Manual Bookings and Itineraries
Not every booking is made by the person attending. Manual bookings cover the ones staff make.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Layout & Pages:
- Booking Calendars — the calendar, then its row actions for everything else
Two lists, deliberately
User bookings are made by the person themselves; manual bookings are made by staff on somebody’s behalf, recording a name rather than a user account.
Keeping them separate is right — a booking taken over the telephone for somebody who has no account is a different thing from one somebody made online, and conflating them loses that.
When manual bookings are needed
- Telephone bookings from people who will not use a website.
- Walk-ins recorded after the fact.
- Blocking time for something that is not a customer booking.
- Rearranging on somebody’s behalf.
They still consume capacity
Which is the point. A manual booking occupies the slot exactly as a user booking does, so the calendar stays truthful about what is available.
Record enough to identify the person
A manual booking carries a name and additional information. Whoever is on reception when that person arrives needs to recognise the booking, and a name alone is often not enough.
Do not use them to work around configuration
The temptation. When availability does not allow something, a manual booking makes it happen — and the underlying configuration stays wrong, so it happens again next week.
If staff are routinely booking manually into unavailable time, fix the availability.
The itinerary view
Available from the calendar and from individual periods, showing the day as a schedule rather than a list of records.
That is what staff actually want: what is happening today, in order, in one place. It is also the fastest way to spot a gap, an overlap or a slot that should not have been bookable.
Use it as a daily check
A look at tomorrow’s itinerary catches problems while there is still time to telephone somebody — a double booking, an appointment in a room that is unavailable, a session with nobody assigned.
Confirm manual bookings too
Somebody booked over the telephone still benefits from written confirmation, and is more likely to attend for having received one. Take an address where you can.
Worked example
A service takes roughly a third of its bookings by telephone, recorded as manual bookings with a name and contact number, with a confirmation sent where an address is given. Reception reviews tomorrow’s itinerary each afternoon, which regularly catches something worth a telephone call.
Recommendations
- Keep manual bookings for real bookings, not configuration workarounds.
- Record enough to identify the person on arrival.
- Review tomorrow’s itinerary daily.
- Confirm manual bookings in writing where you can.