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 two views — Week and List — 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;
• 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 from 08:00 to 19:00. 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. 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.

Each day header shows the day's load as a percentage, based on the mechanics on shift. 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.

Capacity and opening hours#

CrankPal doesn't take bookings blindly: availability is worked out from just two 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.

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 outside your hours or in a full slot, saving is refused with the reason: slot full with the exact time, or outside opening hours. This applies both when creating a booking and when dragging one in the calendar.

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

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.

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.

Common problems#

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