Booking System Configuration

Released as part of the Elphias Release in mid 2020, the Bookings module is a way for members to reserve a court, field, meeting room, or any other asset at your club. Different booking rules can be assigned to different Member Lists giving you full control and differing amounts of access to different groups of users.

Instructions

1. Navigate to Bookings > Admin Booking Systems.

2. Click “Create booking system”.

   Open

   

3. Complete the wizard:

   Open

   

   1. Name: The name of the Booking System.

   2. Description: A brief description of the Booking System; what is bookable and by who.

   3. Owner: This is by default the person creating the Booking System.

   4. OK: Once happy with the details, click “OK” to save the Booking System so it is ready to use.

4. Click “Configure” next to your newly created Booking System.

5. Introductory Text: This text will appear above the Booking Grid. This is a good place to explain how to book a court, as well as any rules that members must follow when booking courts, and any other relevant information. You edit this by clicking the small pencil.

Assets

1. Bookable Asset Usages: These are what the Bookings will be used for, this can be anything from coaching to private games, to matches. You can have different usages apply to different types of assets, such as coaching for tennis courts, but not for a function room.

   1. Click the “Add Bookable Asset Usage” button.

   2. Complete the wizard:

      1. Name: Name of the Usage.

      2. Description: A brief description of the Usage.

      3. Icon: Choose an icon to represent the Usage when booking an Asset on the Booking Grid.

      4. Colour: Choose a colour for the icon chosen in the previous step.

         1. None: The icon will match your site’s text colour.

         2. Reference Colour: Select a variation from your site’s Primary or Secondary colours.

         3. Select Colour: Select any colour from the picker, or enter the RGB value.

         4. Black: The icon will be black.

         5. White: The icon will be white.

      5. Show Usage Name on Bookings: If set to “Yes”, the usage name will be shown against bookings in the booking grid, instead of the name of the person who made the booking.

      6. Booking Form: Anyone booking a slot for this Usage must fill out any Form selected here. If no extra information needs to be collected from the user when booking, leave as “None”. Learn more about Forms in this guide: Forms

      7. Show Form Fields On Bookings: If set to “Yes”, the information entered into the Booking Form chosen above will be shown against Bookings in the booking timeline.

      8. Attendee Tracking: If selected, when booking an Asset, the other attendees who will be using that booking slot will need to be entered. This can be helpful to see who is using the Assets, even if not booking themselves.

         1. Not Required: Select if you don’t need to know who the other attendees will be for the Booking.

         2. Names Only: If selected, there will be a text box for users to fill in other attendees who will be using that booking slot.

         3. Specific Users: If selected, the booking user must enter the name of each attendee separately.

            1. Allowed Attendees: Choose whether specific users can be registered users (selected from a drop-down), guests (entered into a text box), or either.

      9. Require Attendee Count: Set to “Yes” if “Specific Users” was chosen to set how many attendee boxes will be shown. Also set to “Yes” if stacked bookings are supported (as set in the “Settings” tab).

         1. Minimum Attendee Count: The fewest number of attendees that need to be named on a Booking.

         2. Maximum Attendee Count: The highest number of attendees that can be named on a Booking.

      10. OK: Once happy with the details, click “OK” to save the Asset Usage so it is ready to use.

   3. Repeat steps to add all Bookable Asset Usages.

2. Bookable Asset Types: These group Bookable Assets together depending on what they are. For example, you can have a clay tennis court, a tarmac tennis court, and a squash court as 3 different Bookable Asset Types. This allows users to filter the Booking Grid to only see certain Asset Types when booking.

   1. Click the “Add Bookable Asset Type” button.

   2. Complete the wizard:

      1. Name: Name of the Type.

      2. Description: A brief description of the Type.

      3. Icon: An Icon to represent the Type when filtering the Booking Grid.

      4. Colour: Choose a colour for the icon chosen in the previous step.

         1. None: The icon will match your site’s text colour.

         2. Reference Colour: Select a variation from your site’s Primary or Secondary colours.

         3. Select Colour: Select any colour from the picker, or enter the RGB value.

         4. Black: The icon will be black.

         5. White: The icon will be white.

      5. Usages: Select which of the Usages (created above) can be used when booking Assets with this Type.

      6. Default Usage: From the Usages chosen in the previous step, select which is the default. Select “No default” if you don’t want a default.

      7. Costs Apply: If there is a cost for booking an Asset of this Type, select “Yes”. This cost can be changed for different users using Booking Rules.

         1. How members can pay: Choose if bookers can pay with money and/or tokens. Note tokens does require the Token Payments Add-on Module.

         2. Payment Scheme: How you want the user to pay for the booking. In the example the “Default” scheme has been selected, which in this case offers Cash, Cheque, and Stripe. You may need to define a payment scheme specifically for bookings of this type (you can do so by clicking the green '+' button). You can read more about Payment Schemes in this guide: Payment Methods, Plans, and Schemes

         3. Product Categories: This labels the payment so that they it be analysed in the Finance section, and also can be used to calculate discounts in the basket. Select the Product Categories that apply to the booking cost (as defined under Admin > Finance > Manage Product Categories). For more information please see Product Categories .

         4. Cost: How much each booking will cost. This is set in money and/or tokens depending on the method/s chosen above. This can be adjusted if need be in the Booking Rules, depending on the user/booking.

      8. OK: Once happy with the details, click “OK” to save the Asset Type so it is ready to use.

   3. Repeat steps to add all Bookable Asset Types.

3. Bookable Assets: These are the courts, fields, rooms, etc. themselves that users can book and use for the allotted slot. For example, if your club has 3 tennis courts, each would be a Bookable Asset.

   1. Click the “Add Bookable Asset” button.

   2. Complete the wizard:

      1. Type: Select which Type of Asset this is from those created using the steps above.

      2. Code: A short code to represent this asset on the Booking Grid.

      3. Name: The full name of this Asset.

      4. Description: A short description of the Asset.

      5. Location: The location of the Asset. New locations can be added by clicking the green “+”. If all Assets are located at the main club venue, you can just leave the Location as “(none)”.

      6. OK: Once happy with the details, click “OK” to save the Asset so it is ready to use.

   3. Repeat steps to add all Bookable Assets.

Day Configurations

1. Booking Day Zones: These are an optional addition to allow you to set certain parts of the day/week where you may want to have different rules to other parts of the Booking System.

   1. Click the “Add Zone” button.

   2. Complete the wizard:

      1. Name: Set the name of the Zone.

      2. Days: Select which days of the week this Zone applies to.

      3. Time Range: Set when this Zone applies on each of the days above.

      4. OK: Once happy with the details, click “OK” to save the Zone so it is ready to use.

   3. Repeat steps to add all Booking Day Zones.

2. Booking Calendar Periods: Calendars allow you to create different Booking Configurations for different times of the year, such as different times in the summer and winter.

   1. Click “Edit” or “Add Calendar”.

   2. Complete the wizard:

      1. Valid From: When should this Calendar start taking effect. If left blank, the Calendar will apply immediately.

      2. Valid Until: When should this Calendar stop taking effect. If left blank, the Calendar will apply forever.

      3. Name: The name of the Period e.g. “Summer”.

      4. Date Coverage: Select when this Period will apply from and until. This will stay the same for all years that this Calendar is used for.

      5. Add Period: If you want to add more Periods, click this button and then enter the Name and Date Coverage for them.

      6. OK: Once happy with the details, click “OK” to save the Calendar so it is ready to use.

3. Booking Day Configurations: These set when each Asset can be booked and for how long each Booking Slot will last.

   1. Click the “Add Configuration” button.

   2. Complete the wizard:

      1. Name: The name of the Configuration.

      2. Description: A short description of the Configuration.

      3. Booking Period: When will this Configuration apply to the Booking System. The default is “All Year”, meaning it always applies.

      4. Assets: Select the Assets to which this Configuration will apply, from those created using the steps above.

      5. Configuration: Choose a configuration:

         1. Custom: Set a custom range for the Day Configuration with both days and time.

            1. Days: Select which days of the week the Booking Configuration will apply to.

            2. Time Range: Set the time range that the Booking Slots will be distributed across.

         2. Named Zone:

            1. Zone: Select one of the Booking Day Zones (as created above) from the dropdown.

      6. Slot Duration: How long each Booking Slot will last.

      7. Buffer: How long between each Booking Slot.

      8. Start Interval: If you want overlapping Slots, set this time to be how long between the start of time Slots. When a Slot is booked, any overlapping Slots will then become unavailable. For example, if you have 90 minute slots, you may want overlapping Slots to start every 30 minutes to allow greater flexibility in Slots being booked.

      9. OK: Once happy with the details, click “OK” to save the Configuration so it is ready to use.

   3. Repeat steps to add all Booking Day Configurations.

Blackout Periods

1. Blackout Period Status Options: These are the reasons for the blackout, one of which must be selected when creating a Blackout Period.

   1. Click the “Add Blackout Status” button.

   2. Complete the wizard:

      1. Name: Name of the Blackout Status.

      2. Icon: An Icon to represent the Status on the Booking Grid.

      3. Colour: Choose a colour for the icon chosen in the previous step.

         1. None: The icon will match your site’s text colour.

         2. Reference Colour: Select a variation from your site’s Primary or Secondary colours.

         3. Select Colour: Select any colour from the picker, or enter the RGB value.

         4. Black: The icon will be black.

         5. White: The icon will be white.

      4. OK: Once happy with the details, click “OK” to save the Status so it is ready to use.

   3. Repeat steps to add all Blackout Statuses.

Rules

1. Booking Rules: These set restrictions around bookings, including who can book, how many bookings a user can hold at any one time, and how far in advance someone can book a slot.
   Note that the default (with no rules defined) is that there are no restrictions on bookings. If you would like to reverse this, start with a rule that covers everyone and stops them from booking. Then add rules of higher priority which are exceptions to this rule to allow bookings.

   1. Click the “Add Booking Rule” button.

   2. Complete the wizard:

      1. Name: The name of the booking rule.

      2. Description: A short description of what the rule enforces in the booking system.

      3. Assets: Select which Assets this Booking Rule will apply to from those created using the steps above.

      4. Restrict to Uses: Set to “Yes” to only apply this rule to certain Booking Usages. If set to “Yes”, you can choose which Usages to include or exclude.

      5. Booking Day Zone: Select which Booking Day Zone this Rule will apply to.

      6. Member List: Select which Member List this Rule will apply to or “Applies to everybody”. Help on creating Member Lists can be found here: Member Lists

      7. Priority: The priority sets which rule the system will enforce should there be more than one rule applying to a user. The higher the number, the higher the priority. It is a good idea to leave gaps between the priority in different Booking Rules to allow room for future Rules, such as multiples of 5.

      8. Rule Type: Select the type of Booking Rule so you can stipulate the specific restrictions for the rule.

         1. Booking Cost Adjustment: These rules adjust the cost of the Booking dependent on the user booking, or the nature of the Booking itself.

            1. What is being paid for: Choose what is being paid for.

               1. Bookings: The cost will be set for the Booking, regardless of how long it is.

               2. Booked Slots: The cost will be proportional to the number of slots in the Booking. So if it was a 2 hour Booking across 2 slots, it would be twice as much as a single slot 1 hour Booking.

               3. Time: The cost will be calculated by how long it is in minutes. You will set the Unit duration for how many minutes each unit will consist of and choose whether or not to round the calculation up to the nearest unit.

            2. Cost per Attendee: If set to “Yes”, the cost of the Booking will be calculated based on the number of attendees. You can choose to set a fixed price for each attendee or have a Pricing Structure where different types of users or guests pay different amounts.

            3. Payment Options: Choose if bookers can pay with money and/or tokens. Note tokens does require the Token Payments Add-on Module.

            4. Unit Monetary Cost: How much each 1 unit of the option chosen above will cost. For example, each Booking will cost £5, whether it is 30, 60, or 90 minutes long.

            5. Guest Surcharge: If you want to charge guests an extra fee, set this to “Yes” and enter the amount.

         2. Booking Duration Restrictions: These rules limit how long each Booking can be. In this example, if Booking Slots are 30 minutes each, Bookings can be 30 or 60 minutes long which will allow users to book 2 Slots together to make 1 Booking, but they must leave at least 60 minutes between Bookings if not booking immediately after another Booking.

            1. Minimum Duration: The minimum length of a Booking.

            2. Maximum Duration: The maximum length of a Booking.

            3. Minimum Gap between Bookings: The minimum length of time that can be left between bookings. This setting is used to reduce the amount of downtime/unused time of your Assets.

         3. Booking Limits: These rules are used to set limits on the number of Bookings held by users. In this example, the users the Rule applies to will only be able to hold 1 future booking at any given time.

            1. What are we counting: Select either “Bookings”, “Booked Slots”, or “Booked Minutes” for what is being counted for this booking restriction.

            2. Which Bookings: Choose either “Future Bookings”, or “All bookings” to choose what will be counted.

            3. Over What Period: This sets the duration of the time period that the number of Bookings/Slots/Minutes, is measured. This can be left blank to look at all time for “All bookings, or the entire future, if “Future Bookings” was selected in step b.

            4. Limit: This is the maximum number of Bookings/Slots/Minutes someone can hold for the assets chosen in step iii and the period specified in step c.

            5. Daily Limit: This is the maximum number of Bookings/Slots/Minutes someone can hold for the assets chosen in step iii and the period specified in step b.

         4. Booking Stacks: These rules set the conditions for stacked Bookings where more than one Booking can be made for the same Asset at the same time, essentially sharing the Booking Slot.

            1. Maximum Attendee Count: The maximum number of attendees allowed in a single Booking Slot between all Bookings.

            2. Maximum Booking Count: The maximum number of Bookings allowed to share a single Booking Slot.

            3. Allow Exclusive Use: If set to “Yes”, users will be able to choose to book the entire Slot, and stop any more stacks on the Booking Slot so they have sole use of the booked Asset in that Slot.

         5. Booking Usage Restrictions: These rules limit who can Book under which Usages. In this example, the users this Rule applies to will not be able to make a Booking with a Usage of “Coaching”.

            1. Mode: Select either “All Usages Allowed”, “Selected Usages Allowed”, or “Selected Usages Disallowed” to set which Usages the specified Member List can use in their Bookings.

            2. Allowed/Disallowed Usages: Select which Usages are Allowed/Disallowed according to the option above.

         6. Booking Window: These rules are used to set the timescale for Booking Slots. This will be how many days before a Booking Slot that the asset can be booked. In this example, Booking Slots open 10 days prior at 8am.

            1. Booking Opens: The number of days prior to the Booking Slot that the booking window opens. If left blank, the Booking Slots will always be open until booked.

            2. Booking Closes: The number of days before the Booking Slot that the booking window closes. If left blank, the Booking Slots will never close (slots starting in the past may be booked retrospectively). If set to 0, the Booking Slots will close at the start of the slot time.

            3. Slot Release Mode: Choose either the slot time or a fixed time for the slots to open the number of days before the slot, as set above.

         7. Booking Workflow: These rules set whether a booking has to be approved or not. This may be used for Bookings made by non-members, or juniors.

            1. Approval Required: Select “Yes” or “No” depending if approval is required for Bookings. If “No” is selected, Bookings will be confirmed automatically.

      9. OK: Once happy with the details, click “OK” to save the Rule so it is ready to use.

   3. Repeat steps to add all Booking Rules.

Entitlements

1. Entitlements: The default entitlements are recommended, however you may wish to tweak them depending on how you use your Booking System. Entitlements can be set to Levels, Roles, Member Lists, or specific Users. Below are some suggestions:

   1. View Booking Grid: Set this to who can make bookings. If only members can book, set to “Level: Members”, if bookings are open to the public, set this to “Level: Public”.

   2. Create Bookings: Set this to who can make bookings. If only members can book, set to “Level: Members”, if bookings are open to the public, set this to “Level: Public”.

   3. Bulk Create Bookings: If a user is granted this Entitlement, they will be able to create Bookings in bulk from the Booking Grid.

   4. View Full Details Future Bookings Only: Allowing members to view this will allow them to see who else is playing when they book.

   5. View Full Details of All Bookings: This can be set to whoever would need to look back at previous bookings.

   6. Manage Blackout Periods: This will allow users to add, cancel, and edit Blackout Periods.

   7. Cancel Own Bookings: If you want to allow those who can book to cancel their own bookings, set this to who can make bookings such as “Level: Members” or “Level: Public”.

   8. Cancel Bookings: This Entitlement gives the chosen users the ability to cancel any bookings in the booking system, whether it belongs to them or a different user.

   9. Edit All Bookings and Override Rules: Allows users to override rules e.g. make bookings ahead of the window or change the slot length etc. If you have a Booking Administrator/s, they would need access to this setting.

   10. Record payments received for bookings: Set this to anyone collecting money for bookings. If there is no cost for bookings, you can leave this as the default.

   11. Approve/Reject Booking Requests: This Entitlement grants the ability to approve or reject Booking requests (if this is required in the Booking Rules).

   12. Administer Booking System: Allows users to configure the bookings system, add or edits rules, assets, costs etc. If you have a Booking Administrator/s, they would need access to this setting.
       
       Note that the owner of the booking system will always have full permissions as will anybody who has the site-wide Admin All permission. Entitlements set above are in addition to any site-wide permissions and do not override them.

Settings

When adjusting some of the sizing settings, you may wish to make an adjustment, check the Booking Grid, and play around with it until you are happy with the layout of the Booking Grid. It is also a good idea to check the Booking Grid on a mobile device to make sure it looks right there too.

1. Default View: Users will be able to choose between the Grid and Timeline views for the Booking Grid, but you can set the default here.

2. Booking Grid Height: Set the height for each 30 minutes of time in the Grid view of the Booking Grid.

3. Timeline Slot Spacing: For the Timeline view of the Booking Grid, set the interval between the grid lines to control how stretched the view is horizontally.

4. Timeline Slot Width: For the Timeline view of the Booking Grid, set the width of each Booking Slot to control how stretched the view is horizontally.

5. Collapse Resource Types on Load: If set to “Yes”, when the Timeline view of the Booking Grid loads, the Asset types will be collapsed. If you have lots of assets across several types, this may be a good setting to turn on.

6. Allow Multi-Slot Bookings: If set to “Yes”, users will be able to book multiple consecutive slots in a single Booking, subject to the Booking Rules. For example, 2 x 30-minute slots could be booked in a single 1-hour Booking.

7. Day-based Bookings: If set to “Yes”, Booking Slots will be half or whole days, rather than time periods set in hours and minutes.

8. Allow Cost Splitting: If set to “Yes”, the booking user will be able to choose to split the cost with the other non-guest attendees for the Booking. Guests will be paid for by the user to whom the Booking belongs.

9. Payment Required Within an Hour: If set to “Yes”, Bookings must be paid for within 1 hour of being booked, otherwise the system will automatically cancel them.

10. Send Reminder Emails: If set to “Yes”, users will be sent an email to remind them of their upcoming Booking.

    1. Send Reminder At: Set how many days prior to the Booking that the reminder email will be sent by the system.

    2. Send Reminder To: Choose to send the reminder email to the owner of the Booking, or all attendees. Guest attendees will not be sent the reminder email.

Booking Grid

The Booking Grid is where all Bookings are made from. It is divided into days with all the Booking Slots laid out showing available Assets in each slot.

Colour Coding

The system will display different booking slots in different colours depending on certain circumstances.

If a Booking Slot is Green, this means that 50% or more of the Bookable Assets are available to be booked at this time.

If a Booking Slot is Orange, this means that more than 50% of the Bookable Assets have been booked at this time.

If a Booking Slot is Red, this means that all of the Bookable Assets have been booked at this time.

If a Booking Slot is Blue, this means that the current user has booked an Asset for this Booking Slot.

If a single Asset is white with diagonal lines, this means that that Asset is in a Blackout Period and can’t be booked.

If a Booking Slot is white with diagonal lines, this means that all of the Bookable Assets have been placed in a Blackout Period at this time.

These are also shown in a key beneath the Booking Grid.

Key

A currency symbol appears next to a booking if payment still needs to be made for this booking.

If you click on any booking slot, it will show you all existing bookings for that slot, providing you have appropriate Entitlements.

Filters

The Grid view of the Booking Grid can be filtered to only show a certain Asset type, or a specific Asset only, by selecting any of the filter options as shown below.

The Timeline view of the Booking Grid can also be filtered to show or hide certain Asset types.

Layout

Grid View

By default the grid will show a full week or a single day, depending on the size of your device or browser window. Switch between these views using the “week”/“day” buttons shown and scroll forwards and backwards in time using the “< “ / “ >” buttons. On a tablet or larger device, the “today” button will bring you back to the present day or week as appropriate. “Jump To” can also be used to move to specific dates.

Timeline View

The Timeline view of the Booking Grid shows the list of Bookable Assets stacked vertically, with the slots horizontally. Users can scroll across to the right to see slots into the future. The week view is the default, but users can switch between Week and Day views by using the “week”/“day” buttons shown and scroll forwards and backwards in time using the “< “ / “ >” buttons. On a tablet or larger device, the “today” button will bring you back to the present day or week as appropriate. “Jump To” can also be used to move to specific dates.

Blackout Periods

Blackout Periods are set times where the Assets can be blocked out (un-bookable). This is particularly useful for events, sessions, or courses, as you can book Assets at the same time every week more easily.

1. From the Booking Grid, click the “Add Blackout” button.

2. Complete the wizard:

   1. Applies From: Select the first date for the Blackout Period.

   2. Applies Until: Select the last date for the Blackout Period. If left blank, the Blackout Period will last forever. Note: this date will be included in the Blackout Period.

   3. Assets: Select the Assets to which this Blackout Period will apply, from those created using the steps above.

   4. Status: Choose the appropriate status for the blackout period from the options previously defined.

   5. Days: Select which days of the week the Blackout Period will apply to.

   6. Time Range: Set the timings for the Blackout Period.

   7. Notes: A short description of why the Assets are being Blacked out during this period (giving slightly more detail than the Status option) this will be displayed on the Bookings Calendar.

   8. Exceptions: Exceptions allow you to take breaks in a Blackout Period without having to end it and create another Blackout. Click “Add” to add more Exceptions:

      1. Start: Enter or select the time and date when the Exception will start.

      2. End: Enter or select the time and date when the Exception will end.

      3. Excepted Assets: Select which assets to be included in the Exception from those chosen for the Blackout above.

   9. OK: Once happy with the details, click “OK” to save the Blackout Period so it is ready to use.

3. Repeat steps to add all Blackout Periods.

If you click on any blacked out asset in the Booking Grid, you can exclude it from the Blackout Period.

Browse Bookings

Requires entitlement: View Full Details of All Bookings

This view can be used to look at all bookings and search within them using filters. Any view from these searches can also be exported as a csv file. This can be used to analyse bookings in Excel, and to extract data and statistics in order to see who is booking the most courts, etc.

Asset Utilisation

The Asset Utilisation page can be found in the Booking menu. This displays the percentage utilisation of each of your assets as a heatmap, covering times of the day and days of the week. You can reduce the bookings that are included in the calculation using a selection of filters. This allows you to analyse particular assets, users, times of year, and more.

Tips

• You may wish to have more specific rules, not covered by the system. If this is the case you will need to make your members aware of these rules (we suggest including them in the introduction at the top of the Booking Grid). You will also need to manually “police” the booking system, removing bookings that breach these rules. For example, you may not want two members each booking a slot back to back so that they can effectively have a double-length slot.

• You will want to add your booking system to the Booking System menu to make it easier for your members to find and book assets. Follow this guide here for help adding items to the menu: How to Customise the Main Menu. Note: In Configure Menu, your booking grid menu item will be found under the myClubhouse drop-down under its name e.g. if your booking system is called “Court Bookings”, the menu item will be called “Court Bookings Booking Grid”.

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