large bookings?. This part covers running pre-orders day to day: the Pre-orders page, dates further ahead, taking a pre-order for a party, what your team sees, changes that need reviewing, and refunds, changes and cancellations.

Pre-orders are on the Pro and Complete plans — not Free or Plus.

The Pre-orders page

Pre-orders are on the Pro and Complete plans — not Free or Plus.

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

• Four figures — Upcoming (the next 14 days), To chase, Paid ahead, and Tonight's prep (today's dishes, the parties and how many still have to choose).
• A 14-day strip — today and the next 14 days, each showing its parties and a bar of how many have ordered; All shows the whole fortnight, All upcoming lists every pre-order from today on however far ahead (see Every upcoming pre-order below), and Or pick a date jumps to a day — any date, not only the next 14 days (see Pre-orders on a range of dates below).
• The day's card — its line ("3 parties · 16 dishes to prep · 1 still to choose"), Remind un-ordered, Day sheet (the day sheet itself, on that day), the day's Kitchen prep (every pre-ordered dish added up — the same numbers as the day sheet) and Still missing before service: every party still missing something, the urgent ones first — nothing chosen and the chance gone, the last-chance reminder sent, fewer dishes than people, food to be paid at the venue, and a party whose guests choose their own food by link that nobody has chosen for yet. Tap a name to open that party.
• The list, day by day — each party's time, name, size and status (Paid, Submitted or Requested), with a Call and Take their order button on a party to chase and Email request on one still invited. On a wide screen the chosen party opens beside the list (the first one to start); on a smaller one it opens in a window. It shows what's ordered (refunded dishes struck through), the booking's own allergy note, the money, when it reaches the kitchen screens — or, for a party that hasn't chosen, how to reach them — and Refund dishes…, Take their order or Email pre-order request. A party whose guests choose their own food by link is listed from the moment it starts — "Guests choosing by link · nobody has chosen yet" until someone chooses, then marked Guests choosing by link beside its dishes: it opens that party's own view (who has chosen and paid, and its reminders and refunds), and the whole-table tools aren't offered for it — see How do guests choose their own food by link for a big party?.
• Not invited yet — above the list, while anyone in the next fortnight qualifies but was never sent the pre-order request (a booking your team made without ticking the invite, one made before pre-orders were on, or a party that grew into qualifying), tap Not invited yet to list just them — on the chosen day, or across the fortnight with All. Each row has Email request (when the booking has an email address and pre-orders are still open), Take their order, or Call when the email can't reach them; once the request goes, the party moves onto the list with the others. Tap it again to go back.
• Take a pre-order (on a phone the button just says "Take", so the header stays one row) — find the booking (name, phone or email; the parties to chase first), then choose Take their order now (you choose the dishes with them on the phone — the booking panel's own dish picker) or Email them the link to choose.
• How pre-ordering works right now — a plain-English restatement of how your set-up behaves. To change it, the gear at the top right of the page opens Settings → Pre-orders (see How do I set up pre-orders?).

Pre-orders on a range of dates

Pre-orders are on the Pro and Complete plans — not Free or Plus.

On the Pre-orders page, Or pick a date takes any date, not only the 14 days on the strip — and once a date is picked, a To box lets you choose a range of dates: up to 62 days at a time, from about three months back to any date ahead (say all of December, while it's still October, or next Christmas). A date further back than about three months is treated as today. The parties on those dates are listed day by day, like All, with a card at the top that counts them ("6 parties · 4 have ordered · 2 still to choose") and names anyone still missing something; tap a name to open that party. Back to the next 14 days returns to the strip. A single date inside the next 14 days is simply that day on the strip, with its kitchen prep and Remind un-ordered — those two stay on the days of the strip.

Every upcoming pre-order

Pre-orders are on the Pro and Complete plans — not Free or Plus.

All upcoming (beside Or pick a date on the Pre-orders page) lists the parties with a pre-order from today on, however far ahead — grouped by date, soonest first, 50 parties at a time with Show more at the bottom for the next 50. The card at the top counts them ("4 parties from today on · 3 have ordered · 1 still to choose") and names anyone still missing something; tap a name to open that party. Back to the next 14 days returns to the strip. When nothing in the next 14 days has a pre-order but a later date does — Christmas Day's parties in October, say — the page opens on All upcoming by itself, so you never see "No upcoming pre-orders" while parties further ahead have ordered. Kitchen prep and Remind un-ordered stay on the days of the strip.

Your team records a pre-order

Pre-orders are on the Pro and Complete plans — not Free or Plus.

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 guest 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 guest 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 guest 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.

What your team sees

Pre-orders are on the Pro and Complete plans — not Free or Plus.

• The booking's detail panel shows the pre-order's status (requested, sent, or paid), each dish line with its amount and any note for the kitchen ("2 × Steak frites — Dave · Note: no peppercorn sauce"), and the total. If the party size no longer matches the order — say the party shrank after the food was chosen — a short note flags it so your team can ask the guest to update it.
• A quiet bell notification ("Pre-order submitted") appears for your team the moment a party submits their order — no sound, just the row.
• The printed day sheet flags qualifying parties who still haven't ordered once their last-chance reminder has gone: their row carries "⚠ No pre-order recorded", so the kitchen sees the gap on paper too. A party whose guests choose by link prints its own state instead — "Guests choosing by link · 3 of 8 have chosen", or "nobody has chosen yet".
• The day sheet (Bookings page) includes each booking's pre-ordered dishes — each with its "Contains: …" allergens (the dish's plus the choices picked, fixed when the guest submitted, then "May contain: …" for any May contain tick; the same line shows on the kitchen tickets, the pre-order docket, the booking's panel, the manage-booking page and the pre-order receipts) — and each day gets a Kitchen prep section (pre-orders) totalling every dish across bookings ("Sea bass × 14" — different choices count separately). The Pre-orders toggle in the print options is on by default.
• On the kitchen screens (optional). Switch on Show pre-orders on the kitchen screens (the On the kitchen screens section at the bottom of Settings → Pre-orders; off unless you turn it on) and each of today's submitted or paid pre-orders becomes its own ticket on the Orders screen — the table, the guest's name, the party size, the booking time, every dish with who it's for and its own note for the kitchen ("Note: …"), and the allergy or notes text typed on the booking itself (labelled "Guest's own words" — never anything from a saved profile). The ticket goes live, and rings like a new order, at Start cooking before the booking minutes before the booking time (30 by default; if your Order & Pay collection channel is on, its wait time is used instead) — and the moment the party is seated, whichever comes first. A booking after midnight counts by its real time: a 1:30am table after Saturday night's service goes live at 1am on Sunday (with the 30-minute default), and that night's tickets stay on the screen until 5am, when the next day's service begins. Where you split orders between the kitchen and the bar, a pre-order splits the same way and each screen marks its part done; the ticket leaves the board once every station has. If a kitchen printer is paired, the docket prints at the same moment, headed PRE-ORDER, one per station; a booking cancelled or marked a no-show after the docket printed sends a VOID slip so the paper in the kitchen is contradicted by paper. A pre-order changed after it went live prints again. A venue without Order & Pay still gets the Orders screen for these tickets alone. A pre-order that was only requested (the guest never chose) never becomes a ticket.
• The payment email — if you get the Booking payments copy (Staff alerts) and you've entered your VAT number on Settings → Payouts and Stripe, pre-order payment emails also break down the VAT included in the dish prices, using each dish's VAT rate from the menu. Rates are locked in when the guest submits, so a later menu change never alters a receipt. Dishes without a VAT rate set aren't guessed — they're shown on one line, Includes items with no VAT rate set (no VAT shown), so the breakdown still adds up to the order total.

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

Pre-orders are on the Pro and Complete plans — not Free or Plus.

When a guest 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 guest 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.

Refunds, changes and cancellations

Pre-orders are on the Pro and Complete plans — not Free or Plus.

• Reducing a paid order — the organiser can reduce a pre-order they've already paid for at any time before the booking, even after pre-orders close (after the cut-off the card shows a Reduce pre-order option). Reducing means keeping the same dishes at the same or smaller quantities — the page shows the new total and tells them the difference is refunded to their original payment method before they confirm, at the prices they originally paid (a later menu price change never alters the refund). The refund is automatic, and they get an email confirming the reduced order and the refund; you don't need to do anything.
• Changing dishes on a paid order — swapping or adding dishes while ending up below what's already been paid can't be done in one step: the page asks the guest to reduce first, then add, so each step's money is unambiguous. Straightforward changes at or above the paid amount work normally until pre-orders close (any extra is charged online when they submit).
• Staff refunds, dish by dish — your team can refund specific dishes from a paid pre-order without cancelling anything: on the booking's detail panel (under the pre-order's dish lines) or the party's pre-order on the Pre-orders page, click Refund dishes…, tick the dish line(s) — and where the party ordered more than one of a dish, pick how many to refund (one of two ribs, say) — and confirm with your password or a manager's PIN (it needs the same refund permission as deposit refunds — Owners and Admins by default). The exact price the guest paid for those dishes goes back to how they paid (card, and gift card where one part-paid); a fully refunded line shows struck through as Refunded, a part-refunded one carries a "1 of 2 refunded" note, the kitchen prep counts and day sheet prep only what still stands, and the guest is emailed naming exactly what — and how many — was refunded. A fully refunded dish also disappears from the guest's own pre-order page (a part-refunded one shows just its remaining quantity, with the refunded count noted) — re-adding it later is a fresh purchase at the current menu price, and it can never be refunded twice.
• Removing the whole order — can't be done online; the page tells the guest to contact you. Your team can then refund the dishes line by line with Refund dishes… (above), or any amount of the paid order from the booking's payment card — see When do guests get their deposit back? (Cancelling the booking is separate — see below.)
• Paid-at-the-venue orders — no money is involved, so changes simply follow your Pre-orders close deadline as normal.
• An order already paid at the venue (recorded with Paid now at the venue or Mark paid in person) — on an online-payment model that money counts towards any change: adding dishes asks the guest to pay only the difference online, and a smaller order needs no payment (anything taken beyond the new total shows as a refund owed on the booking).
• If the booking is cancelled — refunds follow the same cancellation policy as deposits (set in What guests pay → Cancellations and refunds — see When do guests get their deposit back?), applied to everything paid on the booking, pre-ordered food included. Whatever that policy says (full, partial or no refund by the deadline) covers the whole amount, not just the deposit.

Related: How does pre-ordering work for large bookings? · How do I set up pre-orders? · How do guests choose their pre-order? · How do I run the Orders screen?