What does an order limit do?
You can set limits separately for:
- Same-day delivery.
- Same-day pickup.
- Pre-order delivery.
- Pre-order pickup.
The limits are set per location, so each store can have its own capacity.
What customers see
When a time slot reaches its limit, customers cannot select that slot. Slerp will direct them to the next available time slot instead.
This means you can keep accepting orders while spreading them across the day, rather than closing the whole delivery or pickup service when one period becomes busy.
Example
If your delivery time slots are one hour long, you might set a limit of:
- 10 orders per slot during a busy period.
- 20 orders per slot during a quieter period.
You can adjust the limit during service if your team’s capacity changes.
Set a limit for same-day orders
If the feature is not already available for your location, contact Slerp Support or your Account Manager to have it enabled.
Once enabled:
- Open Locations in the Slerp Controls Dashboard.
- Select the relevant location.
- Open Settings.
- Select Same-day order settings.
- Choose Delivery or Pickup.
- Turn on Order limit.
- Set the maximum number of orders for each time slot.
- Save your changes.
You can set different limits for delivery and pickup. For example, you could allow more delivery orders while keeping pickup capacity lower if your counter is busy.
Set a limit for pre-orders
- Open the relevant location in the Controls Dashboard.
- Open the location’s Pre Orders settings.
- Choose Delivery or Pickup.
- Turn on the order limit setting.
- Set the maximum number of pre-orders for each time slot.
- Save your changes.
Pre-order limits are managed separately from same-day limits. Make sure you are editing the correct order type and fulfilment option.
How same-day and pre-order limits work together
You can use both types of limits at the same time.
For example:
- Same-day limit: 10 orders for the 10:00–11:00 slot.
- Pre-order limit: 5 orders for the same 10:00–11:00 slot.
If three pre-orders are already booked for that slot, the remaining capacity can be used by same-day orders. In this example, up to seven same-day orders can be accepted, bringing the total workload for the slot to 10 orders.
This helps protect the total number of orders your team needs to prepare, while still allowing same-day customers to order when pre-order capacity has not used the full slot.
Choose the right limit
Set the limit based on the work your team can realistically complete during the time slot, including:
- Preparation time.
- Packing and labelling.
- Collection or handover time.
- Available kitchen, counter, or production capacity.
- The time needed to handle delivery orders and pickup customers together.
If you have a limit on a specific item rather than on the total number of orders, consider using Capacity Rules. For example, capacity rules may be more suitable when one oven, machine, or production area limits how many units you can prepare.
You can also use Activity Mode or Dynamic Preparation Time to give your team more preparation time as demand increases.
Practical tips
- Start with a limit your team can meet consistently.
- Use lower limits during known peak periods.
- Review the limits when staffing, opening hours, or menus change.
- Adjust the limits during service if conditions change.
- Make sure the team knows that changing the limit affects the time slots customers can see.
- Use realistic preparation times as well as order limits. An order limit alone will not correct an unrealistic preparation time.
-----------------------------------------------
Overview:
In order to prevent over-commitment of pre-orders during rush timeslots, you can enable an order limit on both the pre-orders and the same-day order reservations, allowing both sit-down, delivery, and collection customers to receive their orders on time.
This feature provides you with the ability to open up or limit order availability by order type (delivery or pick-up) and fulfillment type (same-day or pre-order) for each of your stores. You can customize the limits based on on-site footfall, reservations, or demand, and can easily control how many orders you do per time slot.
Customer Experience:
Your customers will be prompted to the next available order time slot when your specified limit has reached capacity.
Example:
If you are working to '1-hour time slots' for delivery you can limit the orders to 10 per hour during peak service and when you're quiet you can adjust this to 20 orders per hour.
Advantages:
- Can be adjusted live in service on the dashboard
- Set capacity by order type meaning you can open up delivery while restricting pick-ups
- Allows for order flexibility and better control to support your onsite operation
- You can apply limits to pre-orders and on-demand (same day) independently and run in parallel
Slerp Hack:
Adjust your order limit by time slot throughout service to mirror the flow of your reservation allocations or output. Ensure that you let your team know that if the weather turns bad to open up order availability.
Contact support or your account manager to switch this feature on.
1. Navigate to 'Locations' on your SlerpSpace and open settings.
Select 'Same-day order settings' and under each order type (delivery or pick-up) you will be able to toggle on 'Order limit'.
Then set your order limit or capacity by selected time slots for each delivery type.
If you have 'Pre-Orders' set up you can also cap orders by time slots or fixed times in your 'Pre-Orders' store settings.
Running Pre-Order & Same-Day Order Limits Together:
Scenario 1a:
Order Limits:
- The same-day order limit is set to '10' for each 1-hour time slot
- The Pre-order order limit is set to '5' for each 1-hour timeslot
5 customers place 5 pre-orders for 5th March for 10 am to 11 am time slot.
The pre-order limit is reached for the day.
Customers cannot place any more pre-orders for 5th March at 10 am.
5th March arrives, 5 orders need to be fulfilled at 10 am from customers who have pre-orders.
The same-day order limit is 10.
Customers are able to place 5 more same-day orders at 10 am on top of the 5 preorders at 10 am.
This brings the total number of Same day orders to 10. Which is the limit.
Scenario 1b:
Delivery:
- The same-day order limit is set to '10' for each 1hour time slot
- The pre-order order limit is set to '5' for each 1 hour time slot
3 customers place 3 preorders for 5th March for 10 am.
The pre-order limit is not reached.
5th of March arrives.
3 orders need to be fulfilled at 10 am from customers who have pre-ordered.
Same day order limit is 10.
Customers are able to place 7 more same-day orders at 10 am on top of the 3 preorders at 10 am.
This brings the total number of Same day orders to 10. Which is the limit.