Bookings and check-in

Bookings are the "before the bike arrives" part: the customer books, you confirm, you assign a mechanic and you shape the day. When the bike actually comes through the door, check-in begins and from there a work order.

The page has three views — Week, List and Schedule — and a status filter at the top, with a count next to each one.

Where bookings come from#

A booking can arrive three ways:

• from the customer, booking in the CrankPal app or through the widget on your website (see Customer portal and widget): it starts as a Request and waits for you to confirm. Whoever books gets a receipt email right away — with an invitation to activate their customer area, if they don't have an account yet — and, when you confirm, the confirmation email with the calendar invite;
• from you, with the New booking button: it starts Confirmed, because you're the one taking it;
• from a conversation, when you turn a request that came into the inbox into an appointment.

There are five statuses: Request, Confirmed, In progress, Completed, Cancelled. Every status change is notified to the customer's app.

A booking is either at the workshop or on-site. On-site jobs are marked distinctly and, as you'll see in a moment, don't take up space in the shop.

The week calendar#

The Week view shows seven days, normally from 08:00 to 19:00: if an appointment falls earlier or later, the grid widens to show it. The buttons at the top move a week at a time; Today jumps back to the current week.

Each event shows the time, the customer and the service, and who does it: the bar on the left and the initials take the colour of the assigned person. A dashed border means an on-site job. The legend in the top right is a reminder of the colours: blue for requests, green for confirmed, amber for in progress.

Two gestures do almost everything:

• Drag an event to another day or time to reschedule it. On release it snaps to the nearest fifteen-minute slot.
• Click a request (the ones with a question mark) to open a panel with time, duration, service, location, where it came from and any customer notes, and decide: Confirm booking or Reject.

With the Shifts module, each day header shows the day's load as a percentage, based on whoever is on shift and takes appointments (training and read-only access don't count). If bookings exceed the time available you'll read overbooking in red; if there are bookings but nobody on shift, no shift. Shifts are set up in Team and shifts.

The schedule of every resource#

The Schedule view brings together everything planned against time: the people, the workshop's resources (lifts, fitting room, van) and the rest of the day. It has two modes.

• Day: a column for each person, one for each active resource and one Unassigned. With the Shifts module the column background shows when the person is on shift. It holds in-shop and on-site appointments and, with pickup and delivery turned on, the assigned pickups and deliveries too. The top row collects the return dates promised on work orders and the courtesy bikes due back.
• Week by resource: a row per person and per resource, a column per day, and a row for the courtesy bikes that are out.

Drag a card into another column to reassign it: to the person, to the resource, or to Unassigned to clear the assignment. Drag it up or down to move it in time: as from the week, you're asked for the reason, which reaches the customer. The Skill filter shows only the people with one role.

Capacity and opening hours#

CrankPal doesn't take bookings blindly: availability is worked out from the settings on your workshop profile.

1. Your opening hours

   They define when people can book, day by day. A day with no hours is closed and offers no slots. A by-appointment day offers slots, but the public doesn't see it as open; special days override the week for their dates.

2. The maximum number of check-ins per 15-minute slot

   This says how many bikes you can take in at once. The day is divided into fifteen-minute slots, and each one has that capacity.

3. A booking's duration fills several slots

   A 45-minute booking takes three consecutive slots, and all three need room. A slot is only offered if the whole duration fits inside the same opening interval.

If you try to place a booking in a full slot, saving is refused with the reason, slot full with the exact time. Outside your hours, on the other hand, you can book it anyway: the app asks you to confirm it's outside opening hours, and there neither slot capacity nor shifts apply. This works both when creating a booking, where for a day or time with no slots you pick Another time…, and when moving or dragging one in the calendar. Customers on the portal stay within your hours.

On-site jobs are the exception: they don't consume capacity, because the bike never comes into the shop.

The workshop's resources#

In Settings › Workshop, below the operating parameters, you register the physical resources: lifts or work bays, the fitting room, the van. Each one gets a column in the schedule and is reordered by dragging; a deactivated resource stays in the history without showing up any more.

A service in the service catalog can require a type of resource (the Resource column). Only then does the resource count towards capacity: the slot is free if a resource of that type is free for the whole duration, and the appointment is placed on it. If the workshop has no active resources of that type, capacity works as always. The van can also be assigned to pickups and deliveries, from the Pickup & Delivery page or by dragging in the schedule: there it doesn't count as capacity, because one round makes several stops in the same window.

The list view#

The List view is the same selection as a table: date and time, customer, service, where (at the workshop or on-site), mechanic, status.

Here you can do two things the calendar doesn't let you:

• assign the mechanic from the dropdown in that column, for any booking not yet cancelled or completed;
• confirm or reject requests with the buttons at the end of the row.

Bike check-in#

Check-in is the moment the bike passes from the customer's hands into yours. You don't do it from the calendar: you do it from the work order, in the Check-in panel.

1. Photograph the bike

   Up to four photos. On a phone the button opens the camera directly.

2. Write down pre-existing defects

   Scratches, worn saddle, dented rim. This is the field that saves you the argument at handover.

3. Agree the maximum for extras

   Below that figure, unforeseen work counts as pre-authorised and the customer only gets a notification; above it, their approval is required. See Parts approvals.

4. Have the terms read and accepted

   The panel shows the acceptance terms with their version number. If you've written custom terms for your workshop, those are the ones shown.

5. Take the signature on screen

   The customer signs with a finger or the mouse. Without a signature, without the terms ticked and without the maximum amount, check-in won't save.

6. Read the odometer (optional)

   If the bike has a display or a bike computer, read the number and type it in the Odometer reading in km field. It calibrates the bike's wear forecast even for customers who never log rides (see bikes).

What you save is frozen onto the order: photos, defects, signature, the version of the terms accepted and the agreed amount, with the date, time and name of whoever took the bike in. That agreed amount becomes the threshold for the whole order.

From the order header you can print a QR label to hang on the bike: point a phone at it and that order opens, no searching.

Appointments in your calendar#

Appointments can also be seen in Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook, through a read-only link. You create it in Settings › Account, in the Appointments in your calendar box.

• Your calendar holds your appointments, the pickups and deliveries assigned to you, the return dates of your orders and, with the Shifts module, your shifts. Anyone on the staff can create it, an external collaborator too from their own area.
• The workshop's calendars are for administrators only: the whole schedule, or that of one person or one resource. In Google each becomes a calendar with its own colour, which is the same mixed view as the schedule.

The link is shown only once, when you create it: copy it straight away. In Google you add it from Other calendars › From URL; in Apple Calendar Add to Apple Calendar is enough. Anyone with the link sees the calendar: if it ends up where it shouldn't, Regenerate makes a new one and switches the old one off, Revoke just switches it off. The link stops working on its own if the person who created it is deactivated or if the workshop is suspended.

The calendar holds the service, the bike and the customer's first name with the surname initial; never phone or email. The address appears only on on-site visits, and only in the personal calendar of whoever does them. With the workshop's link this data reaches the calendar service you choose, by the workshop's choice: if you'd rather not, turn on Without customer names.

The calendar is read-only: appointments are moved from CrankPal. Google re-reads it on its own schedule, often hours apart; Apple Calendar on the Mac lets you choose how often.

Common problems#

Once check-in is done, the real work starts in work orders.