Setting up

Opening hours, closures and special days

When customers can join from their phone and book a time — week by week, and for the days that are different. For owners.

What your hours decide#

Your opening hours are the hours customers see, and they decide what customers can do from their phones:

• Joining a line from a phone works only while you are open. Outside your hours, your page says when you open next, for example "Closed now — opens at 9:00 am".
• Booking a time works at any hour, but only for times inside your hours. A customer can book tomorrow's 10:30 at midnight.
• The desk is never locked out. Your team can still add someone standing at the counter, and check in a booked customer who arrives early, while you are closed.

All of it is set in Settings, which only an owner can open. There are three places to know:

• Opening hours — your normal week.
• Closed days and special hours — the dates that are different: a holiday, a half day, a training day. A date here beats the week.
• Your business — your Timezone, which decides when your day starts and ends, and your Clock, 12-hour or 24-hour.

The hours you start with#

Setting up never asks about hours, so that you are open from the first minute. Every new business starts open every day, with hours that suit its kind of place:

Change them to your real hours before you put up your poster.

Set your weekly opening hours#

The week is a list of seven days, Monday first. Each day has an opening time, a closing time and a Closed box. Today's row is marked Today, and a bar beside each day draws its hours so you can see the shape of your week at a glance.

1. Open Settings and go to Opening hours.
2. For each day, set the opening time and the closing time (the column is headed Opens and closes).
3. For a day you don't open at all, tick Closed. The day then reads Closed all day.
4. Each day you changed is marked Not saved, and a bar at the foot of the page says "Your hours are not saved yet." Press Save changes.

The heading then counts your open days, for example "Open 6 days a week". Your customers' page shows the new hours straight away.

Same hours every day#

1. Set Monday the way you want every day to be.
2. Press Copy Monday to every day (on a phone, Copy Monday to all).
3. Adjust the days that differ, such as a shorter Saturday or a closed Sunday.
4. Press Save changes.

Open past midnight#

A day can run past midnight: set a closing time earlier than the opening time — for example, opens 6:00 pm and closes 2:00 am — and that day's hours run into the next morning. To stay open until midnight exactly, close at 11:59 pm.

Changed your mind before saving#

Press Discard on the bar at the foot of the page to go back to what was saved. If you try to leave Settings with changes not saved, the bar asks "Leave without saving your changes?" — press Stay to go back and save, or Leave without saving.

Your business details and your hours share that one bar, so if you changed both, it says "Your business details and hours are not saved yet." and one Save changes saves both.

Close for a holiday#

Use a closed date for a festival, a holiday, a deep-clean day — any date that is different from the normal week. Never tick a weekday Closed for a one-off: that closes every one of those weekdays until somebody remembers to untick it.

1. Open Settings and go to Closed days and special hours. (From Opening hours you can also press See dates.)
2. Press Add a date. A sheet called Close a date opens.
3. Choose the First day and the Last day from the calendar. For one date, use the same day for both. A closure can be up to a year long.
4. Under On these days, leave Closed all day chosen.
5. Optionally, write a Note for customers — up to 80 characters, for example "Onam holiday". Customers read it exactly as you write it; it is not translated.
6. Wait a moment while Line Me Up checks the bookings on those days ("Checking the bookings on these days…"). If it says "No bookings are cut by these dates.", go on. If some are, choose what happens to them — see below.
7. Press Save.

The date now appears in the list with a Closed all day label and your note. Upcoming dates are listed soonest first; once a date is over, it moves under Show past.

Open different hours on one date#

For a half day, a late opening or an early close on a particular date:

1. In Closed days and special hours, press Add a date.
2. Choose the First day and the Last day.
3. Under On these days, choose Special hours. Two times appear: Opens and Closes (they start at 10:00 am and 2:00 pm).
4. Set the hours for those days, and add a note if you like.
5. Decide about any bookings outside those hours, then press Save.

In the list, the date reads, for example, "Open 10:00 am–2:00 pm". On those days only bookings inside the special hours are offered, and joining from a phone works only during them.

Decide what happens to bookings a closure cuts#

Before you save, Line Me Up finds every booking the new dates cut: every booking on a day you close, and on a special-hours day, every booking outside the hours you set. It shows how many — for example, "3 bookings are on these days, outside the hours you set." — and lists the first five with their date and time, token, line and the customer's name ("…and 4 more" for the rest). Then it asks What should happen to them?

• Cancel them and tell each customer — each booking is cancelled. The customer sees the cancellation in the app, with your note and a way to book again. After saving you'll see, for example, "Saved — 3 bookings cancelled and their customers told." On the Waitlist, these visits show as Business closed.
• Keep them — the desk will handle them — nothing changes for the customer. The date's row says how many bookings were kept, and the Live Board shows a notice such as "3 bookings are on closed days or outside special hours." with a See them button. It opens the Waitlist's booked visits for that day, where each one is marked Closed day, so someone can call the customer, move the booking or cancel it.

Save stays greyed until you have chosen. A kept booking stays flagged until it is cancelled, moved to another day or checked in, or until you remove the closure. It is never marked a no-show on its own.

Change or remove a closed date#

1. Find the date in Closed days and special hours.
2. Press Change. The sheet opens as Change these dates.
3. Change the dates, the kind of day, the hours or the note, and press Save — or press Delete. Once a date is removed, those days follow the week again.

A closure that has already started can still be changed. Cancelling bookings from it only ever reaches bookings from today on.

Common mistakes with dates#

• Overlapping dates. Two closures cannot cover the same day. You'll see "That overlaps the dates from … to … — change those instead." Open the existing one and widen it.
• A start date in the past. A new closure starts today or later: "Those dates are over — choose today or a later day."
• Special hours that close before they open. Save stays greyed until the opening time is before the closing time.

What customers and your team see on a different day#

Customers#

• On a closed date your page says Closed today, with your note beside it. On a special-hours day it says, for example, "Special hours today: 10:00 am–2:00 pm", with your note.
• Trying to join a line from a phone on a closed date gives "Closed today — " followed by your note, and "Please come another day."
• In the booking calendar, closed dates are greyed out. Choosing one says, for example, "Closed on Thu 30 Oct — Onam holiday. Choose another day."

Your team#

• The Live Board and the Workboard show "Closed today — Onam holiday. The desk can still work." or "Special hours today: 10:00 am–2:00 pm."
• The desk can still add someone standing at the counter and check in a booking on a closed date. It cannot book anyone onto a closed date: the times for that day are empty, because you have told customers you are shut.
• On a phone, the top of Opening hours shows whether you are Open today or Closed today, and the next date that is different.

When you are closed: walk-ins from phones#

Outside your hours — on a normal evening or on a closed date — nobody can join a line from their phone, and nobody can check in from their phone. This is checked on our servers, so it holds however the customer gets to your page. Your page and the refusal say when you open next, for example "Closed now — opens at 9:00 am" or "Closed now — opens Monday 9:00 am".

What still works while you are closed:

• Customers can book a time on a day you are open.
• Your team can add a walk-in at the desk — a receptionist at 8:55 with three people at the door can take them.
• Your team can check in a booked customer who arrives early.

How the day ends by itself#

Every day ends on its own, so tomorrow starts clean. Half an hour after your closing time, any visit still waiting in a line is closed with the day — the half hour lets your desks finish the last one or two people of the evening. A customer still waiting then sees Closed for the day on their ticket, and "The line closed for the day before your turn."

• On a closed date, the day ends at midnight.
• On a special-hours day, it ends half an hour after that day's own closing time.
• If your desks routinely serve well past closing, your hours are too short: change the closing time rather than working around it.

Your business's own day: the timezone#

"Today" in Line Me Up is always your business's today, not the server's and not the phone's. Your Timezone decides when your day starts and ends: token numbers start again each day, and your opening hours, closed dates, bookings and reports all use it. A customer visiting from another country still sees your times.

1. Open Settings and go to Your business.
2. Choose your Timezone from the list.
3. Press Save changes.

Closed dates are dates on your calendar, so if you ever change timezone, they stay on the same dates.

Choose a 12-hour or 24-hour clock#

One choice decides how every time reads — on your team's screens, your customers' phones and your TV displays. A new business uses the 12-hour clock.

1. Open Settings and go to Your business.
2. Under Clock, choose 12-hour · 1:30 pm or 24-hour · 13:30.
3. Press Save changes.

Each choice shows the same time written its way, in the language the screen is in. The clock is the business's, not each person's, so everyone sees the same format.