Understand windowed mode
Take-a-number queues served at numbered windows, booths or counters — what it is and when to choose it over a line.
Windowed mode — called Take-a-number in the app — turns a location into a take-a-number operation: customers get a number (from a lobby tablet, the QR code, or the front desk), staff sit at numbered windows (counters, booths, desks, stations), and each free staff member calls the next number to their window. A now-serving board shows the lobby who's up and where to go.
Your location chooses what to call them — Window, Booth, Counter, Desk, Station or Door — and the app uses that word everywhere (My booth, Take Booth 1, "Go to Booth 2 now").
Line vs. Take-a-number
| Line | Take-a-number (windowed) | |
|---|---|---|
| Staff work from | the Queue (a board where you move people along) | My window (My booth, My counter… — their own window) |
| Who serves whom | staff pick and move each visitor | the next in line is called to the window that's free |
| Fits | shops, salons, clinics, restaurants | government counters, banks, service desks, conference booths, checkout counters |
A location runs one or the other (rooms and equipment work with either). You can switch any time — your QR codes and links stay the same, and a Line location keeps its own stages when you switch back. See Enable windowed mode.
What staff see
- Everyone who signs in to a take-a-number location — owners included — lands on My window (your word). With only one window, opening it takes that window for you.
- The Queue shows everyone waiting and being served, but is view only — calling and serving happen on My window, which keeps the now-serving board in sync.
- On the Queue screen layout (one Live menu item with tabs), the tabs are My window and Queue under Take-a-number. On the classic menus, they are two sidebar items with a My window | Queue switch at the top. See The Queue screen.
The customer experience
- Take a number — at the lobby tablet, or by scanning your QR code with their own phone. On their phone the form is titled Take a number and the button says Get my number.
- Watch the board or their phone. The phone shows how many people are ahead and a rough wait estimate ("a guide, not a promise"). A kiosk ticket has a QR code to follow along on their own phone.
- When called, their phone fills the screen with "It's your turn — Go to Window 3 now" (your window's own name), and the board shows it too. If they tapped Alert me, the phone also plays a sound and vibrates.
- Served.
Reports
On Queue-screen locations, Reports has a Take-a-number tab: for each window — how many were called and served, the average wait to be called, service time and no-shows. See Reports & activity.