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The front desk

The front desk is a tablet app at /desk on your site. Staff can manage appointments and see a short payment summary without opening the admin.

Dedicated front desk routes limit the information available. They do not provide access to order details, payment providers or refunds.

Before you begin

  • kahunacart.bookings.manage or kahunacart.settings to turn the desk on and change its address.
  • One of kahunacart.bookings.desk or kahunacart.bookings.desk.own on every member of staff who uses it, plus Grav's own API access.
  • The Login plugin installed, because that is what signs them in.
  • For access to one column, link the staff account under Signing in on its People and places record.

Enable the front desk

Plugins → KahunaCart Bookings → The front desk.

Setting Key Default What it does
Front desk desk.enabled on Whether the app is served at all. Off, and the route is not there
Where it lives desk.route /desk The address staff open on the tablet

If /desk is already in use, choose another route starting with a slash, such as /reception or /salon/desk.

The plugin includes the built app. No separate page, Node installation or build step is needed.

When the desk is enabled, Open the front desk appears in the Bookings header. It opens the configured route in a new tab.

Give staff access

Each staff account needs API access and one of these desk permissions:

Permission What it opens
kahunacart.bookings.desk The whole diary. This is reception: every column, every appointment, anybody's customer
kahunacart.bookings.desk.own One column. A stylist sees her own day and nothing else

Link the staff member’s account through Signing in under Bookings → People and places. Without this link, desk.own shows an empty desk.

kahunacart.bookings.manage also grants access to the whole diary.

Desk permissions do not grant access to the Grav admin, KahunaCart admin or other API routes.

Limits of access to one column

  • View another resource’s column. The server returns only the assigned column.
  • Open another staff member’s booking by ID. The response is “There is no booking with that id”, matching the response for a nonexistent booking.
  • Create bookings for other staff. The booking form omits the staff selector.

The screens

Today is the home screen. It shows upcoming appointments, arrivals, late customers, approval requests and completed appointments, with a prominent New booking button.

Diary shows a column for each person, room or piece of equipment, with working hours shaded behind appointments. Tap a booking to open it, or press and hold to drag it to a new time in fifteen-minute increments. Choose Day, Week or List; shops with nightly services also have a Stays view.

Use the filters above the diary to select the resource type, location and names. A filter row appears only when it offers more than one choice. Everything and Everywhere clear the relevant filters. The tablet remembers its selections.

Find searches customers by name, email or telephone number. Results include the next appointment and attendance history.

One appointment opens in a panel over the current screen. The primary button advances from Check in to Done. Other actions are under More.

Manage nightly stays

The desk adds stay controls when the shop offers bookings by the day, through Rentals or another booking add-on. These controls remain hidden in shops that only offer appointments.

Arriving and Leaving appear at the top of Today. Each row shows the guest, property, dates, payment summary and check-in status. Guests in the middle of a stay do not appear in these lists, Next up or Rest of the day.

Stays shows properties against a fortnight or month of dates. Each bar runs from midday on arrival to midday on departure, making same-day changeovers clear. Time off is hatched and today is marked with a line. Tap a bar to open the booking.

Stays lists resources booked by the day and bookings longer than a day. The view is hidden when the shop has no such services. To move a stay, use the admin; bars cannot be dragged in this view.

Day and week views hide day-based rentals by default. Select Properties or an individual property to include them.

Check in changes to Check out after a rental guest arrives. The panel shows the stay dates and length, for example “Sat 9 Aug to Sat 16 Aug, 7 nights”, followed by arrival and departure times.

Book a walk-in

Tap New booking. Choose the service, option, staff member and time, then enter customer details and any notes. Press Book it.

The form offers currently available times only.

Desk bookings bypass minimum notice and booking-window limits. All other availability requirements still apply.

Book a nightly stay

For a nightly service, enter the day they arrive, the day they leave and how many people. Review the quote before pressing Book it. It shows the dates, arrival and departure times, rate bands and total. If the stay is unavailable, the form explains why, for example 3 nights minimum or Arrivals on Saturdays.

Desk bookings do not take payment or schedule balance collection. They have no order, deposit, balance deadline or balance reminder. The desk shows To collect using the quote saved when the booking was made. Collect that amount separately.

Payment summaries

One line, and nothing to press:

  • Paid online — it is settled, there is nothing to take
  • Deposit paid — $25.00 to pay today — what is still owed
  • Pay today: $80.00 — nothing has been paid
  • To collect: $1,714.00 — a desk booking without an order. Collect the full quoted amount when the guest arrives.
  • Free

Seeded or imported stays without a saved quote show no payment summary. The desk does not estimate a total from the current nightly rate.

The payment summary is read-only. Staff cannot open order details, choose providers, charge cards or issue refunds from the desk itself.

Cancelling a paid appointment releases its time and opens a refund request for review in the admin. It does not transfer money. The notification option controls whether the customer is told.

The desk takes no money itself. Without the Point of Sale add-on, use the summary and take payment through your existing counter payment method.

Take payment at the till

With the Point of Sale add-on installed, a booking whose order still owes money (Deposit paid or Pay today) has a Take payment button, for staff who are allowed to use the till. It opens the till with that order ready to pay in cash, on a card reader or any other way the till takes. See From the Bookings desk.

A desk booking with To collect has no order, so it has no Take payment button. Ring the amount up at the till or collect it as you do today.

Appointment actions

What it does
Check in Records the first arrival time. Repeating the action does not change it.
Done Marks it completed. On something booked by the day the same button says Check out
Did not come Marks a no-show, and clears one if it was pressed by mistake
Move Reschedules to an available time. Nightly stays must be moved from the admin.
Cancel Frees the time, writes the trail, and opens a refund request if there is money on it
Approve Says yes to a booking that was waiting for one
Turn down Rejects an unpaid request. Cancel paid bookings instead to create a refund request.

Let the customer know is enabled by default for each action. Clear it when no notification is needed.

Each action records the staff member, time and change in the appointment history shown on the panel.

Add the desk to a tablet

Add the desk to the tablet’s home screen to use its app view and icon. Desk pages are excluded from indexing and caching.

On a shared tablet, use Sign out in the top corner when your shift ends.

The desk has its own login page without the storefront header, navigation or footer.

Staff usage notes

A red line across an appointment marks a booking conflict. Ask the owner or manager to resolve it.

An orange edge means a booking changed after the screen loaded. Tap it to view the current details.