Guides - Automatic booking of resources

A resource can be booked automatically when a particular service is booked. The booking system will take into account whether the required resource is available and only show available times for the service where the resource is available too. The booking of the service and the booking of the resource happen separately meaning that the resource can be booked for a longer or a shorter period of time than the service. This could be used by e.g. a hairdresser who has a hood hair that is used when a customer books an appointment for hair colouring. The hair colouring itself has a duration of e.g. 90 minutes, however, the hood hair is only used for the last 45 minutes of the booking. The hood hair should therefore be available for booking by others for the first 45 minutes.

You can activate automatic booking of a resource under the settings of the service. You can access these settings on the service overview that is found under ‘Settings' -> ‘Services'. Press ‘Edit' under the column ‘Settings' opposite the service you want to activate automatic booking of resources for.

You have the option of activating automatic booking of up to three different resources. In order to activate automatic booking of a resource, tick the box 'Activate booking of Resource 1 when the service is booked' and more spaces appear (As shown in the screenshot). If you have activated booking of one or two resources already, choose ‘Activate booking of Resource 2 when the service is booked' or ‘Activate booking of Resource 3 when the service is booked'.

You then need to choose which resource you want to activate automatic booking of. You can choose between activating booking of one or more particular resources or activating booking of a random resource in a particular resource group. If only one copy of the required resource exists, this resource must be chosen. If two or more copies of the same type of resource exist and it does not matter which resource is booked, these can be created in the same group. You can then choose to book randomly in this group. By choosing randomly between the resources, your chances of getting the most bookings in your calendar are optimised, as the service cannot be booked if not at least one of the resources is available; the more resources the system can choose between, the greater the chances of a resource being available at the time the customer wishes to book an appointment. Random booking could e.g. be used by the hairdresser in the above example, if (s)he has three hood hairs and it does not matter which hood hair is booked. The hairdresser could create a group named ‘Hood hairs' and three resources in this group (‘Hood hair 1', ‘Hood hair 2', and 'Hood hair 3'). If you only want to book select resources in a resource group, you can tick these off individually. The system will then choose randomly among these. This could e.g. be used, if only 'Hood hair 1' and 'Hood hair 3' can be used for a particular service.

You then need to choose when the booking of the resource should start. You can choose to start the booking of the resource at the same time as the booking of the service starts. However, you can also choose to start the booking of the resource before or after the booking of the service by using the ‘Start +/-‘ feature. If you so desire, you can enter how many days, hours, and/or minutes the booking of the resource should start before or after the booking of the service. In the above hairdresser scenario, the hairdresser should choose to start the booking of the hood hair 45 minutes after the booking of the hair colouring. If so, the booking of the hood hair will start 45 minutes after the hair colouring has begun. You also have the option of starting the booking of the resource at a fixed time on the day where the chosen service is booked. This could be used if the resource is e.g. a company car that always should be booked from 8:00.

Then, you need to choose when the booking of the resource should end. You have the same options here as you did when you decided when the booking of the resource should start. In the hairdresser example, the hairdresser should choose to end the booking of the resource at the same time as the booking of the service.

Finally, you have the possibility to attatch resources to class and multi calendar bookings, when you only need one main resource and not resources for every single participant. You do this under 'As a rule, the resource is only booked one time per participant'. Here, you can put a tick in the box opposite 'If marked, the resource is booked one time per class/multi calendar booking', by which you only book one single ressource for the class/multi calendar booking.

When you book a resource, this resource will be attatched to the booking of participant 1. In other words, the first person to sign up for the class/multi calendar booking, locks the resource for this particular class/multi calendar booking. If participant 1 deletes his/her booking, the resource is attatched to participant 2 etc. 

Remember to press 'Update' in order to save any changes!
 

Automatic booking of resources only has an effect prospectively, i.e. bookings already made of the service in question will not be affected by the activation of booking of resources. If you want to ensure that these bookings have an available resource, you must book the resource manually at the times the bookings are at. See Manual booking of resources for more information.

When you have activated booking of resources, the booked resource will be shown on the specific booking.

You cannot change the booking of the resource here, but by pressing the name of the resource you will be transferred to the page containing the 'Show / Book' feature where changes can be made (See Manual booking of resources for more information).

If you want to move a specific booking, it is recommended that you use 'Edit date'. By doing so, you can move the booking to another time that overlaps with the original and move the resource at the same time automatically. If you move a booking using ‘Edit date', you will only be shown available times where the resource is available also.