Time slots

A time slot is a single bookable start time that guests can choose inside a service period. Service periods say when your restaurant is open for a service; time slots say exactly which start times you offer within that window. This page explains what slots are, how to add them one by one or generate a whole set at once, and how slots and Max covers work together to control what guests can actually book.

Before you begin

Time slots live inside the Schedule Setup panel on the Bookings page, under each service period. Available on plans that include Bookings. Managing them requires the Manage service periods permission — time slots are part of service periods, so the same permission covers both. As the restaurant owner you have every permission by default; an employee needs it granted to their role.

What a time slot is

Think of a service period as the door being open for a service — for example Lunch from 12:00 to 14:00. The time slots are the specific start times you let guests pick within that window: 12:00, 12:15, 12:30, and so on.

Guests never type a free-form time on your booking page. They choose one of the slots you have defined. That gives you control over how arrivals are spaced. Short, frequent slots stagger guests so the kitchen and the host stand are not all hit at once. A single slot per period funnels everyone into one fixed seating.

Every slot has a Start Time, an End Time, and an Active switch. A slot belongs to exactly one service period, so deleting a service period also deletes all of its slots.

Tip

Slots live under a service period, so create the period first. If you have not set one up yet, start with Service periods — the panel will prompt you to create a period before you can add slots.

Where to find time slots

1. Open Bookings from the main menu.
2. Click Schedule in the top-right corner. The Schedule Setup panel slides in from the right.
3. Under Service Periods, click the arrow next to a period to expand it. Its Time slots section appears underneath, with an Add slot button and a Generate button.

Expand a service period in the Schedule Setup panel to see and manage its time slots.

Adding a single slot

Use this when you only need a handful of specific start times, or to add one extra time to an existing set.

1. Expand the service period and click Add slot.
2. In the Create Time Slot dialog, set the Start Time and End Time.
3. Leave Active switched on so guests can book the slot. Turn it off to keep the slot defined but hidden from the booking page.
4. Click Create.

The new slot appears in the list under the period straight away. To change a slot later, click the pencil icon on its row to reopen the dialog as Edit Time Slot; to remove one, click the trash icon and confirm.

The single-slot form: a start time, an end time, and an Active switch.

Generating slots in bulk

Adding slots one at a time is fine for a couple of seatings, but for an evenly spaced set across a whole period the Generate button does the work for you.

1. Expand the service period and click Generate. The Generate Time Slots dialog opens.
2. Check the Start Time and End Time. They are pre-filled with the service period’s own opening and closing times; narrow them if you only want slots for part of the window.
3. Choose a Slot Duration: 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour, 1.5 hours, or 2 hours. The shortest slot length is 15 minutes.
4. Watch the Preview — it lists every slot that will be created and updates instantly as you change the times or duration.
5. Click the generate button. It shows the exact count, for example Generate 8 Slots.

How the generator fills the window: it lays slots back to back starting from the Start Time, and only adds a slot if it fits completely before the End Time. Any leftover gap shorter than one full slot at the end is left empty rather than turned into a stray short slot.

For late services that run past midnight, you can set an End Time that is earlier than the Start Time and it is treated as the next day — for example a dinner running from 19:00 to 01:00.

Caution

Generate adds new slots on top of whatever is already there — it does not replace the existing ones. Running it twice can create duplicate or overlapping slots. To rebuild a period cleanly, delete its current slots first, then generate.

Worked example: 15-minute lunch slots

Say Lunch runs from 12:00 to 14:00 and you want guests to be able to arrive every fifteen minutes.

1. Expand Lunch and click Generate.
2. Leave Start Time at 12:00 and End Time at 14:00.
3. Set Slot Duration to 15 minutes.
4. The Preview shows 8 slots: 12:00 - 12:15, 12:15 - 12:30, and so on through 13:45 - 14:00.
5. Click Generate 8 Slots.

The generator previews every slot before you commit — here, eight 15-minute lunch slots.

Change the duration and the count updates immediately in the preview. For the same 12:00-to-14:00 lunch window:

• 15 minutes produces 8 slots.
• 30 minutes produces 4 slots.
• 1 hour produces 2 slots.

The slot list

After you add or generate slots, they appear as a list under the expanded service period. Each row shows the slot’s start and end time, for example 12:00 – 12:15. Use the pencil icon on a row to edit its times or its Active state, and the trash icon to delete it. A period with none yet shows No time slots yet.

How slots and Max covers work together

This is the part that decides your real capacity. Two independent settings combine to control what a guest can book:

• Time slots decide when a booking can start. If there is no slot, there is no bookable time.
• Max covers, set on the service period itself, caps how many covers — total guests — you will take across the whole period. Its help text describes it as the kitchen capacity limit.

So slots spread demand across the service, and Max covers puts a ceiling on the total. A slot keeps offering availability on your booking page only while covers remain for the period and a suitable table is free. Once the period’s covers are used up, its slots stop showing as available even though the times still exist. Leaving Max covers empty means unlimited covers — availability is then limited only by your tables.

A few practical takeaways:

• More slots does not mean more capacity. Eight 15-minute slots and two 1-hour slots both sit under the same Max covers ceiling.
• To take more bookings, raise Max covers (and make sure you have the tables to seat them), rather than only adding slots.
• To spread arrivals more evenly, add more, shorter slots. To run fixed seatings, use fewer, longer ones.

Tip

Use the Active switch instead of deleting when you want a slot back later — for example a 14:00 lunch slot you only open at weekends. To close specific dates or times entirely (a private event, a holiday), use Blocked Slots in the same Schedule Setup panel.

Related

Service periodsDefine the named windows — Lunch, Dinner — that hold your time slots and their Max covers.

Tables & floor mapYour tables and their sizes decide which parties a slot can actually seat.

Your booking pageSee how the slots you define appear to guests when they book online.