- Product overview
- Menu management
- Versions and rollback
Versions and going back
Each time you publish, the menu is frozen as a numbered version and guests start reading it. You can look at it on a phone before it goes out, have it go out at an hour you choose, and put an earlier version back in one step. The printed code never changes.
The wrong price list is already on forty tables
A menu goes out with a whole column wrong, and guests are reading it right now. Paper cannot be recalled and the evening cannot be paused while somebody retypes the prices.
Correcting it under that pressure is the slowest possible way to work and the likeliest to produce a second mistake. The question an owner really wants answered before buying is not "can I edit the menu" but "what happens on the night I get it wrong".
The paper is not the menu; the version behind it is
The card on the table points at a permanent address. What that address shows is the version you published last, so changing the menu never means changing the paper.
Because every publish is kept, going back is a single step rather than a retyping exercise. The bad evening becomes a minute of trouble, and the record still says what was live and when.
How it works
- Look at the draft on a real phone first A preview link opens the draft the way a guest would see it and expires by itself a quarter of an hour later, so checking no longer means publishing first.
- Publish, and a numbered version is frozen Publishing takes a copy of the draft with its photographs, your logo and your colours, gives it the next version number and hands it to guests.
- Or choose an hour instead The offered hours are worked out on the branch's own clock, not the clock of the computer you are sitting at, and stored as absolute moments so a daylight-saving night cannot be ambiguous.
- What you approved is what goes out A scheduled publish freezes the menu when you set it, and refuses a draft that is not ready there and then. Work you leave half finished afterwards cannot reach a guest at three in the morning.
- The server carries it out on its own A scheduled publish is an ordinary publish: the same history, the next version number, the same printed code. It happens whether or not anyone is logged in, and it cannot happen twice.
- See which version is live The history lists the versions newest first and marks the one guests are reading now, because the owner arguing with a guest about a price is looking for exactly that line.
- Put an earlier one back Restoring publishes the old copy again as a new version. Going back to version one produces version three, so the history keeps saying what was live and when.
What you can do
- Publish without touching the printed card
- A menu's public address carries an identifier that never changes. Rename the business, move the branch or rewrite the menu, and the card on the table keeps working.
- Guests read a frozen copy, not your draft
- A published version holds the menu as it was at that moment. Editing tonight changes nothing on any table until you publish again.
- The plan is frozen into the version too
- The rights that were in force are recorded with the publication, so a lapsed plan does not cut the page under a guest who is halfway through a meal. The change lands on your next publish.
- Going back does not touch your draft
- Rollback corrects what guests read, not what you are working on. Half-finished edits in the draft survive it untouched.
- A schedule can be called off
- A publish set for tonight can be cancelled before it runs. The plan is kept as a cancelled record rather than erased, because "what happened that night" gets asked eventually.
- A publish that did not go out is said out loud
- Overdue, interrupted and failed are three separate answers, and in all three the menu did not change: guests are still reading the version before it.
- A month is as far ahead as it goes
- A publish can be set up to thirty days ahead. Beyond that a frozen copy stops being a decision you remember making.
- An unready draft is refused at the button
- A menu that cannot be published is refused when you press publish or set the schedule, not silently in the middle of the night.
- Sold out does not wait for a publish
- Marking a dish as finished for today reaches the next guest who scans, with no version and no publish in between. It is the one change that skips this whole page.
What you need
| Permission to publish | Going back is publishing and asks for the same permission. A read-only member can read the history and see which version is live, and cannot change it. |
|---|---|
| No paid plan | Publishing, previewing, scheduling and going back are all on the Starter plan, which costs nothing. No part of this page is opened by paying. |
| A branch whose time zone is recognised | Scheduled hours are worked out on the branch's clock. Where that clock cannot be read, no hours are offered rather than a guessed one, and publishing now stays open. |
| A server that runs its scheduled work | The publish set for three in the morning is carried out by a task that runs every minute on the server. Scheduling is the one part of this page that needs something running while you sleep. |
What it does not do
- It is not an undo for your editing Rollback changes what guests read. It does not take back a price you typed in the draft, and it will not bring back a dish you deleted there.
- No comparison between two versions The history shows version numbers, times and which one is live. It does not show what changed between two of them, so the version you go back to has to be one you recognise.
- No approval step and no second pair of eyes Anyone allowed to publish publishes immediately. There is no review queue, no draft sent for approval and no way to require a second person.
- A failed scheduled publish is not retried It is marked and left for you. Trying again quietly through the night would mean the menu could change without anybody deciding it should.
- No repeating schedule A schedule is one moment, not a rule. A menu that changes every Monday is set again every week.
- Nothing is emailed when a version goes live No message is sent when a publish succeeds or fails. The answer lives on the screen, which means somebody has to look at it the morning after.
- The preview link is deliberately short-lived It cannot be used as a permanent address to send around. It stops working a quarter of an hour later, so a draft forwarded to a group chat is dead by the next day.
Questions owners ask about publishing
I published the wrong price list. What do I do now?
Open the history, find the version that was right and restore it. Guests reading the menu see the corrected one on their next scan, and no card has to be reprinted.
Does going back delete the version I am leaving?
No. Restoring writes the old copy as a new version, so going back to version one produces version three. Nothing is removed from the record.
Will I lose the edits I was in the middle of?
No. Rollback only changes what guests read. Your draft is exactly where you left it.
Does the address on the card change when I roll back?
No. The public address of a menu carries an identifier that never changes, whatever you publish behind it.
What happens if the publish I set for the night does not go out?
You are told, and it is named: overdue, interrupted or failed. In all three the menu did not change, so guests are still reading the version before it.
Can I show the draft to somebody before it goes live?
Yes, with a preview link that opens the draft on a real phone and expires by itself a quarter of an hour later.
Can I set a change to repeat every week?
No. A schedule is a single moment, so a weekly change is set again each week.
Publishing is not behind a plan
Building a menu, publishing it and going back to an earlier version cost nothing.
See the plans