Call the Next Customer

The desk surface is the staff-facing interface for managing the queue during the day. It can run in the dedicated Android desk app or in the browser at https://desk.jonot.io. It does not require a personal login — the desk authenticates as a device using the token issued at pairing time.

The desk layout

The desk shows two main sections:

• Current — tickets that are currently CALLED (being served). Empty if no ticket has been called yet, showing a "No customers called" state. Multiple tickets can be in CALLED state simultaneously — each desk can call the next waiting customer independently.
• Waiting list — all tickets in WAITING state, in order.

Daily workflow

Call the next customer

Press Call Next to call the first WAITING ticket. The ticket moves to CALLED state.

• The display screen immediately shows the ticket number and the desk name.
• An audio announcement plays on the display.
• The customer's phone updates to show that their number has been called.

Re-announce a called ticket

If the customer missed hearing their number, press Call again (or press R on the keyboard) to re-announce the current CALLED ticket on the display. The display flashes and plays the announcement again — the ticket state does not change.

Complete service

When service is done, press Finish & hold. The current CALLED ticket moves to COMPLETED state. Press Call Next to serve the next customer.

Skip a customer

If the customer does not respond, press Skip. The current CALLED ticket moves to SKIPPED state. Press Call Next to serve the next customer.

You can enter an optional skip reason — it is saved as a note on the ticket, visible to staff on the look-up view.

See Handle No-Shows for the full no-show and recall workflow.

Call a specific ticket

From the waiting list, staff can click on any WAITING ticket to call it directly — bypassing the queue order. This is useful when a specific customer has already arrived at the desk without being called.

Adding a walk-up customer

If a customer is physically present but has no ticket — for example they do not have a smartphone, or they bypassed the kiosk — staff can create a ticket on their behalf directly from the desk.

1. Press Add walk-up on the desk.
2. Optionally enter the customer's name, party size, or a note.
3. Press Add. The ticket is added to the waiting list and assigned the next sequential number.
4. A success message shows the assigned ticket number — announce it to the customer.

Walk-ups honour the queue's capacity cap (if set) but intentionally bypass operating hours — staff-initiated entry is allowed even after the location closes.

Annotating a ticket

Staff can attach metadata to any non-terminal ticket using the Annotate action on the current-call or waiting-list entry:

• Customer name — shown on the desk at all times. Shown on the display in minimised form ("First L.") only if the queue's Call by name setting is enabled.
• Party size — always shown on the desk and broadcast to the display.
• Note — free-text back-office note, visible to staff only.

Annotations can be added or updated at any point before the ticket reaches a terminal state.

Transferring a ticket to another queue

A WAITING ticket can be moved to a sibling queue in the same location using the Transfer button on the waiting-list row.

1. Press Transfer next to the ticket.
2. Select the destination queue from the picker (only queues assigned to this desk are shown).
3. Confirm. The ticket is moved immediately.

The customer's position in the destination queue is set by their original join time plus a 5-minute penalty — preserving the wait they have already served without leapfrogging customers who joined the destination queue first. The ticket hash is preserved (the customer's ticket page URL remains valid), but the ticket is assigned a new sequential number in the destination queue.

Transfer rules: source and destination must be in the same location; destination must be ACTIVE; desk must be assigned to both queues; the ticket must be WAITING.

Pausing the queue

When you need a short break — or want to stop new arrivals while you clear a backlog — press Pause queue. New customers can no longer join, but everyone already waiting keeps their place, and you can carry on calling them. The button flips to Resume queue; press it to start accepting joins again.

Pausing is instant and visible everywhere: waiting customers see a "queue paused" banner on their ticket, and anyone scanning the QR code is told the queue is paused rather than getting an error. The desk can toggle Active ↔ Paused freely. Fully closing a queue (and reopening it) is done from admin — see Queue status.

Multiple desks, one queue

If multiple desks serve the same queue, each desk independently calls from the shared waiting list. When one desk calls the next ticket, that ticket is removed from the waiting list for all other desks simultaneously. The display shows each desk's current call separately.

Between customers

After completing or skipping a ticket, the desk shows the "No customers called" state until Call Next is pressed. There is no automatic idle timer — the staff member controls the pace.