JOURNAL / INDEX · 410 ENTRIES · PAGE 24 OF 34 LAST ENTRY 2026-10-24
THE JOURNAL PUBLISHED FROM LONDON · 51.5072°N 0.1276°W

Everything we learn, written down

Bookings, menus, online ordering, search. Written by the people building the product, between services.

Last published 24 Oct 2026 — the TableSpark team, London
ARTICLES403
FILMS33
TOPICS9

All entries

277–288 of 403 Newest first · Articles Articles ✕

August 2026

2026-08 12 entries
FIG. 278 Ordering and payments
Ordering and payments 2026-08-28

When VAT actually falls on a restaurant gift voucher

Whether voucher VAT falls at sale or at redemption turns on a two-limb statutory test. Guess wrong and an unused voucher can leave tax paid with nothing to reclaim.

FIG. 279 Search and being found
Search and being found 2026-08-28

Google Business Profile suspended: the appeal path for a UK restaurant, and the sixty-minute form

The pin vanishes on a Friday, taking the hours, the phone number and four years of reviews. The walk-in trade is lost while the appeal runs.

FIG. 280 Running the site
Running the site 2026-08-28

Registrant details can suspend a paid-up .uk domain

Nominet suspends .uk domains whose registrant name or address it cannot validate. A paid-up domain stops resolving, and the trade behind it is lost until it is fixed.

FIG. 281 Ordering and payments
Ordering and payments 2026-08-28

One order page, two VAT rates, and a guest who sat down

The collection or eat-in toggle records a tax fact, not a delivery preference. Most order pages keep no record of what the guest did next, and the risk sits with the restaurant.

FIG. 282 Building the website
Building the website 2026-08-28

Where the right to work check belongs on a restaurant careers page

Ask one applicant about immigration status and not the others and the exposure flips from a capped civil penalty to tribunal compensation with no upper limit.

FIG. 283 Rules and compliance
Rules and compliance 2026-08-28

The restaurant complaints page still points at a revoked duty

A dispute-body block left over from a repealed regulation describes a route the guest may find closed, and transitional cover for unaccredited providers ends by 5 October 2026.

FIG. 284 Running the site
Running the site 2026-08-28

What Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook now require of a restaurant's email

Gmail can now reject a booking confirmation outright, with no bounce and nothing red on the screen. Six spam complaints in two thousand is the whole margin.

FIG. 285 Search and being found
Search and being found 2026-08-28

Three tabs, three different numbers: when restaurant search reporting looks inaccurate but is not

Last week's numbers arrive three different ways, so a quiet fortnight gets blamed on the wrong thing and the spend moves off a channel that was working.

FIG. 286 Rules and compliance
Rules and compliance 2026-08-27

Which hours duties already bind a UK restaurant, and which are still waiting on regulations

A manager reads that guaranteed hours are law and starts rewriting contracts. That duty is not in force, while the record duties that are already carry a penalty.

FIG. 287 Rules and compliance
Rules and compliance 2026-08-27

Is your restaurant an obligated packaging producer? Work it out from three conditions

An operator hears the packaging rules now apply and starts budgeting for fees. Most single-site restaurants fail the threshold test, and assuming wrongly costs money either way.

FIG. 288 Rules and compliance
Rules and compliance 2026-08-27

Digital ID for alcohol: what a UK restaurant must actually do

Staff are being told digital ID is now allowed, and a refusal at the bar is an argument in front of a queue. The Order that would permit it has not been made.

FIG. 289 Menus and allergens
Menus and allergens 2026-08-27

How to Keep Your Restaurant Website Menu in Step With Zettle

The till export carries a name and a price, not the dish description or the allergen line. The page a guest relies on is left holding what the catalogue lost.

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