How do I change a booking — time, table, party or length?

Edit a booking's details, drag it on the timeline, hold a table for late arrivals, or extend a seated party.

Open the booking (click it in any view) and click Edit to change any detail — name, table, customers, date, time, notes — then save. For quick time and table moves, drag the booking on the timeline instead. Changing an unassigned booking's time, party size or notes keeps it in the Unassigned tab — it's only given a table when you pick one.

Edit the details

• Click the booking to open its detail panel.
• Click Edit.
• Change what you need, then save. Click Discard to abandon your changes. While the change saves, the form greys out with "Saving changes…" and nothing on it can be tapped or closed until it settles — so a second tap can never save twice. (On a phone the Guests box works as it does in New booking: a tap opens a row of number chips and keeps the keyboard away.)

If someone else changes the booking

Your draft stays in the form. A review shows the latest saved changes. If you both changed the same field, choose whether to keep the saved value or your draft. Fields you did not edit use the latest saved values, including the current booking status and payment facts. Continue with the reviewed changes, check the form, then save again. The server checks the booking again at that save; it never silently overwrites a newer competing edit.

Move it on the timeline

• Drag the bar to a different time or table. Table checks include your turnaround (cleaning) time — if the slot only clashes with a table's cleaning gap, a pop-up tells you (for example, "Table 4 needs its cleaning gap until 19:45 — move anyway?") and you can Confirm to go ahead when the table's genuinely ready, or Cancel to leave the booking where it was. A slot that overlaps another booking asks you first — see "Two bookings on one table" below.
• Drag the left edge to shift the start; drag the right edge to lengthen or shorten it.
• Moving a booking to a time that's already passed today asks you to confirm first.
• A move is checked against your booking rules exactly like the edit form: a time outside your opening hours is refused, a pacing rule set to Block staff too stops the move, and any other limit the move goes over is named on the confirm card — choose Save anyway to go ahead.
• On a touch screen, press and hold a bar for a moment to pick it up — a short tap just opens the details.

Moving a paid booking: its refund deadline then counts back from whichever is earlier — the booking time that was paid for or the new time — so moving a booking later never gives the customer longer to cancel for a refund, and moving it earlier brings the deadline forward. See When do customers get their deposit back?

Paid-in-full bookings: resizing a paid-in-full booking from the dashboard never moves money automatically — after the change a note tells you what to do: refund the difference from the booking's payment section, or send a payment link for the extra amount. (Customers changing their own booking online are settled automatically.)

Two bookings on one table

Staff can put two bookings on the same table at the same time on purpose — a shared long table, a party you know will have left, a regular who never minds. ResoFlow never does it silently: wherever you pick a table that already has a booking at that time (the table picker in New booking and Edit booking, Move table in the booking's details, a drag or tap-to-place on the timeline, the walk-in picker) a pop-up asks "This table already has a booking at that time. Book it anyway?" and names the other booking (name, time, party size). Its buttons are Book it anyway and Pick another table everywhere — the table pickers, Move table, the walk-in form, and the timeline (a drag, or tap-to-place), where the same question also names the table: "Table 4 already has a booking at that time (Ann Early · 19:00 · 2 guests). Book it anyway?". Anyone who can create bookings may confirm it; the Activity log records who did, as "Booked onto a table already in use".

Once both bookings are on the table, each wears an amber Shares table chip — in the bookings list, on its timeline bar and at the top of its details — and the floor plan's table shows 2 bookings; tap that table and a strip above the details lets you switch between them. The chip is worked out from the bookings themselves, so it disappears the moment one is moved, cancelled or cleared.

Customers booking online are never offered a table that already has a booking — a double-booked table counts as taken for them, exactly as a single booking does.

Joining tables. The floor-plan picker has a Join tables switch. Off, one tap picks a table and closes the picker. On, tap every table the party will sit across, then press Done — the button counts what you've picked ("Done (2 tables)"). It turns itself on when the party is bigger than any single table, or when the booking is already split; turning it off with several tables picked keeps the first one and tells you so. Typing a table number into the Table box on a split booking replaces the first table and keeps the others.

Hold and extend

For a late customer, the action bar offers Hold 5m and Hold 15m — this pushes the booking back so the table is held a little longer.

For a seated party, use Extend 5m, Extend 15m, or Extend… for a custom amount (the pop-up asks for Minutes (5 – 240), then confirm with Extend by X mins).

If an extend or hold would run past your closing time, a pop-up appears — Extend past closing? offers Continue (go past closing anyway), Extend until closing (capped at close), or Cancel; Hold past closing? offers Continue or Cancel.

Telling the customer

After a change that affects a booking the customer was told about, the Notify customer of changes? pop-up may appear (when your modification messages are set to ask each time). Choose Send email only, Send SMS only, Send both, or Skip — don't notify. Tick Save this choice for the next 1 hour to skip the pop-up on later edits.

Related: What do the booking statuses mean and how do I move customers through them? · How do I use the timeline? · What do customers get when bookings change?