At the desk

Running several desks from one device

Some places have one phone at the front and people whose hands are full. This page shows how the person at the front runs every desk from that one device, and how to send a particular person to a particular desk.

When one device runs the floor#

Normally each desk has its own screen. A doctor, a stylist or a counter clerk opens Work my desk on their own phone or tablet and presses Call Next themselves. That is the simplest way to work, and it is described in Serving at a desk: the Workboard.

But that is not how every place runs. For example:

• A salon with three chairs and one tablet at reception. The stylists have their hands in someone's hair, so the receptionist presses the buttons for them.
• A small clinic where the doctor does not want a phone on the desk. The person at the front calls each patient in and marks the visit done.
• A car wash where the bays have no screens. The manager at the gate calls the next car to whichever bay is free.

Line Me Up gives the owner and managers two tools for this, and a staff member can be given them too (see Run desks as a staff member):

• Run desk, on the Live board. It gives you the buttons the person at that desk would have: start a shift, call the next person, mark them arrived, complete, take a break, end the shift. You can run as many desks as you like from one device.
• Call to a desk, on the Waitlist. Pick one particular person who is waiting and send them to one particular desk, instead of letting Call next choose who comes next.

Both do exactly what the desk's own screen would do. The customer's page, the TV display and the desk's own screen (if it has one open) all change in the same way, within seconds.

Start a shift at a desk from the board#

A desk can only be called to when it is on shift. If nobody is working at it, the board lists it as off shift. On a computer, desks that are off shift are folded into one row that reads, for example, 3 off shift: Chair 2, Chair 3 and Bay 1.

1. Open Live board in the sidebar (on a phone, the Board tab).
2. Scroll to Desks. If the desk you want is off shift, press the off shift row to open it.
3. Press Run desk on that desk's row.
4. Press Start a shift here.

The desk moves up among the desks on shift, marked free. Lines it takes from are now covered, so if the board was warning that nobody was serving one of them, the warning goes away.

Start a desk from the "nobody covers this line" alarm#

When people are waiting in a line and no desk on shift takes from it, a red alert appears at the top of the board, for example Nobody covers Pharmacy. If one of your desks that takes from that line is off shift, the alert has a Run desk button for it. Press it, then Start a shift here. That one press is often the whole fix.

Call the next person for a desk#

This is the same as pressing Call Next at the desk. Line Me Up picks who comes next by the usual rules: people marked priority first, then everyone else in their order, with bookings called inside their time window and the desk's lines shared in the way it is set. See Urgent visits, priority and order for the details.

1. On the Live board, find the desk under Desks. It must be on shift and free.
2. Press Run desk.
3. Press Call next.

What you see next depends on what happened:

• Someone was called. A message at the bottom of the screen says, for example, 014 (CON-20261030-014) called to Chair 2. The desk's row now shows the token and starts timing. The customer's page tells them where to go, and a TV display, if you have one, shows the call.
• Nobody could be called. The message reads Nobody waiting for Chair 2, or Everyone waiting is with another desk or running late if people are waiting but are being held for now.

Mark the person arrived, served or a no-show#

Once a desk has called someone, its Run desk panel changes to the next step, exactly as the desk's own screen does.

When the person arrives at the desk:

1. Press Run desk on the desk's row. The panel shows who was called, for example Called · 014 · Priya.
2. Press They're here. The desk now shows them as being served.

When the desk has finished with them:

1. Press Run desk again.
2. Press Complete. A message says, for example, 014 (CON-20261030-014) served, with Undo for five seconds.

If the person called never comes:

1. Press Run desk.
2. Press No-show. A message says 014 (CON-20261030-014) marked no-show, with Undo for five seconds.

The desk is free again straight away, ready for the next Call next.

Put a desk on a break, or end its shift#

You can pause a desk while it is free, or while it has called someone who has not come yet. You cannot pause a desk in the middle of serving someone: complete them first.

To take a break:

1. Press Run desk on the desk's row.
2. Press Take a break.
3. Under Why, choose a reason: Break, Meal, Away or Other. A clinic also sees Theatre, Rounds and Emergency call.
4. Under Back in, choose roughly how long: 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, or Not sure.
5. Press Pause (it reads, for example, Pause · back ~12:30 when you chose a time).

The desk's row now says why and until when, for example On a meal break · back ~12:30, and the same words appear wherever that desk is shown. If the desk had called someone who had not arrived, that person goes back to their place near the front, and the next free desk calls them first. If you change your mind before pausing, press Back.

To bring the desk back:

1. Press Run desk.
2. Press Back on shift.

Line Me Up never puts a desk back on shift by itself when the time runs out. If the time passes, the board lists the desk among those that need attention.

To end a desk's shift:

1. Press Run desk. The desk must be free or on a break.
2. Press End shift. A message says, for example, Chair 2's shift ended, with Undo.

Run the floor from a phone#

On a phone the board is laid out for one hand. The tabs along the bottom are Board, Waitlist and Desks, with More for everything else. On the board:

• The Desks section starts with one line saying what it is showing, for example 1 needs attention, then the busiest · 4 of 6 on shift. Desks that need attention come first: a desk that called someone more than five minutes ago and nobody came, or a desk whose break has run past the time it gave.
• Below the desks on shift, up to three desks that are off shift are listed under a heading such as 2 off shift, each with its own Run desk.
• Pressing Run desk opens a sheet from the bottom of the screen, titled Run Chair 2, with the same buttons as on a computer. It never covers the page with a pop-up you have to dismiss.
• A desk you have run from this phone keeps its place in the list, so it does not jump away while you are working it.
• If some desks are in neither list, an All 8 desks button at the foot takes you to the full list on Desks.

If no desk is on shift at all, the board says so: No desk is on shift. Run a desk to start a shift there.

A board with many desks#

On a computer, the board shows about eight desk rows. With more desks on shift than that, it shows the ones needing attention, then free desks, then the busiest, and says so in a sentence. Press Show all 12 on shift to see every one, or Show fewer to fold them again. With that many desks, filters also appear above the rows: show only desks in one state (for example only those calling) or only desks on chosen lines.

Call a particular person to a particular desk#

Call next always takes the next person in order. Sometimes you need someone else: the customer who has been waiting for a particular stylist, the patient whose test result has come back, the car that is already in front of Bay 2. Use Call to a desk.

1. Open Waitlist and stay on Waiting now.
2. Find the person. Type part of their name, their token or the last digits of their phone number in the search box.
3. Press the ⋮ menu on their row.
4. Choose Call to a desk.
5. Pick the desk from the list.

The person is called to that desk at once. A message says, for example, 021 (CON-20261030-021) called to Bay 2, and the desk's row on the board shows them as called. From here the visit carries on as normal: They're here, then Complete, either on the desk's own screen or through Run desk.

You can also do this from the person's details: choose Details and timeline from their row's menu, and pick a desk under Call them to which desk?

Why a desk is greyed out#

The list shows every desk, so you can see why one is not on offer. Desks that can take the call right now are at the top. The others are greyed, each with a reason:

Desks that do not take from the person's line are folded under a row such as 3 other desks don't take from this line. Press Show to see them. If no desk at all can take the call, the menu says No free desk takes from their line.

When Line Me Up refuses the call#

A few calls are refused even when the desk is free, and the message says why:

• They said they're running late, so their place is being held: the customer told the place they will be a few minutes late.
• Their booking isn't due yet: a booked visit is too early to call.
• Their booking's time has passed: the booked time is too far behind.
• Chair 2 doesn't take from their line: the desk changed while the list was open.

Keyboard shortcut#

On a computer, with someone's details open, press C to jump to the first desk that can take them, then Enter to call. Press / at any time to jump to the search box.

Run desks as a staff member#

Courts, lanes, machines and chargers have nobody signed in to them. The person at the front runs them, and does not need to be a manager to do it: an owner or a manager ticks Run desks for them on Team (see Your team, roles and leave). Staff have no Live board, so their desks are on the Waitlist.

1. Open the Waitlist. With no desk of your own, press Open the Waitlist on your Workboard; with one, open My day and press Open the Waitlist.
2. Under Desks you run, press Run desk beside a desk. The same panel as on the Live board opens: Start a shift here, Call next, They're here, Complete, Take a break, End shift.
3. To send one particular person to one particular desk, press ⋮ on their row under Waiting now and choose Call to a desk, as above.

Desks you run lists every desk whose lines are all ones you handle: the lines ticked for you on Team and your own desk's, or every line when none are ticked. A desk outside them is not listed and cannot be run. Every press is recorded in your name, and who served the visit is decided exactly as when a manager runs the desk.

Change which lines a desk calls from#

A desk can take from more than one line, for example a counter that serves both Payments and Collections. Its calls are shared between them, say 70 / 30: about seven in every ten calls come from the first line. A line with nobody waiting is skipped, so the other gets every call. The usual share is set on Desks; during a rush you can change it from the board.

1. On the Live board, find the desk under Desks. Desks that take from more than one line have a Calls from… button.
2. Press Calls from…. The panel is titled, for example, Counter 1 calls from:
3. Drag the slider for each line. It moves in steps of 5%, and the shares add up to 100%.
4. Press Apply, or Cancel to leave it as it was.

A message says Calls from changed. The next Call next at that desk uses the new share.

Good habits for a one-device floor#

• Start shifts first thing. A desk that is off shift cannot be called to, and its lines show as uncovered. Start every desk you will run at the beginning of the day.
• Keep the board open on the device you run desks from. Use another tab or device for anything else. If you need the Waitlist on the same device, open it from the sidebar in the same tab: the desks stay on shift.
• End shifts when you close. Ending each desk's shift when the day is over keeps the board and Insights honest about who was working.
• Mix and match. A desk can have its own screen and still be run from the board when that suits you. Each screen catches up with the other within seconds.

If something does not look right#

• There is no Run desk button on a desk. You are a manager, and that desk also takes from a line that is not yours. Only the owner, or a manager of all its lines, can run it.
• Run desk is greyed out. Your plan does not include running desks from the board. Hover over or focus the button to read why, and see Pricing.
• A desk I started went off shift by itself. The tab you started it from was closed, signed out, or asleep. Start the shift again and keep that tab open.
• The person called is not on the desk's row. Give it a few seconds, as the board catches up on its own. If it still looks wrong, reload the page.