Guests can't order
Guests can read the menu but can't send an order: what the location's readiness checklist says, a paused location, a menu outside its hours, and a table code that doesn't work.
On this page
Start on the location's Ordering tab. The status at the top says where the location stands, and What guests need to order marks each missing requirement with a link to where you fix it. How the tab works: Turn on guest ordering.
| Status | Go to |
|---|---|
| Ordering is off | Ordering is off |
| Not ready for orders yet | Something on the checklist is missing |
| Ordering is paused | New orders are paused |
| Taking orders | The location is fine; the cause is the menu, the table or the dish — see the sections after these. |
Ordering is off
Guests can read the menu and put dishes on a list to show a waiter, but there is no button to send an order. Two lines of the checklist decide it:
| Checklist line | What to do |
|---|---|
| Your plan includes guest ordering | Guest ordering needs a plan that includes it: On Pro and Ultimate. See Subscribe or change your plan. |
| Ordering is switched on | Switch on Guests can order in SettingsOrdering. If it is on there, this location overrides it: on its Ordering tab, switch Guests can order back on, or back to Inherited. |
Something on the checklist is missing
Ordering is switched on, but guests see the same list for the waiter until every line is done. The line marked missing says what to fix:
| Checklist line | What to do |
|---|---|
| The location has a time zone | On the location's Details tab, pick its Time zone under Region & clock and save. |
| Guests have a way to pay | Turn on at least one option under How guests pay, in the organization's settings or in this location's overrides. |
| Guests have a way to get their order | Turn on at least one option under Where guests get their order: at the table, at the counter, or both. |
| At least one active table for dine-in | Needed only when guests order at their table. Add tables, or bring one back into service with Activate — see Add tables and print their codes. |
| A payment account for online payments | Nothing to do: it reads Not needed while guests pay your staff at the venue. |
The settings behind these lines are explained step by step in Turn on guest ordering.
New orders are paused
Guests who try to order see The venue has paused new orders for a moment. Please try again shortly or ask a member of staff. A pause ends by itself; to end it now, select Resume now on the location's Ordering tab. See Pause new orders.
The menu is outside its serving hours
Guests order only while the menu is served. Outside its hours the menu still opens, with This menu isn't being served right now at the top, and the order page says This menu isn't being served right now, so it can't be ordered from. The venue's opening hours on its venue page don't decide this; the menu's own hours do, or the hours the location serves it on.
Check the menu's Schedule tab and the clock next to the menu on the location's Menus tab — see Schedule, pause and archive a menu and Schedule a menu at a location. Meanwhile your staff can still add its dishes to a table's order — see Serve tables.
The guest didn't scan a table's code
When the location takes orders only at the table, a guest who opened the menu another way — the location's own code, a link, a search — reads To order from your table, scan the QR code on it.
- Put each table's own code on the table — see Add tables and print their codes.
- Or switch on Guests can pick their table in SettingsOrdering, so these guests choose their table from a list. Your staff confirm those orders.
The table's code doesn't work
- This table isn't taking orders right now. Please ask a member of staff. The table is out of service. Open its actions (⋯) on the location's Tables tab and select Activate.
- This table code is no longer valid — please ask a member of staff. The code was replaced with Reissue code, or the table was deleted. Print the table's current code and put it in place — see Replace a code.
There is no way to add dishes at all
When a menu shows no add buttons and its order page says Ordering isn't available here, the cart itself is off:
- Enable cart & ordering is switched off in SettingsTaxes & tips, or Guests can build an order is off under Guest ordering on the location's Settings tab. Switch it on.
- Your subscription has ended: guests can read the menu but not order — see After the subscription ends.
One dish can't be ordered
- It is marked Sold out: the dish is unavailable everywhere, at this location or in this menu. Its Placements tab shows where, and switches it back — see See where a product is served.
- It shows the time it can be ordered: its category has serving hours of its own — see Give a category its own hours.
Check it like a guest
Scan one of the location's table codes with your phone. When everything is in place, the menu opens with the table's name and the Call a waiter button, and an order you send reaches the Orders page — see Check that it works.