Inventory - Item Builder: Attributes (Allocation & Visibility)

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Locate: Inventory > Items > Add New/Edit Item > Attributes
Prerequisites:

• Admin permissions to manage inventory or restricted permissions to View Items and Manage Items.
• Your account must have access to Items and the Item Builder, which are features of our classic version of Checkfront. 

Early Access Program - Products Products and the Product Builder are the successor features to Items and the Item Builder and are currently part of our Early Access Program. This means that the features are available to select Customers to try out and provide us with feedback. To learn more about becoming part of our Early Access Program check out our related blog post or contact our Technical Support team. Find our complete set of help articles related to the Early Access Program here: Early Access Program.

 

In this article, we walk through configuring Allocation and Visibility settings for your Item. For those with Waivers & Documents configured within your account, we also cover associating Documents/Waivers with your Item.

New to the Items - Inventory Builder? Be sure to read the first article in this series for an introduction!

 

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Choose between per Day, per Night, per Time or Timeslots Allocation for each of your Items. This determines how the Item is subsequently distributed, booked, and priced. 

 

This overrides the system default Configuration (Manage > Setup > Configuration > Allocation). Learn more here... Setup: Configuration

 

Used for both single instance bookings (a one-day sightseeing tour) and multiple, full-day bookings (such as a multi-day kayak adventure).

 

For example, with a Per Day booking from Aug 1 - Aug 3, the booking would end on Aug 3.

 

-- Fixed Length (days)

This forces the Item end date/time to a fixed length. In this case, this represents days.

Leave this field blank, to allow the Customer to choose their beginning and end date.

Set the value to 1 to hide the end date/time option.

 

Used most frequently by accommodation providers. This setting enables you to charge a per Night rate. This differs slightly from the day rate in that the checkout date would be the day after the last booking date.

 

For example, with a Per Night booking from Aug 1 - Aug 3. The checkout date would be Aug 4. This does not take away from your available Aug 4 inventory.

 

-- Fixed Length (nights)

This forces the Item end date/time to a fixed length. In this case, the value represents the number of Nights.

Leave this field blank, to allow the Customer to choose their beginning and end date.

Set the value to 1, to hide the end date/time option.

 

This setting determines the length of your bookings, measured by the amount of Time allocated. By default, this is per Hour, but you also have the option to offer bookings 10 mins, 15 mins, 20 mins, or 30 mins in length.

 

Examples range from a 20-minute fitness consult to a 2-hour kayak rental.

 

When you choose this option, a table of standard time units displays. You can make a selection from this table and further refine Allocation using the following settings.

 

-- Fixed Start Time

This setting allows you to fix a specific Start Time for your booking. 

 

For example, if you are offering a tour that starts at 8:00 AM, then you would enter that time in the Fixed Start Time box.

 

-- Default Length (interval e.g. hours)

This setting allows you to suggest a booking length while still allowing your Customer to adjust their end time.

You can then specify multiples of this time within the Default Length setting if the particular amount of Time you are looking for is not specified.

 

For example, to configure a booking length of 50 minutes chose a Default Length of 5. That's 10 minutes, multiplied by 5 to equal 50 minutes. When making a booking, the Customer sees a Default booking Length of 50 minutes. However, they will be able to adjust this if they wish, up or down, in multiples of 10 minutes.

 

-- Fixed Length (interval e.g. hours)

This forces the Item end date/time to a fixed length. In this case, the value represents intervals of Time.

Leave this field blank to allow your Customer to choose their beginning and end date/time.

Set the value to 1 to hide the end date/time option.

 

For example, if you wish to fix the length of a booking at 50 minutes, you would put a 5 in the Fixed Length box. This removes the end time from the booking process so that it cannot be altered by the Customer. All they are able to do is select a Start Time.

 

Timeslots are an option if you offer scheduled products, tours or appointments.

 

Start building your timeslots via the following settings.

Features
Start Time		Specify the Start Time of the Timeslot, for example, 9:00 AM.
End Time		Specify the End Time of the Timeslot, for example, 10:00 AM.
Days of Week		Specify the Days of Week, that the offering is available (checked) or unavailable (not checked).
Add a Timeslot		Once you have specified the Start Time, End Time and Days of Week, you can click Add a Timeslot to create the corresponding Timeslot on your Customer Booking Page e.g. 0:900 AM - 10:00 AM. Click the Add a Timeslot button again to add an additional Timeslot with the same Timeslot Settings and in sequence, for example, 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM. Repeat this process for every Timeslot needed.
Remove		Click this icon to Remove the Timeslot.

 

Removing Timeslots You can add and remove Timeslots as needed, but ideally, you do this before you have accepted bookings.  Booking Invoices do retain their original Timeslot values as a snapshot in time of what was booked unless the Booking Invoice itself is edited. If you Remove a Timeslot, then you can still report on previously associated bookings, but the Timeslot is no longer visible or accessible in the Inventory Calendar. Please reach out to support@checkfront.com with your intentions before doing so mid-season, to get some advice and avoid issues.

 

Gaps Between Timeslots The Maintenance Time setting (Attributes > Additional Options) does not apply to Timeslots. Instead, you can leave a time gap between Timeslots for turn-around or maintenance time. Simply add all the Timeslots you need using the Add a Timeslot button, including those that cover the gaps between bookings, then Remove every other Timeslot on the list. This creates breaks in between your Timeslots, for example, tours going out at 9:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM.

 

Overlapping Times If Timeslots overlap, then they share the Item's quantity among those times and are not independent.

 

Timeslot Settings enable you to customize how the Timeslots appear to your Customers within the Customer Booking Page. Access these additional settings, by opening the Timeslot Settings section.

 

Features
Booking Display		Choose whether Booking options should Display as Buttons or Dropdown menus. Check out the Timeslot Settings Preview to help you decide which is best for your needs.
Show End Times		Show (or hide) End Times by adjusting the slider button to ON or OFF. Check out the Timeslot Settings Preview to see how this setting controls the booking option display.
Show Unavailable Slots		Show (or hide) Unavailable Slots by adjusting the slider button to ON or OFF. Unavailable Timeslots display in grey with strikethrough text.
Timeslot Settings Preview		Preview how your Timeslots would display on your Customer Booking Page as you test Timeslot Settings.

 

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Choose who can view the Item - Everyone, Staff Only or In Packages Only.

• Everyone - visible to both Staff and Customers.
• Staff Only - only visible and bookable internally.
• In Packages Only - only visible when part of a package.

 

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For those on a plan that includes Documents/Waivers, the following settings display.

 

Click on the +Add Document button to associate an existing Document/Waiver Template with your Item. 

 

This opens the Add Document/Waiver. From here you can choose which Template to add, the Due Date for when the Document/Waiver needs to be completed, and any Reminder Schedule to apply.

 

Learn more about configuring Waivers & Documents here... Waivers & Documents: Introduction

 

 

This overrides the system default Configuration (Manage > Setup > Configuration > Allocation). Learn more here... Setup: Configuration

 

 

Clicking on the Delete button does not remove the Document/Waiver entirely, but removes the association between the Document/Waiver and the Item. Any existing Booking Invoices retain the links to with the Document/Waiver and information provided intact and accessible, but the Document/Waiver would not be attached to any further Item bookings.

 

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