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Table Studio

Choose how tables look and behave on the till's floor plan while you are trading, the rules that flag a table that has waited too long, and how the table pop-up opens.

Table Studio is where you set how your tables behave while you are trading: what each table shows on the till's floor plan, the rules that flag a table that has waited too long, and how the pop-up opens when someone taps a table.

It sits beside the floor plan editor. The editor is about where your tables are. Table Studio is about what they tell you during service.

Note

Table Studio is a separate module, and it needs a kitchen screen. A kitchen that only prints has nothing to tell the floor plan that food has gone out. If you don't see it, ask your account manager for Table Studio.

Where to find it

From the sidebar, click Table Management, then Floor plans. Where Table Studio is part of your account, two choices sit above the list: Floor plan editor and Table Studio. Click Table Studio.

If you only see your list of floor plans with nothing above it, Table Studio is not part of your account yet.

Turn it on

  1. 1

    Switch on Table Studio

    At the top of the page, switch Table Studio on. The word beside it changes from Off to On.

  2. 2

    Save

    Click Save at the top right. Nothing changes until you save.

Once it is on, tables move through their stages by themselves, a tap on a busy table opens the new pop-up, and each table shows how long it has been waiting.

Note

Your tills pick up the change the next time they check in. They need the app update that includes Table Studio. A till on an older version carries on exactly as before.

Table look

Every table on the till shows its name, and its colour shows the stage. Under Table look you pick one more thing to show under the name, for the whole floor:

| Choice | What a busy table shows under its name | |---|---| | Nothing else | Nothing. The colour shows the stage; tap the table for the rest | | Time since they sat down | How long the guests have been at the table, like 42m | | Bill so far | What the table still owes, like £38.50 | | Stage | Where the table is up to, like Mains in kitchen |

If it does not fit, it is left off. On a small table, a round two-top on a busy floor plan for example, the extra line is hidden rather than made smaller, so everything on the floor plan stays readable. The table name always shows. You can see this in the preview.

A free table shows its seats, unless you picked Nothing else. A paid table, or one that needs resetting, shows just its name and colour.

If your venue set Table Studio up before this choice existed, your tables keep the look you chose then (number only, number and timer, stage colour, or colour and timer) until you pick one of the options above. The page tells you which one you have.

The preview

The preview is the big area on the left. It fills as much of the window as it can, with the settings in a panel on the right (on a small screen the settings move underneath). It draws your tables the way the till draws them, so you can see your choice, a rule's colour and its badge before you save. The times and bills on it are examples.

On a wide screen the preview stays still: only the settings panel on the right scrolls, so the whole floor stays in view while you work down a long list of rules.

  • Your own floor plan. If you have one, the preview shows it, with your tables where you put them. The stages on them are examples, not what is happening in your venue right now, so every stage shows somewhere.
  • More than one floor plan? Pick one from Floor plan above the preview. It starts on the first floor plan of your main location.
  • No tables yet? The preview shows example tables, one at each stage, and is marked Example.

A table a rule has flagged has a thick edge. When the rule is set to flash, that edge fades in and out, the way it does on the till. If your computer is set to reduce motion, the edge stays still.

The stages

A table moves through seven stages, and each one is set by something that already happens in service. Nobody has to tap the floor plan.

| Stage | What sets it | |---|---| | Sat down | Guests are seated and a tab is opened on the table | | Ordered | The first items go on the tab | | In kitchen | A course is sent to a kitchen screen | | Eating | The kitchen marks the course done on its screen | | Bill printed | Someone prints the bill | | Paid | The payment goes through. Shows for 5 minutes | | Needs reset | Follows Paid, until the table is cleared or new guests are seated |

A table that needs resetting frees itself after 15 minutes if nobody clears it. If you seat new guests on it first, that is fine: the table is treated as cleared.

Where you use courses, In kitchen and Eating name the course, for example "Mains in kitchen" and "On mains".

Rules

Click Rules to choose what a table does when it has sat at a stage too long. A rule only points your staff at a table. It never stops an order or a payment.

Each rule reads as a sentence: When a table is at a stage for over a number of minutes, show it like this.

  1. 1

    Add a rule

    Click Add a rule. You can have up to 12.

  2. 2

    Choose the stage and the minutes

    Pick the stage the rule watches, then use the minus and plus buttons to set how many minutes is too long.

  3. 3

    Choose what the table does

    Pick a badge from the grid (it sits in the top corner of the table), switch on Flash, pick a table colour, or any mix of the three. A rule needs at least one of them.

  4. 4

    Save

    Click Save at the top right.

Under each rule, a line tells you which tables in the preview it would flag right now, and the preview shows them with the badge and colour you picked. A table whose edge fades in and out in the preview flashes on the till.

Things worth knowing:

  • The order matters. Where two rules match the same table, the one higher in the list wins.
  • How a flag stops. It stops at the next stage, or when staff tap Seen on the table. For a table that needs resetting, it stops when the table is cleared.
  • Repeat after Seen. Off to begin with. Switch it on and the flag comes back that many minutes after someone taps Seen, if the table is still at the same stage.
  • Switch a rule off with the switch at its left to keep it without using it. Click the bin to delete it.
  • A rule cannot watch the Paid stage.

If Save tells you a rule has nothing to show, give that rule a badge, a flash or a table colour, or delete it.

The pop-up

Click Pop-up to choose how the table pop-up opens on the till:

  • Middle of the screen: as today.
  • From the side: it lies over the floor plan and never squeezes it. It opens on the side away from the table you tapped.
  • Up from the bottom: the tables stay in view above it.

Under Extra information you choose what the pop-up carries on top of its buttons:

  • Status: the stage and how long the table has been there.
  • Journey: each step of the visit with its time.
  • Kitchen: where each course is in the kitchen.

The buttons in the pop-up are the same as today. Each one is switched on or off in each mode, under Store settings, then Modes. See Modes.

What we save

While Table Studio is on, every step of a table's visit is saved with the time it happened and what set it: guests sat down, the first order, each course sent to the kitchen and marked done, the bill printed, payment, and the table needing a reset and being cleared.

Click What we save in the settings panel. The big area, where the floor plan usually is, then shows one table's night, and the panel lists what gets saved and what sets each step.

  1. 1

    Pick a table

    Choose the table from Table. If you have more than one floor plan, each table shows which one it is on.

  2. 2

    Pick a day

    It starts on today. Pick an earlier day to look back.

Each visit to the table is shown on its own, so a table that was used for lunch and again for dinner shows two visits. For each step you see the time, how long after the step before it came, what happened, and what set it:

  • Till: something done on a till, like opening a tab or taking payment.
  • Kitchen screen: the kitchen sending or finishing a course.
  • Till (button): staff tapping a button, like Table cleared or Seen.
  • Assumed: new guests were seated: nobody cleared the table, but new guests were sat down, so the table counts as cleared.

Above the steps, four numbers sum the visit up: from the booking time to sitting down, from sitting down to the first order, how long the kitchen took with the first course, and the whole visit. If a step was not saved, that number says Not recorded rather than guessing.

If nothing was saved for that table on that day, you see "Nothing saved for this table on this day." Steps are only saved while Table Studio is on, and what was saved stays when you turn it off.

Turn it off

Switch Table Studio off and click Save. Every till goes back to how it was the next time it checks in. Your look, rules and pop-up choices are kept, so turning it back on later picks up where you left off.

If Save says you do not have permission

Only the account owner can change Table Studio. If you are signed in as a team member, Save tells you that you do not have permission and nothing is changed. Ask the account owner to make the change.

What's next