Time Schedules & Happy Hour
Show categories or items only during set hours — happy hour, lunch specials, brunch — with a custom name customers see on your menu.
In this article
What Time Schedules Do
A Time Schedule shows a menu section or item only during the hours you choose. When a customer visits your ordering page during the window, those items appear normally. Outside the window, the items appear dimmed with a small badge showing the schedule, so customers know when to come back — they can't add them to the cart.
This is useful for:
- Happy hour appetizers or drinks during a set period (e.g., 3pm–6pm)
- Brunch items only available on weekends 10am–2pm
- Late-night specials after 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays
- Lunch specials Monday–Friday 11am–2pm
Note: a Time Schedule controls item visibility based on time. If you want to show a lower price during the window, create a separate item with the special price and put only that item on the schedule. The original full-price item can remain active all day.
Naming Your Schedule
Each schedule has an optional Schedule Name — this is the name customers see next to the hours on your menu, like "Happy Hour · 3:00 PM–6:00 PM" or "Lunch Special · 11:00 AM–3:00 PM".
- Type any name that fits: Happy Hour, Lunch Special, Brunch, Late Night — whatever you call it.
- Leave it blank if you don't want a name — customers then see just the hours, like "11:00 AM–3:00 PM".
If you set up a schedule before this option existed, its name was set to "Happy Hour" automatically so nothing changed for your customers. Edit the category or item to rename or clear it.
Setting Up a Schedule on a Category
Go to Dashboard → Menu → Categories tab and edit the category you want.
Toggle Time Schedule on.
Set:
- Schedule Name — optional; what customers see next to the hours (leave blank for hours only)
- Start time — when the category becomes visible to customers (e.g., 15:00 for 3pm)
- End time — when it becomes hidden again (e.g., 18:00 for 6pm)
- Days — which days of the week this applies to (e.g., Monday through Friday)
Save the category. The category and all its items will now only appear during those hours on those days.
Setting Up a Schedule on Individual Items
You can also set a schedule on a specific item rather than an entire category. Go to Dashboard → Menu → Items and edit the item.
The same toggle and fields apply: turn on Time Schedule, optionally name it, set start/end time, and select days.
Item-level schedules are useful when you want most of a category visible all day but only specific items (like house cocktails or an appetizer special) to appear during a promotion window.
Order Type Restrictions
Both categories and items have an Available Order Types setting that lets you restrict them to specific order types.
For example:
- Dine-in-only appetizers that cannot be ordered for pickup
- Delivery-eligible items that aren't available dine-in
- Brunch items available for pickup only
Leave the setting empty to make the category or item available for all order types. Select one or more to restrict.
This can be combined with a Time Schedule: an item can be restricted to dine-in only AND only orderable during set hours.
Testing Your Schedule
After saving, visit your ordering page and confirm the items show the schedule badge outside of your configured hours.
If you want to test it without waiting for the right time, temporarily set the start/end times to a range that includes right now, save, and visit your page. Then reset the times when done.
Outside the window, customers see the item dimmed with a badge like "Lunch Special · 11:00 AM–3:00 PM" and can't add it to the cart — so they know exactly when it's available instead of wondering where it went. Times always follow your restaurant's timezone (set in Settings), not the visitor's.
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