Welcome to GovRes

GovRes lets citizens reserve a time slot online for the service they need — so they arrive spread across the day instead of all at once, and your office stays decongested.

This first lesson is a quick orientation. Once you finish it you'll know where the main sections live, what to set up first, and where to go when you have a question.

The first time you open it

When you install GovRes, the platform takes you straight in. The home screen shows the dashboard with the most important numbers at a glance: today's reservations, who's waiting in the queue, and shortcuts to the things you'll touch most often.

If this is your very first time, the most important first step is to set when citizens can actually book:

• Open Availability and set your office hours, your time slots, and how many citizens can reserve each slot. This is what stops the morning crush — citizens can only book times you've opened, and full slots close themselves.
• Add the services your office provides so citizens know what they can reserve a time for.
• Open Settings and check the basics — your office name, locations, currency (this is set by the country code on your phone), and any labels you want to customize.

Then click around the sidebar so you know what each section is for.

Share your reservation link

Once your hours and services are set, grab your public reservation link and share it with citizens (more on this in the "Sharing with citizens" lesson). That link is how people reserve a time without ever needing to download an app.

Watch the queue

Day to day, the screen you'll live in is the queue — a live list of reservations moving through Pending → Confirmed → Checked In → Completed. You'll get a push alert each time a new reservation comes in, so you don't have to keep refreshing.

When something doesn't make sense

If you get stuck:

• Open Support from the platform sidebar and start a conversation — we usually reply within a few hours.
• Use the Phone option on the support page if it's time-sensitive.

Tip: Some lessons also have a short video — if one's available, you'll see a Watch tab at the top of this page. The written version covers the same ground and stays up to date as the app changes.

That's the whole orientation. The next lesson goes deeper into the day-to-day rhythm — taking reservations, checking citizens in, and clearing the queue.

Most of your time inside GovRes will be spent working the queue: reservations come in, you confirm them, citizens check in at the counter, and you mark them completed. This lesson covers that rhythm — the same handful of moves repeat all day, so once you've got the pattern down, the front desk runs itself.

Reservations come in

Citizens book from your public link, choosing a service and an open time slot. Each new reservation lands in your queue as Pending, and you get an instant push alert so you don't have to keep watching the screen. Because full slots close automatically, you'll never see more people booked into a window than you set under Availability.

Confirm them

Open a pending reservation and confirm it. Confirming moves it to Confirmed and lets the citizen know they're locked in for their slot. If a time genuinely won't work, you can decline or ask them to rebook — but most reservations just need a quick confirm.

Work top to bottom. The queue shows the soonest slots first, so the next person to handle is always near the top.

Check citizens in at the counter

When a citizen arrives for their slot, check them in — that moves the reservation to Checked In so the rest of the team can see they're physically present and waiting at the counter. This is the moment your live queue becomes a real picture of the room: who's here, who's still expected, and who's next.

Mark them completed

Once you've served the citizen, mark the reservation Completed. That clears it from the active queue and keeps your count of who's still waiting accurate. Completed reservations stay in your history for reports and lookups later.

Push alerts keep you ahead

Tip: Push alerts fire when a new reservation arrives, so you can prep before the citizen ever walks in. Keep notifications on for the device at the counter and the queue will never surprise you.

When the screen doesn't behave the way you expect

The written guide is the source of truth and stays current as GovRes evolves. If a screen looks slightly different from what you read here, the gist still applies — buttons may have moved but the shape of the work doesn't change.

For anything you can't figure out, Support from the platform sidebar will reach our team — we usually reply within a few hours.

GovRes only decongests your office if citizens actually use it — so most of the value comes from getting your reservation link in front of the right people. This lesson covers how to share the form, embed it on your website, and let citizens track their reservation by phone.

Your reservation link

Every GovRes install comes with a public reservation link automatically. It looks something like mypancho.com/p/your-id/govres/... and works without anyone needing a Pancho account. Share it with citizens via WhatsApp, SMS, posters with a QR code, or just paste it anywhere people look for your office.

You'll find the link in Settings under "Share with citizens" (or similar wording, depending on the labels you've set). When a citizen opens it, they pick a service and an open time slot, and they're booked.

Embed the form on your office website

Rather send citizens straight to a reservation form without leaving your website? GovRes gives you an embed snippet — a small block of code you paste into any web page. The reservation form then appears right inside your site and resizes itself to fit. Look for the Embed option alongside your share link in Settings.

Bring your own domain

If you'd rather citizens see your own web address instead of mypancho.com, set up a custom domain from Account → Domains on the platform sidebar:

1. Add the domain you own.
2. Point its DNS at Pancho (we show you the exact records).
3. Choose that GovRes should serve the domain.
4. Wait for the verification + SSL — usually under five minutes.

After that, every citizen-facing link will use your domain automatically. SSL renews itself.

The citizen portal — tracking by phone

Citizens don't need an app to keep tabs on their reservation. After booking, they can look it up by phone and see their slot time, their place in line, and the current status — Pending, Confirmed, Checked In, or Completed. This cuts down on "where am I in the queue?" calls to your front desk.

Your team's login

Your officers and counter staff don't use the citizen link — they log in with their own phone number and PIN, separate from your Pancho admin account. Add team members from the Team section in Settings; they see only the queue and the tools they need, not your billing or other apps.

Tip: Give each team member their own login rather than sharing one. The activity history only makes sense when actions are tied to individual officers.

When sharing doesn't work the way you expect

• If a citizen says your link doesn't load, double-check the domain DNS records first; most issues are pointing-related.
• For everything else, Support is the fastest path to a real answer.

Every office runs a little differently. GovRes ships with sensible defaults, but the reservation form, your time slots, your Fast Track services, and most labels can be changed so the app fits the way your office actually works. This lesson covers the customization knobs that matter most.

Design your reservation form

The form citizens fill in to reserve a time is yours to shape. Add the questions you need answered up front, mark which ones are required, and keep it short — the fewer fields, the more people finish booking. This is the first thing every citizen sees, so it's worth getting right.

Set your time slots under Availability

This is the heart of decongestion. Under Availability you control:

• Your office hours — the days and times citizens can book.
• Your time slots — how the day is divided up (e.g. every 15 or 30 minutes).
• Capacity — how many citizens can reserve each slot before it closes automatically.

Tuning capacity is how you balance a steady, manageable flow at the counter against keeping wait times short. If one location is busier, give it its own hours and slots.

Add Fast Track services and the payout split

Reservations are free, but you can offer optional paid Fast Track services to help citizens move faster — hold your place in line, help filling forms, faster service, check your papers. For each one you set the price and the payout split that decides how the fee is shared between your office and the platform. Citizens pay securely online, and your share is handled automatically.

Rename labels and switch modules on or off

• Labels — rename things to match how your office speaks. The change flows through every screen automatically.
• Modules — turn parts of the app on or off depending on what your office uses. Old data stays put when you switch a module off; only the entry points disappear.
• Light / dark — pick the theme that's easiest on your team's eyes at the counter.

A good order to customize in

1. Start with your office info and locations — this shows on the reservation form and citizen-facing pages.
2. Set Availability next — hours, slots, and capacity are what make GovRes work at all.
3. Build your reservation form so you collect what you need from each citizen.
4. Add Fast Track services once you know which extras your office wants to offer.
5. Adjust labels and modules last, once you've used the app for a day or two.

Things to be careful with

Heads up: Currency is set once at signup based on your phone country code and can't be changed later. If you signed up with the wrong country, contact support before adding Fast Track services or important data.

• Fast Track price changes apply to new reservations only — existing paid reservations keep their original amount.
• Lowering a slot's capacity won't remove citizens already booked into it; it only limits new reservations.

When you're not sure what something does

• If a setting's tooltip doesn't make sense, leave it on the default. Defaults are picked to be safe for most offices.
• Support can answer "what does this do?" for any individual setting if you'd rather ask than experiment.

Reservations in GovRes are free — that's the whole point of decongesting the queue. But your office can also offer optional paid Fast Track services that help citizens move faster, and earn shared revenue on every one. This lesson covers how to set them up, how citizens pay, and how the money is split.

What Fast Track services are

A Fast Track service is an optional extra a citizen can add when they reserve a time — something that saves them effort or time on the day, for example:

• Hold my place in line — someone holds their place in line.
• Help filling forms — their forms are filled in before they arrive.
• Faster service — a priority desk on arrival.
• Check your papers — everything is checked in advance so there are no surprises.

The reservation is still free. Fast Track is a paid add-on the citizen chooses for themselves — never required.

Setting up your services

Open Fast Track Services from the sidebar. Add a service for each kind of help you offer, give it a clear name, and set a price. Keep the list short and the names plain — citizens decide in a few seconds, so "Help filling forms — forms filled before you arrive" beats anything vague.

You can turn individual services on or off at any time, and a different office location can offer a different menu.

How citizens pay

When a citizen reserves a time, they're shown your Fast Track menu and can optionally pick one. If they do, they pay securely online by card or bank — right after they choose their slot. Their reservation is saved first, so they always keep their spot even if they decide not to pay for Fast Track.

Tip: Ask citizens for an email on the reservation form if you offer Fast Track — it's where their payment receipt goes.

How the money is split

This is the part that makes Fast Track a funded program rather than just a feature. Under Settings → Fast Track payouts you connect a payout account and set a platform fee percentage:

• The citizen pays your office's payment account directly.
• The platform's share (the percentage you set) is transferred automatically.
• Your office keeps the rest — it stays in your account.

Once it's set up, every Fast Track payment is split on its own. You don't have to reconcile anything by hand.

Heads up: Automatic payouts run over bank transfers, which currently settle in Naira (₦). On a non-Naira account, Fast Track fees are still collected — they just aren't auto-split, so you'd settle the platform's share separately. Check the note on the Fast Track payouts screen, which tells you which mode you're in.

Watching your payouts

The Fast Track payouts screen shows recent payouts and their status (pending, processing, paid). Payouts are sent automatically on a schedule once the money has settled, and there's a Process now button if you'd like to push them through immediately.

A sensible rollout

1. Start with one or two services you can reliably deliver — don't over-promise.
2. Set fair prices. Fast Track should feel like a convenience, not a toll.
3. Connect your payout account and confirm the split under Settings before you advertise it.
4. Mention Fast Track on your reservation link and signage so citizens know it exists.
5. Review the payouts screen weekly until you trust the flow.

Done well, Fast Track turns the thing citizens hate most — the wait — into better service that pays for itself.