How to: Seat Multiple Groups at a Dining Table

To seat the first group at a dining table

In the Table Overview (the POS screen that shows all of a dining area's tables), press the free dining table.
Select Seat Guests from the pop-up menu.
Enter the number of guests for this group, and the guest name or ID (if requested).

The table is now Seated, with one group on it, and the Overview Table Popup panel for the table opens automatically.

To view the groups seated at a table

In the Table Overview, press the dining table.

The Overview Table Popup panel opens, listing every group currently seated at the table with its guest count, comments, and kitchen status. Most buttons on a group's row run their own command directly (for example, changing the guest count or showing kitchen status); to open a pop-up menu of further actions for that group, press the … button on its row.

To seat another group at a partially seated table

A table that still has free seats is a valid target for a new party, even while other groups are already seated at it. There are two ways to seat that new group.

From the Table Overview:

Press the partially seated table to open its Overview Table Popup panel.
Press the button that carries the SEAT_GUESTS command.
Enter the number of guests for the new group, and the guest name or ID.

This seats a new group at the table - it does not touch the groups already seated there - and succeeds only while the table still has enough free seats for the new group.

From the Dining Allocation panel, for a walk-in or a reservation:

In the The Dining Allocation Panel, create a walk-in entry or select an existing reservation.
Select the table. If it already has one or more reservations for the time you are viewing (seated or allocated), the Allocation Table Popup panel opens, listing them.
From the pop-up menu on the new walk-in or reservation's own row, select Seat Guests. The number of guests you seat cannot exceed the seats still free at the table.

Note: Under multiple seatings, a party is never split and joined across several tables the way single-seating joining works. If a party is allocated across more than one table, each table gets its own seating group and its own transaction, but all of them are linked to the same reservation.

When you create a walk-in entry on a table that has fewer free seats than the party, the On Creating Walk-in Reservations field in the dining area decides what happens. With Start Manual Alloc. Mode or Try Automatic Alloc. - Then Manual, the table takes the seats it has free and you allocate the remaining guests to further tables. With No Action or Try Automatic Allocation, the table must have free seats for the whole party.

To seat a reservation from the Upcoming Reservations panel

In the Table Overview, press the dining table and select Upcoming Reservations on the Overview Table Popup panel.
Select Seat Guests for the reservation. The button is greyed out until the reservation is due. See How buttons are shown enabled or disabled.

The whole party is seated at the tables the reservation is allocated to, or nobody is. If the free seats there are fewer than the guests, the POS shows a message, for example Seating is not possible. 2 of the guests do not fit at the allocated table(s) - only 4 of 6 seats needed are free., and nothing is seated.

To un-seat or clear a group

In the Table Overview, press the table to open its Overview Table Popup panel, and select the group's row.
Press the button that carries the MSEAT-CLEARSEATING command.

If the group has not ordered anything yet, it is un-seated and its seats become free again. If the group has paid and all its kitchen order tickets have been served, it is cleared. For a group in any other state, the button is greyed out until the group reaches one of those two states.