Help for pubs

How it works

• ·It reads your diary and shows only today. If nothing is scheduled for today, it says so rather than showing you tomorrow.
• ·The numbers underneath come from the database as the page loads. They are not a daily summary sent to you; refresh the page and they are current again.
• ·Anything that needs a decision from you appears in Needs you, with a link straight to the card that fixes it.

What to do

1. 1Check this card when you come on shift.
2. 2Work down Needs you until it is empty. Each row jumps to the right place.
3. 3If tonight is wrong, fix it in Diary rather than here. This card only shows what Diary says.

How it works

• ·Each row is a real gap, not a nag: a missing opening time, no photo, an enquiry nobody has answered, a night with no acts booked.
• ·Rows disappear on their own once the gap is filled. There is nothing to tick off.
• ·An empty list means the page has everything it needs. It does not mean there is nothing worth improving.

What to do

1. 1Do the top row first. They are ordered by how much difference they make to somebody finding you.
2. 2If a row does not apply to your pub, fill in the field it is asking about with the honest answer rather than leaving it blank. A blank field reads as an oversight; an answer reads as a decision.

How it works

• ·Opening a night generates a join code and a QR code. Anybody in the room can enter a record using either, whether or not they have an account.
• ·Members vote from their phone. The score a record ends up with is the average of the room, not yours.
• ·If the signal in your back room is bad, print the paper ballot instead and type the results in afterwards. The result is identical either way.
• ·The crown goes to the highest-scoring record of the night. It is recorded against the member who brought it and shows on the league table.

What to do

1. 1Open the night when the first person arrives, not when you plan to start. Entries trickle in.
2. 2Put the QR code somewhere people are already standing: the bar, not the door.
3. 3Close the vote before you announce anything. A vote left open while you read out scores can still change.

How it works

• ·This is the single biggest reason somebody picks your pub off the directory. Cask, keg, cider, no- and low-alcohol, and whether you do a proper coffee are all filters people actually use.
• ·It does not need to be a full price list. A reader wants to know whether it is worth the walk, and a landlord has better things to do than maintain a menu.
• ·Anything you leave blank is treated as unknown, not as no. You will simply not appear when somebody filters for it.

What to do

1. 1Fill in the categories you genuinely have, and leave the rest empty.
2. 2Come back to it when a line changes permanently, not when a guest ale changes.

How it works

• ·Listing a quiz puts it on your page, on the quizzes directory and in the weekly newsletter. That is the whole of the listing side.
• ·Asking for a quiz master sends a request to us. We do not have a pool of quiz masters yet, so this is a way of telling us you want one rather than a booking.
• ·A request appears in our own admin and is emailed to us. You will get a reply from a person.

What to do

1. 1Set the day, the time and what a team costs. Those three answer almost every question anybody asks about a quiz.
2. 2If you run your own quiz, ignore the request form entirely.

How it works

• ·Every other card that mentions a date is reading this. Tonight, your public page, the directory listings and the newsletter all come from here.
• ·A date with no time still lists; a date with no title does not, because a listing that says nothing is worse than no listing.
• ·Past dates stay in the list. They are your record of what you ran, and the site simply stops showing them publicly.

What to do

1. 1Put in the regular nights first, then one-offs as you book them.
2. 2Give each one a name a stranger would understand. Quiz is better than Tuesday; Open mic is better than Jam.
3. 3If something is cancelled, delete it rather than renaming it. Nobody wants a listing for a thing that is not happening.

How it works

• ·A member picks your pub at checkout. The order comes to your bar in one delivery with the others, not as individual parcels.
• ·Each row shows who it is for and a collection reference. They show you the reference; you hand over the parcel and mark it collected.
• ·Nothing is charged to you and nothing is owed to us. The point is footfall: somebody comes in to collect a record and buys a pint while they are there.

What to do

1. 1Keep them somewhere behind the bar that whoever is on shift knows about.
2. 2Mark a parcel collected when it leaves, so the member stops getting reminders.
3. 3If a parcel has sat for 28 days, tell us and we will chase them.

How it works

• ·A live date lists the same way a quiz does, and additionally appears on the gigs pages, which is where people looking specifically for music go.
• ·If you know who is playing, name them. A gig listing with an act on it is the one people click.
• ·Playing recorded or live music in a licensed premises generally needs a music licence. We do not sell one and we do not check for one; there is a plain-English page on the site explaining what applies.

What to do

1. 1List the date as soon as it is agreed, even if the act is not confirmed. Somebody planning a Friday looks a week ahead.
2. 2Read the music licensing page once if you have never looked at it. It takes five minutes and it is the one thing on this list that carries a fine.

How it works

• ·You search the directory of acts, pick one, and send a note about a date. It opens a conversation you can both see.
• ·If that act has a published page here, the message goes to them directly and they answer you in their own admin. If they have not been published yet, it comes to us and we sort it out.
• ·We take nothing from what you agree. The fee, the split and the details are between you and the act, and we never see them.

What to do

1. 1Say the date, the time you would want them on, and roughly what you pay. An enquiry without a number takes three messages to get anywhere.
2. 2Check the act's page before you write. Most have audio on them, and two minutes of listening saves a wasted Friday.

How it works

• ·A promotion is a line of text and a period it runs for. It is not a voucher system and there is no code to check.
• ·It shows on your public page while it is running and disappears on its own afterwards.
• ·Members see it in their local view, which is the place most likely to bring somebody in on a quiet night.

What to do

1. 1Write it as a sentence somebody could read out at the bar. Two pints and a packet of crisps for a fiver, Mondays.
2. 2Set an end date even for something you intend to run forever. An offer with no end date is the one that is still on your page a year after you stopped doing it.

How it works

• ·If you mark a night as having a slot going, this is where the people who want it turn up.
• ·A request is a request. Nothing is booked until you accept it, and accepting it puts it in your diary.
• ·Declining sends no explanation. If you want to say why, reply in the conversation instead.

What to do

1. 1Answer them, even the ones you are declining. An act that never hears back stops asking, and they tell each other.
2. 2Accept the one you want first, then decline the rest, so you are never accidentally double-booked.

How it works

• ·It lists on your page and on the karaoke directory.
• ·The extra fields exist because they are the questions landlords get asked on the phone: is there a host, is it free, how big is the book, and can you do duets.
• ·Answering them cuts the phone calls rather than adding to them.

What to do

1. 1Set the day and time, and say whether it is hosted.
2. 2Be honest about the songbook. Somebody arriving for a night out and finding forty songs on a laptop tells people.

How it works

• ·This drives a filter people use constantly, because the difference between a pub that stops serving at eight and one that stops at nine decides where six people go.
• ·It is deliberately not a menu. A pub kitchen changes weekly and a stale menu is a complaint waiting to happen.
• ·If you do not do food, say so. It is not a disadvantage and people filter for both.

What to do

1. 1Set the kitchen hours, including the day they differ. Sunday is nearly always the day they differ.
2. 2Pick the food type that gets the fewest surprises, not the one that sounds best.

How it works

• ·Views is how many times the page was opened. People is roughly how many different people that was, within a day - so 62 views by 41 people means some came back.
• ·How people found you is the part worth reading. It says which part of the site they were on before they landed here - the quiz pages, the record nights, the trade days - so you can see which of your nights is actually pulling people in.
• ·Every figure is shown against the same length of time before it, so you can tell a good month from a normal one.
• ·What would make a difference lists real gaps on your own page, in the order they cost you something. They disappear as you fill them in.
• ·None of it is a sample. An empty dashboard means a quiet week, not a broken page.

What to do

1. 1Look at where people came from before deciding what to put on next. If most of them arrived through the quiz pages, that is what is working.
2. 2Clear the What would make a difference list. Each one is a filter you are currently missing from.
3. 3Check the busiest day before you post something you want seen.

How it works

• ·Every member on a paid plan gets one pint, once. They open it on their phone and show you a code.
• ·You mark it used and it cannot be used again. There is nothing to keep and nothing to send us.
• ·You are reimbursed for what you pour. It is not a discount you are absorbing.
• ·Taking part is optional and you can stop at any time. Members are only shown pubs that take it.

What to do

1. 1Make sure whoever is on the bar knows what the screen looks like before your first one turns up.
2. 2Mark it used at the point you pour it, not later. The code is the only record.

How it works

• ·It is the printed parts plus the instructions: the paper ballot, the scoring sheet, the QR poster and a page telling whoever is hosting what to say.
• ·You print them yourself from this admin, already filled in with your pub's name and code. There is nothing to order and nothing to wait for.
• ·The night itself runs from the record-night card. This is the kit, not the tool.

What to do

1. 1Print the QR poster and the ballots before your first night.
2. 2Read the host page once. It is one side of A4 and it is the difference between a night that runs itself and one you are explaining all evening.

How it works

• ·Somebody standing outside at half ten on a Tuesday is the reason this matters more than anything else on your page.
• ·Set each day separately. Almost every pub differs on at least one day and the ones that get complaints are the ones that said the same hours for all seven.
• ·A day left blank reads as unknown, not as closed. If you are shut on Mondays, say shut rather than leaving it empty.

What to do

1. 1Do the whole week, including the days you are closed.
2. 2Update it for a bank holiday the week before, not the morning of.

How it works

• ·It is a guide, not a price list, and it is displayed as one. Nobody is going to hold you to a penny.
• ·It exists because the question gets asked constantly and because a pub that answers it honestly gets fewer disappointed first visits.
• ·Leaving it blank is a legitimate choice and simply shows nothing.

What to do

1. 1If you fill it in, keep it roughly current. A price a year out of date is worse than no price.

How it works

• ·The number of tables is yours to set. A snug takes two; a function room takes ten. Nobody here knows your room.
• ·Sellers book through you. Any table money is yours and goes behind the bar - we take nothing and are not involved in anything sold.
• ·Sellers take their own payments - cash, their own card reader, or a payment link. Your card machine is for your bar: putting a seller's sale through it breaks your agreement with your card provider and makes it your turnover.
• ·When the tables are gone the day shows as full on the public page rather than still accepting bookings.

What to do

1. 1Set the number low for your first one. A trade day that felt cramped is one sellers do not come back to.
2. 2Say what a table costs, even if the answer is nothing. Free is simplest: table money is pub income.
3. 3Some councils treat five or more stalls as a market that needs their consent. If you are going past four tables, ring your licensing team first.

How it works

• ·Neither is built yet. This card is how you tell us you want it, and the request reaches a person.
• ·A question pack would be a written round you print and read out. A quiz master would be somebody local we have found and checked.
• ·If you already run your own quiz, you need none of this - just list it, on the quiz card.

What to do

1. 1Register interest if you want either. That is the only thing that decides whether we build it.

How it works

• ·This is what somebody who has never been sees. Everything else in this admin is what they see once they are interested.
• ·The address is what puts you on the map on the home page and in the directory. If the pin is wrong, the address is wrong.
• ·Facilities and accessibility are structured answers rather than free text, so they can be searched. Somebody who needs step-free access is filtering for it, not reading descriptions.

What to do

1. 1Write the description as though you were telling somebody at another pub why they should come. Not marketing, and not a list of what you have.
2. 2Check the map pin after you save the address.
3. 3Answer the accessibility questions properly, including the ones where the answer is no. A wrong yes is worse than a no.

How it works

• ·Every pub is checked by a person before it goes live. Filling in a form is not evidence that you run a pub.
• ·You can log in and fill your page in straight away. The only thing being held back is the public page.
• ·We work the queue oldest first, so signing up early genuinely puts you earlier.

What to do

1. 1Fill the page in while you wait. A complete page is checked faster than an empty one.

How it works

• ·Independents are free for a fixed number of early places and a small one-off fee after that. The fee exists to stop somebody listing forty pubs they do not run, not to make money.
• ·Pub-company houses pay a one-off fee and a small monthly amount, and there are a fixed number of those places at all.
• ·There is no commission on anything. Not on a booking, not on a table, not on a pint.

How it works

• ·Playing recorded music, hosting live music or running karaoke in a licensed premises generally requires a licence from the relevant collecting body.
• ·We do not sell licences, we do not act as an agent, and we do not check whether you hold one. Listing a night here is not a licence and does not imply one.
• ·The page points at the bodies that actually issue them.