Rounds

A round is an ordered list of stops for a driver and vehicle. Bottle helps allocate orders, calculate routes and check the planned load and working time.

The page

Open Rounds and select a date. The left panel gives you two direct choices. The first shows orders not yet assigned to a round on the selected date, labelled Today, Tomorrow, Yesterday, or the date for other days. All waiting shows unassigned orders across every date without making you open today’s list first. Orders without a delivery date appear first in All waiting.

Switching between these lists updates the waiting-orders panel and the map. With All waiting open, the map marks every waiting order, whatever its date. The rounds on the map stay on the selected date, and the driver list stays in place. If All waiting cannot load, use Try again in that panel.

Today also includes overdue delivery orders that are still waiting for a round. They appear first, marked Overdue with their original delivery date, and are included in today’s waiting count and map. They remain in All waiting too. Planning a future date shows only orders scheduled for that date. Orders already on an unfinished round stay with that round. Undated orders remain in All waiting until you choose when to deliver them.

Use the arrows beside the date to move one day at a time. Select Plan ahead to expand seven days of round counts and waiting delivery orders. Choose a day, use Today or Tomorrow, move forwards or backwards seven days, or use Go to date to jump further ahead. The map and planning list change together, and the dates stay open while you select days. Select Hide dates, press Escape, or click outside the panel to collapse it. Bottle remembers whether you left it expanded. On phones, the dates open in a sheet at the bottom of the screen with a close button.

You can plan future dates using the same planning actions. Rounds stay with the office until you choose Send to driver. Counts reflect orders already booked for each date; new orders can leave more work waiting after you have planned.

The office map and round list show the selected date. On Today, rounds still on the road from an earlier day also appear, marked Still open with their original start date. This includes rounds whose stops are all finished but which have not been marked returned. Open the round to continue it or mark the vehicle returned. Once returned, it leaves today’s view and stays in the history on its original date. When planning a future day, a driver still out has a short availability note instead of adding the earlier route to the map. A round can run across several days: its start date stays the same, and it remains visible in the driver’s app until the vehicle returns. Finishing all stops does not mark the vehicle as back automatically.

The same round and progress appear in Your day, Fleet and the driver’s app. Drivers and vehicles still out are not treated as available for automatic planning on the next day.

The Rounds by driver panel keeps one alphabetical list of drivers. Each row shows a name and a short state. Select the driver to expand their rounds and actions. You can leave several drivers open, and Bottle remembers these choices when you change the date or return to the planner. Drivers stay in the same place as rounds are created or completed. When there are many drivers, the list scrolls within the panel while its heading and Manage drivers and vehicles link stay visible. That link opens Fleet setup.

Inside each dropdown, rounds appear as simple rows with their stop counts. Select a round to see its vehicle, departure time and full details. The dropdown keeps vehicle setup and delivery areas out of the way; manage those in Fleet. At the bottom, Add empty round for today (or the selected day) creates a draft for you to add stops yourself. The action always names the date you are planning. Hover or focus it for an explanation. Use Plan rounds in the waiting-orders panel to review availability and automatically plan rounds through the wizard. Earlier rounds still on the road retain their original start-date warning.

The map shows waiting orders, planned stops, completed deliveries and bases. Open a round to highlight its route and stop list.

When the map is busy, select the eye beside a driver in Rounds by driver to hide their routes, stops and vehicle from the map. Select it again to show them. The rounds stay in the list, and every driver shows again when you refresh the page.

How stops are placed

Each stop is placed where its address is on the map: at a pin someone has set, at the door address search found, on the street, or at the middle of the postcode. See How an address is placed on the map.

A stop placed by postcode only has a thin grey ring around its pin on the map, and Postcode only under it in the stop list and the waiting orders. Check these before a round goes out. Where the postcode covers a wide area, pin the door on the customer’s address so the route and arrival times are right.

A practice round

Select Try a practice round or the page’s ? to practise with sample data.

The walkthrough covers waiting orders, automatic planning, moving stops, sending a round, loading and recording a delivery.

Practice does not change your business or send customer notifications. End practice returns to your own data.

Planning with others

Other planners’ pointers, selected rounds and saved changes appear on your screen. You can follow another planner’s view.

Conflicting whole-round changes are rejected so you can review the latest version. See Working together.

Make room on a smaller screen

Open a round, then drag the grip on the left edge of its panel to make it wider. Bottle remembers your preferred width and keeps the panel within the available screen space. You can also focus the grip and use the left and right arrow keys.

Select the Vehicle load icon beside the vehicle controls to open the load summary. It also shows any room kept for door sales. A warning badge highlights a load near or above capacity. The icon appears when there is load information to show; empty drafts do not have it. Planning checks stay visible when needed. The delete action stays at the bottom of the panel.

Round progress stays out of the way while planning and after sending a round. It appears automatically when the vehicle is marked departed. On smaller screens it sits below the stops; on wider screens it sits over the map. Select Hide progress beside the progress heading to collapse it, or Show progress in the same area to bring it back. Check the route and delivery times stays visible as an amber notice when road distances could not be calculated. You can still plan and send the round; check its route and delivery times first.

Once a round has left, the tick beside a stop marks that drop delivered. On a delivered drop, Bottle asks before marking it not delivered, because that deletes the driver’s proof of delivery, their note and any cash they recorded. To change what was delivered, use Correct delivery on the order instead.

Before the first round

Add bases and vehicles in Fleet. Set each vehicle’s start and finish base, registration, capacity and relevant notes. See Fleet.

Assign usual vehicles and delivery territories to drivers. Configure working patterns and absences in Rota.

A base is either a yard, where cylinders are kept, or a driver’s home, where a vehicle is parked overnight. With more than one yard, each vehicle and each driver also has a yard:

• A vehicle’s yard is where it loads cylinders and returns them. A vehicle kept at a driver’s home still has a yard. Set it on the vehicle.
• A driver’s yard is where they work from. A round planned for a driver with no vehicle leaves from it. Set it under Drivers in Fleet.

New vehicles and drivers go on your first yard unless you choose another. A business with one yard never has to set this.

MOT and servicing

Record MOT and service dates on each vehicle. Bottle highlights upcoming and overdue dates and can notify office users. You can also upload a service document for Bottle to read, then review its work, parts, mileage and costs before saving it to the vehicle. See Service history and documents.

Warnings do not automatically block planning. Check that the vehicle is suitable and available before assigning work.

Delivery areas and drivers

Delivery areas are the places you deliver to, by postcode, such as KT, KT3 or SW1A. To fill one in, type a county, council or town under Fill in postcodes from a place. Bottle lists the postcodes it touches and marks any on the border. Remove any you don’t want, then add the rest. Only the postcodes are saved. Bottle tells you when you save an entry it can’t find. EC1 covers EC1A to EC1Y, EC1N covers only EC1N, and E1 doesn’t cover E10. Add and change them under Business settings, Delivery, in Delivery areas. The same areas are used by your shop.

The area form checks each entry against active saved delivery addresses. A confirmed match shows how many addresses it covers; no matches means the entry is unconfirmed, rather than necessarily invalid. Use Test a delivery postcode to check a specific postcode before saving. Entries are alternatives: KT3, KT4 covers addresses in KT3 or KT4. An older entry that is a place name, such as Surrey, keeps working, and matches the district, county or region returned by the postcode lookup rather than typed address text. Addresses without lookup data are excluded from the counts, and the form says how many are unchecked.

Each area can take only some orders: consumer, trade or online shop orders, and only orders placed from a set time. An order from your online shop counts from when it reaches Bottle, not when the shop took it. Leave them unticked to take any order. Where two areas cover an order, the one whose rule takes it gets it before an area that takes any order. The list of areas shows the postcodes and addresses in each, who covers it, and where two areas share addresses.

If no working driver’s area can take an order, Plan rounds gives it to the working driver whose area is closest, or the next closest if they can’t fit it. A note under Check these says so. An order that doesn’t fit its own driver’s vehicle or day goes to the closest other working driver with room, never over their vehicle’s weight limit.

Before planning, Bottle finds a place on the map for every order’s address. If the postcode isn’t found, it uses a postcode no longer in use with the same letters, or the middle of the postcode district. A note under Check these says when Bottle has put an address at the middle of its district, so you can check the postcode. An order with no postcode, or one Bottle can’t read at all, waits in Waiting orders as Not on the map until the address is fixed. An order more than 50 km from every driver’s area stays in Waiting orders as Check this order, so someone can check it.

On Fleet, Drivers, give each driver the areas they cover. A driver can cover several, and an area can have several drivers. Drivers without an area can receive any eligible waiting order. Existing vehicle-specific territories remain until replaced by driver assignments.

Planning rounds

Open the waiting-orders panel and select Plan rounds above the list. The date beneath it confirms the day you are planning, including tomorrow or further ahead. The information icon explains how automatic planning works.

1. Availability. Check the drivers who can take a round and uncheck anyone unavailable for that date. Their usual vehicles and any vehicle already in use are shown. Approved absences, days off shift and drivers with existing rounds are kept out of automatic planning. Use Open rota to change a working pattern or absence.
2. Review and plan. Select Review plan to check the waiting-order count, available drivers, vehicles and starting bases. A missing vehicle means the resulting draft will need one before sending. A driver without a starting base is skipped until it is set. Select Fleet if you need to correct the setup first.
3. Auto-plan rounds. Confirm to save the availability choices for this date and create draft rounds. Cancelling before confirmation saves nothing. If an availability update fails, planning stops and the wizard shows the error so you can review and retry.

Bottle uses the drivers’ delivery areas, rota and usual vehicles, then arranges stops and checks capacity and working time. Orders it cannot place remain waiting with a reason. Anything it could not check, or found short, appears under Check these without taking the order off its round: see Check these. Review the resulting rounds before selecting Send to driver.

Where two drivers cover the same area, the driver first by name gets the order. If another driver usually delivers to that customer and Plan rounds is making them a round in the same run, Bottle moves the order to that round, so customers keep the driver they know. A round that already existed before the run gets no moves. It only moves the order if that round has a vehicle, that driver covers the area and the round stays within its weight, space and hours without missing a delivery time. It never adds a round to do this, and never leaves an order out. Otherwise the order stays where it was. A round left with no stops is removed. Bottle tries this for up to 25 orders each time you plan rounds, and any others stay where they are.

Bottle works out each customer’s usual driver every night from deliveries on finished rounds in the last 12 months. A driver needs deliveries to that customer on at least three days, and on at least two thirds of the days that customer had a delivery. One odd day changes nothing. If the last two deliveries were by someone else, the customer has no usual driver until the figures settle. Sales made from a vehicle, failed drops, delivery partners and rounds sent over what the vehicle can carry don’t count. There is no setting for this.

Bottle also works out the order each driver usually serves their repeat customers, and uses it when Plan rounds arranges the stops on the rounds it makes. A round that was there before you planned isn’t changed. Keeping a pair of customers in the driver’s usual order can add up to 2 minutes to the round. The round can finish no more than 15 minutes later than it would have, on Bottle’s estimate. Delivery times, weight, space and hours come first. If the usual order would miss a delivery time or run past the driver’s hours, the stops stay as they were. It only changes the order of stops on the round, so it never leaves an order out. Bottle tries this for up to 25 rounds each time you plan rounds, and any others stay as they are. Only Plan rounds uses the usual order. Adding an order to a round afterwards works the order out without it.

Bottle works out each driver’s usual order every night from when stops were finished on finished rounds in the last 12 months. Rounds finished before Bottle kept copies count too, because their finish times were saved on the day. Two customers have a usual order once the driver has served them in that order on at least three days, and on at least two thirds of the days they served both on one round. One odd day changes nothing. If the last two of those days went the other way, the pair has no usual order until the figures settle. Stops finished less than two minutes apart don’t count against each other, because the times can’t show which came first. Sales made from a vehicle, failed drops, delivery partners and rounds sent over what the vehicle can carry don’t count. There is no setting for this.

Room for door sales

Plan rounds keeps room on a round for the door sales its driver usually makes, so the vehicle isn’t full of orders when a customer asks for a cylinder. The room shows beside the load on the round, as cylinders, weight and minutes. Nothing is on the vehicle until the driver puts it there, so the room doesn’t count towards the load. You are not asked to confirm anything because of it when you send the round.

Bottle works out each driver’s usual sales every night from their finished rounds in the last three months. A driver needs 10 finished rounds with a copy saved on the day. Put the driver’s rounds in order of sales, counting rounds with no sales, and the figure is the one in the middle. So one busy day changes nothing, and a driver who sells on only a few rounds has no figure. With no figure, the plan is the same as it would be without this. Rounds finished before Bottle kept copies don’t count, because nothing says which of their stops were sales. Extra cylinders sold on a planned delivery don’t count either, and neither does any driving a sale adds.

The room is at most 15% of the vehicle’s payload, 15% of its load space and 15% of the driver’s day, however much the driver usually sells.

If a round is short of that room, Plan rounds can take orders off to make it. They wait with the reason Room kept for door sales, and Check these says how many. A round under five orders loses none. After that it can lose one order in five, and never more than two. An order past its delivery date is never taken off. For weight or space, it takes the smallest order that clears the shortage, or the largest if none does. An order that frees no weight or space is never taken off. For time, it takes the order that adds the most driving. Another driver who covers the area can still take that order in the same run. Add one to a round by hand if it must still go.

If there still isn’t enough room, the round keeps what it has and Check these says so. Bottle does this for up to 25 rounds each time you plan rounds. A usual driver or usual order won’t take a round’s room. A transfer between yards can. If you add an order by hand and it takes the room, Vehicle load says so, and the room is cut when you send the round.

There is no setting for this.

Automatic planning uses orders scheduled for the selected date, even when All waiting is open. For Today, it also includes overdue orders still waiting for a round. Their delivery dates are kept as a record of when they were originally due. Nothing is sent to drivers until you choose to send it.

For manual planning, expand a driver’s details and select Add empty round. This opens an empty draft for the selected date with that driver already assigned. Choose its vehicle, then add orders from the waiting list or map yourself. This action does not automatically bring in waiting orders.

Open a round to review stop order and arrival estimates. Driver and vehicle selectors stay closed when the round is already assigned. Use the driver or vehicle icon beside the compact vehicle summary to change an assignment; hover or focus an icon to see what it does. If a driver or vehicle is missing, the required selector opens automatically. Send to driver stays visible while you review the stops. The Vehicle load icon opens loading information. Routing warnings stay visible. Select the Start or End row in the route to edit its settings in place. Move stops manually when needed.

Queue another round

Select the driver to expand their rounds, then select Add empty round to prepare their next draft for the selected date. Add orders from the waiting list or map. The new draft stays with the office.

The count separates queued drafts, other rounds still open, and completed rounds. If a driver has several older rounds still marked On the road, these appear as other open rounds, with their original start dates. Open them to review and mark them returned when appropriate.

You can add and move stops on queued drafts without changing the live round. A queued draft can use the same vehicle as the driver’s current round. You can also assign a vehicle to another driver’s later round. Bottle warns if the times overlap, the gap is less than an hour, or the return time is unknown. The warning on the round shows both rounds’ times side by side. On a driver’s second round, press Leave at to set it to leave an hour after the earlier round is due back, which allows time to unload and reload. A round’s departure doesn’t move by itself when you add stops to an earlier round, so check the warning after changing the earlier round. These warnings do not prevent planning or sending. A driver or vehicle can only be on the road on one round at a time; mark the earlier round returned before the next departure.

New empty rounds start one hour after that driver’s latest estimated return for the selected day, including completed rounds. If that time falls after midnight, the new round goes on the following day and the button names that date. Select Start in the round to change its departure time. Once saved, your chosen time stays fixed even if the earlier round’s estimates change.

To flip the delivery sequence, right-click an unsent, unloaded round in Rounds by driver and choose Reverse delivery order. Bottle recalculates the route and arrival times. The starting and ending locations stay the same, and transfer collections remain before their drops. Check any resulting opening-hour or working-time warnings.

To get the best order back after moving stops by hand, right-click the round and choose Work out delivery order. Bottle puts the stops in order from the driving times, with delivery times first, and updates the route and arrival times. It replaces any order you set by hand, and it doesn’t use AI. It’s available on unsent, unloaded rounds.

Moving a whole round

Right-click a round in Rounds by driver and select Move to another day or Change driver. The calendar icon in the open round also opens these settings. Change the date, driver or both, then select Move round. Changing only the date keeps the same driver. The round keeps its stops, vehicle and departure time; the orders’ requested delivery dates stay as they were.

Whole-round moves are available for drafts that have not been sent or loaded. Recall a sent round and remove its confirmed load before moving it to another date.

Send a round to a driver

Choose the driver and vehicle, then select Send to driver. The round becomes visible on their phone and they are notified.

Bottle works out the load again when you send a round, so a changed order or a corrected product weight counts. If a round is over its vehicle’s weight or space, Bottle shows how far over it is and asks you to move deliveries, correct the weights, or select Send over the limit. You’re responsible for that load. You can add a note, but you don’t have to. The round then shows who sent it and how far over, with your note if you added one. Each time a round is sent over the limit, Bottle saves who sent it, when, the load and the limit. Plan rounds never reads the note. Only a person signed in to Bottle can make this decision, so API keys and connected assistants cannot send a round that is over.

This does not send a customer delivery email. Customers are first told when the driver or office marks the round as departed.

Before sending, the round is visible only to the office. Recall round removes it from the driver’s app without deleting recorded deliveries or payments. Confirm carefully if the driver has already started. If the round is out with no driver, because its driver closed their account, Bottle asks the same question without naming anybody. Recorded deliveries and payments are kept. If the round was sent but has not left, recall it, then choose a driver and send it again.

The round must be sent before it can be marked as departed.

Delivery windows

Planning considers delivery-address opening hours. It may add waiting time or choose a longer route to reach time-restricted stops.

Review stops that cannot fit within their opening windows. See Customer delivery times.

Estimated arrival times

Before departure, arrival times include driving, loading, stop duration and breaks. Traffic allowances increase estimated driving time during normal and rush-hour periods.

When the round departs, Bottle uses the actual departure time rather than the planned one and measures the estimates again. While the driver app is reporting location, every remaining estimate is recalculated from the van’s latest position and the current time. A delay at one stop or in traffic therefore pushes the later stops back.

Adjust the planning assumptions in Business settings → Working hours, on the Working day, Stops and breaks and Traffic lines, using actual round experience. The Delivery window line sets how long a window customers are told when the driver sets off. A driver can have their own length in Fleet → Drivers. All times remain estimates rather than appointments.

Once Bottle has timed 30 deliveries, it uses the measured time in place of Time per stop (minutes). It uses the driver’s own time if they have 30 timed deliveries, and the whole business’s if not. The measured time covers a delivery with one item, and each further item adds Per item carried (minutes). A measured time is never shorter than one minute or longer than 30 minutes. A longer time can mean a stop no longer fits a round’s hours or a customer’s delivery time. Plan rounds then takes that stop off and leaves the order waiting. A round still can’t go over its weight or space. Plans and the estimates drivers and customers see all use the same time.

Vehicle capacity and working hours

Bottle checks:

• Weight: product full weights against vehicle payload.
• Space: product volumes against vehicle load space.
• Time: the estimated return against the driver’s shift or business working day.

Missing product weights are flagged and excluded from totals, and automatic planning lists them under Check these. Check incomplete data before relying on capacity figures.

The round shows warnings and the amount over each configured limit.

Overloaded vehicles

Automatic planning removes stops until the configured limits are met. Manual changes can still create an overloaded round.

Review suggested swaps, move a stop to another suitable vehicle or reschedule it. Capacity figures depend on accurate product and vehicle data.

Part deliveries

Drivers record actual delivered quantities and a shortfall reason. If you then mark the order delivered from the order, only the rest leaves the yard. See Stock. If the driver recorded the wrong number, owners and admins can set it right with Correct delivery on the order. See Correcting what was delivered.

• Not on the vehicle or Damaged cylinder: the order stays open, and the rest is planned again.
• Customer refused items: the rest is cancelled. The order is complete with only what was delivered, and it is not planned again. The customer pays only for what they received. A refund due is recorded if they had already paid for the rest.
• Other: the order waits for you to decide what happens to the rest.

If the driver chose Customer refused items but the customer still wants the rest, add a new order for it.

When the customer still wants the rest, leave it to be planned again or use Move to another day. When they no longer want it, use Remove undelivered items in the drop’s menu on Rounds, or on the order. The order closes and shows only what was delivered. If the order has an unpaid invoice, Bottle cancels it and emails the customer a replacement invoice for what was delivered, with a new payment link. The email says which invoice it replaces and why.

A refund due is recorded only when the customer has already paid for the items removed. Recording it does not transfer money: mark it refunded after arranging payment or credit.

An order finishes when every line is delivered or removed.

Orders waiting on payment

Unpaid payment-link orders remain waiting with Not paid yet. They become eligible after payment.

Cash-on-delivery and pay-later orders do not require advance payment. Office users can add an order manually where appropriate.

Moving stock between yards on a round

Stock moving between yards waits with the day’s orders. When you plan the day, Bottle puts each one on a round, collection and drop off together, collection first. It tries a round whose vehicle loads at the yard the stock is leaving first, since the cylinders then go on with the morning load.

If it cannot fit on any round, it stays in the waiting list with the reason, like an order. To put it on a round yourself, open the waiting list and use Put on a round. Both stops move together; they cannot be dragged one at a time.

On the round, these stops are marked Moving stock. See Moving stock between yards.

What did not fit

Waiting orders show reasons such as weight, space, working hours, territory or missing location.

Use the checkboxes to select several waiting orders, choose a driver or vehicle, then select Add orders. The waiting panel stays open so you can continue assigning work. You can also drag one order or use its actions menu.

Move an order to another suitable round or day, or correct the data preventing planning. Review every waiting order after an automatic planning run.

Check these

After automatic planning, Check these on the Rounds page lists what the plan could not check or found short. The orders stay on their rounds, except any taken off to keep room for door sales, and the plan still finishes. Each line names the product, vehicle or yard and has a link to where you can fix it. An order that would put the vehicle over a limit Bottle knows still comes off the round, and goes in the waiting list with the reason.

• A product with no weight. Its items are left out of the load, so the vehicle may be heavier than shown. Select Open product to add its weight.
• A product with no space per cylinder. Listed when the vehicle has a load space. Its items are left out of the space used. Select Open product to add its space.
• A vehicle with no payload. Bottle can’t check its weight limit. Select Open vehicle to add it.
• No stock figure. Nothing has been recorded into that yard for cylinders on the plan. You get one line for each yard, saying how many kinds of cylinder it covers. Select Open stock and count them. If the round has no yard to load from, choose one on the round.
• A yard short of stock. The yard has fewer full cylinders than the plan needs. Rounds on earlier days still to load, and cylinders held back for a transfer, are taken off first. Cylinders already on the vehicle count towards its round. Deliveries expected from a supplier don’t count. Room for door sales counts until the driver has confirmed the load, and the line says how many of the cylinders it is.
• A loaded vehicle short of stock. Its deliveries need more than is recorded on board.
• Orders waiting for room for door sales. How many orders came off rounds to keep that room. Add one to a round by hand if it must still go.
• A vehicle short of room for door sales. It has room for fewer cylinders than its driver usually sells.

Only cylinders are checked for stock, and only those you count: a cylinder with Count stock for this cylinder switched off on its product is taken to be always in stock. See Products you do not count. A line goes as soon as you fix it. Planning the day again checks everything afresh. Drivers don’t see this list. A round with no vehicle gets no weight or space lines until it has one, but its cylinders count towards the stock lines.

If Bottle can’t work out the warnings, the note after planning says so. If the page can’t read them, the box says so. Reload the page to try again.

Addresses with delivery times

Opening windows are set on the customer’s delivery address. Early arrival can add waiting time; stops that cannot be reached before closing need replanning.

Handing a drop to another vehicle

Drag a stop onto another eligible driver or vehicle, or use its menu. You can also move a waiting order to a round or start a new round from that order.

Before departure, office users can reorder stops within a round by dragging or using movement controls. Cluster menus can move several stops together. Once a round has been sent, the driver can use Change stop order in the web, iPhone or Android driver app to reorder only the stops still to do. Delivery history is not moved or rebuilt.

Marking an order delivered with Delivery partner also takes its stop off the round. See Delivered, or collected.

To have another company deliver an order on a day you choose, with no driver, vehicle or estimated time, see Delivery partners.

Move to another day removes a stop from the current plan and makes it available on the selected date. Past dates are not allowed.

The receiving round is optimised around the new stop. The original round retains its remaining stop order and is measured again.

Adding a drop to a round already on the road

A round that has left can still take a drop: move a waiting order to it from its menu, drag it onto the round or the driver, or pick the round in the waiting panel, where it is marked on the road. The stop goes on the end of the driver’s list for them to fit in with Change stop order, the round’s times are measured again, and the driver is told in the app. A round that is finished takes nothing.

If the van has not got enough on for the order, Bottle says which products are short and how many are spare, and offers each way on as one click:

• Swap it out with another order lists every drop still to do on the round, with the ones carrying what is short recommended at the top. Pick one and it comes off the round and goes back to the waiting list, and the new order takes its place. Pick a drop that does not carry what is short and Bottle asks again, so you can add the order anyway.
• Add it anyway, when somebody is running the stock out to the driver or they will pick it up on the way.

Leave it in waiting changes nothing. The waiting list then says what happened, and that the driver has been told. The spare count comes from what the driver confirmed loading, less what the round’s other drops and yard transfers still need, so an order that fits in what is spare goes straight on without a question.

Straight lines and roads

Check the route and estimated arrival times before sending a round to the driver. Straight-line estimates are labelled in Bottle; they are not road distances.

Round departure and return

The driver or office marks the round departed. This records loading, replaces the planned departure with the actual time, recalculates the estimates and triggers the first customer delivery windows.

Finish the round when all stops are resolved. Controls are available to correct an accidental departure or completion. A draft round can be removed, returning its orders to waiting.

What is on the vehicle

On the vehicle shows planned quantities, confirmed loads, top-ups, delivered stock, current stock and spare quantities.

Until loading is confirmed, only planned quantities are known. Business-wide vehicle stock is also shown in Stock.

Which yard a round loads from

A round loads from its vehicle’s yard and returns its stock there at the end of the day. A vehicle with no start base of its own leaves from its yard.

Select Start in the stop list to change the departure time, Starts from, Loads from and Delivery window directly beneath the row. Delivery window sets how long a window this round’s customers are told, for this round only. Leave it on Same as the driver or business to use the usual length. You can change these while the round is still being planned. Select End to change Finishes at in place. Select Save changes to keep your edits or Cancel to leave the round as it was. Same as starting base makes the round finish where it started.

The starting base and loading yard are separate: a vehicle may start at a driver’s home while taking stock from a yard. Changes apply to this round only; the vehicle’s usual settings stay as they are. When the stock comes from a different yard, or the business has several yards, a short Loads from summary appears beneath the start.

Loads from is locked once the vehicle is loaded, since the stock on board came out of one yard and must return there. Starting and finishing bases can be changed during planning, including while the loading yard is locked. Rounds already on the road show their bases without editing controls.

Stock kept at another yard

Some cylinders live at one yard only. Open the product and choose that yard under Stock → Kept at. A round loading anywhere else then gets a stop at that yard, marked Collecting stock, listing what its orders need from there. It goes in ahead of the doors that need it; a drop on the way that needs nothing from that yard can come first. Two yards means two stops. Take the orders off the round and the stop goes too.

The driver sees the yard as an ordinary stop: the yard’s name and address, the cylinders to collect, nothing to pay and no signature to take. Marking it collected puts the cylinders on the vehicle, so the load list at the loading yard leaves them out. Check these looks at the yard the cylinder is kept at, not the one the round loads from. A cylinder you do not count still gets its stop: where it is kept is separate from whether you count it. See Counting stock.

Move the stop up or down the round, or drag it, like any other stop. Work out delivery order puts it back ahead of the doors that need it.

If somebody has already loaded that stock, for example the night before, right-click the stop and choose Already on the vehicle. This works before the round goes out, and the round needs a vehicle. The cylinders move from that yard onto the vehicle, the stop comes off the round and the round’s times are worked out without it. The round shows what is already on the vehicle. Choose Collect at the yard to put the stop back.

If the stock is somewhere else today, right-click the stop and choose Collect somewhere else. Under Where to collect on this round, choose At one of your yards and pick the yard, or choose At another address and enter it. You can add the name the driver sees, such as the name on the gate; left empty, the driver sees the first line of the address. Choose Collect here. The stop moves there for this round only, the driver sees the new name and address, and the arrival times are worked out again. The stop shows Usually at and the yard the stock is kept at. Collecting from another yard takes the cylinders out of that yard’s stock. Collecting from an address takes them out of the usual yard’s stock. This works on planned rounds and rounds already out, not finished ones. To put it back, open Collect somewhere else again and choose the button with your usual yard’s name, such as Collect at North yard again.

Plan vehicle limits

Rounds come with Yard and above. Yard includes one vehicle. Round includes three, with paid additions up to ten. Depot supports larger fleets by agreement. On Shop there are no rounds: orders go on a daily list on Your day. See Deliveries without rounds.

See Plans and billing for prices and limits.

What a driver sees

Drivers see their assigned stops, navigation, payment and delivery controls. Their recorded outcomes update the office view.

See The driver app or Out on the round for the web driver screen.

For an overview of round planning in Bottle, see Round planning on the Bottle website.