Tap A Table is a cloud-based table reservation and restaurant management platform. It replaces the paper diary and the spreadsheet with one live system that your whole team can work from: taking bookings, seating guests, tracking tables in real time and reporting on how the restaurant is performing.

This guide covers the admin dashboard: the screens used day to day by your Restaurant Manager, Admins, Managers, Chefs and front-of-house staff. It is written for restaurant teams in the United Kingdom and follows the system screen by screen, in the order you will typically use them.

Tap A Table runs in a web browser, so there is nothing to install. It is designed to be kept open at the host stand throughout service, on a desktop, laptop or tablet.

1.1What is in the admin dashboard

1.2About the screenshots

The screens in this guide are illustrations. Every guest name, telephone number, email address, booking reference and figure shown is fictional sample data, and the restaurant is a placeholder called “Demo Restaurant”. Your own dashboard will show your restaurant’s name, floors, tables and bookings. Dates are written day/month/year and amounts are in pounds sterling (£).

Every team member signs in from the same screen. What you can sign in with depends on your role.

1. Open your sign-in pageGo to the web address your restaurant has been given for Tap A Table.
2. Enter your email address or usernameSuper Admins and Restaurant Managers sign in with their email address. Admins, Managers, Chefs and other Staff can use either their email address or their username.
3. Enter your passwordType your password into the password field.
4. Tick “Remember me” (optional)This keeps you signed in on this device. It is useful on a dedicated host-stand tablet, but should be left unticked on a personal or shared computer.
5. Select “Sign in”You will arrive on your Dashboard.

The Dashboard is the first screen you see after signing in. It is a daily control panel showing your calendar, live booking status and today’s bookings, together with shortcut buttons for the things you do most.

3.1Quick actions

A row of shortcut buttons runs across the top of the Dashboard.

3.2Calendar

A month view sits on the left, with a small dot under any date that already has bookings. Use the arrows either side of the month name to move between months. Select any date to load that day’s figures and bookings list into the rest of the Dashboard; the selected date is highlighted.

3.3Booking Status

The panel on the right totals every booking status for the selected day, the current week and the current month. Each figure shows the number of bookings and, in brackets, the number of covers (guests).

3.4Today’s bookings list

Below the calendar, every booking for the selected date is listed table by table. For each booking you can see:

• the table, time and party size (PAX);
• the guest’s name and contact number;
• a notes icon, showing that special requests or flags are attached to the booking;
• a status pill, which can be changed from a dropdown; and
• a source badge, plus quick actions to view or cancel the booking.

Use Search guest to jump to a name, tick Show Cancelled to bring cancelled bookings back into view, and use Excel or PDF to export the list. View all opens the full Bookings screen (Section 5).

Live Tables is the real-time seating grid, the screen you will keep open at the host stand during service. It shows every table down the left and the day’s service hours across the top, divided into slots.

4.1Reading the grid

Each confirmed reservation appears as a coloured block placed against its table and stretching across the time it occupies, labelled with the party size and the guest’s name. The header shows a Live indicator, the date, the service hours (for example 12:00–23:00) and the slot size the grid is divided into (for example 15-minute slots).

While the Dashboard shows a single day, Bookings is your full reservations database: every booking your restaurant holds, past and future, in one searchable list.

5.1Filtering and finding bookings

Quick filters along the top jump straight to Today, Tomorrow, This Week or This Month, or you can set your own custom From/To date range. Use Filters for more specific criteria, Show Cancelled to bring cancelled bookings back into the list, Search guest to find someone by name and Export to download the current view.

5.2Creating a booking

Use + Standard Booking for a normal table reservation, or + Private Dining for an event or private room booking.

5.3Summary cards

Across the top of the page, summary cards total Guests, Unallocated, Confirmed, Reconfirmed, Seated, Left, Cancelled and No Show for whichever date range is currently selected. Each card shows the number of bookings, with the number of covers in brackets.

5.4Reading the list

Before Live Tables and Bookings can be useful, Tap A Table needs to know the shape of your restaurant. This is set up across three linked screens under Tables in the sidebar: Floors, Tables and Table Groups.

6.1Floors

A floor is a physical area of your restaurant, for example a Main Dining Room and a PDR (Private Dining Room). Floors are what you switch between on Live Tables, and each one holds its own set of tables.

Select + Add Floor to create one. Each floor card shows its name, whether it is Public, Private or both (which controls whether guests can book into it online), its order, how many tables it holds and how many are currently occupied. Icons on each card open its floor plan, edit it or delete it. Use Cards or List view, and Toggle Filters to search by name, table count or occupancy.

6.2Tables

This is where you add and manage the individual tables on each floor. Complete the Add table form with the table number, the floor it belongs to and its minimum and maximum seating capacity, then select Add table.

Tick Inactive (out of service) to take a table temporarily out of the bookable pool, for a repair or a private hire for example, without deleting it. Every table already added appears as an editable card below, where you can adjust the minimum and maximum seats and select Save.

6.3Table Groups

Table Groups let you combine two or more free tables into one bookable combination for a large party; the classic host-stand move of pushing two four-tops together for a party of eight.

1. Name the groupEnter a clear name, such as “Tables 5 + 6”.
2. Select the tablesTap the tables you want to merge. The Min and Max Seats fields fill in automatically and can be adjusted afterwards if needed.
3. Select “Create Group”The combination appears under Active Groups, ready to be assigned to a party from Live Tables.

When you have finished with a combination, select Remove to break it back into individual tables.

Every guest who makes a booking is added automatically to your Customers database. No separate data entry is required.

A summary panel at the top tracks the number of guests over the past 30 days, split into New and Returning, each with a change indicator against the previous period. The All Customers table below lists every guest with:

• their name, telephone number and email address;
• their guest type (New or Returning) and how many bookings they have made;
• the date of their last booking; and
• whether they have opted in to promotions, with a quick-view action on each row.

Use Export to download the list and Toggle Filters to narrow it down.

Experiences are special dining events, seasonal menus and recurring offers that guests can book on top of a normal table booking: a festive set menu, a weekend brunch or a themed evening.

Select + Create Experience to add one. Each experience is shown as a card with a cover image, an Active or Inactive status, its name and description, the deposit required to book it (which can be £0.00 for no deposit) and the date range for which it is valid. Each card has Edit and Delete actions.

Switch a card to Inactive to take it off the guest-facing booking flow without deleting it, ready to switch back on next season.

Use Deposits & Prepayments to manage the deposits that apply across your experiences.

The Reports Dashboard turns your booking history into a performance overview: how busy you are, when you are busy and who your best guests are.

9.1Headline figures and trends

Summary cards across the top total Total Bookings, Today’s Bookings, Pending Approval, Confirmed, Completed, Cancelled, No Shows and Total Revenue. Below them, a Monthly Booking Trends bar chart and a Monthly Revenue Trend line chart show the shape of your year at a glance.

9.2Breakdowns

Scroll down for a deeper analysis of your bookings.

Manage who has a login to your admin dashboard, and exactly which sections of the sidebar each role can see.

10.1Current Staff

Every team member with access is listed here with their name, role and status. Select + Add Staff to invite someone new, and use the row actions to view, edit, suspend or remove a login.

10.2Sidebar Permissions

Two checklists, one for the Manager role and one for the Staff role, control which sidebar sections that role can see: Live Tables, Bookings, Tables, Customers, Experiences and Settings. Tick or untick a section, then select Save Manager Permissions or Save Staff Permissions. Admins always have full access, regardless of these settings.

10.3Your account

Under Account, you can change your own username (spaces are not allowed) and reset your own password by entering your current password followed by the new one, twice. Choose a strong password that you do not use for any other service, and never share a login between team members.

Settings is the configuration hub for the whole system, grouped into four areas: Booking Configuration, Restaurant Setup, System and Notifications.

11.1Booking Configuration

11.2Restaurant Setup

11.3System

11.4Notifications

Email Templates lets you choose which booking statuses trigger an automatic email, and customise the title and message for each, for example a confirmation or a cancellation notice. SMS Templates, for text-message notifications, lets you configure the messages sent to guests.