How do I create a booking for a customer?

Create a staff booking from the dashboard — customer details, table, time, source tag and confirmation messages.

To create a booking yourself (for example, a customer phoning up), click New booking in the top bar — it's available on Home, Bookings, Timeline and Floor plan. While Enable staff bookings is switched off (Settings → Bookings → How people book), every add-booking button is hidden and the booking form says why. If a pop-up asks "Will this be a scheduled booking or a walk-in?", choose New booking.

You need the booking-create permission (Owners, Admins, Managers and Hosts have it by default), and Enable staff bookings must be on in Settings → Bookings → How people book (it's on by default — switched off, every "add a booking" button is hidden and the form says why; walk-ins and the waitlist still work).

Steps

• Click New booking.
• Enter the customer's name — First Name (required) and Last Name (optional). If your plan includes customer accounts (Pro and above — the standalone Loyalty product also brings them), matching customers appear as you type — pick one and their contact details and preferences fill in automatically, marked with a From profile badge. Without customer accounts the search is replaced by an upgrade hint reading "Upgrade to Pro for customer auto-fill".
• Choose the Table and number of Guests (required). The table picker has a Join tables switch for seating one party across several tables, and a table that already has a booking at that time asks "Book it anyway?" before it's picked — see How do I change a booking — time, table, party or length?. On a phone, tapping Guests opens a full-width row of number chips that fills the box with one tap and keeps the keyboard away — More shows larger parties, and Type a number brings the keyboard if you'd rather type. If you leave the table empty, the booking sits in the Unassigned tab on the Bookings page until you place it.
• Set the Date, Start Time and End Time. The end time follows your standard booking length (Settings → Bookings → How long a booking lasts), and lengths by party size apply if you've set them up. Table availability checks include your turnaround (cleaning) time, so a table that's just been cleared won't accept a new booking until the gap has passed.
• If you've switched on seating preferences, a Preference dropdown appears with your seating types.
• Add the customer's Email and Phone if you have them. When your staff-booking confirmation setting is set to ask each time, Send confirmation email and Send confirmation SMS tick boxes appear so you can choose per booking.
• Pick a Source — Phone, In person, Email, Walk-up or External platform by default. You can edit this list in Settings → Bookings → How people book, under Booking sources.
• Optionally record Occasion, Allergies, Dietary (vegan, halal and the like — kept separately from allergies), Notes (customer-facing) and Staff notes (internal only).
• If deposits or no-show protection are on, you'll see a reminder to tick Customer agreed to the cancellation policy and terms (verbal / in person) — it records their agreement but never blocks the booking. Staff bookings don't take card payments at the desk — money is collected by payment link instead.
• Click Confirm booking. If the same booking made online would have required a deposit or full payment (and the customer has an email address), a Send a payment link? step appears showing the exact amount — choose Send payment link to include a secure "Pay securely" button in the confirmation email, or Skip — no charge to take no payment. Either choice is recorded on the booking and in the Activity Log. When the booking qualifies for pre-ordering, the same step offers an invite the customer to pre-order tick box. If no online payment would have applied, the booking saves straight away with no extra step — and you can still send a payment link from the booking's details at any time. While the booking saves, the whole form greys out with "Adding booking…" — nothing can be tapped or closed until it's in, so a second tap can never create two bookings. If it's taking longer than usual, a message says so and asks you to check the bookings list before trying again.

When a rule gets in the way

Your team isn't held to most of the rules online customers are — each rule's Applies to: line on its settings page says who it covers. The form checks your rules as you book (and the server checks them again when you save, so an old tab or a regular booking can't slip past):

• Always stopped: a time outside your opening hours, a date or time that has already gone (beyond Allow staff to book slightly in the past), a new booking that starts after your team's last-booking cut-off (Last booking before you close — a start exactly at the cut-off is fine), a party bigger than your Maximum party size when Apply max party size to staff bookings too is on, and a pacing rule set to Block staff too.
• By default, a warning you can go past: a closed day (including a special date you've closed), a date blocked for online bookings, your break, short notice, a date further ahead than customers can book online, a party bigger than your online limit or smaller than your Smallest party online (or a day-and-time rule's smallest party), a table kept online for bigger parties, a full room (Most guests seated at once) and a pacing rule set to Warn staff, let them proceed. Each warning names the rule; choose Book anyway to go ahead.

Seven of those warnings can become a stop, one switch at a time — each is off until you turn it on, and nothing changes until you do:

• a closed day — Also stop your team on days you're closed (Settings → Venue → Hours);
• your break — Also stop your team during your break (Hours);
• a date blocked for online bookings — Also stop your team on blocked dates (Settings → Bookings → Special dates);
• short notice and a date further ahead than online — Also stop your team, beside Minimum advance booking and Maximum advance booking (When people can book);
• a party smaller than your smallest party online — Also stop your team, beside Smallest party online (How many at once);
• a full room — Also stop your team, beside Most guests seated at once (How many at once); walk-ins are held to it too.

A table kept online for bigger parties only ever warns — your team can seat anyone at any table.

A booking you add without an end time gets your standard booking length.

There's also an Internal-only booking (table block, training, etc.) tick box — internal bookings send no customer emails or SMS, are excluded from analytics, and show as a maintenance-style block on the timeline.

Related: How do I take my first booking? · How do I change a booking — time, table, party or length? · How long does a booking last? · What does the customer see when paying a deposit or saving a card?