With the new Calendar Dashboard, managing all your reservations is easier than ever. Monitor, adjust, and oversee bookings from a centralized, intuitive interface, giving you complete control at a glance.
The Calendar is ideal for large-scale events, conferences, and activities where reservations of timeslots are essential. For conference organizers, it allows the creation of time slots for workshops or networking sessions, seamlessly managing limited spaces but also for automotive event which can integrate test drives bookings.
Setting up a Calendar
From your event’s editing page, Activate specific dates for categories and options in Ticket > Settings to display the Calendar section in Tickets > Options.
Once that is done, a Calendar section will appear below options groups
Click on “Add calendar” to define the duration of the calendar (start date and end date, start and end time per day, and slot duration), and set the available quantity per slot. You can also set a specific color to the calendar, which will be handy in the back-end dashboard view.
After creating your calendar, you need to link your option to it. Go to your Option, edit it, and choose your calendar in the Calendar field. Once that’s done, the option time will match that of the calendar’s and its available stock will depend on the calendar.
The front-end view for customers will now display an additional “choose a timeslot”. Here is below how the view translates in the front end for the customer for our example above. You now have an additional button “choose a timeslot”. Once the attendee clicks on it the calendar will pop up.
At checkout, each booked slot will include an “Add to my calendar” link, making it simple to save the booking to your personal agenda. Consecutive slots will be grouped into a single calendar entry. For instance, booking three one-hour slots from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM on Monday will generate one calendar event. However, non-consecutive slots will create separate calendar entries for each:
Booking preferences
Improve your attendees’ booking experience with the timeslot filter—a flexible tool designed to meet diverse needs. Whether guests want to secure a specific option, like a meeting room with 10 spots, or quickly find the next available slot, this feature makes it effortless.
By enabling the filter, attendees can choose their preferred times and instantly see only the options available for those slots. Selecting multiple times ensures they’ll only view openings that align perfectly with their schedule, making the decision process faster and more convenient.
To activate this feature, you just need to ensure all calendars share the same timeframe and slot duration.
Once activated, a button to select your preferred timeslots will appear at the the top of the options table.
In the example below the guest selected his preferred timeslots on Monday 10th from 8AM to 10AM. After confirming, only the options with available slots at those times will be displayed.
Multiple options per calendar
In some cases, options need to be tied to a single resource, with the resource’s availability managed through a calendar. The calendar reflects when the resource is available, and you can link it to one or more options as needed, offering unparalleled flexibility for managing complex schedules efficiently.
For example, consider a corporate event with executive-level workshops led by a single keynote speaker. If the speaker is booked for a leadership session at 12:00 PM, they cannot simultaneously conduct a strategy session. By linking all workshop options to the same calendar, you prevent double-booking, offering a smooth solution for managing overlapping demands without any confusion.
In other cases, a resource may need to be tied to a single option. For instance, imagine a car test-drive event where each car has its own calendar. If a test drive is scheduled for Car Model A with license plate XYZ at 2:00 PM, the calendar ensures that specific car is unavailable for any other test drive at the same time. This level of control allows you to manage multiple assets with precision and ease.
Beyond this, option selection and configuration work similarly to standard options. You can group options together and set limits on the number of tickets per booking (default is 1). For example, a company hosting product demonstrations might group them by department and limit bookings to five attendees per demo.
In the example below, a movie theater grouped options by genre and restricted bookings to five tickets per session, highlighting how flexible and adaptable the calendar system is for various needs.
Exceptions
For added flexibility, you can easily make certain slots unavailable (e.g., during a lunch break) by adding exceptions to the calendar. Nvaigate to the options calendar menu in the back-end, and simply click on the calendar’s 3 dots menu in the back end and select “Edit exceptions.” This allows you to customize availability as needed—like closing slots for holidays such as Christmas—ensuring your calendar adapts to your event’s specific requirements.
Reports
To obtain an overview of the tickets selected per guest, download a report of all the attendees and the timeslots they booked by clicking on “Export calendar”.
Managing your Calendar(s)
In the attendees list view, once calendars are activated, a new display button will appear, allowing you to easily switch from the regular list view to the calendar view. This provides you with a clear, at-a-glance overview of your bookings. The bookings will appear as color-coded blocks within the calendar, with each block reflecting the color of the associated calendar, similar to how appointments are displayed in a mailbox. This makes it easier to manage and track appointments.
On top of that, you can easily switch between different subsets of bookings as the same filters for the regular list of attendees remain available.
The calendar view can be switched from a resource overview to a daily view, a weekly view, a list view, and you can also switch from one period to another with the period selector.
Upon clicking on a slot, a pop-up appears with the attendees basic information and reservation details. If you wish to edit that attendee’s reservation, you can simply click on the button to that effect.
This will take you to the back-end view for that guest, where the slots booked are shown individually under the option.
To update a slot you can click on it, and then update the quantity, option, start date and time, and end date and time (once the start date and time has been fixed).
To add a slot from an option, it’s the same process, you just cannot switch option as you would have selected it already when clicking to add in the now slot.
When adding a time slot that spans across multiple available slots, the system will automatically book all the slots in between, saving you time and ensuring that everything is neatly scheduled without any overlaps.
Additionally, as an admin, you have the flexibility to manage bookings without being limited by stock management. Even if a slot shows as "sold out," you can still overbook it, making it easier to accommodate extra attendees when needed. This added flexibility ensures you can handle high-demand situations with ease and without stress.
Summary
The calendar feature fills in the gaps where traditional event configurations might fall short, offering a versatile solution for complex scheduling needs. Whether it's linking calendars to specific resources, providing a quick overview with color-coded views, or allowing overbooking when necessary, the calendar ensures you have full control over your scheduling. For events like workshops, car test drives, or corporate meetings, this feature simplifies the management of bookings and resources, giving you the flexibility to customize and adapt to any requirement that the regular options couldn’t accommodate.