Guest, party size, phone, notes, and quoted wait stay on one queue record.
Capture enough context to recognize the party
Create the waitlist entry with guest name, party size, phone, notes, and a quoted wait. The team gets a shared front-door record instead of translating a paper list during a rush.
Give every guest a visible queue state
Waiting, Notified, Seated, Cancelled, and No Show keep the next action explicit. Staff can see the queue, average wait, seated guests, and no-shows while the dining room continues to change.
Attempt the notification from the same record
When configured messaging is available, staff can attempt an SMS notification and see a surfaced failure instead of assuming delivery. The Notified state records the operator workflow; it is not treated as proof that a carrier delivered the message.
Seat the party against a real available table
The seating action checks the current table and waitlist state together. Choosing an available table moves the guest into the dining-room workflow without leaving a second active version of the same party behind.
Rehearse the front-door procedure before opening
Use real table capacities, quoted-wait policy, notification configuration, seating authority, cancellation, no-show, and bussing steps in rollout. Staff should be able to recover when the desired table changed after the floor was first viewed.
Rehearse arrival, notification, seating, and recovery
Add test parties with different sizes and quoted waits, attempt a configured notification, surface a controlled failure, seat one party against an available table, and work a table-state conflict. Confirm the queue, floor, and party record agree after every action.
Inspect in the live demo
Open the restaurant floor and waitlist, add a safe test party, and seat it against the current table state. Availability can depend on enabled modules, hardware, payment setup, role, location, and rollout configuration.
Move from the feature to the operation
This capability shares customer, employee, product, location, transaction, and reporting context with the rest of LiftedPOS. The value is not a checked box. It is the handoff the operation no longer has to rebuild.