Managing the day

The Live Board

The Live Board is the screen to leave open while you run the day. This page explains every tile, column and warning on it, and what you can do from it as an owner or manager.

What the Live Board is for#

The Live Board answers one question: what is happening on the floor right now? It shows how many people are waiting in each line, how long someone joining now would wait, which desks are on shift and who they are serving, and where help is needed. It keeps itself up to date within seconds, so you never need to reload it.

It is the first screen an owner or manager sees after signing in, and it is called Live board in the sidebar. Desk staff do not see it; they work from their own Workboard.

The board is laid out in four parts, from top to bottom:

1. The header: the title, today's date and your hours ("Tuesday 20 October, open until 7:00 pm"), and any notice about today, such as being closed.
2. Alerts, which appear only when something needs doing.
3. Four tiles with today's numbers at a glance.
4. Lines and Desks, side by side on a wide screen, one above the other on a smaller one.

Read the four tiles#

The tiles across the top are the quick check. Each has a big number and a short sentence that says what the number means.

Waiting now and Avg wait also show a small arrow compared with the same time yesterday, for example "3 vs this time yesterday". For both, a rise is shown as the bad direction.

People and tokens: why two counts can differ#

One person can wait in more than one line at once, for example for a consultation and for the pharmacy. Each place in a line has its own token, such as CON-20261030-014. Your desks work through tokens, but the people in your building are people.

So the board says both. The big Waiting now number counts tokens; the sentence under it counts people. "9" over "7 people in 4 lines" means seven people hold nine places between them. Inside one line the two are always the same, because a person is in a line only once.

"Held" places#

Under a line's waiting number you may see "2 held". These people are still in the line, but Call next passes over them for now. Point at (or tap) the note to see why:

• With another desk: they are being served in another line right now. Their place here is kept until that visit ends.
• Running late · back ~11:45: they told the desk they are running late, and when they expect to arrive.

A held place is never a mistake; it is the board telling you why someone is being skipped.

Read the Lines table#

The Lines card lists every line, with a count beside the heading such as "4 lines, 14 waiting". Each row has five columns:

What the status words mean#

• Clear: nobody waiting and nobody being served.
• Moving: people are waiting and a desk is serving the line.
• Called Farhan or Serving Farhan: who a desk on this line has called or is serving now (their name, or their token if no name was taken). "+1" means another desk is busy on the same line too.
• Backing up (in red): someone joining now would wait longer than about two average services. Time to add help.
• Nobody serving: no desk on shift serves this line. In grey with nobody waiting, it is just a fact. In red with people waiting, it is an alarm, and the strip at the top of the board says more (see the next section).
• Paused: the line is not taking new people. Anyone already in it still needs serving, so an alarm or "Serving …" can still show underneath.

Capacity#

The bar beside the waiting number fills as the line fills up, against the capacity set for that line. Once the line reaches its capacity the bar is full and the number changes to show both, for example 20 / 20, so you can tell a full line from an overfull one without relying on colour. The bar turns red when the line is backing up or nobody is serving it.

Open a line on the Waitlist#

1. Click or tap a row in the Lines table.
2. The Waitlist opens on that one line, with everyone in it in call order. Use your browser's Back button to return to the board.

To change a line's settings (capacity, type, hours), use the Manage lines link beside the Lines heading.

Respond to a line no desk on shift covers#

The most important warning on the board is a red strip above the tiles. It appears when people are waiting in a line that no desk on shift can serve, so pressing Call next anywhere will never reach them. It names each line and how many are waiting, and says why:

• "Lab: 3 waiting — no desk on shift covers it"
• "— nobody on shift can do Polish": a desk is on the line, but none on shift offers what these people came for.
• A desk on break, with its reason and return time if it gave one, so you can choose to wait for it. A desk on break never counts as cover.
• A token that was waiting for a desk that no longer exists: "014 (CON-20261030-014) was waiting for a desk that is gone — move it to another line or remove it on the Waitlist".

The strip names up to three lines; any more are summed up as "and 2 more lines nobody covers", and each is still marked on its own row. A paused line is not excused: pausing stops new arrivals, but the people already in it still need a desk.

Fix it with one tap#

Under each line in the strip, Line Me Up offers the two best desks to take the line on. It prefers desks that are on shift and have been free the longest, then desks serving the fewest lines. Each button reads like "Add to Chair 2 (haircare and wellness)", showing what the desk already serves.

To give the line to a desk:

1. In the red strip, find the line.
2. Press Add to … on the desk you want. The line is added to that desk at once, and the desk's calls are shared evenly between its lines.
3. A message confirms it ("Lab added to Chair 2") with Undo for 10 seconds. Undo puts the desk back exactly as it was, including how it shared its calls.

Other ways out of the alarm, when they apply:

• Run desk appears when a desk that serves this line is off shift and you are allowed to run it. It starts a shift there from the board (see below).
• Open Desks takes you to the Desks screen to choose any desk by hand.
• If no desk at all is on shift, the strip says "Nobody is on shift to take it." Someone has to start a shift first.

Read the Desks list#

The Desks card lists every desk, with "4 on shift" beside the heading. A desk on shift has a row of its own showing:

• Its name and who is at it, for example "Counter 1 · Girik Mishra", and a tag for its state: Free with how long ("Free 6m"), Called, Serving, On a break or Off shift. Your own desk is marked You.
• One line about what it is doing: "Now · 011 · Asha · 04:12" with what they came for, while someone is called or served (the clock counts up each second); on a break, why and until when ("In theatre · back ~12:30"), then "Overdue — resume?" once that time passes; otherwise the lines it takes from, with each line's share if there are several ("General 70% · Lab 30%").
• On leave, when the desk's person is on leave today.
• "2 coming back" when people it sent elsewhere are due back to it. A clinic sees "2 reviews waiting".

Desks that are off shift are folded into one row, for example "3 off shift: Lab desk, Chair 3, Wash bay". Press it to open them; the board remembers your choice for this browser tab.

On a large floor#

With more than eight desks on shift, the list shows the ones that matter first: desks that need attention, then the longest-free and the busiest. A sentence says how many it is showing.

1. Press Show all … on shift to see every desk on shift, and Show fewer to go back.
2. Use the filters above the list to show desks in one state, or on one or more lines.
3. Press All … desks at the foot of the card to open the Desks screen with every desk.

Run a desk from the board#

You can run any desk you manage from the board, so one phone or tablet at the front can work every desk: start its shift, call, serve, complete, take a break and end the shift. An owner can run any desk; a manager can run a desk whose every line is one of theirs.

1. In the Desks list, find the desk and press Run desk.
2. If it is off shift, press Start a shift here. Then use Call next, They're here, No-show and Complete just as at the desk itself.
3. Use Take a break, Back on shift and End shift to manage the desk's shift.

On a phone, Run desk opens as a panel from the bottom of the screen.

The full walk-through, including calling a person to a chosen desk from the Waitlist, is in Running several desks from one device.

Change how a desk shares its calls between lines#

A desk that takes from two or more lines shares its calls between them. When more than one of those lines has people waiting, the share decides which line its next call comes from.

1. In the Desks list, press Calls from… on the desk.
2. Drag each line's slider. The shares always add up to 100%, in steps of 5%, and the bar shows each line in its own colour.
3. Read the sentence under the sliders, for example "When General and Lab both have people waiting, 7 of every 10 calls come from General."
4. Press Apply, or Cancel to leave it as it was.

The same setting is on the desk's own page under Desks.

Start your own shift#

If no desk is on shift at all, the board says so in a banner: "Nobody has started their shift yet. Staff start it at their desk, on Work my desk." Every line would otherwise just turn red without saying why.

• If you have a desk of your own, the banner offers Start my shift, which opens your Workboard.
• If you have no desk of your own but a shared desk is free, it offers Start a shift, where you pick the desk you are at today.

The same button also sits beside the Desks heading once some desks are on shift.

What the board shows on a quiet day#

• No lines yet. "You haven't set up any lines yet." Press Set up now to add your first lines.
• Nobody has come yet today. The Lines card reminds you that most people join by scanning your QR code. The owner sees Put your QR poster up, and the Waiting now tile offers Add a walk-in for someone standing at the counter. If you have a desk, the Desks card offers Open Work my desk.
• Everyone served. "All clear. 12 served today." This shows only when nobody is waiting and no desk is still with a customer. Otherwise it says, for example, "Nobody waiting. 2 still with a customer · 12 served today."
• The board did not load. "The board didn't load. It will try again in a moment." You do not need to do anything.

Add a visit from the board#

The Add visit button in the header of every staff screen adds a walk-in or books a caller. On the board it opens the same sheet as on the Waitlist. The steps are in Add a walk-in or book a caller.

Good habits#