How do I postpone a booking?

Learn how to postpone a Customer booking using custom statuses.

Which plans include this feature?

Legacy: Soho, Pro, Plus, Enterprise, Flex
New: Growth (Subscription), Growth (Online Booking Fee), Managed
→ Learn more about our new plans or how to change your plan.

Where can I find this feature using the top menu?

Reports > Booking Index

What more do I need to use this feature?

Admin permissions or restricted permissions to Modify Bookings.

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

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

Overview

Do you need to postpone a booking to a later date or indefinitely? The best way to do this is to create a custom status that does not lock inventory and then associate the postponed bookings with that status. This frees up the associated inventory but retains the booking and existing payments for rescheduling at a later date.

At a high level, these are the four steps involved. Detailed steps are provided below.

Create New Status
Change Status of Booking
Report on Postponed Bookings
Reschedule Bookings

Adding new statuses

Statuses

First, you will need to create a new Status.

Go to Manage and then Layout within the top menu.
Find the quick +Add button at the bottom-left of your list of statuses. Clicking +Add will open the new Status modal.
Give the status a Name that conveys its purpose, such as POSTPONED.
The Status ID field automatically populates with an abbreviated version of the name, for example, POSTP. You can edit the Status ID or leave the suggested value in place.
Finally, deselect the Lock checkbox next to the new status. This frees up any inventory associated with bookings if they are assigned this status.

Feel free to change the colour of the status if you wish!

Learn more about configuring statuses here:

Introduction to booking statuses

Changing booking statuses

Next, you need to change the status of each booking.

Go to the Reports menu at the top of the page and select Booking Index.
Find the booking you want to postpone and click on the Booking ID to edit.
From the Booking Invoice, select the Status drop-down menu. The current status might be Paid or Deposit.
From the Status menu, select your new status, for example, POSTPONED. This will free up the inventory associated with the booking immediately.

Learn more about booking details and the Booking Invoice here:

Introduction to the booking invoice

Reporting on Postponed Bookings

Booking Index Postponed When the time comes to reschedule the booking, you can find the bookings via the Booking Index.

Go to Reports > Booking Index.
Select your custom status, for example, POSTPONED, within the Status drop-down menu.
All bookings listed will be those with your custom status. You can filter or sort the records to find the bookings you would like to reschedule.

Learn more about Booking Details in the Booking Index here:

Introduction to the booking index

Rescheduling Bookings

Change Invoice

Finally, you need to reschedule the booking.

From the Booking Index (Reports > Booking Index), click on the Booking ID for the booking you want to change.
From the Booking Invoice, click Edit at the top of the page.
Next, click the Change button for the product/item you need to reschedule.
Move the booking to new dates from the Change Item modal by changing the Item or the Date.
Return to the Invoice tab and update the invoice status from POSTPONED to the appropriate status, for example, DEPOSIT or PAID. This depends on whether any amounts have changed and are still outstanding or numbers have remained unchanged.
Finally, collect payment or process a refund for any amounts owing!