Use Toast Tables

Before using Toast Tables, you'll need to download the Toast Tables app on your iOS or Android tablet (Device Compatibility). Use this article to make sure you are set up in Toast Web. Then, watch the video below or read the following steps to begin using Toast Tables.

In this Article:

Log In to the Toast Tables App
Use Toast Tables - Waitlist
Use Toast Tables - Reservations
Change a Party Status
Server Management
Booking and Table Management
Additional Resources

Log In to the Toast Tables App

Follow these instructions to log in to Toast Tables:

Open the Toast Tables app and select Login.
Enter your Toast Web credentials.
Choose the location. You may see multiple locations if you are an employee at multiple Toast restaurants. You may switch locations at any time by navigating to the bottom right-hand corner of the app to More > Switch restaurant.
If you encounter any issues with logging in, it's likely due to you not having the correct employee permissions. Please have your manager check and update your permissions if necessary. To learn how to ensure you/your employee has the correct permissions enabled to use Toast Tables, check out the Employee Permissions section of this Support Center article, Get Started with Toast Tables.

You will be prompted to log in to the app again at least every 30 days.

Once you're logged in to the Toast Tables app, you'll see five different tabs: Home, Schedule, Servers, Guests, and More. You will also see a feed to keep you informed in real-time about new features and improvements to Toast Tables directly within your host app.

For the waitlist, most hosts will spend their shift in the Home tab and the Servers tab (where you can configure which servers are assigned to each table). The Schedule tab and Guests tab are used to manage reservations. The More tab helps you do things like sign out, send feedback, and switch restaurants.

To assign a server to a table, highlight the desired server and select the table(s) that you would like to assign to them. Their color and initials will now appear on the table(s) and the tables will be highlighted. Select the table again to unassign the server.

Check the box to Select all tables in service area to easily assign all tables in the given service area to this server. You may also choose to Clear [Server]’s tables to easily clear all tables in every service area for that server.

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Use Toast Tables - Waitlist

Seat a Walk-in

If you have open tables available for a party, you don’t necessarily have to add them to the waitlist. However, you likely will want to seat a walk-in party without having to add them to the waitlist first in order to (1) keep your table statuses up to date with our POS integration, and (2) keep total server cover counts accurate.

Follow these instructions to seat a walk-in:

From the Home tab, select the table where you are going to seat them and select Seat Walk in.
You can add the guest’s name, phone, etc., but this is not required. Simply enter the party size and seat the party. If no name is entered, the party will be named "Walk in".
The table will be marked as in-use, and a turn-time countdown will begin. The table will change color based on its status (more on table status later). Note: If you need to seat a walk-in party at multiple tables, choose Select at the bottom right-hand corner and then select the tables you want to seat).
Select Seat Walk in on the bottom right bar.

Congrats! You've seated a walk-in.

Add a Party to the Waitlist

If you begin to fill up and have a wait, you may want to start adding a new party to the waitlist. Follow these instructions to do so:

Select the party size and select Add to Waitlist.
Confirm the party size.
If the party requests a particular service area (e.g. patio) select it or leave it blank, which will show as First Available.
Select the quote time (Note: We provide hosts with an estimate based on booking settings in Toast Web. To learn more, see Get Started with Toast Tables).
(Optional) Choose VIP status if applicable. Choosing VIP will show a blue check next to their name.
(Optional) Enter the First and Last name. If nothing is entered, the table will be named Walk-in.
(Optional) Enter the guest’s mobile phone number for SMS notifications and to identify repeat guests.
(Optional) Add any Internal Notes by Guest such as guest preferences, allergies, service area preferences, favorite wine order, etc. These will be connected to the guest for future visits and are visible internally to your restaurant only.
(Optional) Add any Internal Notes by Visit for notes visible to your restaurant only that are specific to this visit, but not necessary to keep on the guest's profile.
(Optional) Add any Special Requests for this particular visit. This could be a note for a special celebration or a request for a high chair or booster seat. This will be visible to the guest.
Select Add.

Congrats! You've officially added a party to the waitlist.

Once added to the waitlist, a countdown timer will start based on the quoted time for that party. If more time has passed than the quoted time, the timer will turn red. When there are less than five minutes remaining until the quoted wait time is complete, the timer will turn yellow. If a phone number was provided, the guest will receive a confirmation SMS.

New! Live Wait Duration: You’ll now see a live preview of guests’ online wait time when adding them to the waitlist or looking at a waitlist booking’s details. This reflects the time range the guest sees via the link texted to them when they join the waitlist.

Now, let's learn how to notify a guest that their table is ready.

Notify a Guest for Toast Tables

To notify a guest that their table is ready:

Select the Waiting button next to the guest’s name on the left side of the screen and then select Send Notification. Some restaurants choose to send the notification a few minutes before the table is ready to give the guest time to return to the host stand.
1. Note: If the guest didn't provide a phone number, the host will be unable to select Send Notification, and this option will be grayed out.
The status of the waitlist party will now be displayed as Notified, and a timer will count down based on how long ago they were notified.
An SMS message will be sent to the phone number added when the guest was added to the waitlist, based on your configured Waitlist Notify SMS language. This will only happen if the guest has provided their phone number to the host.

Pre-assign Tables to the Waitlist

In order to better manage your flow of tables, you may choose to pre-assign a table to a waitlist party before they arrive, while that table is still in use.

Find the party you wish to pre-assign to a table that will be ready soon and click on the party name.
Select Assign Table.
You may now choose a table for the Waitlist party and select Assign. You may also select multiple tables to create a combination table if needed.

The Service Area and table number(s) are now shown below the guest name. You are now ready to mark a party as arrived (if needed), and seat the party once they arrive.

Use Toast Tables - Reservations

Add a Reservation

It's important to note that, generally speaking, there are four ways to make a reservation with Toast Tables:

Note: When a reservation is created for a guest or by a guest, a Guestbook profile is created with any included notes. Any notes or tags will be added to the guest's profile for staff to identify guest attributes and create targeted marketing campaigns. For more information, see the Guestbook Tags section of Access Your Guest Data with Guestbook.

Add a reservation as a host in the Toast Tables app (see below for more).
Create a reservation as a guest through your restaurant's website (see Toast Tables: the Guest Experience).
Create a reservation as a guest through Google/Reserve with Google (see Get Started: Toast Tables - Set Up Reserve with Google).
Create a reservation as a manager in Toast Web in the Overview tab (see Get Started: Toast Tables - Overview Tab).

Note: In any case, when a guest is booking a reservation, they can not choose their table. Only the host or manager can choose a table.

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Add a Reservation as a Host

On the Home page, under the Reservation tab, select the + Add new reservation button.
Select a day from the calendar and party size. Based on your configurations in Toast Web, the app will show available times and tables that would accommodate that party size. To learn more about the configurations that affect availability, see Get Started with Toast Tables.
Select a Service area to filter your tables in a particular service area.
You can then select a table to add the reservation or leave it as the recommended table. If you'd like to visually see your floor plan as you choose a table, select Advanced Table Selection.
Then, you'll add the guest details as well any optional special requests they have or the occasion they are celebrating (e.g., Birthday) under Additional Notes, as shown below.

Note: If this is an existing guest with a Toast account, hosts/managers may need to choose from a list of results, as multiple guests may be associated with the same phone number. Hosts and managers will not be able to edit guest information.

View Upcoming Reservations for Toast Tables

You can view upcoming Toast Tables reservations directly in the Toast Tables app. Upcoming reservations are not visible on the Toast app on a POS terminal or handheld device, and you cannot download the Toast Tables app on your POS device.

Your reservations are initially sorted by Next Up for the current day. You can change the sorting by when reservations were added, by ascending/descending party size, or even by the status of the reservation. You can also search for guests by name, email, or phone number.

You can view future reservations by selecting Today which brings up a calendar to view reservations in the future.

Upcoming reservations will show the source of the reservation (e.g. Booked via Google, Online Reservations, Online Waitlist), and any special requests, as well as an icon indicating if the guest is a VIP, repeat guest, or if they are celebrating an occasion.

When viewing your floor plan for the day's service, you will see the next reservation time listed on each table that has an upcoming reservation. To view all upcoming reservations assigned to that table through Table View (the default view), select the table and then tap on the time for more guest details. You can also toggle between your normal table layout view, which shows the table number and server initials, and reservation view to quickly view the next three reservations due on a table.

As reservation parties arrive, you can manage their status. Check out this section to learn how.

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Notify a Guest

You can now send table-ready SMS notifications to guests with reservations, the same as they can with guests on the Waitlist. Simply make sure this is enabled under SMS settings within Toast Tables settings. You can learn how to enable this setting in Toast Tables: The Guest Experience.

Edit a Reservation

If you need to make a change to an existing reservation, select the name of the reservation you would like to change and select Edit Reservation Details. Here you can change the party size, time, date, or table assignment.

Changing the party size or time may alter availability depending on the number of reservations you have for that day. You can override availability recommendations by selecting View Unavailable (though this may create reservation conflicts).

Currently, guests who book online or through Reserve With Google are unable to edit a reservation on their own. They need to cancel and rebook to check availability for their change.

To move a reservation from one table to another in a different service area, long press on the reservation you are trying to move, select Move Service Area, and it will provide options and times available for other service areas. The reservation will automatically move to the recommended table in that service area. If you choose, you can drag and drop it to another table inside that service area.

Note: To reduce user error when moving bookings between tables, the time slot is visible, but dimmed.

The Change Table button lets you easily update a table assignment using the table view without selecting Edit Reservation Details.

This will pull up Table Assignment view, which also shows upcoming reservations.

Manage Conflicting Reservations

When one reservation is projected to overlap with another reservation, both reservations will turn red. Toast recommends viewing the reservation in Timeline view to see the conflicts. Then, you can either:

Move the party to a different table or reset expectations with your guests that they need to either wait longer for the current reservation to finish, or
Let a party know they will have less time than the standard turn time for that party size.

Flow Control for Hosts

If a host has a maximum cover count set per 15 minutes in their Flow Control settings (see Get Started with Toast Tables to learn more) you'll see how many covers are currently booked for a given time slot. You'll receive a warning if selecting the time slot for the reservation you are booking will overbook and put you over the threshold that your max covers allowed, as shown below.

Flow View

The views most often used in the Toast Tables app are Table View (default app view) and Flow View. While Table View displays reservations in your floor plan, Flow View plots all reservations in a timeline so it's helpful to see where you can fit new reservations in. Within Flow View, you can view the reservation timeline by table, or by number of covers per reservable increment.

Adding a Reservation from Timeline View

To create a reservation from the Flow view, select the Timeline button at the bottom of your screen and select the timeline of the table you would like to make a reservation for. Once you tap, a box appears that you can drag to the appropriate turn time for the reservation. Once you have the proper length of time, tap inside the box to fill in the guest information for that reservation.

Adjusting a Reservation from Flow View

To edit the length of a reservation in Timeline view, long-press the reservation and drag either the start time or end time to the appropriate length.

You can also add tables, move service areas, and put bookings in the new Unassigned bench to find a new spot for them right in the timeline tab, as shown below:

You can drag individual tables within a combo to new tables, making combo table editing easier.

If a table is a combo table, a blue clip icon will be displayed next to the guest's name.

The flow tab also includes a daily summary of your reservation stats for the day that you can expand and view at any time by selecting the carrot next to your total cover count.

Change a Party's Status

Changing a party status is an optional step that works the same for both waitlist and reservations. If you've checked Enable auto-reply in Toast Web, guests will be presented with the option to confirm they are heading back to the restaurant (reply 1) or can remove themselves from the waitlist via SMS (reply 9). For reservations, the same options apply to confirm or cancel.

If guests reply 1 to confirm, they will be shown as confirmed.
If guests reply 9 to leave the waitlist or cancel their reservation, they will be marked as canceled and you can move them to the History tab as shown below, or they will be automatically moved after 15 minutes on the list.
If a party has checked in but you're not ready to seat them, you can mark them as Checked-In.
If a party arrives after they've been notified and their table is not yet ready, you may choose to mark the table as Arrived to denote that they are almost ready to be sat.
If a guest has let you know they're running late you can mark them as Late Arrival.
If a guest wanted to cancel you can mark them as Cancel or if they simply never showed you can mark them as a No show. They will be removed from the waitlist and moved to the History tab, where they will be marked with the chosen status.
If a guest arrives after you marked them as a No show or Cancelled, and you want to put them back on the waitlist, find their waitlist entry in History and move them back to Waiting (for No Show) or Created (for Cancelled).

Note: Any waitlist parties that are currently seated are marked as Seated, and completed waitlist entries are marked as Done in the History tab.

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Server Management

Manage Your Server Roster

At the beginning of a shift, the manager or the host may choose to add servers to the roster in order to assign tables to servers within the Toast Tables app. These sections will persist until the next day, and also assign tables to servers in the Toast POS.

Note: You can also start new shifts for servers. Starting a new shift will reset their cover and table counts to zero, ensuring equitable distribution for server rotations if a server is working back-to-back shifts.

To manage your server roster:

Navigate to the Servers tab.
Select Add Servers to Roster. The roster is pre-populated with all active employees. If you recently added an employee, the employee roster will sync overnight and may not appear until the next day.
Select the servers you want to add to the roster by selecting the “+” button to the right of their name.
Select Save. The servers are now added to the roster! You can edit the roster at any time by choosing Edit Server Roster on this screen.

A server doesn't need to be clocked in to show as an option, but they do need to be added to the roster.

To start a new shift for a server already working (double shift):

Navigate to the Servers tab.
Select Server Rotation.
Select the desired server.
Select + Shift and it will clear their cover and table counts to begin a new shift. Their previous cover and table counts from their earlier shift will be saved.

Assign Tables to Servers

Once you've assigned servers to the roster in the Servers tab, you can now assign tables to each server. Table assignments will persist until the next day, and will also assign these tables to servers within the Toast POS. A couple of things to note:

Every server has a designated color that is automatically assigned to them so that you can distinguish between each server. You may choose a new color if desired.
Colors that are already assigned to other servers are denoted by server initials shown within the in-use colors.

To assign a server to a table, highlight the desired server and tap the table(s) that you would like to assign to them. Their color and initials will now appear on the table(s) and the tables will be highlighted. Tap the table again to unassign the server.

You may check the box Select all tables in service area to easily assign all tables in the given service area to this server. You can also select Clear [Server]’s tables to easily clear all tables in all service areas for that server.

You can also change a server assigned to a given table right in the app, as shown below:

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View Server Rotation and Cover Counts
The server rotation lives at the top of the home screen of the Toast Tables app and can be arranged by the following:

Last sat time
Current covers
Total covers
Current tables (parties) served
Total tables (parties) served

You can feel free to toggle back and forth between different views - these will reflect in the Home tab and in the new Server Rotation area. You can also view your floor plan and table availability by table status color or server color.

Note: These settings only apply to a single device. If you have multiple devices, you will need to set these settings for each device

We also display a live cover count, which is the number of guests a server is currently seating, and a total cover count which is the total number of guests for the whole day, and the number of total tables assigned to this server.

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Best Practices for Managing Server Activity

We know that different restaurants can have different models of service, so here are a few recommendations on how to manage your roster and table assignments:

For Assigned Sections
If your restaurant pre-assigns sections to servers we recommend assigning tables at the beginning of each shift. If a server goes on a break, the host can still swap servers.

During a shift change, you can still assign tables to incoming servers without disrupting the current assignment. All existing tables with open checks will stay with the current server (unless transferred on the POS), but as those tables pay their check and get marked available they will automatically be assigned to the new server.

For Unassigned Sections
If you don't have dedicated servers for each table, either because it is a team model or you rotate based on the next guest, we recommend that you add all of the employees to your roster and have your host assign the table at the moment of seating. In the same way that one server has to be the owner of a check on Toast POS, only one server at a time can own that table.

If you have set up your permissions on Toast to allow servers to edit each other checks they will still be able to edit the checks created by Toast Tables on the POS even if it was for a different server.

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Booking and Table Management

Booking History

Hosts can see what changes were made to any giving booking (for both waitlist and reservations) by clicking the History button (blue button with arrow). This will show the history details for that booking, like when the reservation was made or modified, or which server was assigned to the table.

Note: The History button differs from the History tab, which shows all bookings and reservations for the day. Both are shown in the example below.

This information is also available in Toast Web in the Overview tab (see Get Started with Toast Tables), so managers can easily view history details.

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Seat a Party

Toast allows you to merge parties at the time of seating onto an ordered table without a party already attached. This was based on customer feedback where hosts would forget to seat a guest and servers would start an order.

Once a guest has arrived, and you are ready to seat them, follow these steps:

You can long-press on any booking in the reservation list or waitlist to drag it to an available table. If a table is already assigned to the booking, a message will appear leading you to the assigned table; however, you can choose any available or paid table.

Note: You cannot drag (1) when the target table is unavailable (in Seated or Ordered status for an existing party), (2) onto a combo unless it is pre-assigned, and (3) If you want to switch servers at the time of seating.

For complex cases like the above, we suggest using the manual seating flow:

Tap on the party's status and select Seat to bring up the seating flow.
You'll be taken to the requested or pre-assigned service areas if selected; otherwise, you'll be taken to the default service area. Navigate to the service area you would like to seat the guest in and then select a table.
1. Note: Any pre-assigned tables will be pre-selected and marked in blue.
From the seating flow, you can view the server rotation at the top of the screen. The server assigned to your selected table(s) will be highlighted at the top.
If you’d like, select other servers at the top of the screen to see their tables highlighted to help you make your choice on where to seat a party.
1. Note: If you want to seat the party at a given table; however, the server assigned to that table is unavailable, you may select Swap Server and Seat.
Choose the server you’d like to use for this particular party and select Swap. The new server’s color and initials will now be shown on the newly-sat table. This swap will only take effect for this particular party, and the table will be reassigned back to the originally assigned server after the table gets up.
Select Seat Party.
You'll be navigated back to the Home tab and notified that your party has been seated successfully. You have now seated a party!

If you ever need to un-seat a party, you can do so by selecting the table that you want to un-seat and selecting Unseat Party. Unseating the party will add the table back to the waitlist. You can also long press on a seated table, then drag and drop the booking back into the list after seating them to unseat them. This is useful if, for example, you sat the incorrect booking.

If an order was created and associated with the booking when it was sat, the order will not be automatically transferred when re-seating. Toast will start a new order on the POS if Start Order on the POS is turned on when the guests are re-sat.

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Table Colors and Statuses

Colors help hosts understand what tables are available and where tables are in the dining process. They can then easily understand and send an SMS to the upcoming party if they know a party is about to leave.

Status	Trigger Action
Available	Default state; can also be *Make Available* (see Changing Table Statuses below)
Seated	Seating a party triggers this status
Ordered	Automatically pulled from order data in POS
Paid	Automatically pulled from order data in POS
Dirty	Selecting a table to *Mark as Dirty* (see Changing Table Statuses below)
Blocked	Selecting a table to *Block Table* (see Changing Table Statuses below) Note: Table blocks are set by time slots and can be managed under the *More* tab, and selecting Blocks. You can block single tables or group multiple tables into a single block. This can include a name and description alongside a set time range.

Progress bars: When a table is seated, the progress bar around the table will begin based on the turn time associated with that party size in your Toast Web settings (under Turn Times within Restaurant Settings).

The color of the progress bar corresponds to the initials of the server assigned to the table, as shown in the example below.

Change Table Statuses

In addition to the status changes that happen due to other actions (Seating, Ordered, Paid), you may also manually change a table’s status. When a table is already in use, you may also quickly select Make available without having to move into the Change Table Status drop-down.

If a host accidentally marks a seated table as available or dirty, they’ll now have the option to undo this and restore the party on the table in its previous state. Undoing is available for 30 seconds and can be done via a small notification on the bottom of the screen, or by tapping directly on the table.

Select Unavailable Times

If you haven't configured your table capacities, combinations, or reservation hours you may not see any available tables. Alternatively, if you're trying to create a special accommodation for a large party or another unique circumstance, you can override the system’s availability by selecting View All Unavailable which will show your blocked tables.

This will let you book any party size at any table at any time if you choose but may cause a conflict.

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Order Status and Coursing

When a server rings in an order on the POS, the host can view the order details on the check total. This will bring up the items that the guest has ordered. If you are using a kitchen display screen, the icon next to the item will change from yellow (which means sent to the kitchen), to blue (which means fulfilled by the kitchen).

Party Information, Icons, Filters, and Sortation

Icons also allow hosts to see more information about each party quickly. Check out the image below for a breakdown of what each icon means.

Repeat guest
Indicates an internal or guest note
Party size
Party status
Quoted time
Time passed
VIP
Indicates where the guest joined

Filters allow hosts to easily see parties based on the date (defaulted to Today), service area, party size, or time added. They can then easily see parties waiting for the patio, for example. These filters can be found in the upper left-hand corner of the Home tab.

The History tab shows all parties marked as seated, canceled, or no-shows. To move them back to the waitlist, select Waiting.

Hosts may also see a pushpin icon as indicated below. This pin signifies that the party was manually assigned to a table, as opposed to automatically assigned.

Move, Edit, or Add Tables

Toast will auto-reassign conflicted tables without host intervention. This will prevent red (conflicted) bookings when possible. Your hosts can seat parties at any table and we will reassign any upcoming bookings at the target table to a new table when one is available to avoid causing conflicts.

Note: Toast will never auto-reassign tables that were explicitly chosen by a host or manager.

If you want to move a seated table to a new table, simply long-press on the table and move it to another available table. (Note: You cannot move combo tables). If applicable, Toast will prompt the host to keep the current server or the new one assigned to the new table.

Selecting a table will now let you change the size of the party seated at that table (just tap on the table and select More Actions to edit the party size). Table detail cards--displayed when selecting a table--have been redesigned for faster table status changes, as shown below:

Select which table(s) you’d like to add, remove, or move the party to and then select Save Changes. Any previous table(s) will be automatically marked as Dirty.

Moving the table does not move Orders in the POS unless you have the Start Order in POS feature turned ON.

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Note: Toast Tables is piloting a tool that can take feature requests called Canny. You can add or upvote existing feature requests here: Feature Requests | Toast Tables . Doing so will allow you to get email updates on if and when those features are prioritized. It also helps the product team communicate directly with customers who desire certain specific feature requests so that we can allow you to Beta test or provide us with feedback as we build.

Additional Resources