Welcome to GovRes

Getting started with GovRes

GovRes lets citizens reserve a time slot online for a government service, so arrivals spread across the day instead of crowding the morning. Follow these steps to go from install to your first reservation.

1. Set your office details

1. Open Settings.
2. In Business, enter your Business name and Business phone.
3. Check the Currency symbol (₦ by default).
4. Tap Save.

2. Open your booking hours

Citizens can only book times you open here — set this before sharing anything.

1. Open Availability (also on the home screen).
2. Make sure Online reservations is switched on.
3. Under Weekly opening hours, add a time block for each day you're open. For each block set:

• Slot length (min) — e.g. 30.
• People per slot — how many citizens can book the same time. Full slots close automatically.

1. Tap Save hours.
2. In the top card, set the Cut-off before a slot (default 60 minutes), How far ahead to open (default 30 days), and your Timezone. Tap Save.
3. Under Holidays & special days, tap Add to close a date or give it different hours.

3. Check your reservation form

1. Open Settings → Customer-facing.
2. Next to Your customer link, tap Open.

This is what citizens see: pick a service, pick a day and time, enter their details, and get a reference code to show at the counter. The default service list (New application, Renewal, Pick up / collection, Drop off documents, Ask a question / help) is editable — see the Customizing lesson.

4. Share your link

1. In Settings → Customer-facing, tap the copy icon next to Your customer link.
2. Paste it on your website, WhatsApp, SMS, or a poster with a QR code.

Citizens don't need an app or an account to reserve.

5. Watch the queue

New reservations land in Reservations, and your team gets a push alert. Auto-confirm new reservations is on by default (Settings → Workflow & alerts), so reservations arrive already Confirmed — you just check citizens in when they arrive.

What GovRes costs

GovRes is included in the Pancho Plus plan — no separate app fee, no setup fee. Reservations are always free for citizens. If you switch on optional paid Fast Track services, the platform's share (default 20% of each Fast Track charge) is split automatically — see the Fast Track & shared revenue lesson.

Working in GovRes day-to-day

The daily loop: reservations come in, citizens arrive, you check them in and mark them done. Every reservation moves through Pending → Confirmed → Checked In → Completed.

1. A reservation comes in

Citizens book from your public link — a service, an open time slot, their details. The reservation lands in Reservations and your team gets a push alert.

• Auto-confirm new reservations is on by default (Settings → Workflow & alerts), so it arrives already Confirmed.
• If you turn auto-confirm off, it arrives as Pending: open the reservation and tap Confirmed to lock it in.

Full slots close automatically, so you'll never see more people booked into a time than you allowed under Availability.

2. Check the citizen in

When a citizen arrives, open their reservation and tap Checked In. Now the whole team can see who's physically present and who's still expected.

You can find a reservation fast by its reference code (e.g. GR-20260703-0001) or the citizen's phone number.

3. Mark it completed

After serving the citizen, tap Completed. That clears them from the active queue. Completed reservations stay in history for lookups and Reports.

If someone doesn't show or asks to rebook, mark the reservation Cancelled.

4. Add a reservation by hand

For a citizen who calls or walks in:

1. Tap the + button (New Reservation).
2. Pick or add the citizen, choose the service and time.
3. Save — it goes into the same queue.

5. Text the citizen (optional)

If you've enabled Message citizens (SMS) and set up Twilio (Settings → SMS & push), each reservation page shows one-tap Quick-send SMS templates — "You're next — please come to the counter", and so on. Edit the templates in Settings.

Home-screen shortcuts

The dashboard shows today's numbers plus quick actions: Pending (waiting to be confirmed), Today (expected today), Availability, Fast Track, Reports, and the Activity Log of every change.

Sharing GovRes with the public

One link does everything: citizens book on it, and after booking they can track their reservation from the same flow. Here's how to get it in front of people.

1. Copy your reservation link

1. Open Settings → Customer-facing.
2. Under Your customer link, tap the copy icon.
3. Paste it anywhere citizens will see it — your website, WhatsApp, SMS, notice boards, a QR code poster.

There's also a Español link below it — the same form with Spanish pre-selected, for Spanish-speaking citizens.

If you run multiple offices, switch the location picker at the top of the page first — each branch gets its own link, and bookings made on it are tagged to that branch.

2. Embed the form on your website

Add ?embed=1 to your reservation link and put it in an iframe:

<iframe src="YOUR-LINK?embed=1" style="width:100%;height:700px;border:0"></iframe>

The form renders with transparent chrome so it blends into your page.

3. Use your own domain (optional)

1. On the platform sidebar, open Account → Domains.
2. Add a domain you own and point its DNS at Pancho (the exact records are shown).
3. Choose GovRes as the target.

Once verified, Your customer link updates to your domain automatically, SSL included.

4. How citizens track a reservation

After booking, the success screen shows a reference code and a Track it button that leads to the citizen portal. There, citizens sign in with phone + PIN — a PIN is always required. New citizens can create their own account when Allow customer sign-up is on (Settings → Customer-facing, on by default), or you can issue a PIN from their profile under Citizens.

Signed in, they see their reservations, time slots, and current status — fewer "am I confirmed?" calls to your desk.

5. Your team's sign-in link

Officers and counter staff don't use your Pancho login.

1. Open Settings → Staff.
2. Tap Add staff — name, phone, and a 4–8 digit PIN.
3. Copy the Staff sign-in link and send it to them.

They sign in with phone + PIN and land on the reservation queue. Give each person their own login so the Activity Log stays meaningful.

Customizing GovRes for your office

Every setting lives in Settings (admin only), grouped into cards you tap open. Here's what to change and where.

1. Business basics

1. Open Settings → Business.
2. Set Business name, Business phone, and Currency symbol.
3. Two module switches live here too:

• Multiple locations — run more than one branch, each with its own hours, slots, queue, and link.
• Reports — charts for reservations, revenue, and top citizens.

2. Tune your slots under Availability

1. Open Availability.
2. Weekly opening hours — one or more time blocks per day, each with its own Slot length (min) and People per slot.
3. Cut-off before a slot — how close to a slot's start citizens can still book (default 60 minutes).
4. How far ahead to open — booking horizon in days (default 30).
5. Holidays & special days — tap Add, pick a date, and either tick Closed all day (holiday) or give it different hours. Overrides win over the weekly schedule.

Lowering a slot's capacity doesn't remove citizens already booked into it — it only limits new bookings.

3. Edit the reservation form

1. Open Settings → Customer-facing → Edit booking form HTML.
2. Tap Copy HTML for AI redesign, paste it into any good AI (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini), and describe your changes — e.g. edit the SERVICES list to match what your office actually offers.
3. Paste the result back and tap Save booking form. Reset to default brings back the shipped form.

Also in Customer-facing:

• Service area — the areas you serve, shown on the form.
• Show prices on the booking form — off swaps prices for a custom label.
• Allow customer sign-up — let citizens create their own portal account (phone + PIN).
• Default theme for your public pages — light or dark starting look.

4. Workflow & alerts

Open Settings → Workflow & alerts:

• In-app reservation alerts — push notifications to your team on new reservations (on by default).
• Auto-confirm new reservations — skip manual confirmation (on by default).
• Message citizens (SMS) — show a "Message citizen" box on each reservation. Needs Twilio (Settings → SMS & push).
• Collect payments at the counter — off by default; government services are free, and Fast Track is paid online.
• Fast Track services — turn the paid add-on menu on or off.

5. Rename things under Labels

Open Settings → Labels to rename what you call a booking (singular and plural) and the portal greeting. Changes flow through every screen.

6. Per-location overrides

With multiple locations on, extra cards tagged Per location appear at the bottom of Settings: Reservation handling (auto-accept per branch), SMS & push (per-branch Twilio number, ntfy topic, templates), and Booking form (a different form HTML per branch). Empty fields fall back to the app-wide values.

Heads up: your account currency is set at signup from your phone's country code and can't be changed later. The Currency symbol setting only changes what's displayed.

Fast Track & shared revenue

Reservations are always free. Fast Track is an optional paid add-on a citizen can pick while booking — skip the line, help filling forms, faster service. Here's how to set it up and how the money is split.

1. Build your Fast Track menu

1. Open Fast Track (home-screen shortcut, or Settings → Workflow & alerts → Fast Track services → Open).
2. Tap Add Category (e.g. "Skip the wait").
3. Tap Add Item inside it — a clear name and a price, e.g. "Help filling forms — ₦2,000".

Keep names plain; citizens decide in seconds. To hide the whole menu, switch off Fast Track services under Settings → Workflow & alerts.

2. Connect Paystack

Fast Track is paid online through your own Paystack account.

1. Open Settings → Payment provider.
2. Enter your Paystack public key and Paystack secret key.
3. Make sure Online payments is on.

3. What the citizen sees

While booking, after picking a time, the form shows a "Skip the wait?" step listing your menu. It's optional — the button reads Reserve my spot for free, or Reserve & pay ₦2,000 with a Fast Track pick. The reservation is saved first, so the citizen keeps their slot even if they abandon the payment. Ask for their email on the form — that's where the payment receipt goes.

4. Set the revenue split

1. Open Settings → Fast Track payouts.
2. Switch on Share Fast Track revenue with the platform.
3. Set the Platform fee (% of each Fast Track charge) — default 20.
4. Under Platform payout account, pick the Bank, enter the Account number, and tap Verify.
5. Tap Save payout settings.

From then on, every Fast Track payment lands in your Paystack, and the platform's percentage is transferred out automatically. Your office keeps the rest — no manual reconciling.

Heads up: automatic payouts run over Paystack Transfers, which are Naira (NGN) only. On a non-Naira account, Fast Track fees are still collected — the platform share just isn't auto-transferred. The payouts screen shows a warning when this applies to you.

5. Watch the payouts

The same Fast Track payouts card shows Pending platform payouts and each transfer's status. Payouts run on a schedule; tap Process now to push pending ones through immediately.

A sensible rollout

1. Start with one or two services you can reliably deliver.
2. Price them as a convenience, not a toll.
3. Confirm the split and payout account before advertising.
4. Check the payouts card weekly until you trust the flow.