Crunchtime Host Release ReadMe Document Details Document #: 160_CH_260521 Release Version: 2026.3 Version Release Date: June 2026 Related Documentation • Install Crunchtime Host: https://links.crunchtime.com/CHIG-InstallCrunchtimeHostforWindows • Using Crunchtime Host: https://links.crunchtime.com/CHRG-UsingCrunchtimeHostforWindows Overview This document covers what’s new in Crunchtime Host. Download the latest version of this document here: https://links.crunchtime.com/CHReleaseReadMe … or scan the QR code to the left.
© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 2 RELEASE Contents Crunchtime Host 2026.3 .................................................................................................................................. 4 New Recommended Tables Feature ........................................................................................................... 4 How to Enable the Feature ....................................................................................................................... 4 Feature Functionality ................................................................................................................................. 7 Important Information ............................................................................................................................. 11 Crunchtime Host 2026.2 ................................................................................................................................ 13 Open and Close All Sections Buttons Added ............................................................................................ 13 ConnectSmart Host 2025.1 ............................................................................................................................ 15 Improvements to End-of-Day Process ....................................................................................................... 15 Update to SQL Server 2022 ........................................................................................................................ 15 Remove Support of Windows 7, 8.0, 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 ....................................................... 15 QA Certification for Windows Server 2025 ................................................................................................ 15 ConnectSmart Host 2024.5 ............................................................................................................................ 16 Automatically Select Guest by Mobile Phone Number............................................................................. 16 Quote Method Comparison Data Collection ............................................................................................. 17 ConnectSmart Host 2024.4 ............................................................................................................................ 18 Configurable Badges for Browser Tabs .................................................................................................... 18 Configuration ............................................................................................................................................... 18 Optional Tag ............................................................................................................................................ 19 Finding ARGB Hex Value ......................................................................................................................... 19 Updating and Removing Badges ................................................................................................................ 20 ConnectSmart Host 2024.3 ............................................................................................................................ 21 Configurable Default Field Focus ............................................................................................................... 21 ConnectSmart Host 2024.2 ............................................................................................................................ 22 Canned Text Responses ............................................................................................................................. 22 Party Cell Font Color ................................................................................................................................... 22 ConnectSmart POS Interface ..................................................................................................................... 22 ConnectSmart Host 2023.6 ............................................................................................................................ 23 End-of-Day Process Improvements ........................................................................................................... 23 Multiple Database Backups .................................................................................................................... 23 Retry Critical Processes .......................................................................................................................... 23 Remove In-Client Reporting ........................................................................................................................ 24
© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 3 RELEASE ConnectSmart Host 2023.4 ............................................................................................................................ 25 Exclude Name from Guest Search and Filtering Setting .......................................................................... 25
© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 4 RELEASE Crunchtime Host Crunchtime Host 2026.3 New Recommended Tables Feature A new feature has been added to display open, available tables that are ready and recommended for waiting parties. The Recommended Tables feature helps Host users managing a busy lobby make faster and more efficient seating decisions by proactively identifying when tables become available and recommending them to the appropriate waiting parties. This allows the restaurant to minimize seating delays during peak hours by surfacing real-time table recommendations directly on the waiting party cells, allowing hosts to act the moment a table opens, maximizing seating throughput, and limiting the time tables are sitting empty. How to Enable the Feature Portal Settings The Recommended Tables feature must be enabled before it will appear on any Host client. This is configured in the Host Portal and can be set at either the Site level or Template level. Note: This setting must be turned on in the Portal for the server to generate and send recommendations to clients. When the setting is disabled, no recommendations will be displayed in any Host client.
© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 5 RELEASE Crunchtime Host To enable via the Host Portal: 1. Log in to the Host Portal. 2. Navigate to Sites > Customize > Host Client, or to Templates > Host Client (depending on whether you are configuring a specific site or a template). 3. Enable the Display Recommended Table on Party Cell setting. 4. Save your changes. 3 3 2 2
© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 6 RELEASE Crunchtime Host Custom Column Configuration (Optional) In addition to displaying recommendations on the standard party cell, you can configure a custom tab to display the recommended tables for waiting parties. To use this: 1. In the Portal, navigate to Sites > Customize > Host Client > Guest and Servers Tabs > Define custom Guest and Servers Tabs > Add/Edit Guest Tab > Define Columns (or navigate the equivalent path under Templates). 2. In the custom columns builder for the guest tab, add the new column and select the Recommended Table as the data type. 3. Save the guest tab configuration. Note: The site must have the “Display Recommended Table on Party Cell” setting enabled in order to generate the recommended tables that will be displayed in the custom tab. Note: The recommended tables feature is only available with Table Section shift types and is not supported for Server Section shifts.
© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 7 RELEASE Crunchtime Host Feature Functionality How Recommendations Are Generated When arrived parties are waiting and tables become available, the system uses seating prediction logic and station rotation to match parties with tables. A recommendation may be generated for a waiting party when all the following criteria are met: • The party has already arrived at the restaurant. • The party is not in the “On Hold” state. • The party has not already been assigned to a table. • At least one available table meets the party’s needs (size, preferences) and is not pre-assigned to another party. The system generates recommended tables based on the system-ordered waitlist and evaluates each waiting party against available tables, factoring in station rotation to distribute seating across sections appropriately. The system will only recommend a table to a party if the party’s seating preferences and size are compatible with the table. Note: Due to configuration options available for filtering and sorting visits on the guest tabs, the underlying order of the system-ordered waitlist may not match the order in which parties are displayed in the Host client. As a result, a party displayed higher on the visual waitlist may not necessarily receive a recommendation before a party displayed lower down.
© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 8 RELEASE Crunchtime Host How Recommendations Appear on the Party Cell When a party has a recommended table, the Assign button on the party cell changes to reflect the recommendation. The button displays a blue background with the text “Rec. [Table]” (for example, “Rec. 101”). Once the party is assigned to any table (recommended or otherwise), the button returns to its normal appearance. If there are multiple tables recommended to a party (e.g., a large party recommended a joined table group), then the Assign button will display the first table in the table group with a + next to it.
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© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 10 RELEASE Crunchtime Host Acting on a Recommendation Tapping the Assign button on a party cell with a recommended table opens a popup with three options: • Assign to Recommended: Automatically assigns the party to the recommended table and closes the popup. • Select New Table(s): Opens the standard Assign Table workflow, allowing users to choose a different table. • Close: Closes the popup without making changes. The recommendation is retained and continues to display on the party cell.
© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 11 RELEASE Crunchtime Host Important Information The following behaviors are important to understand when using the Recommended Tables feature. Some may affect how recommendations appear or change during a shift. Using Recommended Tables During Low Volume Times • This feature is intended to be a quick indication to the host/hostess that a table has become available, allowing them to quickly seat waiting parties and maximize throughput. As such, its intended use is during peak periods when the restaurant is busy and running a wait. While table recommendations may be displayed at any time of day, this feature is not intended for use when there are numerous tables available. In such a scenario, users should rely on the seating suggestions provided in the Add Party greeter and should direct seat visits. Recommendations Can Change Dynamically Table recommendations are not fixed. They are recalculated whenever relevant conditions change. Things to keep in mind: • A party’s recommended table may change before they are seated or assigned, due to factors such as new tables becoming available, recommended tables being taken by other parties, or parties being seated out of order. • When any party is removed from the waitlist, all recommendations for remaining parties are recalculated, and individual recommendations may change. • When a party is removed from On Hold status and returned to Waiting or Partially Arrived, all recommendations are reassessed and may change. Only Arrived Parties Receive Recommendations • Recommendations are only generated for parties that have already arrived at the restaurant, including those marked as Partially Arrived. Parties that have not yet arrived will not receive a recommended table. On Hold Parties Are Excluded • Parties in the “On Hold” status are excluded from recommendations. If a party had a recommendation before being placed On Hold, that recommendation is removed and recommendations for all other parties are recalculated.
© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 12 RELEASE Crunchtime Host Pre-Assigned Tables Are Not Eligible for Recommendation • A table that has already been pre-assigned to any party is not eligible to be recommended to other parties. Similarly, once a waiting party is assigned to a table (even one that was not its recommendation), that party will no longer receive a recommendation. Maximum Recommendations Equal to Available Tables • The number of parties that can receive a recommendation at any given time is capped by the number of available tables. For example, if there are 10 waiting parties but only 3 available tables, a maximum of 3 parties will receive a recommendation. No Two Parties Share the Same Recommendation • Each available table is recommended to only one party at a time. Two parties will never receive the same recommended table simultaneously. Suggested Table During Seating May Differ from Party Cell Recommendation • When seating a party with a recommended table, the table suggested within the Seating workflow may differ from the recommended table displayed on the party cell. This would occur when seating parties out of the recommended order. If this is the case, seating the party will cause the recommendations to be recalculated for the remaining waiting parties. Multiple Tables May be Recommended to a Single Party • If the restaurant is using the Joined Tables feature, larger parties may receive multiple tables in the recommendation, similar to seating. The system considers a joined table group to be a single recommendation. When this occurs, the recommended table on the party cell will be appended to show a + indicating that there is more than one recommended table. • A party will never receive two distinct table recommendation options.
© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 13 RELEASE Crunchtime Host Crunchtime Host 2026.2 Open and Close All Sections Buttons Added Two new buttons have been added to the Toolbox to allow users to quickly open or close all sections in the active shift with one tap. This update allows users to easily start off a shift with all sections Open or close out the evening with all sections Closed or Closing. How It Works: When the user selects Open All under Section Status, a confirmation prompt appears. After the user taps the checkmark, all eligible sections, such as those marked Closed or Closing, are opened. When the user selects Close All under Section Status, a confirmation prompt appears. After the user taps the checkmark, each open section is changed to Closed or Closing, based on the status of its tables. Sections with open tables and NO seated parties will be changed to Closed. Sections with seated parties will be changed to Closing.
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© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 15 RELEASE Crunchtime Host ConnectSmart Host 2025.1 Improvements to End-of-Day Process Improvements have been made to the End-of-Day process that will limit potential failures due to large amounts of data processing and will increase the retry period when a failure occurs to allow SQL Server time to recover. Update to SQL Server 2022 New installations will receive SQL Server Express 2022 for all 64-bit Windows versions. SQL Server 2012 will be installed on Windows 10 32-bit machines. Note: Restaurants performing an upgrade will keep the version of SQL already installed on the machine. Remove Support of Windows 7, 8.0, 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 To ensure the most up-to-date security for our restaurants, we are dropping support for Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and Windows Server 2012. To install or upgrade our software, we will now require the local site to be running Windows 10 Anniversary Update (v 1607) or higher. QA Certification for Windows Server 2025 Windows Server 2025 is now certified for use.
© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 16 RELEASE Crunchtime Host ConnectSmart Host 2024.5 Automatically Select Guest by Mobile Phone Number A new feature has been added to the Add Party and Reservation greeters. When the Automatically select guest by Mobile phone number setting is enabled, the user does not have to manually select the guest record when searching for an existing guest by mobile phone number if it is the only one that matches the search criteria. Instead, if only a single guest is found in the GuestBook with the mobile number entered, the greeter will automatically select the guest and populate the guest’s details. The new Automatically select guest by Mobile phone number setting can be enabled in Templates > Greeter Form > Guest Lookup or in Sites > select the site > Customize > Greeter Form.
© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 17 RELEASE Crunchtime Host Quote Method Comparison Data Collection A new internal feature has been added to ConnectSmart Server to begin generating and storing quotes for all available quoting methods any time a party is added to the waitlist. This is being added as support for future QSR enhancements to gain improved insights into the accuracy of each quoting method and to be able to provide restaurants with better guidance on which quoting method to use. Note: This data is not yet available beyond the local database.
© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 18 RELEASE Crunchtime Host ConnectSmart Host 2024.4 Configurable Badges for Browser Tabs A new feature has been added to support displaying badges on configured Browser Tabs in the seating area of the Host client. Browser Tabs allow a restaurant to display an external web page directly within the Host client. Restaurants are now able to display custom-defined badges on these tabs to call attention to the tab or display an external metric value. Configuration To display a badge on a Browser Tab, restaurants must manage the data themselves using the BrowserTabBadgeConfiguration.xml. The XML should be placed on the machine running ConnectSmart Server in the following location: • C:\ProgramData\QSR Automations\ConnectSmart\HostessServer\Configuration Note: If you would like to use this feature, please contact QSR to obtain the BrowserTabBadgeConfiguration.xml. To display a badge on a Browser Tab in the Host client, the xml must contain a <BrowserTabBadgeValue> object with the following tags: • <BrowserTabCaption></BrowserTabCaption>: The name (Tab Caption) of the Browser Tab as configured in Host Portal. • <BadgeValue></BadgeValue>: The value to be displayed on the badge. Note: This will accept any string value and, while there is no limit to the value that can be supplied, there is a practical limit to what can be displayed on the badge due to its size.
© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 19 RELEASE Crunchtime Host Optional Tag The background color of the badge can also be configured using the following tag: • <BadgeBackgroundColor></BadgeBackgroundColor> When using this tag, the value may be provided in one of two formats: • 32-bit signed integer color value - example: -15411988 • Hex (8-character, ARGB) preceded by 0x - example: 0xFF14D4EC If a background color is not supplied, the badge will use the system default background color for badges. Background Color Not Specified Background Color Specified Finding ARGB Hex Value 1. Use a color picker to get the 24-bit RGB hex code for a color. 2. Select an opacity between 0 (transparent) and 1 (fully opaque), multiply that by 255, and convert to hexadecimal to get the A value. 3. Prefix the A value to the 24-bit RGB hex code to get the 32-bit ARGB value.
© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 20 RELEASE Crunchtime Host Updating and Removing Badges To change the value displayed on a Browser Tab, the BrowserTabBadgeConfiguration.xml may be replaced with a new XML containing a new value or may be edited in the file location. ConnectSmart Server will detect the changes soon after they are made. To remove a badge from a Browser Tab, the BrowserTabBadgeConfiguration.xml may be deleted or edited in the file location to remove the configured BadgeValue. Browser Tabs are configured in Host Portal > Sites > Customize > Host Client.
© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 21 RELEASE Crunchtime Host ConnectSmart Host 2024.3 Configurable Default Field Focus A new setting that allows the restaurant to choose which field on the Standard Greeter should automatically receive focus has been added to the Greeter Form in Host Portal. Once the Standard greeter is launched, the configured field will gain focus (if available). Users may choose one of the following options from the Field Focus drop-down box: • Default • Last Name • First Name • Phone • Email • Loyalty ID Note: “Default” refers to the pre-existing default hard coded into each client as to which field should have focus on launch. The client-side default may vary between applications, so this setting will allow all clients to function as they previously did.
© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 22 RELEASE Crunchtime Host ConnectSmart Host 2024.2 Canned Text Responses The ability to select from and send Canned Text Responses is now available in the Two-way SMS Conversation area when the restaurant’s subscription level only supports sending pre- configured SMS messages. Party Cell Font Color To improve the readability of Visit Notes and Food Allergies, the font color of the text on the third row of any standard style party cell has been changed from light gray to black. ConnectSmart POS Interface If using the POSitouch Point of Sale, a change has been made to the ConnectSmart POS Interface to send the max integer value of 4294967295 to PosiTSConnect as the default value when no other value is configured to be sent. This replaces the previous default value, which was zero. This is an internal change to ensure that PosiTSConnect can pass the appropriate value for CostCenter when opening a check in POSitouch POS.
© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 23 RELEASE Crunchtime Host ConnectSmart Host 2023.6 End-of-Day Process Improvements Several changes have been made to the end-of-day process in ConnectSmart Server in order to improve the efficiency of the process and provide better troubleshooting capabilities. Multiple Database Backups The ConnectSmart Server end-of-day process has been updated to take multiple database backups: one prior to running the end-of-day process, and one after. This will improve troubleshooting by providing a view into the status of the restaurant both before and after the end-of-day process. The database backups will be saved with the following naming conventions: • The backup taken prior to running the end-of-day process will have “_BeforeEOD.bak” appended to the name of the file. • The backup taken after the end-of-day process will have “_AfterEOD.bak” appended to the file name. Retry Critical Processes Certain actions performed by the end-of-day process are critical for smooth restaurant operation when transitioning from one day to the next. Retry logic has been added to account for scenarios in which there may be a brief disconnection from the local SQL instance or momentary timeouts. Processes such as clearing visits, updating table statuses, and changing the active shift at the start of the new day will all retry a limited number of times if a failure occurs. The system will continue to retry each process until it completes successfully or the maximum number of retry attempts has been reached. The process of reloading all necessary transactional data from the database is vital to maintain data integrity and, as such, the system will continue to retry this process when a failure occurs until it completes or ConnectSmart Server is shut down.
© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 24 RELEASE Crunchtime Host Remove In-Client Reporting QSR has created a data analysis platform in Enterprise which allows users to engage with their data at multiple levels of the organization. Users may compare data across sites and concepts or view overall company metrics. In order to provide and encourage better data analytics, the legacy Reporting tool has been removed from the in-store clients. Please contact your QSR representative to learn more about the new analytics offering.
© 2026 Crunchtime - All Rights Reserved | www.crunchtime.com | 25 RELEASE Crunchtime Host ConnectSmart Host 2023.4 Exclude Name from Guest Search and Filtering Setting A new setting has been added to improve Guest Search functionality by ignoring fields which commonly get mistyped. When the Exclude name from guest search and filtering setting is enabled, the First and Last Name fields on the Add Party and Add Reservation Greeters will ignore any text entered in either field for the purposes of looking up an existing guest or refining search results. Search results will only be returned if there is data entered in the Phone, Email, and/or Loyalty fields. To enable the setting: 1. Navigate to: Host Portal I Sites I select Site I Customize I Greeter Form tab I Guest Lookup section. 2. Select the Exclude name from guest search and filtering checkbox. 3. Click Save.