Seat a booking and handle no-shows
Seat a party on the POS or in the back office, open their order on the table, complete the booking, and mark guests who don't come as no-shows.
On this page
When guests arrive, seating their booking does two things at once: it marks them as arrived and, if you use tables, opens the order on their table. When the bill is paid, the booking completes by itself. This keeps your timeline accurate and frees the table for the next booking.
Before you start
- Seating needs Manage reservations. On the POS, seating also opens an order, so you need permission to create orders as well.
- To link a booking to an order on a table, Tables must be on for the location. Without Tables, seating only marks the guests as arrived.
Seat a booking on the POS
- Open the Bookings tab. Upcoming shows the bookings still to come, with "Late · 5 min" for guests past their time.
- Tap the booking.
- Tap Seat now.
- Choose a table under "Free tables for 4 guests". The booked table is preselected when it is free. Tables that are taken show Booked; tables with too few seats show Too small under Smaller tables.
- Tap Seat at and the table name.
The order for that table opens, ready for the first round. If the table already has an open order, the booking is linked to it instead of opening a new one.
If no table is free, the POS says "No table is free right now. Add the party to the waitlist or free a table first." See Manage the waitlist.
Seat a booking in the back office
- In Reservations, open the booking.
- Select Seat.
The party is seated at the first table on the booking. If it has no table, no order is opened. After seating, Open order takes you to the order.
How a seated booking completes
- A seated booking with an order completes by itself when that order is paid. It moves to Done on the POS.
- A seated booking without an order can be finished with Mark completed on the POS, or Complete in the back office.
If guests are linked as a customer with loyalty on, the customer is added to the order when you seat them, so the visit counts for their loyalty.
Mark a no-show
When a party does not come:
- POS: open the booking and tap No-show.
- Back office: open the booking, select No-show and confirm ("The table is freed. The visit stays in their history.").
You can only mark a no-show once the booked time has passed: "A guest can only be marked as a no-show after the booked time." Before that, cancel the booking if the guest called to say they won't come.
No-shows are recorded on the booking and in the guest's history. Verimly does not charge no-show fees or take deposits.
Statuses
| Status | Meaning | Next step |
|---|---|---|
| Booked | Booked, not yet confirmed | Confirm, seat, cancel, or no-show after the time |
| Confirmed | Confirmed | Seat, cancel, or no-show after the time |
| Waiting list | A walk-in waiting for a table | Seat or remove |
| Seated | Guests are at the table | Completes when the order is paid |
| Completed | Visit finished | None |
| Cancelled | Cancelled by staff | None |
| No-show | Guests did not come | None |
Common questions
Can I undo seating?
No. A seated booking can only be completed. If you seated the wrong booking, complete it and correct the order; then seat the right booking.
Can I seat a party at more than one table?
A booking can hold several Tables in the back office; the order is opened on the first one ("The first table gets the order."). On the POS you choose one table when seating.
What if the guests arrive early?
Seat them; there is no need to wait for the booked time.
If something goes wrong
- Seat now is missing: your role lacks Manage reservations or permission to create orders.
- No order opened: Tables is off, or the booking had no table when seated in the back office.
- No-show is missing: the booked time hasn't passed yet.
- The booking didn't complete after payment: it is only linked when seated through the booking. Complete it manually.