Understand the Planning Period as part of the booking process and its impact on users.
This feature's availability depends on your subscription plan and role.
Definition: A Planning Period is expressed in days and represents the number of days a user has in order to create a booking before the booking itself. When assigning a "booking" access, the administrator must select a planning period.
Table of content:
- What is the purpose of a Planning Period?
- How is the Planning Period calculated?
- How can I edit the Planning Period?
1. What is the purpose of a Planning Period?
Allowing users to book months in advance can create issues impacting the availability and occupancy of your parking lot. This is because users rarely know their plans with full certainty that far ahead. If plans change, they may forget to cancel their bookings, ultimately blocking parking spots for other users. Therefore, it is useful to restrict the ability to book in advance to a shorter timeframe. This can be managed with the planning period in Izix.
2. How is the Planning Period calculated?
The planning period is counted as X days a user can book into the future - not including the current day. It is possible to set a specific activation time for the planning period. This represents the time as of which users will be able to make bookings. By default, the activation time is set to 23:59, which essentially enables users to book X days in advance the moment the time has passed.
To provide equal opportunities for all users and not favor early risers, you may want to set the activation time during the day. The activation time determines the exact moment the system identifies "tomorrow" to start counting the days of the planning period. The earlier the activation time, the more in advance a user can book.
The Planning Period is calculated as follows:
Activation Time Difference + Today + Planning Period count
Examples:
1. The planning period is set to 7 days. Today is Monday. It is 5PM. The activation time is 23:59.
--> We start counting 7 days as of tomorrow. Users will be able to book until and including the following Monday.
2. The planning period is set to 7 days. Today is Monday. It is 5PM. The activation time is 4PM.
--> The activation time extends the planning period. Users will be able to book until and including the following Tuesday.
3. The planning period is set to 1 day. Today is Monday. It is 5PM. The activation time is 23:59.
--> We start counting 1 day as of tomorrow. Users will be able to book until and including tomorrow.
4. The planning period is set to 1 day. Today is Monday. It is 5PM. The activation time is 4PM.
-->The activation time extends the planning period. Users will be able to book until and including Wednesday.
3. How can I edit the Planning Period?
The planning period is defined when the Access Policy is assigned to the user. Hence, if desired, users may be assigned the same Access Policy with different planning periods. There are two steps required to enable or adjust a (specific) planning period:
- Create the desired planning period (if using it for the first time).
- Select the desired Planning Period when assigning the Access Policy to users.
As your parking policy evolves, new planning periods may need to be defined. Once a planning period is created, it can be assigned to any Access Policy and will come into effect immediately.
a) Create or edit existing Planning Periods
In order to create a new planning period, go to the organisation console --> Settings --> Planning Periods --> Click the plus sign and confirm the new planning period:
In order to delete a specific value, you may click on the minus sign next to the specific value. In case the planning period is still in use by certain users, you may adjust the value, but it is not possible to delete the planning period:
If it is not in use, you will be able to delete it permanently.
Pro-tip: Mark the most used planning period with a star. It will be used by default in the future. You always have the possibility to adjust the default value when assigning it to a user.
b) Assigning the Planning Period to Users
You can select the desired planning period when assigning the Access Right to a user. If you are assigning Access Rights to multiple users at once, all users will receive the same planning period:
