See how Tablez works

Once bookings start coming in, here's where to find them and how to stay on top of a busy week. Today, the bookings list, the calendar, the table list and the kitchen screen. Today is your home page. It shows how many are booked today, anything waiting for a reply and what's coming up. Tap open on any booking to see the details. Inside a booking you'll see the time, the party, the table, allergies and their history with you. From here you can accept it, mark them as arrived, edit the time, the party size or the table or cancel it. Bookings is the full list. Search by name, phone or reference and filter by date and status. Need it in a spreadsheet? Export the list, all your bookings or your customers. The calendar shows the whole month at a glance. Each day is coloured by how full it is, from quiet to filling up to nearly full, and events are marked. Tap a day to see its bookings service by service and which tables are in use. The table list is your backup, print it, download it or email it to yourself, so you still have the day's bookings if the internet goes down. on pro the kitchen screen shows what's coming in the next hour or two with covers and pre-orders full screen on a tablet in the kitchen or behind the bar.

A floor plan isn't just a nice picture. Done right, it tells your whole team who's sat where, who's due next, and which table can take a walk in right now. In the next couple of minutes, I'll show you how to set one up in Tablez and how to use it on a busy night. Open Edit Floor Plan. Press Add Several. Choose how many tables, how many seats and the shape. Round, square, rectangle or booth. They all appear at once. Then add the room itself. The bar, doors, windows, a fireplace, the toilets. They're just drawings so they're never booked. Now drag everything to where it really is and pull the corner to resize. Click a table to set its name, its seats and a fill order, so online bookings fill your best tables first. You can add more rooms too, like a garden or a function room, each with its own tab. Then press save layout. Online bookings go straight onto a table for you, using your fill order, then the smallest table that fits. that fits and if you like you can let customers pick their own table on the booking page. Now the live view. Open floor plan and it updates by itself every 20 seconds. Dark green means seated. Amber means reserved or booked soon and a dotted table needs cleaning. Each table shows who's on it, how many and when it's free. Someone walks in tap a free table put in how many and press seat walk in now. Done! When a booking arrives tap their table and press seat them. When they leave press finished free the table. It's marked as needing cleaning and anyone on the waitlist here is that a table's come free. Once it's wiped down, tap markers clean. You can also move a booking to another table or join two tables for a big party. The floor plan comes with standard at £9.99 a month and every member of staff can use it on a tablet behind the bar or from the staff app.

A table is only free again once the last booking has finished. Here is how Tablez decides that and how big parties fit. Go to settings, then turn times. Turn time is how long a booking holds a table by party size. For example, 90 minutes for a couple, 2 hours for 4, and longer for bigger groups. Leave the last up to box blank to cover everything bigger. Under tables, group identical tables together, like four-seaters times ten. Add a named table, like the snug, as a group of one. Online bookings go on the smallest table that fits. Further down, tick Allow Combining Two Tables, so a party of ten can use a six and a four. Set the largest party online, and anyone bigger is asked to ring you. You can also cap covers and pace arrivals every fifteen minutes. On the floor plan, click a table to set its seats. Give it a fill order where one fills first. You can also set a minimum party, a time limit of its own and split a big place into areas like the main room and the garden. On the live floor plan, tap a booked table and choose join with to put two tables together for a big party. Press split tables when they are done. That is how tables, turn times and big parties work in Tablez. Start free at tablez.co.uk

Two small things that make a big difference a wait list So a full night doesn't mean turning people away for good and guest notes. So your whole team remembers your regulars Here's how both work in Tablez First the wait list under booking rules tick offer a wait list when a day or time is full Now when a customer tries to book in your full they can join the wait list instead with their name number party size, and the time they'd like. Someone rings or walks in, open waitlist, press, add a walk-in to the waitlist, put in their name, party and mobile, and press add. When a booking is cancelled or declined, or you free a table on the floor plan, everyone waiting that day is told a table may have come free. by email and by text if you've switched waitlist texts on. Nothing is booked automatically. It's first come, first served, and when your walk-in comes back, seat them straight from the floor plan. Now guest notes, open guests, and you'll see everyone who's ever booked with how many times they've booked, turned up, cancelled, or not shown. Regulars are marked after three visits. Filter by regulars, people you haven't seen in 90 days, no shows or anyone with notes and you can download the whole list as a spreadsheet. Open a guest and you'll see their history, their usual party size and every visit. Then write notes for your team. Like's the window side, her husband needs gluten free, birthday in March, press save notes. Those notes now appear on every booking they make so whoever's on shift knows before they even walk in. Bookings attack too, regular and new customer are added for you and allergies, birthdays, anniversaries and high chairs are picked up from what the customer writes so nothing gets missed. The waitlist and guest profiles both come with standard at £9.99 a month with no fee per diner.

Who took that booking? If you've ever asked that across a busy restaurant, this one's for you. In the next couple of minutes, I'll show you how the Tablez staff app puts every booking on every phone, how your team gets an alert the second someone books, and how Live Check lets you say yes while the customer waits. First, give your team their own logins. In your dashboard, open staff logins. Type a name, an email and a temporary password and press Add staff member. They'll be asked to change the password the first time they log in. If someone's a manager, tick extra access for events and menus, venue settings or reports. Billing and staff logins always stay with you, the owner. The free plan includes you plus one staff login. Standard at £9.99 a month gives you as many as you like. Next, your team opens the staff app on their phone, at tablez.uk/staff. On Android, Chrome offers to install it. On an iPhone, open it in Safari, tap share, then add to home screen. It then opens like a normal app, with no app store needed. The staff app shows today's bookings in time order, with the covers booked, the table and the things that matter. A new customer, a regular, a birthday, an allergy in red so nobody misses it. When people turn up, tap arrived. If they don't, tap no show. You can flick to other days, add a phone booking and see who's on the wait list. Now the alerts. On standard and above tap enable notifications and each phone gets a push alert for every new booking or request, even when the app is closed. On the free plan you still get an email and the app beeps while it's open. Then choose how bookings are accepted under booking rules. Instant means if a table's free the booking is confirmed straight away. Staff approved means each Each booking comes in as a request, and your team accepts or declines it, and live check is the clever one. With live check, the customer waits on the page with a short countdown, usually three minutes while your staff get an alert. Tap accept, and the customer sees their table is booked right there and then. If nobody answers in time, it simply becomes a request, and the customer is told you'll email them shortly. It switches itself on while someone's logged in to the staff app so nobody is left waiting when you're closed. If you can't fit them in tap decline, pick a reason like fully booked and add a message if you like the customer gets a polite email straight away.

Want your team to use tables without sharing your own password? Give each person their own login. It takes a minute. Open staff logins in your dashboard. Everyone with a login is listed, along with when they last used the staff app. To add a person, type their name and email and a temporary password of at least eight characters. They are asked to change it the first time they log in. Ordinary staff get bookings, the floor plan, the waitlist and guests. For a manager, tick extra access, events and menus, venue settings or reports and exports. Press add staff member. Then give them the temporary password and send them to your Tablez address followed by /staff. You can change access anytime. Tick or untick the boxes by their name and press save access. Remove login and they can't sign in anymore. A few things always stay with you. The owner, your plan and billing, staff logins, stripe, API keys and text credits. The free plan includes you plus one staff login. Standard and above have unlimited staff logins. Start free at tablez.co.uk

Closed on Christmas day or got a private party? Here's how to tell Tablez, so nobody books a table when you are shut. Open settings, then hours. At the top are your service periods. These are the blocks of time guests can book, like lunch and dinner. You can add more than one a day. If you never open on a certain day, say Monday, tick closed next to it. Guests will not be able to book that day. Last booking is how many minutes before a period ends that the final table can be booked. 60 means a 9 o'clock close gives a last booking of 8. Now the one-off days. Bank holidays are not automatic, so add them yourself. Press add a closure, pick the date and add a note if you like. Guests see that day as closed. Press save changes and you're done. To bring a day back, press the cross next to it and save again. That's your hours and closures sorted. Hours are on every Tablez plan, including free. Start free at tablez.co.uk

Here's a small thing that cuts no-shows, when a customer books with Tablez, the booking goes straight into their phone's calendar with one tap. On the booking confirmed page, there's a big add to calendar button, it picks the right calendar for their phone, Google on Android and Apple on an iPhone. The confirmation email has it too, one tap buttons for Apple, Google and Outlook and the calendar file is attached as well. Their phone then reminds them two hours before so they don't forget and if their plans change the link to cancel is right there in the calendar entry which frees the table up for someone else.

How busy were you last month? Who are your regulars and who's stopped coming in? The reports page answers all of that in one place. Pick a range, 7 days, 30, 90 or a whole year. Every number is compared with the period before so you can see what's going up and what's going down. Bookings, covers, average party size, no shows, cancellations and how many booked online. The charts show your busiest days and your busiest times, where your bookings come from, your party sizes and your most used tables, handy for planning staff rotors and ordering stock. Near the bottom is a list of regulars who've gone quiet, people who used to come in and haven't for a while. That's the perfect list for a We Miss You offer, you can download it or the whole report as a spreadsheet. Your booking page can grow a mailing list too. Customers tick a box to hear from you then confirm by email so it's all above board. Open mailing list to see how many have joined and download your list.

Want to email your guests an offer without breaking the rules? In the UK, you need their permission first. Tablez takes care of that. Every booking page has a tick box. Email me news and offers from your venue. It is not ticked for them, so the guest has to choose to join. Open mailing list. You can see how many guests have said yes, how many joined lately, and who still needs to confirm. Many confirmed guests are emailed, and anyone who unsubscribes is left out. To write an offer, add a subject and then the email itself. Leave a blank line between paragraphs and add a button, like book a table. Press save and preview. Check how it looks on a phone and send yourself a test. When you're happy, press send. It goes to confirmed guests only, and every email gets an unsubscribe link automatically. Each email sent uses one credit. You start with a hundred free. After that, a thousand emails is £4.99, five thousand is £19.99 and twenty thousand is £59.99. They never expire. Email campaigns come with the group plan, or we can switch them on for you. Start free at tablez.co.uk

Every table's booking page has a small, powered-by line and Tablez can pay you back for spreading the word. Here is how both work. Scroll to the bottom of your booking page and you will see a small, powered-by Tablez link. It is on every plan and it cannot be removed. Your booking emails carry the same line at the bottom. You will also find a note about it on the booking link and embed page. Now the good part. Open, recommend a friend. This is your own link. Copy it or send it on WhatsApp or by email to another pub, restaurant or café. When a new venue signs up through your link and has paid for three months, you get a month of your plan free. You need to be on a paid plan to collect it. If you are on free, your reward waits until you upgrade. Your code also rides on that powered-by line, so a guest who runs a venue and signs up is counted as yours too. They must be new and sign up within 60 days. You can earn up to 12 free months a year. The list shows who you have recommended. That is it! Share your link and let the Powered By Line do some work for you. Start free at tablez.co.uk

Your tables dashboard holds your bookings and your guest list. Here is how to add a second lock to it and how Sign in with Google works. Open your account and look for two-step login. It is up to you, but we recommend it. Press Set up two-step login. On your phone, install Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator. It is free. Tap the plus, choose Scan a QR code and scan the picture on screen. screen. If you can't scan it, type the setup key into the app instead. The app now shows a six-digit code. Type it in and press turn on two-step login. You get backup codes next. Save them somewhere safe, because they only show once, and each one works a single time. From now on, you log in with your password as usual. Then, Tablez asks for the code from your app. Lost your phone? Type a backup code instead. If it is switched on, the login page also shows Continue with Google. It only works if you already have an account with that same email address, and it never makes a new one. With two-step login on, you still need your code. That is two-step login. It takes about two minutes. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Need a different plan or want to stop? Here is how to change your plan, cancel it and delete your account, all from your dashboard. Open plan. It shows the plan you are on, how many online bookings you have used this month and the date it renews. To change plan, pick monthly or yearly, then choose the plan you want. You pay through PayPal with a PayPal account or any card. Moving up starts straight away. Moving down starts at once too and the old one is cancelled so you never pay for both. To stop paying, press cancel renewal. Type the word cancel to confirm. PayPal takes no more payments. You keep your plan until the date shown and then you move to the free plan. Your bookings and settings all stay. If you want to close your account, open your account and press delete my account. It asks you to type delete. Your booking page closes straight away. We keep everything hidden for 90 days in case you change your mind. Then it is removed for good. Only the owner can do these things. Prices are on the website with no fee per diner. Start free at tablez.co.uk

Do you run more than one venue? Here is how several venues work on one login, and how to ask us about the group plan and one invoice. If the same email and password are used at each venue, they all come together. Log in once and use the switch venue menu in the sidebar to jump between them. Each venue keeps its own bookings, guests, menu and settings, and its own booking page. Pick another venue and you are looking at that one only. For groups and chains, there is the group plan. It is for more than one venue with limits agreed with us, and it is priced per venue. Open plan and look at the group card. Choose group. Tell us how many venues you have and ask for a single invoice. Press contact us. We will reply by email with the details. Every plan is a flat price with no fee per diner. Start free at tablez.co.uk

This one is for the more technical side. Tablez has an API and webhooks, so your own kiosk, till or screen can talk to your bookings. You do not need it for normal use. Open API and webhooks in your dashboard. It is switched on per account as part of the group plan. If you do not see the options, get in touch and tell us what you want to connect. Press create key. Your API key appears once, so copy it straight away and keep it safe. Your own system sends it with each request to read your bookings. If it ever leaks, press Revoke key or make a new one. A webhook is a message Tablez sends to your server when something happens. Type your webhook address, which must start with HTTPS. Then tick the events you want, like New, Confirmed or Cancelled bookings, and press Save. Each webhook is signed with a secret, shown here once you save, so your server can check it really came from Tablez. Press send test webhook and the page tells you what your server replied. The full docs are linked at the top. That is the API and webhooks. If you are not sure, send this page to whoever looks after your tech. Start free at tablez.co.uk

A no show on a Saturday is a table you turned someone else away from. Here is what helps, without scaring off your regulars. Tablez emails a reminder the day before, on every plan, with a link to cancel or change. Cancelling becomes easier than not turning up, and the freed table goes straight back on sale. Set big parties to staff approved, and ring the organiser before the day. Keep a record of no shows, and you can see their history when they next book. For groups and special events, take a card hold. Nothing is charged unless they do not turn up. That is on the Pro plan, through your own Stripe account. Reminders are free on every plan. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

A paper list on the bar is the best backup there is. Here is how to print or email your daily table list. Click Table list in the left menu. It opens on today, with one row per booking, and the covers for the day at the top. It needs the Standard plan or above. To look at another day, use the arrows either side of the date, or tap the date box in the middle and choose one. Click Print for a page you can put on the bar, with a blank Arrived box to tick off with a pen. Click Download C S V to save the list as a spreadsheet. Click Email it now, and your address, to send a copy straight away. If it says nobody, add an email address under Notifications first. To have it sent for you, go to Notifications and find Table list backup email. Choose Before each service, or Once a day at a set time, then save. The default is Never. Now you have a backup for every service. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Knowing that Mrs Jones likes the window table is what makes a pub feel like a pub. Guest profiles keep that memory for you. Click Guests in the left menu. It lists everyone who has booked, with their visits, cancellations and no shows. It needs the Standard plan or above. Type a name, email or phone number into the search box. Or use a filter button, like Regulars, Not been in ninety days, No shows, or With notes. The list groups people by email or phone, so nobody appears ten times. Click Open beside the person. You see their contact details, their booking history, and every past visit. Type in Notes for the team. For example, likes the window table, allergic to nuts. Click Save notes, and the note shows on every booking they make. Keep notes factual, because your whole team can see them. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

The calendar shows a whole month on one screen, so you can see which days are busy before you plan staff or a promotion. Click Calendar in the left menu. It opens on this month, and it is on every plan, including Free. Use Previous and Next to move between months, or This month to jump back. The strip at the top shows your bookings and covers for the month, and your busiest day. Each day shows its bookings, its covers, and how full it is. Green is quiet, yellow is filling up, and red is nearly full. A small number in the corner means requests are waiting for a reply. Closed days say closed, and any event shows its name. Click any day to open the full list of bookings for it. That is the day view, with every booking for the date, ready for service. That is the calendar. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

The day view is your service sheet. It lists every booking for a date, split by lunch and evening, with the waitlist and a picture of which tables are in use. Click a day on the Calendar to open it. Use the arrows either side of the date to move a day at a time, or pick a date in the box. Each service has its own box, with the time range and the covers. Every booking shows the time, name, phone, party, table and status. Click Open beside a booking to see it, change it, or mark it. Click Add a booking, to add a phone or walk in booking for this date. Further down, the waitlist shows anyone waiting for a free table. That needs Standard or above. Tablez in use is a timeline. Each bar is a booking, holding a table for its turn time. That is the day view. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Order and Pay lets customers scan a code on the table, pick what they want and pay on their phone. Here is how to start. Log in as the owner. Under Booking page, press Order and Pay. On the Pro plan, press Start my free trial. It is fourteen days free, and no card is needed. After that, it is £10 a month on top of Pro, or £19.99 a month on its own. There is no limit on orders. Press Menu, and add your sections and items. Each section is made by the kitchen or the bar, so orders go to the right screen. Back on Order and Pay, under Getting paid, connect Stripe, PayPal, SumUp or Square. The money goes straight to your own account. Then tick Switch ordering on, and press Save. Press Orders, then QR codes. Press Print sheet, and stick one on each table. That is Order and Pay. The money goes straight to your own account, and Tablez takes no cut. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Every pub has a night that just sits there. Tuesday, usually. A few more tables on a quiet night matter more than a few more on a Saturday. Here is how to fill yours, one night at a time. First, check which night is really quiet. Open Reports, pick ninety days, and look at Covers by day of the week. Pick the quietest night you are open, not the whole week. Next, give people a reason to book. On the Pro plan, go to Events and menus. Fill in the name, date, times, capacity and price a head, and press Save event. It shows on your booking page. No Pro plan? Say it in words. Open Booking page look, and write one friendly line in Welcome text, like, Tuesdays are pie and a pint night. Book a table below. Then share your link. Copy it from Share and embed, and post it on Facebook, Instagram and your Google profile, where locals will see it. Check Reports again in a month and compare that night. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

The Sunday roast is the busiest, most stressful service in many pubs. Everyone wants the same table, and the kitchen has one oven. A bit of set up means the book fills itself. Open Opening hours, and add a Sunday service period that matches your roast, like twelve to three. Then set Last booking, so nobody books a table at quarter to three for a three course roast. Go to Tablez. Under Party sizes and capacity, set Max covers per service to what the kitchen can really cook. Under Pacing, choose Covers per fifteen minutes and set a maximum, so nobody all sits down at one. On the Pro plan, add a set menu under Events and menus, with your roast choices as the courses. Then tick Ask big parties to pre-order. They get a link to pick their dishes, and the kitchen sees the totals. If no shows hurt on Sundays, go to Deposits, set an amount a head, and tick Sunday under Only on these days. Hours, the cover cap and pacing work on every plan. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Mother's Day and Valentine's Day book up weeks ahead. Here's how to set each one up as an event in Tablez, so you stop turning people away. Events, set menus and deposits are on the Pro plan. Open Events and menus and press Add a set menu. Give it a name and a price a head, then type the courses, one line each. Now press Add an event. Name it something like Mothering Sunday lunch, then pick the date, the times, the capacity and a price a head. To take a deposit, fill in Deposit a head. You need Deposits set up first, with your own Stripe account. If the special menu takes the whole place, tick Close normal table bookings for this date and time. If you still take ordinary tables, leave it unticked. Tick Show on the booking page, press Save event, then share your booking link on social media. Open bookings several weeks ahead. That's your special day ready before the calls start. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Bank holidays are either your best day or the day you're shut. Here's how to make your booking page match, so nobody turns up at a closed door. Go to Opening hours and scroll down to Special closures. Press Add a closure for each day you're shut, add a short reason like Christmas Day, and press Save changes. Closures work on every plan. For New Year's Eve, open Events and menus and press Add a set menu. That's on the Pro plan. Name it, set the price and add the courses. Then press Add an event. Set the date, the times, the capacity, the price a head and a deposit a head. Deposits need your own Stripe account. Tick Close normal table bookings for this date and time, so ordinary bookings stop that night. Then open your booking link, and try the date as a customer would. Do it a month or two ahead, and check your Bookings list before you close a day that already has bookings. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

A table of twelve is good money, and a good way to ruin a Friday if it goes wrong. A few simple settings keep big groups under control. Go to Tablez and fill in Largest party online. The usual is eight. Bigger groups are asked to ring you, so you can talk about the menu and the time. Tick Allow combining two tables for large parties, and save. Then open Turn times, and set the last row to what a big group really takes. In Booking page look, add a line to the Welcome text, like parties over eight, please ring us. Put your group rules in Booking terms. On Pro, open Deposits and fill in Only for parties of, to take a deposit from big groups only. Under Events and menus, you can ask big parties to pre-order from a set menu too. The party limit and table joining work on every plan. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Pubs live on walk-ins. If the booking page takes every table, they get turned away. Here's how to leave room for both. Open Reports and look at Where bookings come from, to see your real share of walk-ins. Be honest about the number. Go to Tablez and set Max covers per service. If you seat sixty, a cap of forty five stops online bookings early, and leaves fifteen seats for walk-ins. Press Save changes. In Booking rules, set Minimum notice, so nobody books a table for 10 minutes time. Back on Tablez, lower Largest party online, so a big group has to ring you. When someone walks in, tap a free table on the Floor plan to seat them. Or press Add booking, and set Taken by to Walk in. On the Free plan, walk ins count towards your booking limit. On Standard and Pro, they are free and do not count. There's no setting to reserve named tables for walk-ins, so the covers cap does the job. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

A turn time is how long Tablez holds a table for a booking. Too long and you lose covers. Too short and you double book. Here's how to get it right. Go to Turn times, under Your venue. It starts with ninety minutes for parties up to two, a hundred and twenty for up to four, and a hundred and fifty for anything bigger. Change the minutes on each Parties up to row. Don't guess. Watch two or three busy services, note when each size of party really leaves, and set it a little over the usual. Need another size? Press Add a rule, and enter the party size and the minutes. Leave up to blank on the last row, so it covers every bigger party. Press Save. Staff can always give a table longer on the night, so you don't need to plan for your slowest guests. Check your busiest nights after a month, and adjust. Turn times are on every plan. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Don't want every table turning up at seven? Pacing spreads your arrivals out, so the kitchen isn't hit all at once. Here's how to set it up. Go to Settings, then Tables, and scroll down to Pacing. Under Pace by, choose bookings or covers, per fifteen minutes. Covers counts the people, which is best if the kitchen is your limit. Now set the maximum. Say twenty four covers. Once seven o'clock has twenty four people booked, that time shows as full, and guests are offered seven fifteen instead. Press Save changes, and it works straight away. Your busy nights now come in as a steady trickle, not a rush. That's pacing. It's in your Tables settings, so give it a go. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Plans change, and a booking sometimes needs a different table, or two tables pushed together. Here is how to do both. Open the booking and scroll to the Table box. This shows where they are sitting now. To move them, pick a free table from the list, and press Move. Tables that are already taken at that time are greyed out, so you cannot double book by accident. For a bigger party, open their booking, pick a second table under Join with a second table, and press Join tables. Both tables are now held for them. If the party shrinks, press Split tables, and the second table is free again. You can also do all of this on the Floor plan. Tap the booked table, then choose Move to, or Join with. That is moving and joining tables in Tablez. Every change is noted in the booking history.

Dark mode is not only for the dashboard. The staff app and the Live panel have it too. Open the staff app on your phone or tablet. At the top there is the same small switch with Light, Auto and Dark. The switch sits next to the language flag. Tap Dark and the whole staff app turns dark. Accept and Decline buttons stay easy to see. Tap Live to open the Live panel. It remembers your choice, so it is dark here as well. That is dark mode on the staff app. Easy on the eyes in a dim dining room.

Want to see the whole day on one grid? Meet the Timeline. Open Timeline from the menu, under Day to day. Every table is a row, and time runs across the page. Each coloured bar is a booking, with the party size and the guest name. Its length is how long they have the table. The numbers along the top are the seats taken each hour. Purple is confirmed, green is seated, and orange is waiting for your answer. Red marks a no show. The blue line is the time right now. Each area has its own heading, with its tables, bookings and covers. Tap any bar to open that booking, and change it or add a note. Use the arrows to look at tomorrow or any other day. Gaps in a row are free tables, perfect for walk ins. That is the Timeline in Tablez. The whole day, one glance.

Running the door on a tablet? The Live panel is one big screen for the whole shift. Open Live panel from the menu, under Day to day. Prop your tablet up near the host stand and leave it on. At the top you see how many people are in the room, how many seats are free, and who is due in the next two hours. The bars show how busy the next three hours will be. Arriving soon lists the next bookings. When a guest walks in, tap Arrived. They move straight over to Seated. Tablez are shown on every card. Seated now shows who is eating and about how long they have left. When they leave, tap Finished. The table is flagged to be wiped. Online requests that need an answer appear in their own box, with the allergy in red. Tap Accept to confirm them. A no show needs two taps, so you cannot hit it by mistake. Switch sound on to hear a beep for new requests. Tap Full screen to hide the browser bar, and pick Light or Dark. The screen stays awake and refreshes itself every fifteen seconds. That is the Live panel in Tablez. Everything for the shift on one screen.

Never miss a booking again. Here is the new notifications bell in Tablez. The bell at the top of every dashboard page shows how many new things have happened since you last looked. Tap it and a panel slides out with the latest bookings, changes and cancellations, newest first. Tap any one to open that booking. Use the tabs to see just the new bookings, the updated ones, or the cancelled ones. Switch the sound on and you will hear a short beep when something new arrives, handy if the dashboard is open behind the bar. When you have seen everything, tap Mark all as read and the count clears. That is notifications in Tablez. Keep one eye on the bell.

How busy are you tonight? The day view now shows it at a glance. Open the day view from Today or the calendar. At the top is a new busy times strip. Each bar is fifteen minutes. The taller the bar, the more seats are taken. Green is quiet, amber is busy, and red means nearly full. The number under a bar is the seats taken, and the arrow shows how many parties are arriving in that slot. The current time is outlined. Under the strip are filter tabs with counts. Tap Pending to see just the ones waiting for you, then All to go back. A new From column shows where each booking came from, online, phone, walk in or Google. That is the busy times strip in Tablez. Plan your shift before it starts.

Working a late shift? Here is how to switch the Tablez dashboard to dark mode. At the bottom of the left hand menu there is a small switch with three choices, Light, Auto and Dark. Tap Dark and the whole dashboard goes easy on your eyes. Bookings, the floor plan and the calendar all follow. Choose Auto and Tablez follows your phone or computer, dark in the evening and light in the day if that is how yours is set. Tap Light any time to go back. Each person picks their own, so it will not change anyone else's screen. That is dark mode in Tablez. Pick the look you like.

Got a garden, a bar and a dining room? Give each its own area, so your floor plan matches your venue. Go to Settings, then Floor plan, and find This area, under the plan. Press Add area, and type a name, like Garden. Then add a table to it. You can also move tables across with the Area box. Then press Save layout. On the live Floor plan, you get a tab for each area, so staff can switch between the dining room and the garden. That is areas in Tablez. Draw your venue the way it really is.

A QR code on the door, the bar and Tablez turns walk past customers into bookings. Tablez makes the poster for you. Open the poster page. It has your venue name, your address, and a code that goes straight to your booking page. Press Print this poster, and print it on any printer. A4 on the door, or smaller on tables, works well. Under the code is your booking address, for people who prefer to type it in. Use the same address on Facebook, Instagram and Google. That is your QR poster in Tablez. Put one up today.

Stuck? You can get help without leaving your dashboard. Here is how. Open Help from the menu. It has a video for every part of Tablez, and each one has a written guide. Not there? Press New ticket, and pick whether it is a question, a problem, or an idea. Add a short subject and your message, then send it. We reply on the ticket and by email. For a quick answer, use Ask Tablez, the chat helper in the corner of every page. It searches the guides, and passes you to a person if it cannot help. That is getting help in Tablez. Ask us anything.

How often do you offer times, and how far ahead can guests book? These timing rules control it. Go to Settings, then Booking rules, and scroll to Timing rules. Time slots every sets the gap between times. Fifteen minutes gives guests lots of choice. Thirty minutes keeps things simple, and spreads arrivals out. How far ahead sets the furthest date they can book, and Minimum notice stops last minute bookings you cannot cope with. Customers can cancel online up to this long before the booking. After that, they have to ring you. That is your timing rules in Tablez. Change them any time.

Some guests care where they sit. You can let them choose their own table when they book. Go to Settings, then Floor plan, and scroll to the tick boxes under the plan. Tick Let customers pick their own table on the booking page. They only see tables that fit their party, and that are free. Press Save layout. Guests can also skip it, and let you choose. That is letting guests pick a table in Tablez. Good for window seats, booths, and the garden.

No shows cost you money. A Still coming text, sent on the day, gets you an answer while you can still fill the table. Go to Texts, and find the Still coming check on the day. Tick it, and choose how many hours before the booking the text goes out. Three hours gives you time to react. Press Save. Guests who reply yes are marked as confirmed. On the floor plan, bookings that have not replied are marked, so you know which tables might come free. That is Still coming texts in Tablez. Texts are on the Standard plan and above.

A guest rings and says what name it was under. Here is how to find any booking in seconds. Open Bookings and type in the search box. A name, a phone number, an email, or the booking reference all work. Press Enter. Use the filters to pick a date, a status like pending or cancelled, or upcoming and past bookings. Need it in a spreadsheet? Use the Export links under the search box, for this list, all bookings, or your customers. For a printed list for the shift, open the Table list. It shows every booking for the day, in time order, ready to print. That is finding bookings in Tablez. Start typing, and it will find them.

Allergies, birthdays and VIPs are the things staff must never miss. Here is how to flag them in Tablez. Open any booking from the Bookings list. Allergies show in a red box at the top, so the team sees them first. Press change next to Tags, or Edit booking. Tick the ones that fit, like birthday, anniversary, VIP, high chair, or wheelchair. Regular and new customer are added for you. The allergies box is just below. Anything typed here shows in the red box on the booking, and on the floor plan when you tap the table. Tags show as coloured badges when you tap a booked table on the floor plan, so the team can see them on shift. That is flagging guests in Tablez. Add the notes when you take the booking.

Do you serve lunch and dinner, or run two sittings in an evening? Tablez handles it with service periods. Go to Settings, then Opening hours. Each day can have more than one period, like Lunch from twelve to three, and Dinner from six to nine thirty. Change any time, or press Add period to add a third, like Sunday afternoon tea. Tick Closed for a day you do not open. Press Save changes. Guests now see the right times for each part of the day. Then check your turn times, so a table booked at twelve is free again for the second sitting. A two seater might need an hour. A big party might need two. That is lunch and dinner in Tablez. Each period can be changed any time.

Want to keep a few tables back for walk ins, so online bookings can never take them? Here is how. Go to Settings, then Floor plan. This is where you build your tables. Click the table you want to keep back. Its details open below the plan. Find the Group box. Choose None, staff only. Online bookings will never be put on this table, but you can still use it on the floor plan for walk ins and phone bookings. Press Save layout, and repeat for any other tables. Your garden, your bar stools, or your best window table can all be kept for people who walk in. That is keeping tables for walk ins in Tablez.

A guest says your booking page is full, but you can see empty tables. Here are the four places to look. First, Settings, then Booking rules. Check Minimum notice, and How far ahead people can book. If someone tries to book for tonight and you ask for two hours notice, it will look full. Next, Settings, then Tablez. Look at the Largest party online, the Max covers per service, and Pacing. A busy slot can be full because of a cap, even when tables are free. Then Settings, then Opening hours. Check the last booking time, and the special closures. A closure shuts the whole day. Last, open the Day view. If every table that fits that party is already booked at that time, then the page is right. It really is full. Guests can join the waitlist instead. That is why a time shows as full in Tablez. Check these four, and you will find it.

A cancellation policy isn't there to catch people out. It's so everyone knows the rules before the night. Here's how to set a fair one in Tablez. First, decide your cut-off. Say twenty four hours for dinner. Open Booking rules, choose Customers can cancel online up to, and press Save. After that, the cancel link stops working and guests are asked to ring. Next, go to Booking page look and write your policy in Booking terms. Keep it short and plain, and only say what you'll really do. Guests tick to agree when they book. This isn't legal advice, so check any charges with your own adviser. On Pro, open Deposits and set release if they cancel at least hours before, to match your policy. When someone doesn't turn up, open the booking and press No show. You can always release a card hold yourself, when someone has a good reason. Finally, make a test booking and read the confirmation email. The cut-off and terms are on every plan. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Most happy guests never leave a review, because nobody asks. Here's how to ask automatically, without nagging. A short thank you email, with one link, is polite, and it works. First, get your review link. For Google, you'll find a link to share in your Google Business Profile. Tripadvisor, or any web page, works too. Then open Notifications, under Booking page. Find After visit email, and tick Send a thank you email after the visit. Paste your link into Review link, and press Save changes. The email goes out three hours after the booking ends, once per booking, on every plan. On each booking, press Mark arrived when guests sit down, so only people who came get the email. If you never mark arrivals, tick Send even if staff did not mark the booking as arrived. Make a booking for yourself to check the email arrives. Ask for honest reviews, and reply to the ones you get. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

A good mailing list brings people back. A bad one, copied from your booking diary, can get you into trouble. Here's the safe way. Open Mailing list in the left menu. You'll see who's on your list, who joined lately, who's waiting to confirm, and who's left. Under How people join, you can see what guests see. The offers box isn't ticked in advance, so it's their choice, and they confirm by email. Only confirmed guests are on your list. Sending emails is switched on by request, with email credits bought as you go. Open a ticket under Help and ask. Then press New email, write a subject and your message, and add a button if you like. Press Save and preview to see how it looks. Press Send me a test, and check it in a real inbox. When you're happy, press Send to people. It can't be unsent, and every email has an unsubscribe link. This is general information, not legal advice. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Still running on a paper diary and the phone? You can switch to Tablez in a weekend, and you do not have to bin the diary on day one. First, set your opening hours, then your tables. Group identical tables together, like two seaters, times five. Name special ones, like The Snug, on their own. Open Bookings and press Add booking. Copy in the bookings from your diary. You only need a name, date, time, party size and a phone number. Set Taken by to Phone. These bookings take up tables, so nobody can book the same table online. On the Free plan they count towards your monthly limit, so just copy in the next few weeks. Coming from another booking system? Use Import bookings and upload the file it exports. Nobody gets an email or a text from an import, and imports do not count towards your limit. Then share your booking link on your website, Facebook, Instagram and Google. Print the QR poster too. Keep the paper diary for a week or two as a backup. When the day view is the one you trust, retire the diary. The Free plan covers up to 60 bookings a month. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Welcome to the team. You only need five things to get going: log in, see today, answer a request, seat a guest and mark a no show. Here they are. Log in with your own email and the temporary password you were given. You will be asked to change it. Then open Today to see the day's bookings. Next, open the staff app. Live check shows on or off, and Waiting for a reply lists new requests. Add it to your phone's home screen, so alerts can reach you. To answer a request, press Accept. If you cannot take it, press Decline and pick a reason. When guests turn up, open the booking and press Mark arrived. If they never come, press No show. Taking a call? Press Add booking and set Taken by to Phone. For a guest at the door, choose Walk in. Not sure whether to say yes? Ask your manager for the house rules. Tablez is at tablez.co.uk.

A quiz or a band fills the room, and the people who book ahead are the ones who turn up. So set each night up as an event. On the Pro plan, open Events and menus and press Add an event. Name it, like Thursday Quiz, then add the date, times and capacity. If you charge entry, put it in Price a head. Use Description to say how it works: team size, prizes, and when food is served until. If the quiz runs alongside normal diners, leave Close normal table bookings unticked. For a ticketed gig where the band has the whole room, tick it. For paid gigs, add a Deposit a head. You need Deposits set up with your own Stripe account first. Tick Show on the booking page and press Save event. An event is for one date, so add one for each week. Then share your booking link. Events are on the Pro plan. On other plans, use your welcome text and normal table bookings. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

On a busy Saturday, the queue at the bar is the bottleneck. Let guests scan a code at the table, then order and pay on their phone. Open Menu and add sections like Starters, Mains or Drinks, and choose whether the kitchen or the bar makes them. Add items with a price and the allergens. Under Order and Pay, connect Stripe, PayPal, SumUp or Square. The money goes straight to your own account. Choose how people order: eat in, collection or delivery. Pick one QR code per table, or one for the whole venue. Tick Switch ordering on and press Save. Then print your table QR codes and put them on the tables. Orders appear on the Orders screen. On Pro, the Kitchen screen shows the kitchen and the bar what each needs to make. Order and Pay is £10 a month on top of Pro, and the first fourteen days are free. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Tablez is free for up to 60 bookings a month, with no card needed. Here is what the plans cost. Standard is £9.99 a month, or ninety nine pounds a year. Pro is £24.99 a month, or two hundred and forty nine pounds a year. Groups are priced by arrangement. On the Free plan, every booking counts towards the limit, online, phone and walk in. On Standard and Pro, only bookings made online count, and phone and walk in bookings you add yourself are free. Texts are pay as you go, with one credit per text. Deposits go through your own Stripe account. Order and Pay is separate, at £10 a month on top of Pro. There is no setup fee and no contract, and you can cancel from your dashboard. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Yes. The Free plan is not a trial. You get up to 60 bookings a month, for as long as you like. There is no card and no end date. You get your own booking page, link and QR poster, email confirmations and reminders, and the owner plus one staff login. The floor plan, waitlist, texts and reports start on Standard. Deposits, events and vouchers start on Pro. A small Powered by Tablez line shows on every booking page, on every plan. On the Free plan, every booking counts towards the sixty, online, phone and walk in. On Standard and Pro, only bookings made online count. Go over, and nothing is cut off straight away. Upgrade any time from Plan and billing. No card, no trial clock, no catch. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

No. Guests book from your link in their normal browser. There is no app to download, and no account or password. They open your link, or scan your QR code. They choose how many people, the day, and a time. Then they type a name, email and UK phone number. Add a request or allergy note if you have those on, and tick to agree to your booking terms. They get a confirmation email straight away, with a link to look at the booking or cancel it. If they lose it, there is a find your booking option on the page. Want to see it from the guest side? Open your booking link and make a test booking. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Yes. Every confirmation and reminder email has a link, and guests can cancel with one tap, up to a cut off time that you choose. Open Booking rules, and find Customers can cancel online up to. Choose anything from thirty minutes to seven days, then press Save changes. The default is two hours. Before the cut off, the guest sees a cancel button. You both get an email, and the table is freed straight away. After the cut off, the page asks them to ring you. If you take card holds on Pro, you choose how many hours before the booking a cancellation releases the hold. And if your waitlist is on, people waiting are told. Reminders and easy cancelling work on the Free plan. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

A guest has not turned up. Here is what happens in Tablez. Open the booking from Bookings or Today, and press No show. Pressed it by mistake? Use Back to confirmed. If you took a card hold, it is charged when you mark the no show, and the message at the top tells you. With a deposit, you simply keep it. Both are on the Pro plan. The no show goes on the guest's profile, so you can spot repeat offenders, and your Reports page shows your no show rate. Tablez sends the guest nothing. Reminder emails go out the day before on every plan, which helps. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Worried about double bookings? Tablez checks every booking against your tables, so one table is never given out twice. Under Your venue, open Tablez. Group identical tables together, like ten four seaters, and say how many you have. Tablez always picks the smallest one that fits the party. Then open Turn times, and say how long each party size keeps a table. A slot is only offered when a table is free for that long. You can also cap covers per service. Phone bookings use the same tables, so if nothing is free, Tablez tells you. Booking anyway is your choice, and the only way to overbook. Set your tables once and Tablez does the checking. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Closing for Christmas Day, or got a private party? Here is how to block out a day in Tablez. Under Your venue, open Opening hours. For a day you never open, tick Closed. For a one off date, press Add a closure under Special closures, pick the date, and add a note. Bank holidays are not automatic, so add each one. Then press Save changes. Closing stops new online bookings. It does not cancel bookings already made, so check Bookings for that date and contact the guests. You can still add a booking by hand. Closed days never take bookings. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Do you take bookings by phone as well as online? Tablez keeps them all in one diary. On Today or Bookings, press Add booking. Enter the date, time, party size, name and phone number. Under Taken by, choose Phone, Walk in or Other. Add an email and tick Email the customer if you want them to get a confirmation. Phone and online bookings use the same tables, so an online guest will not be offered a table you just promised on the phone. On the Free plan, phone and walk in bookings count towards your booking limit. On Standard and Pro, they are free and do not count. Phone, walk in and online, all in one place. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Does Tablez work on your phone? Yes, and there is nothing to find in an app store. Guests book in their phone browser. They need no app, and the form is short. For you and your team, open Staff app from the menu, then add it to your home screen. On an iPhone, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen. On Android, Chrome offers to install it. Open it from your home screen, log in, and tap Enable notifications. New requests show with big Accept and Decline buttons, and play a sound. Push alerts with the app closed are on Standard and above. Use your phone for running the day, and a computer for the first setup. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Your bookings and guests are yours. Here is how to download them from Tablez. In the left menu, click Bookings. Under the filters you will see Export, with three links. Pick this list for the bookings you have filtered, all bookings, or customers. The customers file shows each guest's visits, no shows and cancellations. It downloads to your computer, ready for Excel or Google Sheets. The Reports page has a Download CSV link too, and the Guests page has its own download on Standard and above. Export first if you ever close your account, because everything is removed for good after ninety days. Exporting never deletes anything. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Is your guests' data safe with Tablez? Here is the plain answer. It is general information, not legal advice. Tablez keeps booking details on UK servers. It does not sell them, and it uses no advertising trackers. You are responsible for how you use your guests' details, and Tablez looks after them for you. The Information Commissioner's Office website has free guidance for small businesses. Give each person their own login, and tick only the access they need. Switch on two step login under Account. And only email offers to guests who ticked to hear from you. If a guest asks you to delete their details, tell them you will sort it, then email support at tablez.uk. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Run more than one pub or restaurant? Good news. Tablez can handle several venues from one login. Sign up each venue with the same email address and the same password. Every venue your password fits is added to your login. This works on Standard and above. Then open the Switch venue box at the bottom of the left menu, and pick the one you want. Each venue keeps its own booking page, bookings, tables, staff and plan. For one invoice across all of them, ask about the Group plan. So one login, as many venues as you run. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Do you need a website to take bookings with Tablez? No, you don't. Every venue gets its own booking page with its own link. Open Share and embed, press Copy, and put it on Google, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp or your menu. There's a QR code too. Download it, or print the A5 poster for the window, the bar and the tables. Free venues get a short address, and Standard lets you pick your own name. If you do have a website, the same page has the code to put the form on it. Paste it in whenever you're ready. So you can take bookings today, with no website at all. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Not sure where to start? We'll help you set up Tablez, for free. We can go through it together by phone or video call, on any plan, even Free. Your opening hours, your tables, your link on Google and Instagram. Just ask on the contact page and we'll find a time. Coming from another booking system? Upload its export under Import bookings, and check the preview. Can't find it? Email support at tablez.uk, and we'll do the import for you, free. Every setting has a small question mark that explains it in plain English. The Ask button in the corner knows every page. And Help in the left menu sends a ticket that a real person answers. So you're never on your own. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

How long does Tablez take to set up? About 10 minutes for the basics. When you first log in, the welcome page takes you through it, one page at a time. Your plan, opening hours, tables, turn times, booking rules, notifications, emails, your page look, and your link. Have your opening hours and number of tables to hand, and use a computer for the tables. Every setting has a question mark that explains it, and you can change anything later. Allow around half an hour to share your link on Google, social media and your website. Guests can book as soon as you have opening hours and one table. So 10 minutes, and you can take your first booking today. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Can you change your booking page colours? Yes, you can. Here's how. Under Booking page in the left menu, open Booking page look. Choose your logo. A PNG, JPG or WebP under two megabytes works well. Then pick an accent colour. It's used for the buttons and headings, on your booking page and in your emails, so choose one your text reads well on. Press Save changes, then open your booking link to check it. It's one accent colour, not a full colour scheme, and a small Powered by Tablez line stays at the bottom. Logo and colour are free on every plan. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Need a second manager? Give them their own login, so you never share your password. Here's how. You need to be the owner. Click Staff logins under Account. Only the owner can add logins, and there's only one owner. Under Add a staff login, type their name, their email, and a temporary password of at least eight characters. Under Extra access, tick what they need. Events and menus. Venue settings. Reports and exports. Plan and billing, Stripe, API keys, text credits and your mailing list always stay with you. Press Add staff member. They show as Manager. Then give them the password and the staff app address. They choose a new password the first time they log in. You can untick a box and press Save access any time, or press Remove login to stop them signing in. The Free plan includes you plus one staff login. Standard and Pro have unlimited logins. That's your second manager sorted. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Not getting your booking emails? It's usually one of a few things. Let's check. Open Notifications under Booking page. Check Notification emails for typos, and add more addresses with commas. Make sure Email us for every booking is ticked, then press Save changes. Then look in your junk folder, and mark Tablez emails as not spam. Now open Email sending. If you chose your own address, check the SMTP details and press the test button, because wrong details mean emails fail. Or switch back to sending through Tablez, which needs no set up. Requests that need your approval always email you. Bookings you add by hand don't, because you already know about them. Open Bookings to check the booking arrived. Still stuck? Open Help in the left menu and send us a ticket with the booking reference. We can see whether an email went out. On Standard and above, the staff app can also send push alerts to every phone. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Guest says they never got a text? Don't panic. Emails always go out as normal, so it's usually one of a few simple things. Let's check them in order. First, your plan. Texts come with Standard and above. If you're on Free, the Texts link in your menu shows a little lock. Next, open Texts and look at Your text balance. If it says zero, buy a bundle, and the texts start again. Then look under Which texts to send. Make sure the type you expected is ticked, and press Save. Now scroll down to Recent texts. The status column shows whether each one was sent, and if it wasn't, why not. Last, open the booking. The phone number has to be a valid UK number, because texts only go to UK numbers for now. If your balance runs out, texts stop but emails carry on, and Tablez emails you when you're down to ten texts. Texts are on the Standard plan and above. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

What happens when your paid plan ends? Nothing gets deleted, and you can come back any time. About fourteen days before the end date, Tablez emails you. Your plan stays on until the date shown on your Plan and billing page. If there's no renewal, you move to the Free plan, up to 60 bookings a month. Things that need a paid plan switch off, like texts, deposits and the floor plan. Nothing is deleted. To keep or restart your plan, open Plan and billing under Account. Pick monthly or yearly and press the PayPal button on your plan. You can pay with a card. Order and Pay has a fourteen day free trial, and if you do nothing, ordering just switches off. Your menu and settings are kept. Start free at tablez.co.uk.

Gone over your monthly booking limit? Don't worry, nothing gets cut off straight away. On the Free plan, every booking counts towards the limit, online, phone and walk in. On Standard and Pro, only bookings made online count, and phone and walk in bookings you add yourself are free. Your Plan and billing page shows how many you've used. The first month over, every booking goes through and we email you. The second month in a row, same again, with a firmer email. After two months over, online booking stops once you reach the limit. Guests are told your online booking is full for this month, and asked to phone you. Your diary, staff logins and existing bookings carry on, and staff can still add bookings by hand. Move up a plan and online booking switches back on straight away. There's no charge for going over, and no fee per diner. Start free at tablez.co.uk.