📣 rest-staff

Pre-Service Briefing

Pre-Service Briefing is the digital version of the "line-up" or pre-shift meeting every waiter, host and captain reads before a service begins. A manager drafts a briefing for a specific date and shift (Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner/Late Night) covering specials to push, the 86 list, VIP arrivals, staff reminders, active promotions and any equipment alerts, then publishes it so the floor team can read and check it off.

📍 Menu path: Staff & HR → Pre-Service Briefing

👤 Who uses it: All roles with the Billing feature enabled

Overview

A briefing starts as a Draft and is only visible to the team once you click Publish — draft briefings are for a manager's own preparation.

Each briefing has six optional sections you fill in as needed: Specials to Push, 86 List, VIP Arrivals, Staff Reminders, Active Promotions and Equipment/Ops Alerts — any can be left empty.

Today's Published Briefings appear in a prominent green banner at the top of the page with a live read count for each.

Staff use "Mark as Read" (prompting for their name) on a published briefing; the names of everyone who has read it are shown, giving the manager a simple accountability check before service starts.

A Large Party / Reservation Alert field is shown as a standalone amber warning at the top of the printed slip and the on-screen card.

Use the Today / All History filter to review only today's briefings or browse the full history by date.

Before You Start

You must have the Billing feature enabled on your plan.

Step-by-Step Guide

1 Create and publish a briefing

Open Staff & HR → Pre-Service Briefing and click "New Briefing".
Set the Date, Shift (Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner/Late Night), Manager name and Expected Covers.
Optionally add a Large Party / Reservation Alert one-liner.
Fill in any of the six sections you need (Specials, 86 List, VIP Arrivals, Reminders, Promotions, Ops Alerts) using the "+" button on each.
Click "Publish" to make it visible to the team immediately, or "Save Draft" to keep working on it first.

2 Publish a saved draft later

Find the draft in the list (marked with a grey "Draft" status pill).
Click the "Publish" action on its card — it becomes visible to staff instantly and moves into the Today's Published Briefings banner if dated today.

3 Mark a briefing as read

Open a published briefing card and expand it.
Click "Mark as Read" and enter your name when prompted.
Your name is added to the "Read by" list shown on that briefing.

4 Print a briefing slip

Click the printer icon on any briefing card.
A compact A5-style slip opens in a new window/print dialog listing every filled-in section for that shift.

Every Field & Button, Explained

Field / Button	What it does
`Date / Shift`	Required. Shift is one of Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner or Late Night, each with a suggested time window shown for reference only.
`Manager / Prepared by`	Required free-text name of whoever is preparing the briefing.
`Expected Covers`	Optional numeric estimate of covers for the shift, shown on the card and printed slip.
`Large Party / Reservation Alert`	Optional free-text warning, e.g. "Party of 12 at table 8" — displayed prominently in amber.
`Specials to Push (dish + pitch)`	One or more lines, each a dish name and a short sales-pitch one-liner for staff to use when suggesting it.
`86 List (dish + reason)`	Dishes that are out of stock for the shift, each with a short reason shown in red.
`VIP Arrivals (name, table, note)`	Guest name, table number and an optional note (allergies, preferences, occasion).
`Staff Reminders / Active Promotions / Equipment-Ops Alerts`	Free-text bullet lists added one line at a time; Ops Alerts render in amber to draw attention.
`Status`	DRAFT (manager-only) → PUBLISHED (visible to team, can collect reads) → ARCHIVED (exists in the schema; no button in this screen sets it).

Tips & Best Practices

Keep Draft briefings for planning ahead (e.g. next week's big event) and only Publish the one relevant to the shift about to start.
Use the read-count in the Today's Published Briefings banner as a quick "has everyone seen this" check before service begins.
Print the slip for teams that prefer a physical line-up sheet on the pass rather than checking a screen.

Troubleshooting & FAQ

A briefing I published yesterday still shows in "Today".

The Today filter matches on the briefing's Date field, not on when it was published — if the Date was left as an earlier day, it will not appear under Today regardless of publish time.

I removed a section item by mistake before saving.

Each section's items only exist in the form until you save — there is no separate undo, so re-add the item before clicking Save Draft or Publish.

"Mark as Read" does nothing.

It only works on PUBLISHED briefings and requires typing a name in the prompt — cancelling the prompt or leaving it blank does not record a read.