Running the front desk
For reception, managers and admins. Everything here is under Workspace in the dashboard sidebar.
You only ever see your own branch. A manager or receptionist assigned to a location sees that location’s bookings, spaces and takings — nobody else’s.
The three screens you’ll live in
Reception — today at a glance: who’s expected, who’s in, what each space has free, and the day’s takings by payment method. Search finds anyone by code, phone, name or email.
Check in — a deliberately narrow screen: find someone, let them in. That’s all it does, because that’s all you want on screen with a queue in front of you. A group booking expands per person, since they arrive separately.
New booking — booking someone at the desk. Its own page, always open, no button to hunt for.
Booking a walk-in
- New booking → pick the space and how long they need it.
- Pick the date. There are no times to set — the day is 9am to 6pm. For an hourly space, choose the start hour and how many hours.
- Enter their name and phone. Email is optional, but without it they get no confirmation and no reminder.
- Choose how they paid, then book.
The booking code appears on screen — read it back to them. If you took their email, it goes there too.
Taking payment
We record the payment; we don’t take it. Charge the POS terminal (or take the cash or transfer) first, then log which one it was.
For a card payment you must enter the terminal reference from the receipt. That reference is the only thing that ties a booking to a line on the provider’s settlement at the end of the day — without it, the takings won’t reconcile and there is no way to reconstruct it later.
Every payment records who took it. That isn’t about mistrust; an unattributed “mark as paid” is the classic way cash walks out of a front desk, and recording the name protects the person who took it.
Holding a seat for someone who’ll pay on arrival
Choose pay on arrival on New booking. The seat is held and counts against availability like any other booking — but no code is issued.
That’s the important part. A code is what gets someone through the door, so it’s only created when the money lands. Take the payment on Reception when they turn up, and the code is issued at that moment.
A phone reservation won’t lapse while they’re in traffic, unlike an abandoned online checkout, which releases after ten minutes.
Checking someone in
Most guests use the tablet. Use Check in when they’d rather you did it, when a code isn’t working, or when something looks wrong.
On a team booking, tick people off individually — they arrive at different times, and “3 of 5 in” is the number you actually want.
When a guest can’t get online
Checking someone in also creates their Wi-Fi login. It’s shown in a small line under their name on Check in: the name they sign in with, then its state, then the time they have left.
| It says | Meaning |
|---|---|
| waiting | The login is on its way to the router. Give it a minute |
| live | Ready. They sign in with that name and their booking code |
| ended | Their time is up, or it’s past closing |
| withdrawn | The booking was cancelled, refunded or the check-in undone |
| not created | The router didn’t take it. An admin can see why under Workspace → Wi-Fi |
Read them the name exactly as shown. It’s their booking name in lower case. When two people with the same name are in on the same day, the second one gets the last two characters of their booking code after the name, and the line says Someone of the same name is in today — read them the username above.
A guest who comes back later the same day keeps their name. When they book and check in again after their earlier login has ended, the new login takes back the plain name, and the earlier one shows under Workspace → Wi-Fi as name (earlier). The same phone number or email is what makes them the same guest. Two different people who share a name still get the extra characters, and so does a guest whose earlier login is still running.
Late for an hourly booking? The Wi-Fi counts their booked hours from when they check in, not from the booking’s start, and never runs past 6pm. Nothing to do at the desk.
When a code doesn’t work
Look at the booking’s status on Reception:
- Pending / no code yet — it hasn’t been paid for. Take payment; the code is issued immediately.
- Cancelled or refunded — the codes are dead by design. Book them again.
- Wrong day — codes only work on the day. Move the booking if they need today.
Cancelling
Cancel from Reception. The seats free up straight away.
You can’t cancel someone who is already checked in — they’re in the building, and the record should say so.
Refunds are admin-only. Money going back out is a separate, more senior act than freeing a seat, and desk roles run the door rather than the bank. A card payment refunds through Paystack to the original card; anything taken at the desk is handed back the same way it came in.
The check-in tablet
The tablet is provisioned once with a device key and then left alone. It has no staff login — that’s the point. It sits in a public room, and a logged-in tablet would let anyone swipe out into the reception console and read the day’s guest list.
It can look up one booking and check it in. Nothing else.
If it ever shows a staff notice instead of the orb, it has lost its key and needs provisioning again — an admin can do that from Branches.