Help

Getting started

Create your first event

1. Open Events and choose New event.
2. Give it a name and, if you know them, the date, time, place and hosts. You can change all of it later in Event > Event settings.
3. Open the event. It opens on Guests and tables.

Finding your way

The menu on the left has your events and analytics, and, once you open an event, everything about it: Guests and tables, Invitations, Check-in, Floor plan, Import and export and Email templates. On a phone, open it with the menu button at the top left. The bell at the top shows replies and reminders; your name opens your profile.

The numbers at the top of an event

They count people, not invitations: guests attending, tables, seats, seats free, people not seated yet, and tables over capacity. A guest who declined is not counted and holds no seat.

Guests

Add guests

Add guest opens one window for a single guest or a group (a family, a couple with children). Give each person a name and the number of seats they need. The optional fields are an email address (needed to send an invitation), a RSVP status, a table, a group and tags.

The Guest list

The Guest list tab shows everybody in a table you can search, filter (reply, seated or not, group, tag, table) and sort. Tick one or more guests and a bar appears with Move to table, Confirmed, Declined, Remove from tables, Lock at tables, Unlock and Delete. Deleting asks first and says how many invitations go.

Groups and tags

A group links people who belong together (the Smith family). Auto-seat keeps a group at one table when it can. A tag is a label (Kids, VIP, Friends) used to send people to a particular table. Someone can have several tags.

Import and export

Import and export (in the event's menu) downloads the guest list as a spreadsheet (CSV) or the whole event as a backup (JSON), and brings them back.

To import a guest list, choose a CSV file. SeatLink checks it first and shows how many guests would be added, updated or skipped, with a line for every problem (for example "Row 5: seats must be a whole number from 1 to 50"). Nothing changes until you press Import, and a file with a problem imports nothing. You decide what happens to guests already in the event: leave them, update them (empty cells keep what is there), or replace the whole list (asks first; their reply links and check-in history go too). A guest given a table number in the file is placed there and locked, so Auto-seat will not move them; a table the event does not have leaves the guest without a seat. Columns are found by their names, in any order, so Excel files work as they are. The whole-event JSON file always becomes a new event.

Tables and seating

Add and change tables

Add table asks for a number, the seats and an optional name such as "Kids" or "Head table". Open a table (the gear on its card) to change it, see who sits there, add a guest to it, or delete it. Deleting a table un-seats its guests. Renumber tables closes the gaps in the numbering and the guests follow their table.

Seat people yourself

Drag a guest onto a table, or use Move to table in the guest's menu (the three dots), which also works on a phone. Dragging a guest onto the "Unassigned guests" panel takes them off their table.

Capacity

A table that has more people than seats is marked and counted in the summary, but SeatLink lets you do it: you decide. Guests who declined never take a seat.

Guests you place yourself are locked

When you place a guest by hand (drag, Move to table, the guest window, or several at once) a small lock appears beside them. Auto-seat and Smart auto-seat never move a locked guest, even when you choose to plan everyone again. Use Let Auto-seat move this guest in the guest's menu, Unlock in the Guest list, or Unlock all in the Auto-seat window to change your mind. Guests that Auto-seat placed are not locked.

Auto-seat and Smart auto-seat

Find them under Seating in the toolbar. Both show you a plan first. You can untick any guest, see how full each table gets, and nothing is saved until you choose Seat.

Auto-seat: the rules, in this order

1. Tag tables. A table named after a tag (Kids, VIP, "Table 5 (Family)"; capital letters and plurals do not matter) is kept for guests with that tag, and so is a table you choose in a rule. Only those guests may sit there, and they go there first. If it is full, the rest go to other tables and the plan says so.
2. Families and groups are seated as one unit, the biggest first, so a large family is never left without a table. A group is split only when no table has room for all of it, and the plan tells you.
3. A guest whose family already sits at a table joins them when there is room.
4. Everyone else goes to the tightest table with room, or the emptiest one if you choose Spread guests evenly.

The options: Keep groups together; Leave guests who already have a table where they are (untick it to plan everyone again from empty tables, except guests you locked); Only guests who have confirmed; and optional Seat by tag rules (send a tag to a table you choose). Guests who declined are never seated.

Smart auto-seat

It starts from the same plan and asks an AI to change it for your wishes ("keep the Smiths away from the Joneses", "VIPs near table 1"). Whatever the AI suggests is checked against the rules above (seats, tag tables, families) before you see it, and a guest it forgets keeps the seat Auto-seat gave. To make a plan, SeatLink sends the guests' names, groups, tags and party sizes and the event's name and date to Anthropic, which runs the AI. Email addresses are not sent. You get a limited number of AI plans per day; the window shows how many are left, and says so if AI seating is not switched on for the site.

Tips

• Name a table after a tag when you want that tag to sit there, and give the tag to every guest who should.
• Put family members in the same group exactly as typed; "Smith" and "smith" are the same group.
• Seat the guests who matter most by hand first: they are locked and the plan works around them.

Invitations and replies

The Invitations page

It has a tab for each message: Invitations, Reminder, Change notice, Cancellation and Thank you. A tab shows who can get that message and when it was sent. Guests need an email address, must be attending and must not have declined. A tab that is closed (Thank you before the event, the others after it, Reminder in the last two days) says why and has no send button.

Sending

Tick the guests (or press Select those not sent yet), then Send. SeatLink asks first and tells you afterwards how many went out and who failed. A couple or family that shares one email address and one family group is one row and gets one message with one reply link. Each guest gets a personal check-in QR code with their confirmation. A guest can also be invited one at a time from the Guests and tables page. Edit the wording at the top opens the email templates for that message.

How guests reply

They open the link, see the event, set how many seats each person needs and choose Yes or No. Only the people on that link can be changed, from 1 to 50 seats each. A No never changes your seat numbers. The reply appears in your list, in the bell and in the numbers, and a guest who says Yes gets a confirmation email. Replies close 48 hours before the event and stay closed afterwards; the page then tells guests to contact you.

Reminders

SeatLink reminds you in the bell and on the event page: a first reminder 7 to 14 days before the event and a final one 3 to 5 days before. The Reminder tab says when it is a good time and closes two days before.

Changes, cancellation, thank you, resending

A change notice needs a short description of what changed and lets guests update their reply. A cancellation asks you to confirm first and cannot be taken back. After the event, thank you goes to the guests who confirmed. A message can be sent again: guests already sent are marked with the date, and SeatLink warns you when you pick them again. You can send up to 300 messages at a time and 20 sends an hour.

Email templates

Email templates lets you change the wording and colours of each message. You can use {guest_name}, {event_name}, {event_date}, {event_time}, {venue_name} and {hosts} and see a live preview before saving.

Printing

Choose Print on the Guests and tables page. Pick what to print and the page below shows it as it will come out of the printer; Print sends it. The choices are:

• Guest list by table and Guest list by name: every guest with group, tags, seats, table and reply.
• Seating chart: each table with the people who sit there and how many seats are taken.
• Table cards: one large card for every table of the event.
• Name cards: one card for every person (a party of three gets three), with the table number.

Under Include you can add guests who are not attending, leave out guests who have no table yet, and turn tags and the summary numbers on or off. Guests who declined are left out unless you ask for them. Use landscape for a long chart, and choose "Save as PDF" as the printer to share it.

Floor plan

The floor plan is a drawing of your venue. Floor plan (in the event's menu) has shapes on the left (tables, a dance floor, a bar, stage, walls, doors, plants...), the plan in the middle and the selected shape's details on the right. Click a shape in the palette to add it, or drag it onto the plan; drag a shape to move it, drag a corner to resize it, and drag across empty space to select several. Shift adds to a selection. The Align buttons line shapes up or space them evenly.

Tables and seats

Each table shape can be linked to one of your event's tables: it then shows the table's number and name and the seats in use (for example 6/8; a guest who declined takes no seat). A table over capacity is outlined in red. Select a linked table to see who sits there. Place all tables lays out every table that is not on the plan yet. The list on the left shows which tables are placed; click one to find it on the plan, or to place it.

Saving

The plan saves itself a moment after every change (the top right says "All changes saved"); Ctrl S saves at once. If the same plan was changed in another window or on another device, SeatLink does not overwrite it: it tells you and lets you reload or keep your version. Undo and Redo go back 60 steps.

The venue picture

Canvas sets the size of the canvas and the grid, and lets you add a photo or scan of the venue's plan (PNG, JPEG or WebP, up to 3 MB) to trace over. The picture is kept with the event and shows behind the shapes at the strength you choose.

Export and print

Export or print draws the plan as a picture: save it as a PNG or print it. Choose whether to show names and seats, and whether to include the whole canvas, just the shapes, or only the shapes you selected. All the keyboard shortcuts are listed under Shortcuts.

Check-in and kiosk

On the day

Check-in (in the event's menu) shows who is here and who is still to come: a ring, three big numbers (Here now, Expected, Still to come), and the guest list with a search box. Press Check in next to a guest. Press / to jump to the search; when only one guest is left in the list, Enter checks them in. The page updates itself every few seconds, so two people at the door always see the same list, and a guest checked in on one device cannot be counted twice on another.

The list holds guests who are attending and have not declined (confirmed, and those who have not replied yet). A guest who has not replied can still be checked in; they then count as expected. Someone who is not on the list: Add a walk-in adds them to the guest list as confirmed and checks them in.

Parties that arrive in parts

A guest row is a party with a number of seats. When part of the party arrives, the page asks how many are arriving now; the row shows "2 of 4 here" and Check in the rest finishes it. Undo takes back some or all of the arrivals, and asks first.

Scanning a QR code

Scan a QR code uses the camera of your phone or tablet (the browser asks to allow it once). You can also scan a guest's code with the phone's own camera app: it opens SeatLink on that guest (you sign in first if needed). The code is on the guest's invitation e-mail and on the printed badge. A code for another host's event is refused.

Kiosk mode

The kiosk is a screen at the entrance where guests check themselves in. On the Check-in page, choose a PIN (4 to 6 digits, the same for all your events) and press Turn the kiosk on. Open the link on the tablet and type the PIN once to unlock it. A guest types two or more letters of their name (or scans their QR code), confirms who is arriving, and sees their table. The kiosk never shows the guest list: it only shows names that match what is typed, with the party size, and it cannot undo a check-in or show guests who declined. The link works for 24 hours and stops working the moment you turn the kiosk off; the PIN is needed on every new browser. Host (top right of the kiosk) locks it again. If five wrong PINs are typed the kiosk waits 15 minutes.

Name badges

Badges prints one badge per guest or party with the name, party size, table and a QR code. Choose confirmed guests or everyone who has not declined, and one table or all, then Print; the menu and controls are left out of the printout and each badge stays on one page. Guests who declined or are not attending get no badge.

Your account

• Profile (your name at the top right) shows your account, lets you change your display name and your password. Changing your password signs you out on every other device.
• Two-step sign-in adds a six-digit code from an authenticator app (Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Authy) to your password. Turn it on from your profile: scan the code, type the six digits, and save the backup codes (each works once if you lose your phone). New backup codes, and turning it off, ask for your password.
• Invite someone (your name at the top right) makes a link that lets a person create their own SeatLink account, and can email it to them. The link works for 7 days and once. Under Waiting for a reply you see the people who have not used theirs yet, with Send again (it makes a new link and the earlier one stops working). You can send 20 invitations an hour.
• Notifications (the bell) tell you when a guest replies, changes how many are coming, or an event is getting close. Open the bell for the latest, or See all notifications.
• Forgot your password? Use the link on the sign-in page; the reset link works once and signs out every device.

Questions and answers

Still stuck?

Ask the person who runs your SeatLink, and tell them what you were doing, what you expected and what happened. A screenshot helps.