Introduction to Bookings
In this post we're running through the basic concepts of Bookings.
With bookings you or other users will be able to reserve equipment for a certain period. This means the assets that are added to the booking will be in custody of a certain person (custodian) during the specified booking period. During that time these assets will receive a Checked out status and they’ll be unavailable for other bookings that have an overlapping booking period.
When assets have a Checked out status, administrators will be unable to take or assign custody. Bookings will help you make sure certain equipment will be available during the right time and avoid double bookings.
A Booking consists out of a few parts of required information.
- A Name
- A Start and End date / time
- A selection of Assets
- A Custodian
Booking states
A Booking can have a few different states. Depending on the booking status the possible actions and the status of assets included will change.
1. Draft
The booking has been created but you're still configuring. In order to Reserve the booking you’ll have to fill a Name, Start and End date / time and a Custodian. Then you’ll be able to add assets to the booking.
Now you’ll be able to perform the Reserve action to make things official. At this point you’ll still be able to Delete the booking.
2. Reserved
The booking has been fully configured. The assets that are added to the booking will now be unavailable for future other bookings that have an overlapping booking period. The booking period takes place somewhere in the future and the booking has not yet been checked out. This means the assets within the booking still have an Available status.
If all assets in the booking have an Available status, you’ll be able to perform a Check-out action. At this point you can still Delete or Cancel the booking. Also administrators are still able to take or assign custody.
3. Ongoing
The booking period has passed and the Check-out action was performed by a user with sufficient permissions. The assets within the booking should've now been checked out to the custodian and their status changed to Checked out. When assets have a Checked out status, administrators will be unable to take or assign custody.
You’ll be able to perform a Check-in action on the booking in order to change its status to Completed. At this point you can still Delete or Cancel the booking.
4. Overdue
The end date / time of the booking has arrived but the included assets have not been returned at the agreed time. In this case the equipment manager has not Checked in the booking which results in the status of booking being changed into Overdue automatically by the system. The assets included in the bookings keep their Checked out status until the Check-in action is performed on the bookings. This means conflicts could arise with other bookings. These assets were expected to be Available at this point and could’ve been added to other bookings that now cannot be Checked out because they include assets with a Checked out status.
You’ll be able to perform a Check-in action on the booking in order to change its status to Completed. At this point you can still Delete or Cancel the booking.
5. Completed
The assets that were included in the booking have been returned by the custodian. The equipment manager Checked in the booking manually which results in the status of the booking being changed into Completed. This also changes the status of the included assets back to Available which means they can be now be Checked out again together with other bookings.
You’ll be able to Delete or Archive the booking in order to clean up the bookings index.
6. Archived
The equipment manager is able to Archive bookings with a Completed status in order to clean up the index and keep things organized. Archived bookings are hidden when the index is filtered on All. To see Archived bookings you can use the dropdown and choose Archived.
7. Cancelled
The equipment manager is able to Cancel bookings when a booking has not yet reached a Completed status. This could be useful if for any reason the booking is not needed anymore but still needs to be logged. Cancelled bookings are hidden when the index is filtered on All. To see Cancelled bookings you can use the dropdown and choose Cancelled.
Notification mails
To properly inform user about the progress of a booking the system will send notification mails to the custodian and administrators accordingly.
Confirmation
When a booking reaches a Reserved status, the specified custodian will receive a mail. In the case a user with a Self-service created the booking, all administrator users receive a mail notifying them a booking request has been done.
Check-out reminder
1 hour before the specified Start date / time the custodian receives a mail reminding them to pick up the assets they have included in their booking.
Check-in reminder
1 hour before the specified End date / time the custodian receives a mail reminding them turn back in the assets they have included in their booking.
Overdue
In case the End date / time has passed and the booking was not checked in, the custodian receives a mail stating the booking Overdue and the assets need to be returned as soon as possible.
Completed
When a booking is checked in and reaches the Completed status, the custodian receives a mail informing them the booking process was successfully completed.
Cancelled
In the case an administrators decides to Cancel a booking, the custodian receives a mail their booking was cancelled.
Deleted
In the case an administrators decides to Delete a booking, the custodian receives a mail their booking was deleted.
