---
title: "Entering a booking on the board"
url: https://tourcockpit.com/help/board-booking-entry
lang: en
description: "New bookings are typed straight into the day, inside the tour they belong to: open the row, fill it left to right, press Enter. The row stays open for the next one, which is how a morning of phone calls becomes a manifest."
---

# Entering a booking on the board

New bookings are typed straight into the day, inside the tour they belong to: open the row, fill it left to right, press Enter. The row stays open for the next one, which is how a morning of phone calls becomes a manifest.

## How do I add a booking?

1. Press + Add booking at the foot of the tour block. A form row opens under the manifest, and its first line across the top is REF, Staff, Add and Esc, with the cursor already in the guest Name field below them.
2. Fill in the fields; every one is explained below. Two of them have to be filled before the row saves, the hotel and the Language; a cash booking also needs the figure the driver collects. The pickup time usually writes itself.
3. Press Enter anywhere in the row, or the Add button, to save. The booking appears in the manifest and the row stays open, empty, ready for the next guest. Add never moves while you type: the lines that arrive once the hotel is recognised land below it, and a refused save says why on a line just underneath, so the button is still where your finger was going.
4. Press Esc when you are done, or to throw away a half-typed row.

On a phone or tablet the same button opens a full-screen form with the same fields instead of an inline row, headed by the tour's name with the day under it, because the sheet covers the board's own date.

## Why does the pickup time fill itself?

Start typing the hotel. The moment it is recognised, the Pickup field fills in with that tour's time for the hotel's zone. It only ever fills an empty field: a time you picked or typed yourself is never overwritten, and you can always choose a different one, including a time that is not on the preset list. The exception is the box described below, which you tick on purpose to hand your time to the grid.

When nothing fills in, the chain is broken somewhere: that tour's cell for the hotel's zone is Not set or No stop in the pickup grid. The field simply stays empty and the office sets the time by hand. On a Not set cell, a manager who types one is offered a box under the field, Use 09:15 for every future NORTE desde norte pickup from Esquinzo. It starts unticked, so the time stays on this booking alone; ticked, the save answers that empty cell for every future booking from the zone, puts the time on the company's list if it is not there yet, and this booking follows the grid from then on. Another manager answering the cell first stops the save and the form says what the grid holds now. On a No stop, a box opens the moment the hotel is chosen, naming the tour and the zone, and it has to be dismissed; the hotel stays chosen and the booking can still be taken. It speaks once for that hotel and departure, and not at all when the booking already carries a pickup time. Opening a booking that already has that hotel is quiet, because looking at a booking is not choosing its hotel; change the hotel or the departure, or pick the same hotel back, and the box opens. The line under the field stays underneath as the standing record: This tour does not collect from this hotel's zone. The office will arrange the pickup. How the whole chain works, and how to set it up, is on the Zones, hotels and pickup times page.

A booking is only saved with a hotel that is on the list. Type one that is not, and saving is refused with the closest names on the list, in case it is one of them spelt another way. A booking that already stands on a hotel you have since retired is the one exception: it keeps that hotel, so editing it changes what you meant to change and nothing else. If it really is a new hotel, you do not have to leave the row. The dropdown's last line reads Add "…" with what you typed: it opens a small box asking for the name and the zone, creates the hotel, and selects it. The pickup time then fills in as it would for any other hotel, and the booking is linked from its first save. The zone is what makes that work and it is not optional: the box will not take the hotel until one is picked, so if you do not know the zone, ask before you add it.

## How do I enter the party?

AD, CH and INF count adults, children and infants. The live Total under them shows what the party costs at the price that tour charges from the hotel's zone, so it settles once the hotel is in and follows you if you change it. Infants ride free but still take a seat on the van, so six adults and two infants fill an eight-seat tour. On a tour sold by the vehicle the Total is the vehicle's own price for a party that size, charged once however many are in it, and the hotel's zone does not move it.

A tour marked Adults only takes no children and no infants: their boxes are off on its row and its booking sheet, and a booking that still has one is refused with This tour is for adults only: no children or infants. A child on a tour that has no child price is refused at save with This tour has no child price. Set the price on the tour, or book the seat as an adult. A tour sold by the vehicle is the exception: it has no fares at all, so children are never refused on it and only count towards the size of the party. What it refuses instead is a party too big for the vehicle, and the refusal names the largest party that vehicle is sold for, so you know at once whether a second van is the answer.

## How do I ask for a child seat?

The Seat control lists the company's child-seat codes: S is a silla, a child car seat, E an elevador, a booster, and combinations like S1+E1 mean one of each. The open list shows each code with its full description in your language, and the manifest shows the code alone to stay narrow; rest on it to read the description again.

The codes and their descriptions are managed on the Reference Data screen, so the office can add its own and retire old ones without touching past bookings.

## What does the language field do?

Language is required: every booking says what its guests speak, because the guide has to speak it and the manifest prints it. The field starts on Pick one and never guesses; the booking will not save until a language is chosen. It shows as a flag on the manifest row. The office always sees the company's whole language list, but a booking goes only on a tour whose guide speaks its language: the guide on that tour, or any guide of a tour linked to it. Pick a language no guide there speaks and a note appears under the field: No guide on this tour speaks this language: it cannot be booked here. Saving is then refused, naming the guide. Book it on another tour, or assign a guide who speaks it first. A tour with no guide yet takes any language. A second warning, for example 3 languages on this departure, appears when the language you pick would put more than two languages on the departure, whoever the guide is.

The guide's language is a rule for everyone, the office included: nobody can book past it. The third language is only advice for the office, which can still book it. Tour operators in the portal are held to both: a desk can book only a language the day's guide speaks, and never a third language on one departure, where it is shown the office's number instead.

## How do I record how they pay?

- CASH: the guest pays the driver on board. The € driver collects field appears next to it and is required: type the figure the driver has to collect, which is the part of the price that was not already paid at the desk. It shows in the manifest's CASH column and in the block's TOT row, on the block's card on a phone, and on the day you share with the driver, so the guide reads the same figure wherever they look.
- TKT: a prepaid voucher. The manifest's CASH column reads TKT, nothing to collect.
- PREPAID: paid through the tour operator. The column stays empty, which is itself the answer: nothing changes hands on the van.
- Free, managers only: the guest takes a seat and pays nothing, for example a new rep learning the tour or a group's team leader. The seat counts against the seats left like any other, the form's Total reads zero as soon as Free is chosen, the amount is zero on the day's totals and every export, and the manifest's CASH column says Free so the guide knows it was meant. Only a manager can make a seat free or charge for one that was.

Nothing works the figure out for you: only the person taking the booking knows how much was already paid, so it is typed by hand every time. It can equal what the booking is worth, when nothing was paid at the desk, but never be more: a higher figure is refused, with both amounts shown. New rows start on PREPAID. An amount on a non-cash booking is refused, exactly like a cash booking without one, so the column can be trusted to the cent. The figure has to be more than nothing, which is why CASH is not offered at all on a tour that costs nothing.

## What are T.O., REF and Staff?

- T.O. records the tour operator that sold the seat, picked from the company's operator list. It shows on the manifest and drives the month-end commission settlement, so a reseller booking should always carry it.
- REF records who referred the booking, free text with suggestions: a colleague's name, @ for an online booking, or Reception.
- Staff is filled in for you: the initials of whoever is signed in, recorded automatically on every booking so the sheet always says who took it.

## What happens when the tour is full?

Capacity is checked at save, against the van's real seats. A booking that does not fit is refused with the exact count, and nothing is written: This tour is full (8/8). when no seat is left, and Not enough seats: 3 asked, 2 left. when the party is bigger than what is left. There is no override: the way to take the guests is to move a booking elsewhere, put on a bigger van, or open a second departure.

A tour sold by the vehicle is answered before the seats are. Once one party has booked it, a second booking is refused however many seats are empty: This private tour is already booked. The vehicle goes to that group alone. There is no override for that one either.

Cancelled bookings free their seats immediately. A block can still end up over capacity sideways, by swapping to a smaller van; the occupancy pill turns red and the block shows a warning until the day fits again.

## Where do notes go?

- Note for the office and the guide: the guest's own request, wheelchair at pickup, front seats, an allergy. Anyone who can book can write it, and it shows under the manifest in Guest notes.
- Note (office only): a manager's internal note on a booking. It shows in italics under the guest's name on the office board and never reaches operators.
- Day note: one banner for the whole day, road closed, fiesta, written by a manager above the blocks with + Add day note. It prints on the program.

Both booking notes are on the row's own line when you edit a booking on a desktop, and in the sheet on a phone. Only a manager changes the office note, and it never reaches an operator.