Getting started
Welcome to TableStack
A quick orientation to what TableStack does and where to start — reservations, floor, the guest book, and live service.
Updated Aug 21, 2026
TableStack runs the front of house for your restaurant group: online and in-house reservations, a visual floor you can watch change in real time, a shared guest book, and a live view of every party's meal as it progresses. This page points you to the articles that get you up and running.
What TableStack does
- Takes reservations — diners book from your public page with no account, and your team books walk-ins and phone reservations from the floor. A single availability engine decides what's bookable so the two never collide.
- Runs the floor — a drag-and-drop floor plan where every table, seat, and party shows its current status and updates the instant anyone changes it.
- Tracks each meal — from the moment a party is seated to when they leave, the service lifecycle follows the meal course by course, and the kitchen display mirrors it above the pass.
- Remembers your guests — the guest book is shared across every venue in your group and carries preferences, allergies, and visit history with each guest.
Reservations vs. visits
The one idea worth learning first: a reservation is a future intent (someone booked a table for Friday), and a visit is a party physically in the building right now. A reservation becomes a visit when your host seats it; a walk-in creates a visit with no reservation behind it. The booking flow article explains the full picture.
Where to start
| If you want to... | Read |
|---|---|
| Understand how bookable times are calculated | How availability is calculated |
| Set up online booking and confirmations | Reservations vs visits, and the booking flow |
| Learn the colours on the floor | Table, seat and party statuses |
| Follow a party through their meal | The service lifecycle |
| Put a screen above the pass | Using the kitchen display |
| Manage guest preferences and allergies | The guest book (CRM) |
| Take deposits for large parties or sell ticketed events | Deposits and prepaid experiences |
| Connect your point-of-sale | How POS integration works |
A few things that are true everywhere
- Guests belong to your organization, not one venue. A regular at your downtown room is the same guest record at your uptown room — same allergies, same history.
- The floor never needs a manual refresh. Every status change broadcasts live to every screen watching that venue.
- Allergies are treated as safety data. They're recorded as structured tags (not free text) and shown prominently wherever staff are seating or cooking for a guest.
When you're ready to go deeper, each article links to the others it affects, so you can follow the thread from booking to floor to kitchen and back.
Finding your way around
The sidebar is grouped the way a shift flows: Service (dashboard, floor, reservations, arrivals, briefing, kitchen), Guests (guest book, feedback, reviews), Insights (reports, activity log), and Manage — configuration that stays collapsed until you need it. On a phone or tablet, a bottom tab bar keeps Floor, Book, Arrivals and Guests one thumb-tap away; everything else is under More.