Admin Help | Equestrian Systems Booking System
Last updated: Nov 2024
Common Customer Questions - Please see the customer help page to see a list of common questions.
How do I add a user on their behalf?
If you navigate to your User Manager you can select "Add User" at the top. If the user wishes to be able to log in to their account then please provide their email address - the user will be sent an email allowing them to set their password and then they will be able to login.
If the user do not want to be able to log in to their account then leave the email address blank, a placeholder account will be generated allowing you to complete the details but without a login.
Please ensure to complete the users details and press save if creating a placeholder account.
How do I customise the Booking Manager?
The Booking Manager can be highly customised. You can set the default settings from the Configuration page. Each user's personal customisations will be saved for them until they next log out.
The two drop down boxes at the top allow you to select how the schedule view is displayed. The box on the left allows you to chose whether riders and or horses are shown for each booking.
The box on the right allows you to select how the slots are split. The no split view is the simplest and just shows the slots in time order in one column. The other options split the catagories into their own columns and align them with the time scale on the left.
Tip: if you have multiple columns on your schedule view and need to scroll horizontally on Windows you can use Shift+Scroll, some devices support swiping with two fingers. You can also enable or disable drag to scroll in the Customise View options.
The settings button at the top right of the Booking Manager allows you to customise the time scale and sizes further. Have a look at some of the other help entries on this page for checking deleted slots, using the select tool and more.
How do I copy slots?
You can copy a selection of slots or all slots directly from the booking manager.
To copy a selection of slots select the pointing finger icon at the top of the booking manager. This will activate selection mode where you can then select all slots you wish to copy. If you then select the copy tools option you can chose which week(s) and day of the week to copy to.
To copy all slots select the copy tools option; you can then chose which week(s) and day of the week to copy to.
How do I edit a large number of slots quickly?
There are two ways to make bulk edits; 1) Using the selection checkboxes or 2) Using the find and replace tool.
1) If you navigate to your Booking Manager you can select the pointing finger icon at the top to enter select mode. If you select each of the slots you wish to edit, you can then edit the slots using the Bulk Edit tool.
After selecting the slots, click the "Edit" button towards the top of the screen. A modal pop-up will show with a set of inputs similar to the Edit Booking view. Simply fill in any values you wish to change. Leave the other inputs empty. The values you fill in will be set on all of the selected slots. The values you leave blank will be left as their original values.
For example, say you wanted to change an instructor from Adam to Ben (but not change any of the slot prices) you would do the following: 1) Select all of Adam's slots. 2) Click Edit. 3) Set the Instructor to Ben. 4) Press Edit Selected. The instructor will be updated but none of the other information about the slots will be changed.
2) If you want to make a change over several weeks you can now use the new find an replace tool. Don't worry about selecting any slots, simply click the "Edit" option at the top of the Booking Manager. Enter the values you wish to change on the first pop-up and then click "Find and Replace". On the second pop-up enter all the values you wish to search for and the weeks you wish to apply this to; for example if you want to change all Jump lessons with Instructor 'Amy' to 'Ben' you would: enter 'Ben' on the first pop-up; enter 'Amy' and 'Jump Lesson' on the second pop-up. You will get a confirmation of how many slots will be edited before any actions are performed.
Please be careful using this tool as it has the potential to change many slots if configured incorrectly. Always test with a small sample first and contact us if you have any queries.
How does the report generator work?
The report generator lets you generate income reports for the selected days. If you enter an instructor then only slots assigned to that instructor will be included in the output. Likewise if you select any statuses, only riders which match the status will be included.
The report generator works by summing up the amount paid by riders for each slot. This includes any amount paid for extras such as hat hire. If a rider is rejected from a slot, the amount they paid will still be used in calculations unless you filter based on status. Refunding a rider also has no effect on the report values by default.
The reason the generator works like this is because in almost all cases you are interested in how much money your business accrued on the selected days. Even if a rider is rejected and refunded as credit, the amount paid to the company remains the same. The company now owes the credited value in services. Please note this does then mean if a rider was to purchase an additional slot with the refunded credit then the income is counted twice. For this reason you may want to consider just using the Online total as the incoming amount or filtering to only show Approved riders.
The report generator may also include a total amount for basket discounts which were applied. As basket discounts are applied to the final basket, and not per booking, these are not included in the per-booking breakdown. The discount is in essence ignored from the totals in the selected days. It is up to you to decide how to include the discounted amount in your reporting.
If you have any questions or would like modifications to your report generator please get in touch.
How does block booking work?
At the time of writing block booking had just been introduced; if this information looks out of date please let us know and we will write a new guide.
Block booking requires a rider group limitation to be set. Rider groups can be created on the Rider Groups page - simply create a group and assign riders to it. Once you have a rider group with a set of riders in it, you can limit slots so only riders from the selected group can book.
Block booking takes this a step further by requiring suitable riders from the selected group to book the slot as part of a block booking series. The available series lengths can be configured globally - please see the configuration page for the available values on your system.
The system will automatically require the rider to book the selected series length in one go. Only administrators can choose to skip or cancel block booking slots.
The system finds the corresponding slots by looking for other slots marked as block booking with the same rider group restriction. These slots do not need to be at the same time or same day of the week. The system will allow a maximum of one missing week per series whilst searching.
How do Stripe Payouts work?
Stripe will hold your earnings for a period of time before paying them out (minus transaction fees). This holding period is in place for fraud and dispute protection amongst other reasons.
Your payout period will usually be 3 or 7 days. If you have recently set up your system this holding period may be slightly longer than usual whilst Stripe calculates the risk associated with your payments and your business; if this is the case then after a few weeks it should reduce to 3 or 7 days based on your settings.
You can see your payout schedule and adjust the settings from your Stripe dashboard. You can also see a list of all payments as well as options for accounting, refunding etc.
Stripe payout help. Stripe fees.
How does GoCardless work?
GoCardless is a payment processor that allows you to collect payments directly from customers' bank accounts without using credit or debit cards. The flow works as follows:
- Payment Initiation: Customers select instant bank transfer at checkout.
- Bank Selection: They choose their bank and log in to their online banking.
- Authorisation: Customers authorise the payment.
- Confirmation: Payment is instantly transferred and confirmed.
The GoCardless help centre is available here: GoCardless Help
How do Tokens work?
Tokens can be redeemed for suitable bookings directly from the basket. Suitable items will show an "Apply Token" option in the basket - the token will cover the cost of the individual booking it is redeemed against.
Tokens are stored per profile and can be restricted to any combination of the following:
- Discipline
- Group type
- Slot length
- Day of week
Tokens have an expiry date and Admins can chose whether the booking it is redeemed against has to be before the expiry date.
Admins can manage tokens from the new Token Manager page (link available on the admin page). Admins can view, add or remove tokens for a rider from their profile. The system logs how tokens are used.
If a booking purchased with a token is refunded then the rider will be refunded with a token identical to the one used. The expiry date remains the same and hence may have expired.
How can I Discount Riders?
You can provide discounts to specific riders by using Rider Groups. Simply create a group, assign a discount and then allocate riders to said group.
You can also limit booking slots to members of a rider groups if you want to limit who can see and book those slots.
Riders can exist in multiple rider groups should you wish. By default the system will apply the best discount when a rider exists in multiple rider groups; if you would like the system to combine all rider group discounts you can enable this from the system configuration page.
Our systems also support credit and basket discounts too. Basket discounts allow you to apply a discount to customers baskets based on what they are booking - for example you may offer £10 off when booking 5 or more flat lessons.
Credit discounts give customers bonus credit when they top up online. For example top up £100 and get £5 in bonus credit. Please be aware that refunding credit or individual lessons may lead to the user gaining profit if discounts are not accounted for.
How do I add multiple-booking discounts?
We support basket discounts on our systems - these allow you to specify rules for when discounts can be applied.
These discounts are applied to all riders who meet the requirements - if you wish to apply discounts to specific riders then please use Rider Group Discounts.
There is a global option on the System configuration page which allows you to set whether you want multiple basket discounts to be applied per basket (if suitable) or only one discount. If you you offer overlapping discounts you may want to switch off multiple discounts - for example say you offer a 3x flat lesson discount and 6x flat lesson discount - if a rider books 6 flat lessons both the 3x and 6x would be applied.
How can I Print the Daily Timetable?
If you would prefer to print the daily timetable, rather than use the Booking Manager or Live Timetable view, then use the Timetable Viewer.
You can leave the Instructor and Discipline filters off to see everything going on in a given day. This view is similar to what your instructors can see.
Press the print option in your browser to see the condensed printer friendly view. If you wish to print it in the same view as the regular view you can turn off the responsive display in the setup settings.
I can't find a rider profile?
If a rider is not visible in the User Manager then that means their riding profile is not complete or is hidden. This can happen if a rider fails to save their profile information. Some riders think the initial registration form which asks for a name and email is the rider profile.
Please ask the rider to go to the Profile page on your system and complete their profile. Likewise if an admin has hidden a profile then the rider must re-save their profile for it to be added back to the user manager search.
You can find out more information about an account using the account status button on the booking manager; this will let you see the profiles and email verification status for the account. You can create a new profile or override the email verification status from this page.
How can I hide, archive or delete an account or profile?
If you would like to fully delete a rider's account for GDPR purposes you can use the "Delete account" button from any of their profiles. This will permanently delete their login details and remove all personal information from their profile(s). The booking history for the account will be kept but the personal information associated with the bookings will be removed. This cannot be undone. A warning will be shown if any of the profiles have been linked to incidents stored on the system.
If you would like to hide a profile from the user search but leave the account active then open the profile as an administrator and select "Hide profile". This will prevent the profile from showing in the user search. If the profile is updated then it will be re-added to the user search. See the help for finding profiles which have been hidden.
If you would like to archive a profile so it no longer shows for the customer or on other tools on the system use the "Archive Profile" button. The booking history for the profile will be kept.
How do I change a riders email address?
Riders can change their own email address from their profile. In the case where they are not able to login to change this, an administrator can change the account email address from the User Manager using the account status tool.
How do I add or change the rider levels or other system configuration settings like age ranges and declarations.
Some system settings such as rider levels, legal declarations and cut off timings can only be changed by contacting us. Please drop us an email and we will get these settings updated for you as quickly as possible.
Most settings such as dashboard notifications, age ranges, instructors, admins, disciplines, credit discounts, templates and booking extras can be adjusted by visiting the admin panel and opening the relevant page. If you need a hand with any of your system settings please let us know.
How does the rider check-in tool work?.
The rider check-in tool allows riders to mark when they have arrived on site. Admins can then see the check-in history to check when riders arrive on site.
Currently the check-in tool does not link to bookings, it is simply a log. We recommend using the check-in tool with a lock down application so users can only see the check-in page.
What do the colours on the horse due report mean?
The calendar icon next to each horse lets you know if anything is overdue or coming up. You can see a break down of what is due using the due report button.
Red means the date has passed so is overdue. Yellow is coming up in 28 days. Green is the future.
How do gift vouchers work?
Clients can purchase gift vouchers online via a card payment - this will email them a voucher with a unique code. This code can be redeemed by any verified account for online credit. Gift vouchers have an automatic expiry time which is configurable system wide - it defaults to one year.
As an administrator you can create gift vouchers from the gift voucher page. This will generate a unique code for the value you select. You can then chose how to send this code on to the purchasing user.
Administrators can also see all active gift vouchers - if you wish to cancel a voucher simply redeem it on your own account.
The gift voucher purchase and redemption history is available to administrators by opening the purchasing users account. Gift voucher redemption history can also be seen on the redeeming users account. You can find an account by user id using the find account tool on the user manager.
How does auto horse allocation work?
Automatic horse allocation is a new feature which is available to a limited number of systems. As of 1st Sept 2022 the following caveats apply:
If a rider already has a horse allocated for a booking then the auto-allocation tool will leave that allocation as it was.
The tool will generate a list of allocations and ask you to confirm before you save (i.e. you can check what will happen before it happens).
There is no undo button but you can click onto any booking and change the allocated horse (as you can do normally) if you wish to amend any allocations.
The system will try and find the optimum horse for each rider but may fail to find a horse for some riders as it does not try every possible combination (only the best combination). This shouldn't happen very often (if at all) but if you get a failed allocation you may need to jig things about manually. The tool will still save the ok allocations if you wish.
The system will start keeping track of how many times each rider is allocated each horse from now onwards.
How do the note options differ?
Our systems have the option to store notes on various pages and each are designed for different uses.
Profile private notes: Administrators can leave private notes on rider profiles. These notes are only visible to other administrators and to instructors; they are not visible to the rider.
Profile allocation notes: Administrators can set allocation notes on rider profiles. These notes are only visible to other administrators and are shown when allocating a horse to the rider. These notes are not visible to the rider.
Slot public notes: The public notes saved on a slot by an administrator are visible to all staff and to all riders.
Slot private notes: The private notes saved on a slot by an administrator are visible to all staff but are not visible to riders.
Admin notes for a booking: Administrators can leave notes on any rider booking by selecting the "notes" down down next to a riders booking on the booking manager. These notes are only visible to staff and not to the rider.
Customer booking notes: If you enable "Allow customers to provide notes when booking online." option from your system settings then customers can leave notes when making a booking. These will be shown next to the booking on the booking manager.
There are settings for the booking manager, timetable generator and instructor views to show or hide the different types of notes.
How does horse availability work?
You can mark horses as unavailable from the Horse Manager. You must save the availability for a given day for the availability to be accounted for on the horse allocation tools. The availability manager will be red if the changed are unsaved for the selected day.
You can set the default availability for a horse from its profile; this will set the default on the availability tool but you must still save the given day for the availability to be applied.
How do I rebook a rider?
If a rider has cancelled a booking, or a booking has been rejected, that rider is unable to book themselves back into that slot. We do this to prevent the rider from accidentally re-booking a slot which is unsuitable. If you wish to re-booking a rider into a slot simply re-approve them; This will re-instate the booking and inform the rider.
How do Subscriptions work?
We support automated rider group subscriptions on our systems. These allow your customers to subscribe to the rider groups you set and pay a monthly fee. Customers can cancel and amend their subscription payment method from their profile.
Subscriptions are not enabled on systems by default - please contact us if you would like them enabled as we will need to configure some options in Stripe.
Please note: when a customer cancels their subscription they will remain in the rider group until the subscription expires; for example if they still have 5 days left on their subscription they will remain in the group for 5 days. Bookings which have been made to rider group limited slots will NOT be removed once a subscription has expired.
How does pay on arrival work?
Version 4.1.x added an option to specify whether customers can pay on arrival on a per slot basis. Prior to this option being added, pay on arrival could only be set globally and allowed customers to take their credit negative when purchasing any booking(s). With the introduction of this new option we would recommend turning off the global option to allow negative credit.
With the new option; if a customer has suitable bookings in their basket they will be presented with an additional "Pay on Arrival" button. Customers will only be presented with "Pay on Arrival" if: a) all slots in their basket are marked as "available for pay on arrival". b) the customer does not already have sufficient credit on their account to pay for the bookings.
If a customer uses the pay on arrival option then their account credit will be deducted the full amount (which will take them negative). The booking will be marked as "Pending Payment" and this will show on the booking manager, live view, timetable generator and customers dashboard. When a customer pays you can approve the booking to change the status from "pending payment" to "approved".
A full log of all payments is available under the credit logs when viewing a profile. The credit report tool can be used to find customers with a negative balance.
How do you manage staff, instructors and add or remove permissions?
You can manage staff from the Staff Manager. From here you can see all of the staff accounts on the system, access staff records and set permissions. You also use the staff manager to create instructors on your system.
To add a new staff member to your system use the Add Staff button on the Staff Manager - pop in their name and the permissions you would like them to have. Once a staff record has been added you can then use the Link Account button to grant the permissions to the staff member. They will need to register for an account before you are able to link their account.
We recommend all staff members have their own login for security and so the system can track who makes changes.
To remove a staff member simple select their profile and unlink their account or delete the record.
Only staff with "Staff Record" permissions will be able to see staff records or add or remove staff.
How are slots limited and displayed to the customer?
Customers will only see the slots which are suitable for their rider profile(s). They can chose to filter by discipline and/or rider profile should they wish.
Slot suitability is determined by the following parameters being met:
- Rider age is within the specified age range.
- Rider is approved to book and has a verified email address.
- Rider level is between the minimum and maximum level specified for the slot.
- If the slot is limited to a rider group then the rider must be in that rider group.
- If the slot is limited to block booking only then the slot must be selected as part of an available series.
- If the slot is marked as Livery only then the rider must be marked as a Livery profile.
- If the rider is marked as introductory only then the slot must be marked as suitable for introductory.
- The slot must also have a free space and must be booked before your cut off time.
- Semi private slots which already have a rider in behave differently - see the semi-private help article.
If a customer has multiple profiles and only some of their profiles meet the requirements for a booking the system will show the requirements which are not met.