Tours

Most pages in Bottle have a tour: a short walk round the page, one part at a time. The rest of the page dims, the part being explained stays lit, and a card beside it says what it is and what to do with it.

Starting a tour

• The first time you open a page, a card at the bottom right offers its tour. Press Show me round to take it, or Not now.
• Any time after, press the ? beside the page’s title. It starts that page’s tour again, from the beginning.
• While a page is still empty, like Customers before your first customer, the card comes back each time you open the page, even after the tour has been seen. Not now hides it until the next visit.
• After Get started, at the end of setting up, the welcome tour starts on its own.

Only owners and admins see tours. Drivers never do.

Moving through a tour

• Next moves on, Back goes back, and Skip tour stops. The arrow keys and Esc work too.
• Some steps open a tab for you, like Shift patterns on the Rota, so you see the part being explained.
• Some steps ask you to press something, like Plan everyone. They have no Next button: the tour moves on as soon as you have done it. Skip tour still stops the whole thing.
• A part that is not on the page yet, because the business has nothing there yet, is passed over.
• The Invoices tour carries on into the Invoices report, and the count runs on across both.

Sample data

A tour of an empty page has little to point at. So when the business has nothing on a page yet, its tour shows a pretend business instead: a yard in Kingston with customers, orders, a round out on the road, cash, invoices and stock. A bar across the top says Sample data the whole time. Nothing can be changed while it shows, and your own page comes back as soon as the tour ends.

Pages with sample data: Your day, Orders, Customers, Regular deliveries, Cash, Invoices and the Invoices report, and Stock. A page that already has your own things on it is walked round as it is.

The practice round

Rounds has a practice round instead of an ordinary tour. It opens a pretend business, with two drivers and 12 orders, and walks you through a whole day: planning, sending a round to a driver, the driver loading the van and delivering, and seeing it back in the office. Nothing in it is saved, and nobody is emailed. See A practice round.

Every tour, step by step

Each step is listed with the words its card shows.

Welcome

On /. Started by name, not from a page.

1. You are ready to go. Your products, prices, cylinder charges and delivery options are in. This is Your day: start here each morning to see what needs you, money in, who is off and today’s rounds.
2. Take orders here. When a customer rings, press New order. Pick the customer, what they want and the day. The prices you just set up are used for you.
3. Your customers. Everyone you deliver to. Add them as orders come in, or bring them all in at once.
4. Rounds for your drivers. Orders for a day become rounds, one per driver. Add your vans and drivers first, under Finish setup.
5. What you sell. The products and prices you just set up. Change them here any time.
6. The rest, when you are ready. Vans and drivers, working hours and holidays, getting paid automatically and your customers. Press one to set it up. None of it stops you taking orders today.

Setting up

On /setup.

1. How far you are. How many of these steps are done. Finish them and you can start taking orders.
2. Your steps. A tick means it is done. Press any step to go to it.
3. Do it here. This is the real form, the same one you will find in Bottle later. When it is done, press Continue.

Your day

On /.

1. Needs you. Anything waiting for you to decide or do. When there is nothing, it says so.
2. Money. Cash taken and what you have invoiced today, and what is in your Stripe account.
3. Who is off. Holiday and sickness: yesterday, today and the next 10 days.
4. Today’s rounds. Each round, how far it has got, and when the van should be back.

Orders

On /orders.

1. Take an order. Press this when a customer rings. Pick the customer, what they want and when.
2. At a glance. How many orders are waiting, out for delivery and not paid yet.
3. Every order. Search and filter your orders. Press one to see it, change it or take payment.

Rounds: the practice round

On /rounds.

1. A practice day. This is a pretend business with two drivers, Dave and Priya, and 12 orders for today. Press anything you like. None of it is real.
2. Orders waiting. Press 12 orders waiting to see them. These are the orders for today that are not on a round yet: the grey pins on the map.
3. Plan everyone at once. Press Plan everyone. Each driver gets the orders in their patch, in a sensible order to drive.
4. Two rounds. Dave and Priya each have a round now, in their own colour on the map, and the van they usually take.
5. Open a round. Press Dave or Priya to open their round. The panel on the right shows every stop, in order, with the time the van gets there.
6. Move a drop. Right-click a pin on the map and pick the other driver. Or drag a stop from the list on the right onto the other driver’s name.
7. Send it to the driver. Press Send, under the driver’s name. They see the round on their phone straight away. Until then, only the office can see it.
8. The driver’s phone. This is what the driver sees. Their stops, in order, with a button to get directions to each one.
9. Load the van. Press Load up. Before leaving the yard, the driver loads the van from this list.
10. Tick each drop on. Tick each drop as it goes on the van. The last drop of the day goes on first. Then press the button at the bottom to save what is on the van.
11. Set off. The van is loaded. Press I have set off when the driver leaves the yard.
12. Deliver the first drop. Press Delivered on the first stop and get a signature. If it says Take payment first, press Take payment and take the cash, then press Delivered.
13. Back in the office. The drop the driver delivered shows here straight away, in green on the map.
14. That is a round. Press Done and carry on playing as long as you like. Switch between the office and the driver’s phone at the top. Press End practice to go back to your own business. Nothing here was saved.

Rota

On /rota.

1. Today at a glance. Who is working, who is off, what needs a yes, and who is covering.
2. The month. One row per driver. Press a day to see it or put someone on cover. Drag along a row to book days off.
3. Book time off. Book holiday or sickness for any driver. It is booked straight away.
4. The rest of the rota. Requests waiting for a yes, shift patterns, and each driver’s terms. We will look at each.
5. Shift patterns. The days and hours a driver works, like Monday to Friday, 8 till 5. Make one pattern for each way your drivers work. A driver’s pattern sets when their round leaves and how long it can be.
6. Drivers. Give each driver a shift pattern here, with how much holiday they get and whether their time off needs a yes.
7. Requests. Time off a driver has asked for that needs a yes. Approve it or turn it down, and they get an email either way.

Customers

On /customers.

1. Add a customer. Everyone you deliver to or invoice. Add them here, or they are made for you when you take an order for someone new.
2. Find someone. Search by name, phone, email or postcode.
3. Who owes you. Show only the customers who owe money, so you know who to chase.
4. Every customer. Their terms, how to reach them and what they owe. Press one to see their orders, cylinders and invoices.

Regular deliveries

On /standing-orders.

1. Set up a regular delivery. For a customer who has the same thing every week or month. Bottle makes the order for each delivery by itself.
2. Your regular deliveries. One card each: who, what and how often. Press one to change it, pause it or stop it.

Cash

On /cash.

1. Cash at a glance. How much cash your drivers are carrying, how old the oldest is, and what has been counted in.
2. Who is holding cash. Each driver and the cash they took at the door. When they hand it over, press Count in.
3. Counted in. Cash already handed over, newest first. A mistake can be undone here.
4. How far back. Choose how far back the counted-in figures look.

Invoices

On /invoices.

1. Who owes the most. The customers with the most money outstanding, so you know who to chase first. Only shows when someone owes you.
2. Unpaid, paid, cancelled. Switch between invoices still to be paid, paid ones, cancelled ones or all of them.
3. Find an invoice. Search by invoice number or customer.
4. Every invoice. Each invoice with what is owed. Mark it paid, send it again or cancel it from here.
5. The report. Totals for any period, ready for your accountant. Press Next and we will go there.

Products

On /products.

1. Add a product. A product is one of two kinds: something you sell, or a deposit or cylinder charge. We will open it and look at each.
2. Something you sell. The gas, by cylinder size, like Propane 19kg, and anything else on your price list, like a regulator or a hose. Each cylinder size belongs to a gas type.
3. Deposits and cylinder charges. What the customer pays for the cylinder, not the gas. A deposit is paid once and given back when the cylinder comes home, as your Cylinder charges settings say. Rent is charged for every day, week or month they keep it. Set them once per gas type and Bottle adds them to orders.
4. Gas types. Propane, butane and the rest, and whose cylinders they are. Every cylinder size belongs to a gas type.
5. From your online shop. Selling on Shopify or WooCommerce? Connect it and pull your products in rather than typing them again.
6. Find a product. Show only what you sell, or only the deposits and rent on cylinders.
7. Your price list. Every product with its price and VAT. Press one to change it.

Stock

On /stock.

1. Record stock. For anything a round cannot record for you. Stock loaded and delivered on a round is recorded by itself. We will open it and look.
2. What you are recording. A delivery in from your supplier, a stocktake of what you counted, or cylinders damaged and taken out of use. Pick one.
3. The counts. How many of each product, full and empty. For a delivery, what came in and any empties the supplier took away. For a stocktake, what you counted.
4. Save it. Add a note if it helps, like the delivery note number, then press Save. It shows under Recent movements straight away.
5. Stock at a glance. Full and empty cylinders at each place, and a warning when anything runs low.
6. Stock levels. How many of each product you hold. Set a low level and Bottle warns you before you run out.
7. Every movement. A record of every cylinder in and out, and who recorded it.
8. Stock reports. What came in, what went out and what was lost, over any period.

Vehicles and bases

On /vehicles.

1. Your fleet at a glance. How many vans, drivers, patches and bases you have, and anything due, like an MOT.
2. Vans, drivers, patches and bases. Each has its own tab. Drivers are given patches, the areas they cover, and vans leave from a base.
3. Add a van. What you deliver in: its name, registration, how much it can carry and which base it leaves from.
4. Your vans. Every van and who usually drives it. Press one to change it.
5. Drivers. Everyone who drives: the van they usually take, the patches they cover and their hours.
6. Patches. The areas your drivers cover, by postcode or town. When you plan a round, each driver gets the orders in their patches.
7. Bases. Where vans start and finish: your yard, or a driver’s home. Rounds are planned from here.

People

On /people.

1. Your team. Everyone in the business and what they can do: owners and admins run things, drivers see their own rounds.
2. Find someone. Search your team by name or email.
3. Invite someone. Type their email and choose what they are. They get an email to join.
4. Waiting to join. Invitations not accepted yet. Send one again, or cancel it.

Connections

On /connections.

1. Connect other systems. Link Bottle to your accounts, your online shop and your AI assistant, so nothing is typed twice.
2. What you can connect. One card each. Press Connect and follow the steps.
3. API keys. For a developer building something of their own on Bottle. Most businesses never need one.

Invoices report

On /invoices/report.

1. Pick the period. This month, last month, the last year, or any dates you choose. Everything below follows it.
2. The totals. What you invoiced, what has been paid, what is still owed and the VAT, for the period.
3. Month by month. The same figures for each month, so you can see how things are going and hand them to your accountant.