Ask a question mid-flow, without a form field for it

Häävastaanotto vai firman pikkujoulut? Sometimes you need an answer before the customer even reaches the request form, not after. Mid-flow questions (the Mid-flow questions tab in the Builder, Pro) inserts a question group right into the calculator flow.

Adding a question

Click Add Question. Pick the question type, write the question, and under When the question pops up set Show after step: after event selection, venue selection, guest count, any product category you've added, staff selection, or the final summary. The popup appears the moment the customer clicks "Next" on that step.

Each question pops up in a window of its own, with the question as the window's heading, so you write it once. To ask several things in one window, use Add another question to this window under the question. The window then shows a heading of its own above the questions, and you change it with the pencil.

Asking a group only on some days

When is this asked?, next to Show after step, decides whether the customer sees the question:

• Always: every order. This is the default.
• Only on certain weekdays: tick the days, or use Weekdays (Mon–Fri) or Weekend (Sat–Sun). The day comes from the event the customer chose, or from the date step at the start of the calculator.
• Only when an event is chosen: without an event the customer never sees the group.
• Only at certain events or At every event except certain ones: tick the events from the list of upcoming ones.

Need a different serving time at the weekend? Make two groups. Set one to Mon–Fri and the other to Sat–Sun, and each customer gets only the one that fits their date. Duplicate the first group to start the second: the copy keeps its questions and their settings.

A concert with serving times of its own? Make a group for the concert, set it to Only at certain events and tick the concert nights. Set your usual serving-time group to At every event except certain ones and tick the same nights. Each customer then sees only the times for the night they chose.

If the customer gives the date only in the contact details at the end, the date is not known yet when the questions come up. If the date isn't known yet decides what happens then: Skip the questions or Ask anyway. If the customer later picks a date that doesn't match, their answers to that group are left off the order.

The rule shows as a small label on the group, such as Only Sat–Sun, and on All questions.

Leaving a product question out of one event

A question on a product, such as a dessert's serving time, belongs to the product. To leave it out at one event, open the event under Events, or under Arena in the Builder, and untick it under Asked at this event. The question is gone for that event only, and the product stays on sale.

Question types

Each group can hold several questions, pick a type per question:

• Short answer: free text, e.g. "What's your postcode?"
• Pick one / Pick many: radio or checkboxes, e.g. "Wedding or corporate?", needs at least 2 options. Tick Preselected on an option and it is already chosen when the customer opens the question.
• Date, with presets: today onward, any future date, any past date, or a custom range
• Time: one clock time, e.g. "What time to serve?"
• Time window: a start and an end, e.g. "When should we arrive?"

Toggle Required if the customer must answer before continuing.

Timing questions

Time and Time window start with How do they pick?, because the answer decides what else the question needs:

• Any time / Any start and end: the free clock picker, the original behaviour
• A list of times / A list of windows: pick a length and the list is generated for you, 09–10, 10–11, 11–12
• Windows I write myself / Times I write myself: type each one out, in any order, with gaps if you want. Lunch and dinner with nothing between them. Each can carry a name, like "Lunch service"
• From the event start (Time only): times counted from the start of the event the customer chose. See below.

The first two then ask which hours to work inside: Your opening hours, which follows the weekly hours on the Availability tab and shows the range it landed on, Set hours for this question, or the whole day. Following your opening hours means editing them once updates every question that uses them. A question is asked before the customer has picked a date, so the range merges every day you are open rather than reading one weekday.

Windows you write yourself carry their own times, so they never ask this.

Under a generated list, the preview names the hours it was built from and shows the exact list the customer will get, before you save.

Wherever there is a list, They can pick several lets the customer choose more than one, up to a cap you set. Every pick reaches the quote, both emails, the PDF and the customer's own approval page as one line.

Serving times that follow each event

When your events start at different times, a fixed list of clock times is wrong for half of them. From the event start fixes that. Write each time once, counted from the start: 90 min before the start, when the event starts, **50 min after the start**. Give a time a name if it helps, such as "1st intermission".

The customer sees real clock times for the event they chose. A game at 18:30 offers 17:00, 18:30 and "1st intermission (19:20)". A game at 15:00 offers 13:30, 15:00 and "1st intermission (15:50)". The order records the clock time, so the kitchen sees 17:00, not "90 min before". The editor previews the list for an event starting at 18:30 before you save.

If the customer has not chosen an event, there is no start to count from. Choose Hide the question or Let them pick any time. When the hidden question is the only one in its group, the whole group is skipped.

Capping how many places one time can hold

Once a question offers a list of times, Places per time limits how many orders can pick the same time. Leave it at Unlimited and there is no limit. Set a number, and the customer sees Full when that many orders have picked the time. This works on the calculator's own mid-flow questions, not on product questions.

Every order you haven't declined takes a place. That includes quotes you haven't sent yet. Decline an order and its place opens up again.

How places are counted has two choices:

• Separately for each day: each event date has its own places. Use it when

the same times repeat every day, such as pickup times. If you allow 2 orders at 11:00, you get 2 on Monday and 2 more on Tuesday.

• Shared by all orders: all orders share the same places, whatever date

they are for. Use it when you have made a separate question for each day of an event, for example one for Saturday and one for Sunday. An order has only one event date, so counting per date would mix the two days up. Orders whose event date has passed don't count.

A question shown after a product category starts on Shared by all orders. Every other question starts on Separately for each day. You can change either.

Reordering and duplicating

Drag a group or question to reorder it. Duplicate a group to reuse its questions for a different step or different days. The copy keeps When is this asked? and every question's time settings, and it starts switched off so you can adjust it first.

On a phone, Mid-flow questions is on the calculator's own page, below the publish switch.

Every question on one page

The Questions group in the Builder opens on All questions, which gathers everything the customer answers onto one page, in the order they meet it. Rows come from four places: the mid-flow questions on this page, a product's own questions under Extras, a set menu's course questions, and the order form's fields.

The rule worth remembering: mid-flow questions and form fields belong to this calculator alone. A product's questions travel with the product, so an edit shows up in every calculator that sells it, unless you have narrowed the question with Asked in calculators. Every row says which of the two it is, along with whether it is required and how many options it offers.

Add a question there asks where the customer should answer first, then opens the editor that owns that kind of question.