One hundred and fifty orders. Then the form says so.
A total cap for the season instead of a daily one. Customers reserve an order, pick what and how many, choose a pickup day, and see their number. Order 151 sees a polite full message instead of a promise you cannot keep.
The problem
The pie list is a notebook by the register and a DM thread
Thanksgiving orders arrive by phone, by DM, and at the counter, and the count lives in three places. On the Monday before, the notebook says 140 and the DMs say 180, and the oven says 150. The ordering system your POS sells does it, for a monthly fee that is more than the pies make.
The recipe
Exactly what the button sets up
Capacity, reset time, opening hours, and the form fields. It is a starting point, not a cage. Every value is editable in Settings and the builder.
Recipe
Thanksgiving orders
- 150 orders in total. Order 151 sees the full message.
- No opening hours. Open the list on November 1 and pause it at the cutoff.
- Asks for name, phone, item, quantity (1 to 3), and pickup day.
- The cap counts orders, not items. With three allowed each, plan for up to 450.
- Customers see their order number on the success screen.
- Capacity
- 150 in total
- Signups open
- Any time
- Form asks for
- Email, Name, Phone, Item, Quantity, Pickup day
- Counter on the form
- Shown
How it works here
How the list works
Cap the season
One hundred and fifty orders. Set it to what the ovens can do, not what the demand is.
Item and quantity
A dropdown and a number field capped at three. Both land in the CSV.
Pickup day
A multiple-choice field. Bag Tuesday first, sorted from the export.
Numbered orders
"You're #112." The phone stops ringing with "did you get my order?"
Cap a single item
If pecan sells out first, switch the item field to a slot field and give each item its own cap.
The counter list
Export the CSV on pickup morning. Or on Starter, webhook each order to a sheet as it lands.
Why it holds up
What matters most
Order 151 is never taken
The cap is enforced in the database. Twenty people ordering at once on the last night cannot push it past 150.
Three sources become one
Phone orders get typed into the same form by staff. One count, in one place.
The full message is the apology
It goes out automatically, politely, before the order exists. No phone calls to cancel.
Same link every year
Rename it to Christmas, swap the items, clear the entries. The QR by the register stays.
FAQ
Questions people here ask
Does the cap count orders or pies?
Orders. If you allow three each, 150 orders could be 450 pies. Set the cap to what you can bake, or set the quantity maximum to one.
Can customers pay for the order online?
No. Unwaited does not take payments. Take payment at pickup or send a checkout link from your POS when you confirm.
Can I cap each pie separately?
Yes. Turn the item field into a slot field with a capacity per item. Pecan greys out on its own when its 40 are gone.
Can I close orders on a specific date?
Pause the waitlist from the dashboard at the cutoff. Opening hours are weekly, not dated, so the pause button is the cutoff. The form shows the closed message after that.