A short routine for the last minutes of service
A simple routine for the last minutes of the evening: how a restaurant can mark visits, note discrepancies, gather guest information and prepare for the next day in a fixed sequence that's easy to follow even when energy is low.
When the table is marked as free
When a guest gets up, the table is effectively free - but that isn't always reflected in the system straight away. Should the table be marked free the moment the guest leaves, or is it fine to wait until it's been cleared? Each restaurant should decide this for itself, but a clear rule makes the table map more reliable for the rest of the evening.
TableBooking's dashboard shows bookings, guests and the table map together, and tables can have a reference photo that helps staff find the right table during service. When the marking happens quickly, the table map becomes a picture of how things actually stand, rather than just an estimate from earlier in the evening.
A discrepancy noted while it's fresh
A discrepancy should be jotted down in a short, concrete sentence while the details are still clear, not written up as a longer explanation the next day. How short is short enough? That's for the restaurant to decide, but the goal is that the next person reading the note understands what happened without having to ask anyone.
A fixed format makes it easier to write and read: which table, what happened, and possibly why. When the format stays the same every time, it becomes easier to spot whether the same type of discrepancy keeps recurring, without having to comb through lengthy text to find the pattern.
Guest information worth carrying forward
Some of what comes up during service - an allergy, a request for a particular table, an occasion being marked - is worth carrying forward to the next visit. Should this be noted the moment the guest mentions it, or is it enough to do it at the end of the evening? The restaurant should choose whatever suits its operations.
What matters is that the information is actually used later, not just collected in a system nobody looks at again. A short note attached to the table or the booking is often enough for the next shift to benefit from it - what should be avoided is long lists that nobody reads until the guest is already standing in the doorway again.
The final minutes before closing up
Before locking up, someone can spend a couple of minutes looking at what awaits the next day: how many bookings have been entered, and whether anything needs preparing already now. Is this something the kitchen should handle, or does it fit better as a final task for the floor manager on duty? It depends on how the evening is structured.
A simple solution is for one person to go through the first time slot the next day and note down what requires preparation - a table, an allergy, a group arriving early. That way, the next shift starts with information that's already confirmed, instead of something that has to be chased up in a hurry.
Want to see how it works in practice?
Start with a free restaurant account and build your tables, opening hours and booking link at your own pace.
Start free