Introduction to the inventory calendar

The inventory calendar gives you a real-time view of availability across your items, so Customers and Staff can quickly find open slots, manage bookings, and keep inventory accurate — all from one page.

Read this introduction to the Inventory Calendar, including understanding how the system organizes and presents information, and adding new Staff-side bookings.

Accessing the features mentioned in this article

Where can I find this feature using the top menu?

• Calendar > Item/Product > Inventory Calendar
   

What more do I need to use this feature?

• Admin or restricted permissions to View calendars, Change Daily Inventory Availability, Create Bookings, and View events and rules with Manage events and rules for Product Closures.
• Inventory (items/products) configured within Checkfront. 
   

Which Checkfront version supports this feature - classic items, classic products, or both?

• This feature is available in both our classic version using classic items (Inventory > Items) and our classic version using classic products (Inventory > Products). → Learn more about products 
   

The Inventory Calendar provides a complete, visual overview of inventory availability by date, with the option to edit availability for the inventory and period in focus.

Learn more about reporting For a detailed look at your other reporting options, check out the following articles: Getting Started with Reporting: Overview Getting Started with Reporting: FAQ

The system organizes and presents as follows.

By default, your Inventory Calendar displays inventory data for the next 4 weeks, starting today.

The system presents Inventory data daily, organized by category and item/product.

Category weighting (weight) is honored first, and then item ordering (sort order) within those categories second.

Category display order The system determines the order in which categories display based on the display Weight configured for each category. The system determines the order in which items/products display based on the Sort Order configuration. The higher the number, the higher the category, item, or product is displayed on the page.  Learn more here: Categories: Creating a new inventory category Items: Adding descriptions to items using the item builder (classic) Products: Setting up details, visibility, and media on products

Archived category display The system does not display Archived categories within the calendar.

Excluded items The Inventory Calendar excludes items that are not date-based inventory: Items with the Date Based Inventory Control disabled (OFF). Items created as Gift Certificates.

Viewing Items 

For items configured as product groupings, the child item displays indented directly under the parent item. Depending on your inventory configuration, this may include multiple child items. You cannot manually adjust the parent item, as the child items control inventory. As you make adjustments to the child item, the parent's total is updated accordingly. As such, you cannot manually adjust the parent's total, and it remains grayed out. The system does not support product groupings at this time.
 

Simple items, items configured as package add-ons, and aliased items are listed independently under their configured category.

Viewing Products 

Product upsells are listed independently under their configured category, for example, a custom Upsells category.

Learn more about items and products For a detailed look at configuring items or products, check out the following articles: Introduction to items and the item builder (classic) Introduction to products and the product builder

Availability for inventory allocated per day/all day or per night/nightly is displayed as follows. 

Inventory Data		More Info
Available Inventory		This number is the available inventory* for the period. Considering any existing bookings.  *If you use products configured with assets, this is the number of primary assets available.
Quick booking details		Hover over any cell to view additional booking availability information. Quantity/capacity available Number of bookings Total inventory* *If you use products configured with assets, this is the number of primary assets available.

Inventory allocated into timeslots or per time/flex time periods is represented by multiple rows, starting with a summary row. 

 

Inventory Data		More Info
Summary Row		What does Maximum available for the day mean? The summary row communicates the day's availability, taking into account whether you have allocated each timeslot/per time/flex time. You can expand (v) the section to see the availability for each time period.
Timeslots		If you allocate availability by timeslots, the system displays a row for each timeslot configured for that item/product, for example, 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM.
Per Time/Flex Time		Each row in the calendar represents an allocation period, such as per time (30, 20, 15, or 10 minutes).
Quick booking details		Hover over any cell to view additional booking availability information. Quantity/capacity available Number of bookings Total inventory for the time period* *If you use products configured with assets, this is the number of primary assets available.

The system communicates availability through color-coded cells and icons.

Inventory Data		More Info
50% or more availability		Inventory cells displayed in light green indicate availability of 50% or more. Customers or Staff have not made bookings yet. How can inventory be below 100% without bookings? This state is possible if you manually reduce inventory before receiving bookings. The system flags the cell corner to indicate that Staff has made a manual adjustment.
50% or more availability with bookings		Inventory cells displayed in dark green indicate availability of 50% or more. Customers or Staff have not made bookings yet.
Less than 50% availability		Inventory cells displayed in light yellow indicate less than 50% availability. Customers or Staff have not made bookings yet. How can inventory be below 50% without bookings? This status is possible if you have manually decreased inventory numbers before you received bookings. The corner of the cell is also flagged to indicate that Staff have made a manual adjustment.
Less than 50% availability		Inventory cells displayed in dark yellow indicate less than 50% availability due to bookings.
Sold Out		Inventory cells displayed in red indicate sold-out inventory or that the Staff has set availability to 0 for that interval.
Adjusted		Once you adjust inventory, the corresponding cell in the calendar is flagged to make the adjusted inventory easy to spot.
Calendar or Product Closure Events		The system displays days as closed when listed for products with associated full closure events. Learn more here: Determining availability on products Also, see which days you have configured as available within Calendar Setup. Setting up your calendar
Unlimited Inventory		Intervals for items with unlimited inventory display with an infinity icon (∞).

You can initiate a new Staff-side booking from the Inventory Calendar. Click the New Booking button to start the process.
 

Next Steps

Once you’re comfortable with the basics above, check out these deeper-dive articles:

• Navigating and filtering the inventory calendar
• Managing inventory availability from the inventory calendar
• Editing item availability from the inventory calendar
• Editing simple product availability from the inventory calendar
• Editing product and asset availability from the inventory calendar
• Working with inventory bookings from the inventory calendar
• Reviewing the inventory calendar activity log
• Adding a product closure from the inventory calendar
• Bulk editing inventory from the inventory calendar

Each article walks you step-by-step through that specific feature. 

The following article in this series explores how to navigate and filter inventory in the Inventory Calendar.

Navigating and filtering the inventory calendar >