Set up your restaurant in Kwipps, step by step

Your restaurant's console is at console.kwipps.com. Until you choose a plan it runs as a preview with every tool switched on, so you can set everything up and try it before you pay. A short setup walks you through the first four steps; the rest take a few minutes each.

Sign in to the console

1. 1Open console.kwipps.com and sign in with the email address (or account code) and the password from your welcome email.
2. 2The first time, you are asked to choose your own password. See How do I sign in, and what if I forget my password?

Walk through the setup

1. 1On the console's home screen, Console › Home › Let's get you open lists what is still to do. Press Set up on the first step.
2. 2Details — your name, address, telephone, the public email address guests write to, and the address where we tell you about bookings (never published).
3. 3Opening hours — the days you open and your services (lunch, dinner), with the time each opens and closes.
4. 4The room — your tables, how many seats each has, whether it can be booked, and how long a booking keeps its table.
5. 5The menu — sections, dishes and prices. The full menu editor comes later.
6. 6Press Save and continue after each step, or I'll do this later to skip one. Everything is saved as you go.

Check the booking rules

1. 1Go to Console › Bookings. This is where the times people can book are set — the days you serve, the last seating, and a table every 15, 30 or 60 minutes.
2. 2Check How long a table is theirs, Kept back for walk-ins, and the Limits: the biggest party online, the notice you need, how far ahead guests can book.
3. 3Under Where bookings reach you, give the email address for new bookings and the telephone number shown under every booking form. Bookings cannot be switched on without it.
4. 4Press Save. See How do I set when guests can book a table?

Draw your floor plan (optional)

On a laptop, Console › Floor lets you draw the room so that Tonight can show who sits where. You can skip it and still take bookings. See How do I draw my floor plan?

Take a test booking

1. 1Go to Console › Tonight › + New booking. Enter tomorrow's date, a time, two people and your own name and email.
2. 2Tick Email them a confirmation and press Add to the diary. The booking appears in tomorrow's list, confirmed, and you receive the email a guest would receive.
3. 3Open it from the list to see what the desk sees; then press Cancel on it, which asks whether to email the guest.

Switch bookings on

1. 1In Console › Bookings, turn on Take reservations and press Save.
2. 2Kwipps puts a booking form on your home page and points every "Book a table" button at it. If your website has changes you have not published, the form waits in the draft: open the editor and press Publish.
3. 3Now book a table on your own website, as a guest would. The request arrives by email and waits on Console › Tonight with Confirm, Decline and Not yet. See How do I confirm, decline or move a booking?

Go live

1. 1When you are happy, choose a plan and your own address at my.kwipps.com. See Go live with your own domain.
2. 2Card deposits start only once a plan is chosen: a preview never asks a guest for a real deposit.