The hours displayed to customers on the Online Ordering locations page are separate from the actual ordering hours. Direct Ordering provides an Hours Description field so the business hours shown to customers can be controlled directly, rather than displaying a time derived from order-acceptance settings.

How Order-Acceptance Timing Works

The last allowable ASAP order each day is determined by the Closing Time set in the Checkmate Portal, minus the Wait Time set in the corresponding menu's Revenue Center in Direct Ordering. Restaurants generally follow one of two models:

1. Accept final orders at Closing Time minus Wait Time. For example, a restaurant closes at 10:00 PM with a 20-minute wait time and wants the final order picked up by 10:00 PM. The last ASAP order is placed at 9:40 PM, for a 10:00 PM pickup. The restaurant sets its Closing Time to 10:00 PM.
2. Accept orders through Closing Time. For example, a restaurant closes at 10:00 PM with a 20-minute wait time and wants to accept orders up through 10:00 PM. The last ASAP order is placed at 10:00 PM, for a 10:20 PM pickup. The restaurant sets its Closing Time to 10:20 PM.

Without a separate display field, a restaurant following the second model would show a closing time of 10:20 PM, which could mislead customers into thinking the restaurant is open later than it actually is. The Hours Description field exists so the displayed business hours can be controlled. The field is optional and can be edited at any time.

Editing the Hours Description Field

1. Log in to the Direct Ordering Admin Panel.
2. Go to Stores and select the store to edit.
3. The store opens to the Settings page. Scroll to the Hours Description field and enter the text to display for that store.
4. Select Submit to save the changes.

The recording below shows how to update the Hours Description from "Sunday-Saturday 11am-11pm" to "Sunday-Saturday 11am-10pm".

How the Hours Description Displays

• Use commas to show multiple rows. On the web Locations page, the text is split on commas, and each part appears on its own row. For example, entering "Mon-Fri 10am-9pm, Sat-Sun 11am-7pm" displays as two rows.
• Text styling does not appear. The field accepts styling such as bold, lists, and line breaks, but the web Locations page shows the entry as plain text, so styling has no visible effect. Use commas, not line breaks, to separate rows.
• Type the text directly. Avoid leading or trailing spaces, and avoid pasting from another document, since extra spaces and hidden characters are not removed and can appear on the Locations page.
• On the mobile app, the Hours Description appears as plain text. The comma-based row layout applies to the web Locations page only.
• Character limit. The field accepts up to 1,000 characters.

The screenshot below shows the resulting customer-facing locations page, which now reflects a 10:00 PM closing time for the selected location only.