Booking Details Panel
The booking panel is where you create a new booking or edit an existing one in your Diary. This guide walks through every field in the panel, so your team knows exactly what each one does.
The booking panel explained
The booking panel is where you create a new booking or edit an existing one in your Diary. This guide walks through every field in the panel, so your team knows exactly what each one does.
To open the booking panel
- To create a new booking — select an empty time slot on the Diary timeline, or select + New Booking.
- To edit an existing booking — select any booking already in the Diary.
Booking summary and status
At the top of the panel is a one-line summary that updates automatically as you make changes below, so you can see the shape of the booking at a glance. This is also where you select whether the booking was made by phone or email.
Date
Use the arrows either side of the date to move the booking a day forward or back, or select the calendar icon to jump straight to a specific date. The coloured badge on the right shows the booking's current status (for example, Unconfirmed) and updates automatically as the booking moves through its lifecycle.
Party size
Select a number from one to eight to set the covers, or use the + button for larger groups. This determines how many people the booking is held for, and which tables are suggested.
Duration
The duration defaults to your venue's standard sitting length (for example, 1 hour 30 minutes). Open the dropdown to adjust it for bookings that need more or less time at the table.
Service
Select Lunch or Dinner to set which service the booking belongs to. This filters the available time slots to that service's hours.
Area
Select which part of the venue the guest should be seated in — for example, Any, The Bar, The Terrace, The Dining Room, or The Verandah (your own venue's areas will appear here). Leaving this set to Any gives you the most flexibility when assigning a table.
Time
The time grid shows every available slot in 15-minute increments across the selected service. The small number under each time shows how many bookings are already on the books for that slot, so you can spot busy periods before confirming. Select a time to choose it — use the refresh icon to reset your selection if you change your mind.
Tables
Once a time is set, select Select tables to assign the booking to a specific table or combination of tables.
- Manual Join - tick this if you need to seat a group across tables that wouldn't normally be joined, to override the usual pairing rules.
- Add to Standby List - select this if nothing suitable is free, to hold the guest's details and follow up as soon as a table opens up, rather than turning them away.
Customer search
This is where you attach a guest to the booking.
- Search by phone, first name, surname, email, or company to find an existing customer record.
- Or use the fields provided, Phone (with country code), First Name, Email, Surname, and Company to add a new customer.
Use the two icons above the search field to switch between looking up an existing guest and creating a new customer profile from scratch. Attaching a customer here is what powers guest history, preferences, and future personalisation, so it's worth doing even for a quick phone booking.
Tags
Search for and apply tags to flag anything the team should know at a glance — for example, a dietary requirement, a VIP guest, a special occasion, or whatever labels your venue uses.
Notes
Add free-text Booking Notes for anything that doesn't fit neatly into a tag - a specific request from the guest, a note from the person who took the call, or context for the floor team on the day.
Links
Select Add a link to connect this booking to another one. Useful for linked tables, related bookings on the same night, or a group booking split across multiple entries.
Payment
Choose whether the booking requires No Payment, a Deposit, Full Payment, or a Pre Authorisation. This determines whether the guest is prompted to pay (or have a card verified) as part of confirming the booking.
Booking history
A read-only summary of how the booking came to be, including its source (for example, Phone Booking), the date and time it was made, and a reference number.
- Lock booking turn this on to lock the booking against further changes, once details are finalised and you want to prevent accidental edits.
Saving
Once everything looks right, select Save in the top right to confirm the booking, or Cancel to discard it without saving.