A reservation’s status is the most important field on it. It tells the whole team where a guest is in their journey, drives the colors in every view, frees tables when guests leave, and decides what happens to deposits and card holds. This page documents every status, what it means, and when to use it.
You rarely need all of these by hand. In day-to-day service you’ll mostly move guests through Confirmed → Seated → Done, and occasionally No-show. The rest are set automatically or used in specific situations described below.
The lifecycle at a glance
Read it as three families: confirmation (the booking is agreed), service (the guest is here, moving through the meal), and closed (finished, or it didn’t happen).
Confirmation statuses
These cover the period between a booking being made and the guest walking in.
Confirmed, pending payment is managed for you. If a reservation has an unpaid deposit or prepayment, EatNow puts it here; when the payment clears, it returns to Confirmed. You normally don’t set this one manually.
Service statuses
These track the guest through the meal. Keeping them current during service is what makes the floor plan, the Cockpit Turn alerts, and walk-in availability accurate.
Seated for drinks and Partially seated are the “special” seating statuses. They exist so a guest who’s physically in the room but not fully at their table doesn’t get mistaken for a no-show — and so your table-turn timing stays honest.
Closed and negative statuses
These end a reservation that won’t (or didn’t) complete normally.
Always mark genuine no-shows as No-show. Leaving them as Confirmed inflates your covers, skews your reports, hides repeat no-show behavior in the guest’s profile, and — if there’s a deposit or pre-authorization — costs you the chance to act on it.
Deposits & card holds on no-show / cancellation
If a reservation carries a deposit or a card hold (pre-authorization), the closing status is what triggers the money:
- Marking No-show on a booking with an active card hold lets you capture (charge) or skip the hold — EatNow asks which when you change the status.
- Cancellations can offer a refund of any payment taken, depending on your refund window.
See the reservation form’s Payment section for how deposits and prepayments are set up.
How statuses appear in the app
- Colors. Across the Cockpit, Planning, and floor plan, each status has a color so you read the room at a glance — green-ish for confirmed, blue for guests in service, red for negative outcomes, grey for done.
- Only sensible transitions are offered. When you tap a reservation in a grid, EatNow shows just the next statuses that make sense (e.g. from Seated you’ll see Done, not Pending). To force any status, open the full reservation form and use the Status dropdown.
- Some statuses are automatic. Confirmed, pending payment and Double confirmed are set by the system in response to payments and double-confirmation replies — you don’t usually set them by hand.
FAQ
What’s the difference between “Confirmed” and “Manually confirmed”?
Both mean the booking is agreed. Confirmed typically reflects the guest confirming (e.g. online); Manually confirmed means your team confirmed it on their behalf, such as after a callback. For running service they behave the same.
A guest arrived but their table isn’t ready — what do I set?
Use Showed up (or Seated for drinks if you sit them at the bar). When you walk them to the table, change it to Seated.
The guest canceled — should I use “Canceled by user” or “Canceled by restaurant”?
Use Canceled by user when the guest cancels, and Canceled by restaurant when your team does. Picking the right one keeps your stats and the guest’s history accurate.
Can I move a reservation back to an earlier status?
The quick-action menu only offers forward, sensible transitions. If you genuinely need to go back (e.g. you marked Done too early), open the reservation’s full form and choose the status from the Status dropdown. 