The idea
A request, not a booking.
Some rooms need a person to say yes before anyone has them: the main hall on a Saturday night, a room with a licence to think about, a space the caretaker has to set out. Approvals is how a member asks for one of those. It takes three things at once: the switch on Booking rules, the room marked Requires approval, and a booker who is not running the diary. Everything else confirms the moment it is booked, which is how most rooms in most buildings should work.
Who waits, and who does not
Approvals are off unless an admin turns on Allow room approvals in Settings, then Booking rules, and even then only rooms marked Requires approval ask. The owner and full admins never wait for approval, whether they book for themselves or for someone else, and neither does a guest hire, which only they can take. (A priced booking they make for someone else can still wait for that member to accept it, if your organisation asks members to accept; that is on Regular bookings.) A finance admin books like a member and waits like one; so does a team booker booking for a colleague. A regular booking asks once: if any room in the series needs approval, every session in it waits together.
For example
The committee marks the main hall Requires approval and leaves the committee room alone. The yoga teacher's request for the hall on Tuesday evening waits for the booking secretary; her committee room booking for the same evening confirms on the spot.
Leave it alone if
Every room can be booked without anyone checking first. Leave the switch off; the room flags do nothing without it.
What waiting means
A request shows as Awaiting approval in the member’s bookings and in amber in the diary. It does not hold the room. Until someone approves it, another member can book the same time and that booking confirms, because first confirmed is first served. It does hold the member: while it waits, a second booking of theirs that would clash with it is refused, exactly as if it were confirmed. It uses none of a membership plan’s allowance until it is approved, and the member can cancel it themselves whenever they like.
For example
A counsellor requests Room 1 for Thursday at ten. Before the practice manager gets to it, a colleague books Room 1 at ten, and that booking confirms at once. When the manager approves the request, I find the room taken, turn the request down and tell the counsellor, who books Room 2 instead.
Leave it alone if
Two people rarely want the same room at the same time, as in a building with a room for each group. Then a request is almost never overtaken.
Approving, and turning a request down
Only the owner and full admins answer requests. Approvals, in the admin sidebar on a computer and on the admin home on a phone, carries a count of what is waiting and lists it, a series as one row with its number of dates. You can add a note, which the member reads on their booking. Approving checks, in the same moment, that the room is still free, that any extras on it are still available and that the room is still on the member’s rate card. For a series, every date still free confirms and the rest are turned down, with one note to the member.
Two things stop an approval without turning the request down. If the room is no longer on the member’s card, the request stays waiting until you put it back or turn the request down. If you have put the member on hold, you can turn the request down but not approve it. The member hears the answer inside Doris either way. Every request, a single booking or a whole series, also puts one note in the admins’ notifications.
For example
A member asks for the podcast booth every Friday for a month. The manager approves the series. Three Fridays are still free and confirm; the fourth was taken by a one-off booking yesterday and is turned down, and the member gets one note that says so.
Leave it alone if
You never need to say why. The note is optional, and most approvals need none.
When nobody answers
A request cannot wait past its own date. Overnight after its date has gone by, I cancel it. For a series, the first date that passes unanswered cancels every session still waiting, because a half approved series is not what anyone asked for. The member gets one note saying the request was not answered in time, one for a whole series. That is a poor way to hear no, so answer requests, even when the answer is no.
For example
A request for the Saturday jumble sale sits unanswered all Saturday. By Sunday morning it has gone from the diary and from the member's bookings, and the member has a note saying nobody answered in time.
Leave it alone if
Someone looks at Approvals every day. Then nothing reaches its date unanswered, and this never happens.
Switching approvals off
Turning the switch off on Booking rules, or taking Requires approval off a room, changes new bookings only: from then on they confirm at once. Requests already waiting stay waiting. Approve them, turn them down, or they cancel on their date as before.
For example
The practice stops using approvals over the summer. Two requests made the week before are still in Approvals, and the manager answers both before the holidays.
Leave it alone if
Only one room should stop asking. Take Requires approval off that room and leave the switch on for the rest.
What I never do
- I never make the owner or a full admin wait for approval, and never a guest hire.
- I never confirm a request over a booking that got there first. Approving checks the room again.
- I never approve a request for a member you have put on hold.
- I never count a waiting request against a membership plan.
- I never confirm waiting requests because you switched approvals off.
Where it lives
Settings, then Booking rules, carries the Allow room approvals switch under the Approvals row; Settings, then Resources, carries Requires approval on each room. Requests are answered from Approvals. Approvals works on every plan, including Diary. The rows and their defaults are on Booking rules (bookwithdoris.com/guides/settings-booking-rules); who counts as a full admin, a finance admin or a team booker is on Roles and what each can do (bookwithdoris.com/guides/roles).