At the desk

Urgent visits, priority and order

Most of the time the order looks after itself: first come, first served. This page explains the exceptions — priority, urgent visits, moving people by hand — and who in your team may use each one.

How the next person is chosen#

When a desk presses Call Next, Line Me Up looks at everyone that desk could call right now and takes the first one in this order:

1. Anyone marked above everyone (a clinic calls this Emergency).
2. Anyone marked priority.
3. Everyone else, in their place in the line. Normally that is the order they joined in, unless someone has been moved.

Some people are passed over for now, and keep their place while they are:

• Bookings are called only inside their time window: not too early, and not too long after the booked time. The window is set for each line.
• Someone running late. A customer who said they will be a few minutes late keeps their place, and the desk calls the next person meanwhile.
• Someone already with another desk, for example a patient having a test in one line while waiting in another. They are not called twice at once.

Two more things shape the order a desk sees:

• A desk that serves several lines shares its calls between them in the proportions set for it (see Running several desks from one device). A line with nobody waiting is skipped.
• People coming back to a desk, when a visit has several steps (for example back to the doctor after paying). The owner chooses under Coming back to their desk in Settings whether they are called before anyone new, or after every few new people. Anyone marked priority is still called first.

Priority and above everyone: which to use#

Neither one moves anybody else backwards. Everybody already waiting keeps their order; the marked person simply goes ahead of them. If two people are marked the same way, the one who was in the line first is called first.

Mark someone as priority#

1. Open Waitlist.
2. Find the person: type part of their name, their token or the last digits of their phone in the search box (or press /).
3. Press the ⋮ menu on their row.
4. Choose Mark priority.

A message says, for example, 014 (CON-20261030-014) marked priority, with Undo for ten seconds. The row now carries a Priority mark and moves up among anyone else marked priority, in their order in the line. Their timeline records Marked priority by and your name.

You can also mark a booked visit as priority, from the Booked view. The mark stays on the visit, so once they check in they go ahead of the people waiting.

Take priority away#

1. Press the ⋮ menu on their row.
2. Choose Remove priority.

The message reads 014 (CON-20261030-014) no longer priority, with Undo. They go back to their own place in the line.

Mark priority when adding someone#

When you add a walk-in or a caller yourself, you can mark them straight away. Owners and managers press Add visit at the top of the Live board or the Waitlist. Staff with the Front desk ability press Add visit (the + button) at the top of their Work my desk screen.

1. Press Add visit.
2. Choose what they came for, and fill in their name and phone if you have them (both are optional).
3. Tick Urgent for priority. Its note explains: "Goes to the front of each line they join. Everybody already waiting stays where they are."
4. If you may raise an emergency, you also see a second box: Above everyone, or Emergency in a clinic. Its note reads "First in every line they join, ahead of anybody marked urgent — and the desk is told." Tick it instead for someone who must be seen now.
5. Press Add.

Put someone above everyone, or mark an emergency#

Use this for somebody who is already waiting and must now be seen first, such as a patient whose condition has changed. In a clinic the action is called Mark emergency; everywhere else it is Put above everyone. Owners and managers can always do it. Staff can do it only if they have been given the ability (see below), and only for people in their own lines.

1. Open Waitlist. Staff open it from Work my desk: press My day at the foot of the screen, then Open the Waitlist.
2. Find the person. They must still be waiting, or booked.
3. Press the ⋮ menu on their row.
4. Choose Put above everyone (in a clinic, Mark emergency).

A message says, for example, 014 (CON-20261030-014) is first in their line. The desk that will see them is told on its own screen, as described next. The visit's timeline records who raised it.

What the desk sees#

On the Work my desk screen of every desk that serves that line, a red banner appears at the top: Above everyone — CON-20261030-014 is first in your line. In a clinic it reads Emergency — CON-20261030-014 is first in your line. If the screen is open when the person is marked, it also plays a short two-tone chime. The banner never blocks the screen: the person at the desk can finish what they are doing, then press Call Next, which will call the urgent person. Pressing Seen puts the banner away until another urgent person arrives.

Move someone to the front of their line#

Move to front puts one person first in their line, ahead of everyone waiting, without marking them. It is for a one-off, such as someone who was skipped by mistake.

1. Open Waitlist on Waiting now.
2. On a computer, press Move to front on the person's row. On a phone it is in the row's ⋮ menu. (The first person in each line has no such button.)

A message says Moved 014 (CON-20261030-014), with Undo for ten seconds; Undo puts them back exactly where they were. Their timeline records Moved in the line by and your name. People marked priority or above everyone are still called before them.

Move someone up or down one place#

A staff member with the Front desk ability moves people on the Waitlist of the lines they handle. A phone has no dragging, so each waiting row's ⋮ menu has Move up one and Move down one, beside Move to front and Mark priority.

1. On Work my desk, open My day and press Open the Waitlist (with no desk of your own, the button is on the Workboard).
2. On Waiting now, press ⋮ on the person's row.
3. Choose Move up one or Move down one.

The first person in a line has no Move up one, and the last one shown has no Move down one. Each move gets the same Moved message with a ten-second Undo. Staff without the Front desk ability see the Waitlist without these buttons.

Drag people into a different order#

On a wide screen the Waitlist shows each line as its own column. You can rearrange people by hand.

1. Open Waitlist on Waiting now, on a computer or a large tablet.
2. Press and hold a person's row (its handle says Drag to reorder).
3. Drop it where they should be in the same line, or onto another line's column to move them there.

Each drag gets the same Moved 014 (CON-20261030-014) message with a ten-second Undo. On a phone there is no dragging; use Move to front and Move to another line instead.

Move someone to another line#

For someone who joined the wrong line, or whose visit has changed.

1. Press the ⋮ menu on their row.
2. Choose Move to another line.
3. Under To the end of which line?, pick the line.

They go to the end of that line. A message says, for example, Moved 014 (CON-20261030-014) to Pharmacy, with Undo for ten seconds. A line that cannot take them right now is greyed with the reason: Paused, or Bookings only for a line that takes no walk-ins.

Order the people coming back to your desk#

When a visit has several steps, a desk that sent someone on (for example to pay, or for a test) gets them back afterwards. They show in the desk's Next up list marked Back to you (a clinic sees Review). Anyone at that desk, staff included, can order these returns among themselves.

1. On Work my desk, find the person under Next up.
2. Press the ⋮ button on their row.
3. Choose Move up or Move down to change their order among the people coming back, or Call now to call them straight away. Call now is offered only while the desk is free.

Call now is refused while someone with priority is waiting for that desk: the message reads "Someone with priority is waiting — call them first". Call them, then call the return.

Give a staff member the Front desk, urgent or Run desks ability#

Line Me Up has three roles (owner, manager and staff) and no role builder. Instead, a staff member can be given up to three extra abilities, listed under Beyond their desk:

• Front desk: for a receptionist or registration clerk. They get an Add visit button on their Work my desk screen, so they can add walk-ins and book callers a time on the lines they handle, and mark them Urgent (priority) as they do. On the Waitlist they check in bookings and move people up, down or to the front.
• Above everyone (in a clinic, Emergency): for a triage nurse or a floor lead. Its note reads "Puts somebody above everyone, and the desk that will see them is told." They get Put above everyone (or Mark emergency) on their Waitlist, and the matching box when adding someone, if they also have Front desk.
• Run desks: for whoever runs courts, lanes or machines nobody signs in to. See One device, many desks.

1. Open Team in the sidebar.
2. Press the staff member's row.
3. Under Beyond their desk, tick Front desk, the urgent ability, Run desks, or any of them together.
4. Press Save. A message says Saved.

The change takes effect on their next action; they do not need to sign in again. To take an ability away, untick it and save.

Who can do what#

Staff who have more than one ability get each column's yeses. A staff member without any sees a read-only Waitlist of their own lines, with no phone numbers. "Their lines", for staff, means the lines ticked for them on Team and their own desk's, or every line when none are ticked. Running desks and calling people to them is on Run desks as a staff member.

If something does not look right#

• I marked someone priority but another person was called first. Someone above everyone, or an earlier priority, was ahead of them. Or the desk that called serves several lines and its turn came from another line. Or the person cannot be called by that desk (for example they are running late, or with another desk).
• A staff member cannot find Put above everyone. Check on Team that the ability is ticked, and that the person is in one of that staff member's lines. The action appears only for people still waiting or booked.
• The ability boxes are greyed out on Team. Your plan does not include staff abilities; the box says why. See Pricing. An ability already given can still be unticked.
• Move to front is missing. The person is already first in their line, or you are not on Waiting now.
• A message says someone else just moved this person. Two people changed the same line at once. The Waitlist has refreshed; look again and try once more if it is still needed.