Extending or Shortening a Booking's End Date in Shelf

Overview

A booking that is already running can get a new end date without starting a new booking. Move the end later when the equipment is needed for longer, or earlier when the job finishes early, so the next team can reserve the gear for the time after the new end.

On the web the action is called Change end date and works in both directions. The Shelf Companion phone app can only move the end later; see On the phone.

Feature Availability

You can change the end date of bookings with these statuses:

Ongoing (checked out, within its dates)
Overdue (past its end date with items still out)

A Reserved booking has no Change end date action, and its dates are locked on the booking page. To move them, use Revert to Draft from the same Actions menu, edit the dates, and reserve it again. Reference the Introduction to Bookings documentation for details about different booking statuses.

How to Change the End Date on the Web

Open the booking
Open the Actions menu on the booking page
Choose Change end date
Pick the new end date and time
Click Submit

On the Bookings list you can skip step 1: open the row's More actions menu (three dots) and choose Change end date there. See the More actions menu.

The new end has to be after the booking's start, in the future, and different from the current end. Something on the booking also has to be out still: when everything has come back, Shelf asks you to complete the booking instead. Because the new end must be in the future, an Overdue booking can only move later.

Your workspace's working hours apply to the new end, and so do its minimum advance notice and maximum booking length unless your role is allowed to skip them, the same rules as when you create a booking.

Moving the end later

When the end moves later, Shelf checks the added days only, from the current end to the new one, against the other bookings of the same assets, kits and asset models.

The dialog shows how far you can go. When another booking has reserved one of the items later, Change end date says until when they are free and which booking needs them next, and offers a Use … button with the latest end that fits. A later date that clashes is refused with the bookings in the way and the items they need. Quantity-tracked items are checked by how many units are free, and a unit whose model is spoken for on those days is refused with the message that starts Some assets cannot be booked for these dates (what it means).

On a running booking, each asset or kit another booking has reserved next carries a Needed badge with the date it is needed from, so you can see what has to come back first.

Moving the end earlier

On the web the end can also move earlier than the current one. Only the date moves: the items stay checked out until someone checks them in, and if they come back after the new end, the booking becomes Overdue. An earlier end cannot clash with anything new, so no availability check runs. Other bookings can reserve those items for the time after the new end.

On the phone

The Shelf Companion app extends bookings too. Open an Ongoing or Overdue booking, tap More actions and choose Extend booking, the first entry. The sheet opens on the current end: change it with the date and time picker, or tap +1 hour, +4 hours or +1 day, then confirm. The phone only moves the end later: a time at or before the current end is refused with The new end must be after the current end. To shorten a booking, use Change end date on the web. A later end that clashes with another booking is refused with that booking's name and the items it shares with yours, for example Camera day (Cam 1). The action shows for the same roles as on the web, on bookings they may change.

What Happens When You Change the End Date

The booking reads Ongoing afterwards, whichever way the end moved, because the new end is in the future. An Overdue booking that is extended goes back to Ongoing.

The check-in reminder and the overdue notice are rescheduled against the new end time, and the booking's Activity records who extended or shortened the booking, from which end to which.

Notifications

The people on the booking get a Booking extended or Booking shortened email with the old and the new end. The person who made the change is left out of it unless they are the booking's custodian or creator. See Which emails Shelf sends and when.

What Changing the End Date Does Not Change

Changing the end date moves the booking's live end date, later or earlier. It does not move the planned end date. That one is recorded when the booking is created, still moves with any edit made while the booking is a draft, and is fixed from the moment the booking is reserved. The one exception is a reservation whose dates passed before pickup and that is checked out with a new end date: that new period becomes the plan.

That distinction is what the Booking Compliance report measures against. A booking that was due Friday and is extended to Monday leaves Overdue Items straight away, because it is no longer late against its current deadline. When it comes back on Monday it is still recorded as a late return, because the deadline it was agreed to was Friday. Extending keeps operations moving; it is not a way to clear a late return from the record.

Data Export Considerations

The booking CSV export carries both periods in four columns: Planned start date and Planned end date hold what was agreed, Actual start date and Actual end date hold where the booking finished up. On a booking whose end date changed the two end dates differ, so the full history is preserved.

The booking's PDF overview shows an Original period row underneath the booking period whenever the two differ.

Use Cases

Changing the end date helps when:

A loan or a shoot runs longer than planned
A production is delayed and the crew still needs the kit
A job finishes early and the next team wants the gear for the time after it
You would otherwise create a second booking for the same equipment

Permissions

Owners, Administrators, Managers and Self-service users can change a booking's end date; a Self-service user only on their own bookings. Base users cannot: Change end date does not appear for them on the web, nor Extend booking on the phone. Consult the user roles and permissions documentation for additional permission details.