Queue Management

This guide covers how to create, configure, and operate queues in Neverline.

Creating a Queue

Navigate to Queues in the admin sidebar and click + New Queue. Provide:

• Name — displayed to customers and staff (e.g. "Tax Office Counter 1")
• Description — optional, shown to customers on the join page
• Service Type — optional label for categorization

The queue starts in Closed status. Set status to Open to begin accepting customers.

Queue Status

Status	Description
Open	Accepting new customers, staff can call next
Paused	Not accepting new customers, existing customers remain in queue
Closed	Queue is shut down, customers see a "closed" message

Toggle between Open and Paused using the Pause / Resume button in the queue detail view.

Queue Policies

Each queue has a set of policy settings that control customer actions and queue behavior. Configure these in the queue detail view under Policy Settings.

Setting	Type	Default	Description
chatEnabled	boolean	false	Allow customers to chat with staff from the waiting screen
jumpEnabled	boolean	false	Enable smart queue jump offers for waiting customers
maxJumpsPerDay	number	3	Maximum jump offers a customer can accept per day
awayTimeoutMin	number	30	Maximum duration for away mode (minutes)
lateGracePeriodMin	number	15	Grace period for running-late customers (minutes)
maxWaitMin	number	60	Maximum expected wait time (for display/forecasting)

These policies are enforced server-side by the queue engine.

Queue Views

The dashboard offers four view modes for managing queues:

View	Best For
List	Focused work on one queue at a time — sidebar list + detail panel
Kanban	Overview of all queues side by side — drag-style columns
Cards	Quick glance at all queues with inline actions
Timeline	Visual timeline of session activity

Switch views using the toggle buttons at the top of the Queues page. All views feature animated transitions and gradient styling for enhanced visual clarity.

Calling Customers

Click Call Next (or the specific ticket number) to sequentially call the next customer. The customer's interface will update to indicate their turn.

When a customer is being served, you can:

• Complete — mark service as done
• Requeue — send them back to the waiting line

Event Queues & Ticket Scanning

For situations handling structured ingress (e.g. concerts, priority venues), you can change the Queue Type under Settings to Event.

When a queue is in Event mode:

1. The public PWA hides the standard "Join" form.
2. Customers receive direct, headless Session Tokens representing their ticket (often created automatically via API or Webhooks integrations with your ticketing provider).
3. Staff access the Tickets panel (Liput) from the queue detail view.
4. Staff can use the built-in Ticket Scanner input to type or manually scan (via hardware laser scanner) the customer's unique token string. Doing so queries the backend verification endpoint, and immediately marks the session as Completed, rendering a bright Ticket Verified (Vahvistettu) success notification for the gatekeeper.

Process Improvement Note: Based on our recent internal QA and end-to-end testing sprints, ticket scanning efficiency could potentially be further optimized in a future patch. Since high-volume venues require millisecond throughput, elevating the Ticket Scanner out of the "Liput" slide-out panel and transforming it into a persistent, focused "Kiosk Mode" Dashboard tool would eliminate unnecessary clicks for staff members executing rapid-fire ingress validation.

Queue Alternatives

You can configure alternative queues so that customers waiting in a long queue see suggestions for shorter ones. To set up:

1. Open a queue's detail view
2. Navigate to alternatives configuration
3. Add one or more alternative queues

When alternatives are configured, customers see an AlternativesCard on the waiting screen suggesting queues with shorter wait times.

Announcements

Staff can create announcements visible to customers in specific queues, locations, or the entire organization.

Navigate to Announcements in the admin sidebar to:

• Create announcements with title, content, priority (info/warning/urgent)
• Pin important announcements to the top
• Schedule visibility with start and end times
• Scope to organization, location, or queue level

Customers see announcements as banners at the top of their waiting screen.

Sharing Queue Links

Each queue has a unique join URL. Share it with customers via:

• QR Code — click the Share button to generate a downloadable QR code
• Direct Link — copy the join URL to paste into emails, websites, or signs

Wait Time Estimation

Neverline calculates estimated wait times automatically based on historical data:

Algorithm

• Computes the weighted average service time from completed sessions
  • 70% weight from sessions in the same 2-hour window (time-of-day awareness)
  • 30% weight from all sessions
  • Looks at the last 7 days (falls back to 30 days if insufficient data)
• Counts active servers (staff currently serving a customer)
• Formula: estimatedWait = (peopleAhead × avgServiceTime) / activeServers

Where It Appears

• Customer PWA (waiting screen): "Est. wait: ~12 min"
• Queue views (staff dashboard): displayed alongside queue people count

Wait estimates auto-refresh continuously as queue volume fluctuates.

Serving & Multi-Session

Staff can serve customers from any queue. When serving a customer:

• A serving bar appears at the bottom of the screen with the current customer's info
• Staff can complete service or requeue from this bar
• Multiple sessions can be served simultaneously across different queues