Getting started with the Bookings module

Introduction to the Booking Module

Welcome to the Bookings module. This module enables you to manage internal and external bookings of rooms and other resources. For external bookings, you can manage your customer database, raise charges, send customers their booking page, and collect payments online or by other methods.

We encourage you to read this article in full to familiarise yourself with the module's key features and customisation options, as well as some of the basic concepts and terminology you'll encounter in it, and in our related support articles and training videos.

Bookings module features at a glance

Add new customers or import your existing customer database
Manage different booking Tyoes: e.g. life events - like weddings, funerals, baptisms - and all your other internal and external bookings, each with custom questions for collecting the customer's related booking responses
Add and manage all your rooms and other resources and categorise them, including resources that have a limited quantity, such as chairs and tables
Easily manage resources that have a limited or unlimited quantity, e.g. tables and chairs, with clash detection to alert if the available quantity is exceeded
Manage single-date and multi-date sequence bookings, factoring in set-up and set-down time for the booked resources with clash detection and clash approval
Visualise booked resource usage on a Planner and switch between Day, 7-day and 28-day views with granular filtering by booking type or select resource categories
Manage each booking's status from pending to confirmed or cancelled
Maintain a booking price list and raise auto-calculated charges against a booking. Assign payment due dates, send customers their booking page and collect payment online
Embed a free-busy resource planner in your website to help prospective customers check resource availability before making an enquiry
Subscribe to a range of booking-related iCal and Google Calendar feeds and see your bookings show in a preferred calendar application

Next Steps

Review the module's settings: Accessed via the cogwheel icon in the top right-hand corner of the module; there, you can customise different elements of the module's features and functionality.

Add booking Types: This Support Article takes you through the process of adding your various booking types. You'll use "types" to distinguish bookings for weddings, funerals, external hires and internal usage of your rooms and other resources.

Add Resources: This Support Article takes you through the process of adding your various bookable rooms and other resources.

Add customers: In the Customers section, add some customer details. If you already have regular customers whose details you want to add, you can use the Import customers button to upload a CSV file; our Support Article provides some further details on how to do this.

Add some bookings: Check out our Support Article on Adding and viewing Bookings. Don't forget to explore the customer-facing Booking Page (see this Support Article).

Check out some of our short training videos...

Terminology

Here's a list of key terms you'll encounter in the Bookings module and the related support articles and training videos for this module:

Booking: the booking's key details - the status, date, time, description, type and customer
Booked resources: the various rooms and other resources assigned to the booking. Booked resource times can factor in additional setup and set down time outside of the booking times.
Planner: the booking-related calendar on which booked resource usage is shown.
Customer: the person associated with a booking.

Got a question?

You’ll find the answers to most questions in our support articles - they're all available through the Support menu located in the top-right corner of each page in ChurchSuite. Select Get help and search by topic, phrase or keyword. You can also access the Support Article library on our website. And if you still can't find something you're looking for, click to contact one of the ChurchSuite team - we’re happy to help!