HelpWhat your customers seeRunning the counter tablet

Running the counter tablet

Setting the tablet up is one job — this is the other one. What the screen does all day, on its own, with nobody watching it.

Everyone Where: On the tablet: the kiosk link 5 min read

Quick answer. The tablet clears itself after every person, holds a join for you if the internet drops, and can never give one walk-up two numbers — however many times the button is pressed.

The countdown and the reset

1“You're in line”
Their number shown
2“Next visitor in 9…”
The countdown
3Welcome screen
Ready for the next person

9 seconds normally — long enough to read a number. 30 seconds when there is a QR code to scan, because getting a phone out takes longer.

You press	What happens
I need more time	Restarts the same countdown for somebody still fumbling for their camera. Only appears when there is a QR code to scan. Does not cancel their place, and does not hold the tablet up for ever.
Back to welcome now	Clears the screen straight away instead of waiting out the countdown, for the person behind them at the tablet. Does not remove anybody from the line.

The number is gone once the screen clears — there is no "show it again". This is why the code and the QR below matter. A visitor who walked away without either has to be found by name or by asking at the desk.

A walk-in with no phone: the write-it-down code

Under the big number, the tablet prints a short code headed “If you lose this page”. It is eight characters, shown in two groups of four so it is easy to copy down.

A visitor who types it into the line's own join page — “Already in the line? Enter your code” — is put straight back to their place. Nothing is lost and no new number is issued.

Beside it, when the visitor has a phone, is a QR labelled “Scan to follow your place on your phone”. Scanning it opens their personal tracking link, which updates by itself as the line moves.

Once a WhatsApp number is live for your account, a second QR sits beside it: “Scan for free WhatsApp updates”. The visitor scans it with their own phone, WhatsApp opens with a short message already typed, and pressing Send links that phone to their number — so they are messaged when they are nearly up, at no cost to you.

Why the kiosk never asks for a phone number It is a shared tablet, so nobody types a number into it. A visitor who wants messages scans the WhatsApp QR with their own phone instead — the message they send is what links it to their place.

When the internet drops mid-join

What the screen says	When
You're offline / We've got your details. We'll finish this as soon as you're back.	The shop's connection goes while somebody is being added. The tablet does not lose them — it finishes the join by itself the moment the signal returns. Nobody needs to tap anything again.
One moment… / Adding you to the line — no need to tap again.	Working normally.
Couldn't add you — please try again	Something genuinely failed. A Try again button is shown.

Pressing Join twice can never make two tickets. turnda matches the repeat to the first attempt and ignores it, no matter how many times the button or Try again is used for the same person. An abandoned error screen also clears itself after 30 seconds.

Full, closed, and "can't reach the line"

The tablet checks in with turnda every 15 seconds. That is what makes these screens fix themselves with nobody standing there.

What the screen says	What it means	Check again + names line/branch?
Line full — please check back shortly	Clears on its own within about 15 seconds of a space freeing up.	Yes
We're closed right now	Turns back into the welcome screen at opening time, naming the reopening time while it waits.	Yes
Can't reach the line right now	“This kiosk is set up correctly — we just couldn't reach turnda. It keeps trying and should come back on its own.” This is us, not your Wi-Fi.	No
This kiosk isn't set up yet	The kiosk address is wrong, or the line behind it was deleted. Prints the code it tried so it can be read back over the phone.	No

Only the first two carry a Check again button and name the branch and line. The other two are drawn before the tablet knows which counter it is, so they show only the turnda mark — no button, no branch or line name. Don't send staff hunting for a button that isn't there.

Left running unattended

A tablet bolted to a counter is expected to run for weeks without anybody logging in, so it looks after itself in four ways.

It keeps the screen awake for as long as the kiosk page is open — including on the error screens, so a problem never hides behind a dark screen that reads as a flat battery.
It reloads itself if it freezes. If ten minutes go by with no fresh answer from turnda on a page still open, the tablet restarts the page rather than sitting there stuck.
It picks up new versions quietly — only while the screen is idle, never while somebody is halfway through joining or reading their number.
It restarts itself once a night, some time between 3am and 4am on the tablet's own clock, so anything shipped that day is picked up for certain. Once per day, not repeatedly.

Running a 24-hour counter? The nightly restart is what somebody has seen when they report the tablet blinking in the small hours. It takes a moment and comes straight back.

Point the tablet's browser at the kiosk link.
Turn on the tablet's own guided-access or kiosk mode. So a customer can't wander off the page. That is your part.

A shared screen strangers can see

Everything a visitor typed — their name, a vehicle, a note, their party size — is wiped from the tablet the moment the screen resets, including after an error.

There is no history and no back-button trail on the kiosk — the next customer cannot see who was there before them.
What IS on show, stated to the visitor on the welcome screen: “Your number shows here and on the lobby TV · resets for the next person automatically.”
How much of a name reaches the TV is the line's own privacy setting.

The tablet shows your shop's language, not the tablet's. A kiosk is your signage, so it follows the Default language you set for the business even if the tablet's own settings say something else — the opposite of a visitor's own phone.