The Front Desk in the WaiverFile Venue App

Run your front desk from an iPad, iPhone or Android device. In Front desk mode, the WaiverFile Venue app sells, takes payments, checks guests in and prints receipts, and it keeps taking cash when the internet is down.

Set up a front desk device

1. Install WaiverFile Venue on the tablet or phone. Get it on the App Store or Google Play.
2. Connect it to your account under Check-in & devices › Devices (classic menu: Settings › Devices) with Set up a device. See Self Check-In and the WaiverFile Venue App.
3. Choose Front desk as what the device is for. It's a staff mode, so use it on a device behind the desk, not one guests use.

The app opens on two tabs, Today and New sale.

Today

Find a booking by name or number, or scan its code with a barcode scanner. Scan opens the camera scanner, which keeps scanning one guest after another, with Rapid check-in if you want it. Front desk includes the staff scanner, so there's nothing extra to turn on. If no booking matches, Search customers instead finds people who haven't booked yet. The tab also shows today at a glance, arrivals, guests sent to staff from a self check-in tablet, and today's sales that still have a balance.

Open a booking to see its items, payments and guests. From there you can:

• Check guests in, all at once or a few at a time. The check-in screen stays open afterward, so you can take payment, or use Actions to print a ticket or receipt or undo the check-in. Tap Done when you're finished.
• Get waivers signed: sign on this device, send the group to a signing station, show a QR code for their phones, or send waiver links. If your usual station is offline, tap Send to another station.
• Take payment on the balance.
• Give a walk-in a name or a customer.

New sale

New sale works like the one in the web admin (see Sell at the Front Desk). Pick the day, choose activities, events and add-ons with the spots left on each time, and add a customer or a walk-in name if you like. On a phone, the sale sits in a bar at the bottom of the screen.

Payment options:

• Card reader (the same Stripe readers as the web admin; see Card Readers)
• Cash, with quick amounts and the change due in large type
• Check, card on file, payment link, or pay later
• Split payments, by changing the amount to collect

Receipts go by email, by text, or to the printer connected to the device. The device can also run a cash drawer: open it with a float, record paid in and out, use no sale, and count and close it. Tap Refresh on the drawer screen to see cash taken on other devices. A drawer can be plugged into the device's own printer or into a CloudPRNT printer. See Receipt Printers and Cash Drawers.

Barcode scanners

Any USB or Bluetooth barcode scanner that reads QR codes works with the front desk. You don't need to tap a search box first: scan a guest's ticket on either tab and their booking opens. If a booking is already open, a scan moves straight on to the next guest's booking. Scans are ignored while you're taking a payment.

A membership card or a waiver's QR code opens its check-in result, the same one the staff scanner shows.

Link a scanner to the front desk

A phone or Zebra handheld in staff scanner mode can feed the front desk. Each booking it scans also opens on the front desk device, where you can take payment, collect a balance and see the whole booking on a bigger screen.

1. On the scanner device, scroll down to Scanning on its home screen.
2. Tap Choose a front desk under Show scans on a front desk, and pick the front desk device.

The scanner still checks guests in as usual, and each result says Also opened on the front desk. If staff at the desk are in the middle of something, the booking waits in a banner on the front desk's home screen until they tap Open the booking. To stop, choose Change or stop on the scanner.

When the internet is down

The app keeps selling with cash and check. Sales and payments are saved on the device and sent to WaiverFile when it reconnects. A few things to know:

• Card payments, including the card reader, need the internet.
• The app can only sell a day it has already opened while online, so open today's New sale at the start of the day.
• Spots left aren't checked while offline, so a time could end up over capacity.
• If something needs a look once the sale is sent, for example the amount didn't match, the app tells staff on the device.

Change a booking

Open a booking and tap Change this booking to:

• Change how many: add people to the same time, or take off people who didn't come. Guests who have checked in stay on the booking.
• Add an activity or time: another activity, or the same one at another time, at that time's price. New guests get their own waivers and check-in codes.
• Add an add-on, or add a charge or a discount.
• Move it to another day or time, with the price difference shown before you move it. Move everyone, or check only the guests who are moving, and choose whether the customer gets an updated confirmation email.
• Refund part or all of a payment. Card payments go back to the card. Cash and check payments are given back in cash and recorded in your cash drawer, so the drawer report shows the refund.
• Resend the confirmation email, email the receipt, itinerary or tickets, or cancel the booking, with or without a refund.
• Add a note to the booking's history, with a status if you like.
• Resend or cancel a payment request, manage check-in codes (everyone their own, or a new code), and change the customer's email (a link to confirm it goes to the new address).

A change updates the balance right away: take what's owed with the payment buttons, or tap Refund when the booking now costs less than was paid. A refund asks why, and when everything is refunded it can cancel the booking too, so its spots free up. The booking fee isn't refunded unless you choose Also give back the booking fee; that amount comes from your balance.

Guests on a booking

Tap Options next to a guest to check them in (or undo it), type their name, find a waiver they already signed and attach it (only waivers that haven't expired), send their waiver invite again or cancel it, revoke a signed waiver, replace or turn off their own check-in code, or take them off the booking (the price goes down by one; refund the difference after). Check in everyone checks in the whole booking.

Type a card

When there's no card reader, or the card won't tap, choose Type card. The card number goes into Stripe's secure fields, straight to Stripe: it never touches the app or WaiverFile. If the bank asks the cardholder to confirm, it happens on the same screen.

Waivers before or after paying

Paying first is the usual way. To have everyone sign first on a sale, choose Sign waivers first, then pay: the booking is saved and Check in and waivers opens; take the payment after. The Require waivers before payment setting on the website's Front desk makes this the only choice.

Sell a membership

Staff (Moderator and up) can sell memberships from the Memberships tab of New sale. Choose the plan and price, the account holder (the sale's customer, or type in their name and email) and, on a household plan, the others on it. The screen shows what's due today. Then choose how they pay:

• Card reader: they tap, insert or swipe, and the card is kept for renewals.
• Cash or Check: recorded in this device's cash drawer. On a plan that renews, record each renewal on the website.
• Card on file: charged now and kept for renewals.
• Email a link to add a card: the membership starts when they add one.
• Free.

If the plan has waivers, choose whether they sign before or after paying (the plan's setting picks the start). They sign on the device. Waivers left for later can be signed from the membership on the customer's card (Sign the membership's waivers).

A membership has its own payment and receipt; it isn't part of the sale. The customer's memberships show on their card in New sale and in Find.

What still needs the web admin

For these, sign in to WaiverFile on a computer and open the booking from Find booking or Bookings.

• Adding a package to an existing booking
• Changing, pausing or refunding a membership
• New sale settings, and setting up card readers and printers