The table board

Open Table Management → Table board. It's the whiteboard by the pass, without the pen: every table as a card, updating by itself every few seconds. Put it on a tablet on the wall and glance at it mid-service.

What a card tells you

Most cards show a stage from your table journey — the ordered set of steps you set up (Sat down, Ordered, In kitchen, Bill asked and so on), each with its own colour. Set your own stages and colours from the floor plans area; until you do, every card uses our default set below.

• Free — no one's on it. A table also shows Free the moment its bill is paid, and while it's waiting to be wiped down for the next party — paid, needing a reset, and genuinely free all look identical here. Bill asked is the last distinct stage; there's nothing to tap to move a table on from there.
• Out of service — the table is blocked (part of a larger booking, or marked out of service by you) and can't be seated.
• Sat down — a tab is open; you'll see the cover count and how long they've been sat.
• Ordered — items on the tab, nothing sent to the kitchen yet.
• In kitchen (dark card, in the default set) — food is with the kitchen. Each course shows its own chip: to send, held, in the kitchen (with plates done, like 2/3), served, or cleared. Give a course its own colour on the Courses page and its chip carries that colour here too.
• Bill asked (red edge, in the default set) — they've asked to pay.

The taps

Tap a table's name to open its panel:

• Mark cleared on a course — plates are off the table.
• Mark: <stage> — one button per journey stage your team ticks by hand (in our default set, that's Cleared, Dessert check and Coffee & bill). Tap the one that's happened.
• Back — undo the last stage you ticked, if you tapped the wrong one.

These ticks are for your team's coordination — they don't change the order or the kitchen screens.

When Table Studio is on

If you've turned on Table Studio (beside your floor plans), the board follows it instead of your table journey, so the board and your tills always say the same thing. Every table moves through the same stages by itself — nobody has to tap anything:

• Sat down (light blue), Ordered (purple)
• In kitchen (amber) — with the course when you've named your courses, like Mains in kitchen
• Eating (teal) — like On mains
• Bill printed (red)
• Paid (green) for 5 minutes after paying, then Needs reset (grey) until someone seats the table again — or for 15 minutes, after which it shows Free by itself

The time on each card is how long the table has been at this stage, not how long they've been sat. A table that was already open when you turned Table Studio on shows its stage with no time until its next step.

The Mark: and Back buttons aren't shown while Table Studio is on: the stages are automatic. Mark cleared on a course is still there. Turn Table Studio off and the board goes back to your table journey, buttons and all.

Where the kitchen part comes from

Some stages update on their own the moment something happens in the kitchen or on the tab — sitting down, sending the order, asking for the bill. When a course is sent or held, its chip updates on its own within a few seconds too.

Your kitchen needs a screen for "food away"

This is the one part that isn't automatic, and it's worth knowing before you rely on the board.

The board learns that food has left the kitchen when someone clears the ticket off a kitchen screen. That tap is the signal. If your kitchen only prints its tickets, there's no tap and nothing to send — so those tables stay on In kitchen until the tab is paid, however long ago the plates actually went out.

That's not a fault to report; it's simply what a printer can tell us. A printer confirms the kitchen was asked for the food. Only a person can confirm it went out.

So:

• Kitchen screens (including a pass screen): the board is live and accurate end to end.
• Printers only: everything up to "In kitchen" is right, and it stops there. If you want the full picture, one screen at the pass is all it takes — ask your account manager about the kitchen display.

Because of this, the board is switched on separately from table service. If you print and don't want a half-picture board, you can simply leave it off.

If you have more than one site

When you run more than one site, the board shows the tables at the site picked under the Tillable logo. On All sites it shows every site's tables. A table belongs to the site of its floor plan, or of its section if its floor plan has no site.

Related

• Set up courses — where a course gets its colour.