Run your front of house from the same device you ring up bills on: see today’s bookings, seat guests, take walk-ins, and credit paid deposits straight onto the bill.
Picture a Friday dinner rush. A party arrives and the host taps Seat on their booking instead of hunting through a paper list. A couple walks in without a booking and gets seated in seconds, against the same capacity rules your online bookings follow. At settle-up, the deposit a guest paid online lands on their bill as a discount with one tap, and the sale is counted toward their history. Next time that guest walks in, the customer screen already says they’re a regular and shows what they usually spend.
In short, use it when the action is at the counter: checking guests in, seating walk-ins, settling bills. Creating and editing bookings, cancellations, and refunds stay in the Reservics admin.
In this guide
- Before you start
- Set up the tile
- Pin your location
- Today’s reservations
- Seat, complete, no-show
- Seat a walk-in
- Apply a deposit to the bill
- Link a sale to a booking
- Guest history
- Troubleshooting
Before you start #
You’ll need four things in place. Everything else is automatic.
- The Shopify POS app installed on the device at your counter (iOS or Android).
- Reservics on the Advance plan. On other plans the POS screen shows an upgrade prompt instead of your bookings. Upgrade from the Reservics admin under Plan & billing.
- At least one location created in the Reservics admin. The POS screen lists bookings for one location at a time.
- Staff signed in with app access. The staff member using POS needs permission to use apps. Without it, the screen says it couldn’t load reservations.
Set up the tile #
- Open the smart grid editor.On the POS home screen, tapAdd tile(or edit the grid from the ≡ menu).
- Add the Reservations tile.FindReservics reservationsin the list of apps and add it to the grid.
- Tap the tile to open it.The tile shows today’s booking count as a badge, so your host sees how busy the day is before even opening the list.
The count on the tile refreshes each time the POS home screen loads. If the device is offline or the staff member lacks app access, the tile still works; it just shows no number until you tap in.
Pin your location #
A POS device sits in one restaurant, but your account can have several. The first time you open the tile on a device with more than one location, you’ll be asked to pick the location this device is in. Only that location’s bookings will show on this device from then on.
- One location only? The picker is skipped. The device pins itself automatically.
- Moved the iPad to another branch? Scroll to the bottom of the list and tap Change location.
- Deleted a location in the admin? Any device pinned to it will simply ask again the next time it opens.
These are your Reservics locations, not your Shopify retail locations. They’re managed in the Reservics admin under Locations.
Today’s reservations #
The main screen lists every booking for today at the pinned location, with a one-line summary at the top: how many parties are still to arrive and how many are already seated.
7:30 PMAmelia Rahmanconfirmed
Party of 4 · Table 12 · Deposit $20.00 paid
SeatNo-show
Each booking shows the time and guest name, a status badge, and a quiet second line with the party size, the assigned table (when one is set), and the deposit state (when one was paid).
Seat, complete, no-show #
Each booking offers exactly the next step, so the host never has to think about which button is right:
| Status | Meaning | Next action shown |
|---|---|---|
| pending | Booked, not yet confirmed | Seat or No-show |
| confirmed | Confirmed, guest expected | Seat or No-show |
| seated | Party is at the table | Complete |
| completed | Visit finished | None |
| no-show | Guest never arrived | None |
| cancelled | Booking was cancelled | None |
Why there’s no Cancel button on POS
Cancelling can trigger a deposit refund, which moves money. To keep that decision deliberate, cancellations live in the Reservics admin only.
Seat a walk-in #
A guest turns up without a booking? Tap Seat a walk-in at the top of the list.
- Enter the guest’s name.This is the only required field.
- Set the party size.Defaults to 2; use the stepper to adjust.
- Add a phone number if you have one(optional).
- Tap Seat now.The walk-in appears in the list already marked as seated.
If the room is genuinely full or you’re outside opening hours, the form shows the exact reason instead of seating the party. Walk-ins respect the same capacity rules as online bookings, so the floor never gets oversold.
Apply a deposit to the bill #
When a booking has a paid deposit, its row shows an Apply deposit button with the amount. Use it while you’re ringing up that party’s bill:
- Start the party’s sale in the POS cartas you normally would.
- Open the Reservations tile and find the booking.
- Tap Apply deposit.The deposit amount is added to the cart as a discount, and the booking’s detail line changes to “Deposit applied”.
One deposit, one bill
A deposit can only be applied once, even if two registers try at the same moment. If applying fails partway, the deposit is released so you can simply retry; your guest’s money is never marked as spent without the discount landing on a bill.
Refunded deposits don’t show the button, and neither do already-redeemed ones. The sale is also automatically linked to the booking, so the spend counts toward the guest’s history.
Link a sale to a booking #
Bookings without a deposit show a Link to bill button instead. Tap it while the party’s sale is open in the cart and that order is attributed to the reservation.
This is what powers guest history: linked bills are how Reservics knows what a guest actually spends when they visit. It takes one tap and changes nothing about the sale itself; no discount is applied.
Tip
Make linking a habit at settle-up time. The more bills you link, the more useful the guest history screen becomes.
Guest history #
Open any customer in POS (Customers → tap a customer) and, if they’ve dined with you before or have a table booked, a Guest history section appears on their profile:
- Visits: how many completed reservations they’ve had.
- Lifetime spend and average check: totals from the bills you’ve linked or applied deposits to.
- Regular badge: marks your repeat guests, so the host knows at a glance who’s standing in front of them.
- Upcoming reservations: date, time, party size, and status of anything they’ve booked.
Guests with no history and nothing upcoming show nothing at all, so the customer screen stays clean for regular retail shoppers.
Troubleshooting #
| You see | What it means | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| “Upgrade to use POS” | Your shop isn’t on the Advance plan | Upgrade in the Reservics admin under Plan & billing, then reopen the tile |
| “Couldn’t load reservations” | Usually the signed-in staff member lacks app access, or the device is offline | Sign in as a staff user with app permissions; check the connection and pull to retry |
| “No locations set up yet” | Your Reservics account has no locations | Create one in the Reservics admin under Locations, then reopen the tile |
| Tile shows no number | The count couldn’t load; the tile itself still works | Tap through to the list; the real error (if any) shows there |
| “Couldn’t link. Open a sale in the cart first.” | Link to bill was tapped with an empty cart | Start the party’s sale in the cart, then tap Link to bill again |
| Wrong branch’s bookings showing | The device is pinned to another location | Scroll to the bottom of the list and tap Change location |
| Walk-in won’t save | The room is at capacity or you’re outside opening hours | The form shows the exact reason; adjust party size or seat them at another time |
Reservics · Restaurant reservations for Shopify · POS features require the Advance plan
