Once you have Lightspeed Reservations up and running, you can create and manage your reservations via the Back Office. Accessing reservations through the Back Office is generally meant for management and administration. Restaurant staff can also create, view, and manage reservations via the POS with additional functionality such as assigning seats and updating their status.

Adding a reservation

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed credentials.
2. Navigate to Lightspeed Reservations in the sidebar.
3. Click Add reservation.
4. Fill in the Reservation details:
   • Number of guests
   • [Optional] Expected duration
   • Date
   • Time
   • [Optional] Floor plan
   • [Optional] Table
5. Fill in the Guest details:
   • First name
   • Last name
   • [Optional] Phone
   • [Optional] Language
   • [Optional] Email
6. Click Show additional details to add the following information:
   • [Optional] Tags
   • [Optional] Dietary restrictions
   • [Optional] Allergens
   • [Optional] Internal notes
7. Click Save to confirm the reservation.

Viewing reservations

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed credentials.
2. Navigate to Lightspeed Reservations in the sidebar.
3. Set the timeframe of reservations to be listed by clicking the date range button with the clock icon.
4. The date range window presents various options for selecting the start and end dates. Using the filter options, you can:
   • Select: Today,This week, Last week, This month, or Last month.
   • Manually enter the start and end dates in the From and To windows.
   • Create a custom range by selecting dates from the calendar.
5. Click Apply to use the selected date range.

Click the Reset button to clear your selected dates or click Cancel to leave the date selector.

Editing reservations

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed credentials.
2. Navigate to Lightspeed Reservations in the sidebar.
3. Select the appropriate date range to see the reservation you wish to edit.
4. Click ⋯ in the row of the reservation.
5. Click Manage reservation.
6. Make any necessary changes.
7. [Optional] Click Cancel to exit without saving changes.
8. Click Save to exit and save changes.

Canceling reservations

This action cannot be undone. To restore it, a new reservation with the same details must be created.

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed credentials.
2. Navigate to Lightspeed Reservations in the sidebar.
3. Select the appropriate date range to see the reservation you wish to cancel.
4. Click … in the row of the reservation.
5. Click Cancel.
6. [Optional] Click Keep reservation to exit without canceling the reservation.
7. Click Cancel reservation. 

Pausing online reservations

If you do not wish to take online reservations, perhaps because of a holiday, renovations, or an emergency, you can manually pause taking reservations on your website. Existing reservations remain active and new reservations can still be created via the Back Office or POS.

Pauses cannot be scheduled in advance and must be managed manually in the Back Office.

To pause taking online reservations:

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed credentials.
2. Navigate to Lightspeed Reservations in the sidebar.
3. Click Pause online bookings.
4. In the pop-up window, click Pause online bookings to confirm.

When reservations are paused, a message will appear in the Back Office to indicate a pause is in effect and the reservation website will display a message informing users that online reservations are temporarily offline.

To resume taking online reservations:

1. Log in to the Back Office with your Lightspeed credentials.
2. Navigate to Lightspeed Reservations in the sidebar.
3. Click Resume online bookings.

Emailing customers with reservations automatically

The online reservation system automatically emails customers in three situations:

1. A confirmation email sent after booking. This email includes a cancellation link.
2. A cancellation email sent if the reservation is canceled, either by the customer or by the business.
3. A reminder email sent one day before the reservation (for advance bookings).

These emails are not user configurable and are not sent if the reservation is made via the Back Office or POS.