🌎 Overview
When setting up your account, you'll need to assign resources (aka bookable calendars) or resource groups to the services they will deliver.
There are different rules that you can apply to make sure the correct resource(s) are assigned to your services. Then, you can further adjust the way you wish to present the resource selection to the customers during the booking flow.
🎡 How are resources chosen to take a booking?
Once all the required rules have been applied to your account settings, the bookings will be allocated to the assigned resources.
If there are several available resources to choose from and no specific resource is selected, then the system will allocate a resource randomly.
This means that it's possible that the first several bookings will be assigned to a specific resource even though the other recourses may also have the same availability.
📚 Resource allocation types on service settings
When you set up new services or adjust existing service under Setup > Manage services, you can select the type of resource allocation that suits your business and/or the particular service the best.
There are three options to choose from:
Any assigned available resource
All assigned available resources
One available resource from all assigned resource groups.
Any assigned available resource
If this resource allocation type is selected, the system will randomly assign the booking to one of the available resources that are assigned to this service.
Under resources, you are able to select the particular resource(s) who are able to carry out this service. Here you can search for the name of your resources and can also select show selected to see only the resources that you have assigned to this service.
2. All assigned available resources
This resource allocation type allows you to set up the service to only be bookable when all of the assigned resources are available. Your customers will only see available times in the booking flow when all assigned resources are available to take this booking.
As such, this allocation type allows you to have multiple resources on a single booking - this will be useful when you need more than one resource to carry out a service.
In the example below, the booking that was created with all resources assigned rule where both Anne and Elizabeth had to be booked at once. The booking will appear in each resource's Appointedd calendar and if calendar sync is in place, the booking will also sync to the external calendars.
3. One resource from all assigned resource groups
This resource allocation type allows you to set up a service where at least one resource from each resource group assigned would need to be available in order to make a booking.
In the example below, the booking that was created with one resource from all assigned resource groups rule. It will appear in each resource's Appointedd calendar from an assigned group - if calendar sync is in place, the booking will also sync to the external calendars.
In the agenda view, you can filter by resource groups to see the bookings belonging to the resources who are assigned to these groups. Here you can also search for the name of your resource groups and can also select show selected to see only the resource groups that you have assigned to this service.
🔖 How to assign a resource to multiple services
You can assign resources to services via two routes:
Via service settings - you'll be able to tick multiple resources to assign to that specific service. Head to the Setup tab -> Manage services -> Edit or Create new -> Availability section -> Resources.
Via resource settings - you'll be able to tick multiple services to assign to that specific resource. Head to the Setup tab -> Manage resources -> Edit resource or Create new -> Assign services:
👀 How can customers select resources on the booking flow?
It's completely up to the business to decide whether you wish to allow your customers to specify which resource they'd like to book or whether you wish the system to allocate one for them randomly.
If you'd rather show the resource selection step on the booking flow, you'll need to set up your account accordingly.
At first, to set it up on the account, head to the Booking tools tab -> Customise your booking flow -> Service and resource selection section. Adjust the toggles as required:
If you are using Appointedd widgets to take bookings, you can further narrow down the settings on a per widget basis. Head to the Booking tools tab -> manage booking widgets -> Widgets 2.0 and either click to edit an existing widget or create a new one.
In the widget settings you will be able to limit this widget to specific resources or resources groups (available only for single account widgets) and dictate how a resource can be chosen on the booking flow.
Please note: A resource selection step will not appear in those cases where multiple resources are assigned to one booking (resource allocation rule 2 and rule 3 from here).
⭐️ Nuances to be aware of
External calendar: If the booking or buffer that is synced to an external calendar is moved for one of the assigned resources via the external calendar, the system will reject the update the same way it would when moving a booking over another one. The booking will move back to its original place in the external calendar.
External calendar: Attempting to cancel a synced calendar event for a multiple resource booking or a buffer via the external calendar will result in the change being rejected and the calendar event being recreated in its previous position.
Appointedd screen: You cannot change the resource(s) of a multiple resource booking by dragging the booking across to another resource in the daily view, attempting to do so will cause the change to be rejected with an expected error.
Resource selection on the booking flow: Customers will not see a resource selection step in those cases where multiple resources are assigned to one booking (resource allocation rule 2 and rule 3 from here).