Using Instant Book to create a Transport Sign-Up

Instant Book and Pay Events are a great option if you want to give Parents/Students the option of signing up. 

Use this option if you want parents to select events for their children themselves.

(Please note: you can control who can see which events they are able to book onto by filtering each group by Year, Grade or any other Group in the system).

This article will guide you through the process of creating an Instant Book and Pay sign up for a Transport Sign-up. To be able to use this option, your Transport Timetable Configuration for the time period Parents/Students will be signing up for must be completed first. One container needs to be created for each Time Slot you would like Parents/Students to sign-up for.

Step 1:

1. Select the Activities, Clubs & Bookings Admin on the homepage 
   
2. Select the container type Instant Book & Pay
3. Click the '+Add' button to create a new container
   
   

Step 2:

Complete the container details 

1. Sign Up Title: e.g. Early AM Bus Sign-up Term 1 24/35
2. Description: Any information that is relevant to the bus sign-up.
3. Allow booking cancellation and Block clashes can be left unticked.
4. Maximum Bookable events per group: Leave this as as 0 
5. Activities start/end dates Set these for the term dates. 
   
6. Activities start/end times: You can set this as the start and end time of the bus timetable. 
7. Responsibility for confirmation: Leave 'Parents only' highlighted green, or switch to 'Students or Parents or Students only' depending on your School’s preferences. 
8. Sign up opens: Date when sign up opens (when parents can start booking)
   Sign up closes: Date when sign up closes this is the last date you wish parents to be able to make selections for the bus service. 
9. Show select all button: this can be left unticked.
10. Use organisation block dates?: This defaults to on and will use your block dates that have been set at an organisational level.  Only untick it if the sign-up is for a holiday bus service.
11. Accept Voucher Payments: This is not relvent to this sign-up. 
12. Send New Booking Alerts: If this box is checked, staff members who have this role will be notified when a new booking is made by a parent or student from any Instant Book or Parent Evening/PTC container
13. Terms & Conditions: You can enter any terms & conditions that apply to bus journeys in this field.  
    
14. T&C's additional info (URL): If you have your school T's and C's in a PDF file, for example, you can add a link to it here.
15. Booking Data Form: This function is being used in a different way for the sign-up so this option 
16. Transport Timeslot: Select the timeslot you this container is for, in this example Morning.
17. Timetable: Select the Transport Timetable this container is for.
18. Transport Signup Title: Add the title for this sign-up, in this example 'PM Early Afternoon Bus'
19. Transport Help Text: Add any information here to help Parents/Pupils when they sign-up.
20. Click the 'Save' button on the lower right of the screen.

Step 3:

Once saved, the Container will be created and you will be taken to the page where you will be able to add groups to your container.

1. To create groups click the '+Add' buttonNext complete the fields for the group you wish to create.  The group you create will be based on eligibility for bus places and can be based on grade/year group or a specific group you have created on SchoolsBuddy. 
   
   
2. Title: Title of the Group (Parents/Students will see this)
3. Description: Description of the Group (Parents/Students will see this)
4. Available to / Pre-requisite / Un-available to:  When selected, a pop-up box will appear on the screen which determines who can sign up for the School Trip.
5. Gender: Gender of the group
6. Lead Staff Member: Which Staff Member will be the organiser of the group
7. Activity: This will not be visible to the booker but can be used for reporting purposes. Choose 1.Other.
8. Default Location: This field is not required. 
9. Group code / Billing code: use these if your school has specific codes to use for reconciliation
10. Click the green Save button to create your Group.
    
    Now the group has been created it will appear in the container Groups tab.
    
    

Step 5:

Once all your groups are set up you can add the 'event' which will create the sign-up.

1. Click on the Create Events button to schedule specific trips
2. Click on the '+Add New' button
   

Step 6:

Next add the specific details of the school trip.

1. Title: Add the appropriate title for your trip
2. Vital information:  Any vital information for this option. Please note that vital information and additional information are both visible to parents when making bookings
3. Additional information: Any further information regarding the sign-up.
   
4. Booking Options: Select Individual for one day or Block for multiple day trips
5. Number of places: This can be left as 0 as the number of seats on each journey is managed in Transport Configuration.
   

   Scroll down and continue filling in the details and when you are complete click the green Create Rule button.

6. Create for groups: Select the group you wish to create the event for
7. Location: Set to Unspecified Location
8. Event type: Select Fees Only from the drop down box. This is to ensure that the 'event' does not appear in any diaries as this process is being used for route selection only.
9. Cost Type: Set to Free. If you wish to use SchoolsBuddy to also charge for Transport, please contact help@schoolsbuddy.com for further information.
10. Frequency: Select single day 
11. Event date: Enter approx one week after the date sign-up ends in case you wish to extend the sign-up window.
12. Start Time, End Time: these can be left as displayed.
13. Select Create Rule once you have finished filling out the event details above.
    

If you leave the Sign up Opens / Closes dates blank on the event rule they default to the dates set for the container and the event start date if it is before the container's close date.

Step 7:

Now the trip has been created you will be shown a preview prior to publishing.  If you need to make any changes then click the green edit button on the right-hand side.  If you need to create multiple similar events then you can also use the blue copy button on the right-hand side below the edit button.

Step 8:

When everything is complete it will be time to publish the events.

1. Click on the Publish Events tab to be brought to the publishing screen. You will see your event listed and this gives you a chance to double-check the details before publishing. 
2. Tick the Bus Sign Up event you would like to publish
3. Tick I confirm to confirm the selected events will be published
4. Click the Publish button
5. One final confirmation box will show and you will need to click the Publish button to proceed or the Cancel button to return to the previous screen.
   

Once you click Publish the events will be generated.  This may take a couple of minutes depending on how many events there are to be published.

Once the event has been published and it is within the opening sign update, parents will be able to book the trip. You can also add pupils to the journey manually if you wish - Assigning students their Transport Methods.

If you do this before open sign-up to parents, the selections will be pre-populated allowing parents to either confirm or change the pre-selections made for their children.