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Updating Cafe Hours

Status: LIVING

Six places hold the cafe's hours of operation. When hours change — permanently, for a holiday, or for a one-off early/late close — every one of them needs to match. Out-of-sync hours are how customers show up to a locked door at 8am because Google still says 7am.

Manager task. Not a barista task.

When to use this SOP

  • Permanent change to the regular weekly schedule (e.g. adding Monday hours, moving open time)
  • Holiday closure or special hours (Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve early close)
  • One-off (closing early for a private event; opening late after weather)

If it's a same-day surprise close, do Google + the phone system first — those are the two places customers actually check before driving over.

The six places

# System Where to log in What it controls
1 Google Business Profile business.google.com What shows on Google Search + Maps
2 Facebook Page business.facebook.com What shows on the FB page "About"
3 Yelp Business Page biz.yelp.com What shows on Yelp
4 3CX phone system 1745.3cx.cloud After-hours call routing (voicemail vs. ring)
5 SpotOn BOH client.restaurantpos.spoton.com/b/ Online ordering availability + reporting "open" window
6 Door signs (front + back) in person What walk-up customers see

Pre-flight

Before touching anything:

  1. Write the new hours down — the exact day-by-day open/close times, plus the effective date.
  2. Confirm with Mike if it's a permanent change.
  3. Decide whether to announce — newsletter? Instagram post? See Communicate below.

Order of operations

Do them in this order. The order matters: the public listings cache, the phone system flips routing in real time, and the door signs are the last visible artifact.

  1. SpotOn BOH (controls online ordering — do first so customers can't place an order for a time you're not open)
  2. 3CX phone system (after-hours routing flips immediately)
  3. Google Business Profile (highest customer visibility; can take 15–60 min to propagate)
  4. Facebook
  5. Yelp
  6. Door signs (last — physical, in person)

1. SpotOn BOH

⚠️ Live-edit, auto-save. Every field commits on blur. There is no preview or Save button. Don't touch any other input.

  1. Log in to SpotOn BOH
  2. Navigate to Company → Locations → Sips & Souls Cafe
  3. Scroll to §18 Time Zone / Hours of Operation
  4. Update each day's open/close time
  5. Tab or click out of the field to commit
  6. Take a screenshot of the saved table for the change log

For a one-day holiday closure, set that weekday's hours to closed and restore them after.

2. 3CX phone system (Office Hours)

The phone system uses Office Hours on each Department to decide whether incoming calls ring or go to the after-hours destination (voicemail / IVR).

  1. Log in to 3CX Admin Console
  2. Go to Departments → Café Main
  3. Open the Office Hours tab
  4. Update each day's open range to match the new hours
  5. Days the cafe is closed: leave blank
  6. Save

For a one-off holiday: use the Office Holidays section on the same department. Add a row with the date and a name (e.g. 2026-05-25 Memorial Day). Leave Prompt blank and Destination unset unless you have a custom message recorded.

After saving, place a test call from your cell outside business hours to confirm it routes to the after-hours destination, not a live ring.

3. Google Business Profile

  1. Go to business.google.com and select Sips & Souls Cafe (or search the business name while signed into the manager Google account)
  2. Hours card → pencil icon
  3. For permanent changes: update Regular hours
  4. For one-offs/holidays: use More hours → Special hours with the specific date
  5. Save

Propagation: usually visible on Google Search within 15 minutes, sometimes up to an hour. Open an incognito tab and search sips and souls cafe to verify.

4. Facebook

  1. Go to business.facebook.com (Meta Business Suite) and select the Sips & Souls Cafe Page
  2. Edit Page Info (under About, or Settings → Page Info depending on the FB UI of the week)
  3. Hours → update each day
  4. Save

Facebook does not have a "special hours for one date" feature. For a holiday closure, post about it in the feed instead of editing the regular hours.

5. Yelp

  1. Log in at biz.yelp.com
  2. Business Information → Hours
  3. Update and save

Yelp also supports "Special Hours" for holidays under the same Business Information page.

6. Door signs (front + back)

Two signs to update:

  • Front door — customer-facing
  • Back door — for staff / deliveries / anyone approaching from the parking side

Procedure: - Replace both signs at the same time - Old sign goes in the office (don't throw out same-day in case the change is reversed) - Verify both signs match each other and match the rest of the systems above

Verify

After all six are updated, do a 60-second check:

  • Google: incognito search shows new hours
  • Facebook: Page "About" shows new hours
  • Yelp: business page shows new hours
  • Phone: test call lands correctly for current time
  • SpotOn: open the online ordering page — current availability matches
  • Both door signs match

Communicate

If the change is customer-impacting:

  • Permanent expansion (adding days/hours): newsletter via Mailchimp + Instagram post + Facebook post
  • Permanent contraction: same as above, with as much lead time as possible
  • Holiday closure: Facebook + Instagram post 3–5 days ahead; pin the post
  • Same-day surprise close: Instagram story + Facebook post, ASAP

Staff also need to know — drop a message in the staff group chat the same day the change goes live.

Change log

Append a row each time hours change.

Date What changed Who did it