ReceptionThe Reception guide
Reception guide
Reception is a free, device-local front desk workspace. It helps a person capture requests, plan follow-ups and manage a simple appointment calendar. The current public version does not answer live calls, contact customers or synchronize with another calendar.
1. Set your business hours
Open Business setup → Edit business setup. Choose an IANA time zone such as America/Denver or Europe/London, then enter opening hours in 15-minute increments. You can use two intervals each day, such as 09:00–12:00 and 13:00–17:00. Leave a day blank to close it. For overnight hours, split the interval across two days using 24:00 as the first day’s end.
Add closed dates using YYYY-MM-DD | reason, one per line. These override weekly hours. Teams use distinct menu digits 1–9; a transfer number is optional and does not activate a phone service. Pause a team to stop new reservations without deleting its history.
2. Capture the request
Add a contact name, phone or email, request summary and team. Record whether it arrived by phone, web, email or in person. Set urgency and a follow-up date. The open queue shows urgent requests first, then overdue follow-ups and upcoming dates. The search covers names, emails, phone numbers and summaries.
Open a request to update it. Status changes need a reason and are retained in a bounded history (40 entries). Resolved requests remain available under All or Resolved. Nothing in the queue sends a message, places a call or creates an alarm while the site is closed.
Import a callback queue
If your operator supplies a Reception callback export, open Your data → Import callback queue. Review the business, team and number suffix, then select records to add. Nothing is selected by default. Team identifiers must match this workspace’s reviewed business configuration. Each record reports an explicit keypad callback request; caller ID and an exported file do not verify identity or authenticity. Imported requests keep their source ID and reported consent version. Reimporting unchanged records preserves your edits; conflicting source details reject the entire batch. No call or message is sent.
The optional phone pilot can prepare these records after explicit keypad consent, with encrypted server storage, seven-day export expiry and a separate deletion job. It is disconnected from this public preview. A configured private host, database, keys, operator access, consent review and real provider acceptance are still required.
3. Reserve a time
Each team has one calendar with a 15–240 minute appointment duration and an optional 0–60 minute buffer before and after. Slots must fit the business hours, closures, existing reservations and both reservations’ buffers. Cancelled reservations release time. Completed reservations keep their historical occupancy.
Choose a date in the business time zone. Start-time options include the UTC offset. Daylight-saving spring gaps are skipped; repeated fall times are separate options with different offsets. Appointment durations represent elapsed minutes. You can link a request to fill the contact fields, then review them before saving.
Rescheduling preserves the reservation identifier and advances its calendar revision. Changing business settings does not silently move reservations or recalculate their saved durations and buffers. A warning flags a reservation that now falls outside opening hours. Cancelling or completing an appointment records its status here; contact the customer separately.
4. Check routing without a phone call
The routing preview accepts an instant in UTC and an optional menu digit. It displays the corresponding business time, a menu, closed message, matching transfer target or missing-number warning. It makes no calls. An unconnected phone backend is prepared separately and cannot be activated from this public workspace.
5. Export and back up
Download backup exports all settings, requests and reservations as JSON. Restore validates the file and asks before replacing current records. Intake CSV includes all requests, even when a filter hides some. Formula-like cells are prefixed to reduce spreadsheet formula execution. Store exported files privately.
Download calendar creates an RFC 5545-style UTC ICS file with stable event identifiers, revisions and cancellation states. There are no attendee fields, invitations or outbound calendar actions. Calendar applications handle imported updates differently: review dates and duplicates before relying on an imported calendar. Reception is not a two-way calendar sync.
Storage and recovery
The workspace supports up to 500 requests, 1,000 appointments, nine teams, 60 closed dates and a 5 MB backup. Saves are atomic. If another tab saved a newer revision, the current change is rejected rather than overwriting it. Download the unsaved backup, then reload the saved workspace and reconcile deliberately. The same recovery download is available after a storage quota error.
Use a normal browser window and back up regularly. Device storage is not encrypted by this application, is not shared across devices and may be cleared by the browser. The local record is editable and is not an immutable audit trail.
What still requires integration
Live phone routing and answering, automated call intake, connected-calendar booking, direct email/password and Google accounts, team ownership, server-side retention, subscription and one-time purchasing are not enabled in this preview. They need provider configuration and real lifecycle acceptance before a paid release. No language-model calls are needed for the current hours, queue or calendar logic.