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Bookings

A booking is the rental contract, not just a calendar entry. One booking carries the dates, the priced line items, the agreement, the signatures, the deposits, the task checklist, and the linked invoice.

Building a booking

Bookings → New, or New booking from a renter's profile to start pre-filled.

1. The renter and the event

Pick the renter (type to search). Then describe the event:

FieldNotes
TitleWhat this booking is called on the calendar
Event typeYour own categories
DescriptionFree text
Expected attendanceFeeds capacity checks and reporting
Has food / has alcoholFlags that commonly drive permit and insurance requirements
Requires county/government permittingPuts a banner on the booking and adds it to the government portal list
Note for the government reviewerOptional free text shown to the reviewer, up to 2,000 characters

The food and alcohol flags carry through to the government portal as chips, which is usually the first thing a health or licensing reviewer looks for.

2. Dates

A booking is either non-recurring — one date range — or recurring, with a list of occurrences under one contract and one invoice.

For each date you set:

  • Start and end — the event itself
  • Setup start and teardown end — the windows either side when the space is occupied but the event is not running

Setup and teardown show on the calendar as softer chips, so you can see that the hall is genuinely unavailable from 8am even though the wedding starts at 4. Whether they are charged is a per-booking flag.

For recurring bookings, add each occurrence. Every occurrence carries its own start, end, setup, and teardown, and any single occurrence can be cancelled without touching the rest.

One contract, many dates

A club that meets monthly is one booking with twelve occurrences — one agreement, one signature round, one invoice — not twelve bookings.

3. Line items

Two kinds, priced separately.

Spaces — pick from your space inventory. For each, choose the rate type:

Rate typeCharges
HourlyRate × hours
DailyRate × days
FlatA figure you enter for this booking

Quantity and a per-line note are available for anything unusual.

Add-ons — pick from your add-on catalog: tables, chairs, electricity, a cleaning service. Priced per item or per hour, with a quantity.

The booking total is spaces plus add-ons. Service fees and tax are applied at invoicing.

4. Conflict detection

If a space you have chosen overlaps another booking that is not cancelled, you are warned as you build — including setup and teardown windows, which is where most real conflicts hide.

The warning is explicit rather than a hard block. You can override it when you genuinely mean it: two groups sharing the hall, or a setup window that overlaps the previous event's teardown by design.

5. Agreement and tasks

Pick a contract template and the merge tags resolve against this booking. Pick a task template and the checklist lands with the dates already calculated from the event date.

Both are optional at creation and can be added later.

The booking detail screen

Seven tabs.

Overview

The status timeline, the dates and occurrences, the renter card, the line items with totals, the deposit summary, and shortcuts to the linked invoice and security deposit.

If the booking is flagged for permitting, a banner sits at the top: This booking requires government review before it can be confirmed. It is a prompt for your staff rather than a lock — nothing stops the booking moving forward, so the sequencing stays yours to enforce.

Agreement

The rendered contract with the template picker, merge-tag editing, the expiry date, resend, and the signed PDF once it exists. See Agreements & Signing.

Signatures

The signer list with each signer's status, timestamp, IP address, and captured signature image. Add, remove, and reorder signers; copy the signing link; mark a signature as taken manually when somebody signs on paper.

Tasks

The pre-event checklist — due dates or days-before-event, document requirements, completion and rejection with a reason, and the reminder schedule. Apply a template here if you did not at creation. See Tasks.

Payments

The deposit and every invoice payment for this booking, plus the ways to take more: record a manual payment (cash, check, other), charge a saved card, or run a card reader.

Documents

Files scoped to this booking, including anything uploaded to satisfy a task that requires a document, with the approval workflow.

Activity

The audit trail.

Status

StatusMeaning
inquiryInterest recorded, nothing committed
quote_sentPriced and sent, awaiting an answer
acceptedThey said yes, paperwork not finished
declinedThey said no, or a signer declined
deposit_pendingSigned or accepted, waiting on the deposit
confirmedSigned, deposit settled, on the calendar for real
in_progressThe event is happening
completedEvent finished
cancelledCalled off

Most of the movement is automatic: sending for signature moves it out of inquiry, a completed signature round with a paid deposit moves it to confirmed, and a decline moves it to declined.

Deposits on a booking

Two different things, both optional:

  • The booking deposit is a down payment against the rental fee. It defaults to a percentage from Settings → Payments (25% unless you change it), can be overridden per booking as a percentage or a fixed amount, has its own due date, and is normally collected on the signing page. It reduces the invoice balance.
  • The security deposit is a refundable damage deposit that is not revenue. See Security Deposits.

A booking also carries a balance due date for whatever is left after the deposit.

Internal notes

Every booking has internal notes with the author and timestamp on each change. These are staff-only and never appear on the agreement, the invoice, or the portal.

Fairground 360 — the operating system for fairgrounds, event venues, and the people who rent them.