How to manage conference rooms to avoid double-booking

Having multiple conference rooms for booking job locations can be challenging to manage.  If you create each conference room as a Location, then you will not know which conference rooms are already booked when you are scheduling a job.

Instead, create each conference room as a Resource, so that RB8 tracks them on its resource schedule to determine what is available.

Note

Before you can set up conference rooms as resources, go to Tools > Code Manager > Resources > Type. Check if “Conference Room” is listed.  If not, then create it here (see “Adding drop-down entries” in the RB8 User Guide for instructions).

Setting up conference rooms as resources

After adding Conference Room as a resource type, set up each conference room you use as a resource, not a location.

  1. On the menu bar in RB8, click Setup > Resources.
  2. Click Actions (or right-click on the grid), then choose New.
  3. In the New Resource window, the General tab is automatically selected. In addition to entering required information, select Conference Room in the Resource Type drop-down.
    Resource Type
  4. Click the Pay Info tab.
  5. Check Do not pay this resource,  if this is your own conference room. Otherwise, if this is a room you rent from a third party, leave this unchecked and enter payment information (see “Setting up resources” in the RB8 User Guide for instructions).
  6. Click Save.
    Do Not Pay Resource

Scheduling conference rooms

With your conference rooms set up as resources, you can schedule them like resources, except you must first select the conference room as the location, then you can assign the room as the resource. Assigning rooms as resources is where RB8’s resource scheduling capability comes into play.
  1. When booking a job in RB8’s Calendar Manager, select Resource in Lookup From on the Location tab.
    Location Lookup
  2. In the Lookup Resource window’s Search Criteria, select Conference Room as the Resource Type and click Search.
  3. Select the conference room.
  4. Enter other info as needed and click Save.
  5. Click the Resources tab that appears and under Assigned Resources, click Assign Resources.
  6. In the Assign Resources window, select Conference Room as the Resource Type and click Search.
  7. Check the conference room’s Assign box.
  8. Click Save and Close.
    Assigned Resources
Important
  • Selecting a conference room as a location is not enough. You want to make sure you do not double-book a room. If a conference room is assigned as a resource to a different job at the same time, then the room will not appear in the Assign Resources window.
  • Using Assign Resources sends the conference room location a confirmation email if they have one.
  • Under Calendar > Resource Availability, you can look at the current or future dates to see which rooms you’ve booked and/or have available.
    Resource Availability

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