This page is for shift managers and front-of-house leads working daily service. Each action is short — the point is building the habit. The moves get done → reports stay accurate → no-shows stay down.

1. Before opening: review today's booking list

First thing every day, open the back-office home page's "Today's Bookings" section and scan at minimum:

Total parties / total guests (drives prep and staffing)
Large-party slots (6+) (prep table joining, place settings in advance)
Bookings with special notes (birthday, allergy, baby chair, pet)
First-time guests (a "Welcome on your first visit" goes a long way)
Customers with prior no-shows (system flags them red — proactively call to confirm)

Five minutes here avoids 80% of the chaos that day.

2. Guest arrives: mark as arrived (optional, but handy)

Marking as arrived is not a required action — the system won't break if you skip it. But making it a habit gives you two wins:

See at a glance which parties have arrived and which haven't (especially useful with multiple bookings in the same slot, or handing over to the next shift)
The customer's arrival rate ticks up, future bookings won't be misflagged as high-risk, and operational reports stay accurate

In short: marked = clearer floor view + cleaner data; unmarked is fine too, it doesn't affect the moment-to-moment service.

3. Guest didn't show: confirm, then mark no-show

Once past the booking time + tolerance (typically 15–20 minutes), if the guest isn't coming and you can't reach them, mark as no-show.

Two key points:

Don't mark too early (they might just be stuck in traffic) — 15 minutes past the slot is the floor
Don't push it to the next day (it breaks same-day seat-release logic) — handle within 30 minutes past the slot

After marking, the next time that customer tries to book:

The system shows "Past N visits, N no-shows" on your back office, helping you spot high-risk customers early
Your no-show report / loss calculator reflects reality

4. Last-minute changes from the guest

Change party size

In the booking card, tap "Edit" → adjust party size → save. The system checks whether the slot still has room and will block + alert if not.

Change time

Same: "Edit" → choose a new time slot. If the new slot has room, confirm; the guest will receive an update notification.

Change date

In the booking card, tap "Edit" → change the date → save. Changing the date is no big deal. After saving, confirm verbally or via SMS that the new date / time / party size are correct with the guest, and you're done. The guest will receive an update notification.

5. Walk-ins / waitlist

Eatsy emphasizes online booking, but walk-ins always exist. Handling:

Seats available: in the back office, "Add walk-in booking" (no SMS sent, just records seat occupancy)
No seats but someone is wrapping up: use the "Waitlist" feature — enter the guest's phone; the system texts them when a seat opens
Fully booked: politely share the next available slot, and send the "Online booking link" so they can book ahead next time

Recording walk-ins keeps month-end reports honest about actual seat utilization — otherwise online bookings will look like they have "low conversion."

Before closing: just two things

Two minutes before closing, run a final check:

Any no-shows not marked? — make sure every no-show is marked (so reports and segmentation stay correct)
Glance at tomorrow's bookings — spot large parties or special notes, get seating / prep / staffing ahead

Done with these two and you can clock out. Great work today.

Shift planning

If you run two shifts per day, make sure the lead on each shift can use the back office — not just the head manager. Common split:

Morning lead: mark all lunch arrivals, wrap up lunch slot cleanly
Evening lead: handle dinner slot, process no-shows, project next-day prep

The most common miss from staff who haven't been trained on the back office is "mark as arrived" — make it priority one in training.