05.09.2022
Creating bookings
Creating, changing, cancelling – for yourself, for others, with services
A booking starts with a click in the calendar or the "Create booking" button. The form leads through time, resources, participants and options and ends with the booking preview. With the right permission you also book for others and add services, which are approved separately.
A booking occupies a resource for a period of time – a room, a desk, a vehicle. This page covers the way from an empty calendar to a confirmed booking, and what you can do with it afterwards.
Creating a booking
Use Select area to pick the home tile that holds the resource you want, and choose a view inside it. The calendar view is the usual starting point; the booking itself works the same in every view.
There are two ways into the form:
Click an empty slot in the calendar. Zeitwart takes the start and end time from the spot you clicked.
Use the Create booking button. If several bookable resources are in scope, Zeitwart asks which one you mean first.
The form opens as a panel on the right. The chevron in its toolbar moves it into a centred window and back; on a phone it takes over the whole screen.
The heading tells you straight away where you are heading: Create Booking if you may occupy the resource directly, Request Booking if it has to be approved first.
The fields
Title is always at the top, and so is Justification for resources that need approval. Everything else sits in collapsible sections; collapsed, each one shows a summary of its contents.
Section | Contents |
|---|---|
Title | optional. By default only you and authorised users see it |
Justification | only appears where approval applies; some units make it mandatory |
Date and time | day, start, end. If nothing can be booked that day, it says so in the field |
Resources | one or several. Add resource books several rooms in one go |
Participants | Internal participants from Zeitwart, Additional participants as e-mail addresses – the latter only if the resource allows it |
Services | catering and similar, where offered for the resource |
Series until | turns the appointment into a series, see Series bookings |
Unit | only if more than one unit could book |
Reminder | up to two reminders, from 5 minutes to 2 days ahead, or a value of your own |
Options | see below |
Options holds the finer points: a Message to user, a Note, the Teams Meeting switch, Create access PIN and the confirmation mails. This is also where the public switch lives – with it on, the booking title is visible to all users. You only see it if your role allows it.
Check and book
Before saving, Zeitwart shows the Booking Preview with title, resource, user, additional participants, start, end and booked services. Back takes you to the form, Book completes it.
Zeitwart then reports either "The booking has been saved." or, where approval applies, "The booking has been requested." Whether you also get an e-mail is up to you – see Personal settings.
What the status means
Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
no approval required | the resource is freely bookable, the booking stands |
requested | the request is with the approvers |
confirmed | someone approved it |
approved automatically | a rule approved it without anyone stepping in |
partially approved | with several resources, part is decided and part is still open |
partially rejected | at least one resource was rejected, others were not |
rejected | the request was turned down; the reason is shown on the booking |
expired | the check-in did not happen and the room was released again |
cancelled | the booking was cancelled and remains on record |
Approval happens per resource. A booking across several rooms can therefore end up partially rejected. Booked services are decided separately by the service providers.
Changing a booking
Click the booking, the Selected booking panel opens, then click the pencil. Depending on your settings you will get a confirmation by e-mail afterwards. If the appointment belongs to a series, there is a second pencil next to it marked Series.
Cancelling a booking
A booking is normally cancelled, not deleted: the resource becomes free again, while the event stays on record with its time, reason and any fee.
Click the booking and choose Cancel booking.
Select what should be cancelled – with several resources or booked services you can pick individually. A Reason (optional) is up to you.
Click Continue. Under "This will be cancelled:" each line shows its cancellation tier – Free of charge, Early or Late – and below it the Total cancellation fee.
Confirm with Cancel.
Two things that often surprise people:
It only affects this occurrence. In a series, only the appointment you opened is cancelled, never the whole run.
Services follow. If your selection leaves no resource booked, booked services are cancelled along with it. Zeitwart tells you beforehand.
Cancelling is not possible once the appointment has started, if the booking is already cancelled, if it was taken over from an external calendar, or if you lack the permission. In that case the button names the reason.
Delete booking still exists, but it is a separate permission and a different act: the booking disappears instead of staying on record as cancelled.
Booking for others
Front desks, assistants and secretariats rarely book for themselves. Zeitwart has a route for that: you create the booking, someone else is entered on it.
What you need
Two things, and both have to come together:
The permission Book for users. Without it there is no field for another person in the booking form and no For others area in the switcher.
A booking permission on the room itself. The permission to book for someone does not replace it – whoever may not book the room cannot book it on someone's behalf either.
Both are granted by your administration through your role.
How to book for someone
The procedure is the one described under Creating bookings; in the form you additionally choose the person the booking is for.
Once saved, the booking counts as created by you and entered for the other person. Both of you see it – you under For others, they under My bookings.
The "For others" area
The layout matches the My bookings area; what is shown are the bookings where you are the creator and someone else is the person concerned. Time and status filters work unchanged.
Does the person get an e-mail?
That is up to you: the setting When booking for others: Send booking confirmation to user in your profile controls whether the person concerned is informed. The default is whatever your organisation specifies – see Personal settings.
Independently of that, the person's own notification matrix applies, in particular the occasion Other people's bookings with me.
Who may change it later?
Changing and cancelling follow the permissions, not who created the booking. As a rule both can: you as the creator and the person entered on it. Only the appointment you opened is ever cancelled, never a whole series.
Adding services
Some rooms do not come alone: catering, technology, seating, cleaning. In Zeitwart these are called services, and you book them together with the room.
Adding services to a booking
If the resource you chose offers services, a separate section appears in the booking form. You pick the services you want there; collapsed, the section shows how many that is.
What a service asks of you is set by the service provider. The usual fields are:
Field | For what |
|---|---|
Quantity | how many portions, devices, chairs. Some services take the number of people automatically |
Selection | preset variants, single or multiple choice |
Checkbox | yes or no |
Cost centre | where the service is charged internally |
Some services carry a lead or follow-up time: the provider needs time before or after your appointment. That can mean a room is not bookable even though its calendar looks free.
Who agrees
This is the point that causes the most confusion: the room and the service are decided separately.
The room is decided by whoever may approve in the unit – see Approving bookings.
Each service is decided by its own provider.
One appointment can carry services from several providers who agree independently of one another. For that reason a rejected service does not change the status of your room booking: the room stands, the catering does not.
Adjusting details afterwards
If the number of guests changes, you do not have to recreate the booking. The booking offers Adjust details: quantity, number of people and cost centre can be corrected there without touching the appointment.
A quantity of zero does not remove a line – use Edit or Cancel for that.
Cancelling
When cancelling you choose what should go – individual services or the room. One thing to know in advance: if your selection leaves no resource booked, the services are cancelled along with it. Catering without a room is not an appointment.
When no service appears
Three possible reasons: the resource offers none, no provider is assigned to your unit, or you lack the permission Book service. In all three cases it is your administration that decides.