BookitLab is upgraded on 12 Nov 2023 with many changes in navigation etc. This particularly applies to project/core admin users. For more info, see this file. Guidelines must be updated continuously.
How to create a subscription?
- From the navigation menu on the left-hand side, click “SUBSCRIPTIONS” and then “Subscriptions”.
- Click “Add” button with a “+” icon on the right-top of the page.
- You will see a new page where you could fill in information about the subscription.
Note about the followings.
- SUBSCRIPTION PERIOD: you could choose from “Duration in days”, “Duration in Months” or “Custom date period”. Depending on the selected option, different fields appear.
- ENTIRE CORE check box: if you check this, all the services within the core are included.
- ONLINE SERVICES, OFFLINE SERVICES, REQUEST SERVICES: you could choose which services to include in the subscription.
How to purchase a subscription?
It is not possible for a user to purchase a subscription by him/herself. It is a core admin who can add a user as a subscriber of a subscription.
- From the navigation menu on the left-hand side, click “SUBSCRIPTIONS” and then “Core Subscribers”.
- Click “Add” button with a “+” icon on the right-top of the page.
- You will see a new page where you could fill in information about the subscription purchase.
Note that the cost can be changed manually.
Important notes about subscription
The following issues are known at the moment. Before fix is implemented by the service provider, please aware of the followings:
- Neither user or core admin receives any notification about expiration of a subscription or “soon to expire”. It is important that users are aware of the valid period of a subscription.
- When estimated charges of a project reaches its hard limit, it is no longer possible to create a booking or order even though the subscription is still valid. This is especially important to be aware of when a project has more than one user. It is therefore recommended that the project coordinator sets budget per user (in “USER LIMIT” field) as well as for the entire project (“PROJECT AMOUNT” field).
- A subscription purchase may take some time before it is recognized by the system. You need to make sure that the user could see the subscription purchase in the “Charges” (under “BILLING” menu) before a new booking or order is created, otherwise the booking may be charged.
Can a user switch to a subscription that cover costs for previous bookings?
Yes, it is possible, but it needs to be done before the previous bookings are billed. In this case, a core admin needs to add a subscriber with a period that covers the dates the previous bookings were made for. Then s/he needs to recalculate the estimated charges of the bookings from “Billing Preview” under “BILLING” on the navigation menu on the left-hand side.
Please note that then the project amount and hard limit (or user’s individual “User Limit”) is set high enough to cover the estimated costs of the already made bookings in addition to the subscription price beforehand. The project amount could be set back to lower value later.
Can assistance or trainings be charged separately?
Once an instrument is added to a subscription as an online service, all the fee types, including “Assisted reservation override” and “Training Sessions”, are covered by the subscription. If assistance needs to be charged separately (i.e., if subscription should not cover costs for staff’s working hours for assistance), the following work around can be used:
Premise
- The subscription includes only instruments that are actual/physical facilities (e.g., “Microscope A” etc.).
Alternative A. Use of offline service (“consumables”) as an option to choose upon booking
How:
- Create a new consumable “assistance” or similar.
- Set up a new price rule for this consumable so that it can charge for units multiplied by price rate (ex. Hourly price).
- Make it as an optional offline resource of the relevant instrument.
Advantages:
- Users/staff can flexibly set how many units of assistance (hours) needed to this booking.
- Possible to set the same offline service as options for multiple instruments.
Disadvantages:
- Assistant needs to be careful with their schedule and set the schedule separately.
- Unless a user clicks ?More Options?, it is not clear what the unit is.
Alternative B. Setting up assistance as an instrument
How:
- Create a new instrument “assistance” or similar and set up a new price rule for this instrument.
- Set the instruments that require assistance (e.g. microscope) as either mandatory or optional instrument of this assistance instrument.
Advantages:
- Schedule for possible assistance can be set in working hours tab.
- Assistance and the instrument can be booked simultaneously.
Disadvantages:
- If users want to continue using the object instrument without assistance, it needs to be booked separately.