Capacity
Capacity is the maximum number of people allowed in the queue at once. When the queue is full, new joiners see a friendly message saying so.
Leave it blank to allow unlimited entries — fine for most operations. Set a number when you want to protect quality of service: a clinic that won't realistically see more than 30 walk-ins before lunch sets capacity to 30; a salon that knows it can't get to anyone arriving after 4pm sets capacity based on stylists × remaining service slots.
A full queue is a useful signal both ways: customers know not to drive over, and your staff knows the day is at its limit.
Estimated Service Time
This is the average minutes per person, in your busiest period. The platform multiplies it by the position number to estimate the wait — position 5 with a 10-minute service time shows a 40-minute wait estimate.
Don't overthink it. A reasonable estimate that's slightly pessimistic builds more trust than a precise estimate that's optimistic. If your real average is 8 minutes, set 10. If it's 22, set 25.
You can also tune it later as your real data fills the dashboard — see Reading the Dashboard.
Page Timeout
When you press "Page" on the operator board, the person gets an SMS saying it's their turn. Page timeout is how many minutes you give them to physically arrive before the platform marks them as a no-show and removes them from the queue.
Typical values: 3 minutes for a tight space (deli counter, bank teller), 5 minutes for most operations, 10 minutes for places where people might be sitting in their car or at a nearby table (restaurant, walk-in clinic).
You can always undo a no-show — see Paging & Handling No-Shows — so it's safe to keep this tight.
Queue Type
Set this once when you create the queue. Changing it later is allowed but rare:
- Waitlist — the most flexible. Staff can move people up or down. Use this unless you have a specific reason not to.
- Numbered Ticket — every entry gets a sequential number. Visible on the public status page. Use this when fairness or auditability matter more than flexibility — government counters, regulated services, compliance-heavy environments.
- Appointment Buffer — designed to coexist with bookings made in NOWAITN Reservations. Booked appointments hold their slot; the queue fills the gaps.
- FIFO — strict first-in-first-out. Staff cannot reorder. Useful for ticketed support, fair-access scenarios, or anywhere staff discretion is a liability.
Putting It Together
A worked example: a 30-chair barbershop on a Saturday wants to keep its line manageable.
- Type: Waitlist (they want to swap a walk-in for a regular if it's a quiet moment).
- Capacity: 25 (with 30 chairs and an average 30-minute haircut, more than 25 people waiting means a 75-minute wait — past the point most people will hang around).
- Service time: 30 minutes (their actual average, slightly rounded up).
- Page timeout: 5 minutes (chairs free up fast; they don't want to hold one open for someone who left).
These four numbers configure the whole experience. Everything else — channels, notifications, kiosk — sits on top.