Pacing settings

Set a pacing grid

1. On a device in Office mode, open Settings › Pacing.
2. Pick the Service, and under Applies to choose The whole service or one area.
3. In Every fifteen minutes, type under Covers the most guests who may arrive in each quarter-hour. A blank cell is no limit, and 0 closes that quarter-hour. A number typed in the set all box under a heading fills the whole column.
4. If you need to, also cap Parties, and Of those, online: how many of those covers may come from your booking page.
5. Press Publish what is on screen, then Publish it. The grid limits the next booking made; bookings already taken are not affected.

When a quarter-hour is full

Online, a full or closed quarter-hour is not offered. A guest who picks a time just as it fills is told: “This time is full — try a few minutes either side.”

With Staff may seat past a limit on, as it is to start with, staff taking a booking by phone or at the door are warned and can book anyway: “Pacing is full at this time. Book again to seat them anyway — it is recorded as an override.” Each one is listed under Seated over the cap. Switch it off and a full quarter-hour is closed to everyone, the phone and the door included.

Limits by party size and by area

Limits by party size caps how many parties of a given size may arrive in any quarter-hour, on top of the covers — two parties of seven to ten, say. Press Add a band, then set the smallest and largest party and the number of parties.

Limits nest: a booking has to pass the whole-service grid, the grid of every area it is seated in, and every band its party size falls in.

Drafts and removing a grid

Save as a draft keeps the grid without changing anything for guests. Any office device can open the draft, which names who saved it; Publish the saved draft publishes it later and Discard the draft deletes it. Remove the published rule takes every limit off the service or area you are looking at; bookings already taken are untouched.

What is actually booked

What is actually booked shows, for the Day you pick, what each quarter-hour holds against the limits in force — covers and parties, Full or Closed — and how many parties were seated over a limit. Seated over the cap lists each one: the time, the party and who booked it.