Working in Bookings

Daily Operating Model

Bookings works best when teams treat the module record as the source of truth and use tasks, tickets, workflows, and reports as supporting surfaces. The flows below are the common day-to-day paths to validate during setup and train users on after go-live.

Flow 1: Create a booking block

1. Open Booking Settings and create a block.
2. Select the object type that represents bookable resources.
3. Choose the object that can make bookings when the flow needs requester typing.
4. Set default view, working hours, interval type, timezone, and limits.
5. Choose approval type and cancellation rules.
6. Mark the block active and public only when ready.
7. Add resource availability for individual resource records.
8. Test the calendar with one internal booking before sharing broadly.

Flow 2: Book a resource

1. Open Bookings and choose the relevant block or calendar.
2. Select available resource, date, time, and duration.
3. Complete template fields and requester details.
4. Submit the booking.
5. If approval is required, the approver reviews conflicts and policy compliance.
6. Confirm or reject the booking.
7. Send notifications to requester, resource owner, and support teams.
8. Review booking status on the calendar.

Flow 3: Operate check-in and completion

1. Open the booking detail from the calendar or list.
2. Check in the guest, customer, or internal requester when the booking starts.
3. Record no-show, cancellation, extension, or reschedule when plans change.
4. Check out or complete the booking when work is finished.
5. Capture notes, outcome, or follow-up tasks.
6. Release resource availability for completed or cancelled records.
7. Use reports to review utilization and no-show patterns.
8. Update policies when repeated exceptions expose a rule gap.

Flow 4: Manage maintenance and blocked time

1. Open Resource Availability for the affected resource.
2. Create blocked time for maintenance, holidays, or resource downtime.
3. Notify users with bookings that overlap the blocked time.
4. Reschedule, cancel, or approve exceptions according to policy.
5. Mark maintenance complete when the resource is available again.
6. Review conflict reports for bookings created around the blocked period.
7. Use workflows to create tasks for facilities or operations teams.
8. Keep public availability synced to avoid overbooking.

Day-To-Day Controls

• Start from the launchpad route, then use filters and saved views to focus on records needing action.
• Use status fields and lifecycle actions instead of free-text notes for important state changes.
• Attach documents, comments, or related records when a decision needs evidence.
• Create tasks when work leaves the current owner or needs a due date.
• Create tickets when the work is customer-facing or belongs in a support/service queue.
• Use workflows for predictable notifications, approvals, escalations, and cross-module updates.
• Use reports for recurring team reviews rather than exporting ad hoc lists every time.
• Keep permissions tight enough that users see the records they need but not sensitive configuration.
• Review rejected, cancelled, failed, or overdue records every week.
• Keep integrations aligned with the same lifecycle users follow in the UI.

Exception Handling

• If a record is stuck, check owner, status, required fields, approvals, and linked records before editing downstream data.
• If a workflow did not run, confirm the event name, trigger filter, record permissions, and service-user access.
• If reports look wrong, inspect whether the source record is draft, cancelled, archived, or missing a required dimension.
• If an integration created bad data, fix the source mapping and then repair the affected records through supported actions.
• If users cannot see a route, review launchpad access, module roles, page permissions, and tenant feature flags.
• If a public or embedded route exposes too much, disable exposure first and then correct permissions or filters.
• If two modules disagree, choose the module that owns the lifecycle as the source of truth and update the other from it.
• If a record supports audit, void, archive, or cancel it instead of deleting it whenever possible.

Reporting Rhythm

• Daily: review new, overdue, failed, rejected, and pending-approval records.
• Weekly: review owner workload, aging, status changes, and recurring exceptions.
• Monthly: review configuration, permissions, integration failures, and report definitions.
• Quarterly: review whether custom pages, workflows, and API access still match real operating practice.
• After major process changes: rerun one end-to-end flow with a pilot record before enabling it broadly.

Cross-Module Handoffs

• To Base objects: pass stable identifiers, owner, status, dates, and any dimensions required for reports.
• To tasks: include a precise action, due date, source record link, and escalation owner.
• To tickets: include requester, priority, support context, and the module record link.
• To workflows: prefer explicit create, update, approval, and status-change triggers.
• To reports: keep dimensions consistent across records so dashboards can group accurately.
• To integrations: use /reference/bookings for namespace and intent details.