Resources: booking vehicles, rooms, and equipment

Resources are the things your company shares rather than the people who use them—vehicles, tools, laptops, conference rooms, equipment. Each one has a record, a current status, a status history, and its own schedule.

Open Resources in the side menu to see the list. You can add as many resources as you need; there is no additional cost.

If the Resources menu item is missing, an Administrator has set Resources to Off for your organization, in Settings → Applications and Features. Users with the Guest role are sent back to the Dashboard if they open the Resources list.

Before adding your first resource, set up the Resource Types and Resource Status Codes you want to use. Type is required on every resource, so that list has to have something in it.

Permissions here are unusually flat, so it is worth being precise:

• Any user can add a resource, edit any resource, change its photo, update its status, and reserve it. There is no separate permission to grant.
• Delete is narrower. The Delete button on a resource only appears for the person who created that resource, and for Administrators.
• Resource Types and Resource Status Codes are Administrator only.
• Guests do not get Resources at all.

Resource Types group your resources—Vehicle, Conference Room, Laptop. Administrators only.

1. Select Settings in the side menu.
2. Select Resource Types.
3. Select Add Resource Type.
4. Enter a Name. This is required, and can be up to 100 characters.
5. Add a photo if you want one. It becomes the default picture for every resource of this type that has no picture of its own.
6. Select Save.

To change one later, select the type's name link, edit it, and select Save. In a long list, type part of the name in the Name box above it and select Search.

To delete one, select the type's name link and then Delete. A resource type cannot simply be removed: you must first choose a Replace existing data with type, then type DELETE in capitals to confirm. Every resource on the old type is moved to the replacement. This cannot be undone.

Resource Status Codes are the working states a resource can be in—Ready, In Use, Out for Repair. They are separate from the status codes people use; see Status Codes for those. Administrators only.

1. Select Settings in the side menu.
2. Select Resource Status Codes.
3. Select Add Resource Status Code.
4. Enter a Status Code Name. This is required.
5. Choose a Status Type: Available, In Use, or Out of Service. This is required.
6. Choose a Color if you want one.
7. Optionally set a default return time—see below.
8. Select Save.

What Status Type does

It labels the code, and it is what the Resource Status report filters on. It does not stop anybody reserving a resource, does not hide the resource, and does not change on its own. A resource sitting on an Out of Service code can still be reserved by anyone.

Fixed Return Time and Offset By

Both are optional, and both only pre-fill the Return Date and Return Time boxes when somebody picks this code on the Update Status form. Whoever is updating the status can change or clear what gets filled in.

• Fixed Return Time—an hour, minute, and AM/PM, used as the time of day.
• Offset By—days, hours, and minutes added to the current time.

Set both together to combine them. A Shop Repair code with a Fixed Return Time of 8:00 AM and an Offset By of 7 days pre-fills 8:00 AM seven days from now.

A return time never changes a status. It is a note of when the resource is expected back, shown on the Resources list. Nothing acts on it when it passes.

To find a code in a long list, use Name or Type above the list and select Search; Clear shows every code again.

To delete a status code, select its name link and then Delete. As with types, you must choose a replacement code and type DELETE in capitals. Existing resources and status history move to the replacement. This cannot be undone.

1. Open Resources in the side menu.
2. Select Add Resource, in the upper-right corner.
3. Enter a Name. This is required, and can be up to 100 characters.
4. Choose a Type. This is required, and the list is the one an Administrator set up.
5. Choose a Location if you want one. This is the list of company locations, not free text. If your company has only one location it is chosen for you.
6. Leave Active on Yes, or set it to No—see below.
7. Set Available For Scheduling to Yes if the resource should be reservable. New resources start on No.
8. Fill in any of the Details you want: Number, Serial Number, Make, Model, Model Year, Vendor, Reference Number, Job Site, and Description. All are optional.
9. Select Save.

To add a picture, open the resource and select its photo. Until you do, it shows the default photo for its resource type, if that type has one.

To change a resource later, open it and select Edit.

Active and Available For Scheduling are different things

• Active marks a resource as still in service. It does not hide the resource from the Resources list—the list shows active and inactive resources together until somebody sets the Active filter to Yes. Setting Active to No is the recommended alternative to deleting a resource, because it keeps the history.
• Available For Scheduling controls whether the Schedule button appears on the resource. Set it to No for something that is damaged or being repaired.

A new reservation needs both set to Yes. If either is No, a new reservation is refused with “This resource is not available for scheduling,” although reservations already on the schedule can still be changed or canceled. An inactive resource that is still available for scheduling shows the Schedule button, but the booking is refused when you save it.

Open Resources in the side menu. Three controls sit above the list:

1. Filter, in the upper-left corner, opens the filter panel. You can filter by Type, Location, Status, Assigned To, Name, Number, Serial Number, and Active. Select Apply to use them or Clear to drop them.
2. Columns opens the Column Options dialog. Tick what each row should show—Photo, Type, Assigned To, Return Time, Comments, Display full comments, Number, Serial Number, Active—then select Save.
3. Column headings sort the list. Select one to sort by it, and again to reverse it.

Like the status board, the Filter link turns red and reads Filter ON whenever any filter is set, and filters stay on until you clear them. Filters are stored against your user account, so they follow you to another computer or phone. Your column choices and sort order are stored in the browser you set them in, so set them again elsewhere.

Long lists are paged, 25 to a page by default.

This is the resource's current state—where it is right now and who has it. It is not the same as its schedule.

1. Open Resources and select the resource's status code in its row. (From the resource's own page, select Update Status instead.)
2. Choose an Assigned To user, if somebody has it.
3. Choose a Select Work Status code. Picking one may pre-fill the return boxes, which you can change.
4. Set a Return Date and Return Time, or select Clear Return Date and Time. The two go together: if only one is filled in, Save turns the empty box red and waits until you fill it in or clear both.
5. Add Comments if you want them, or select Clear Comments.
6. Select Save.

Changing the assigned user or the status code is recorded: the previous entry is closed off and a new one opened, so the resource's page shows who changed what and when under Status History, and the Resource Status History Report lists the changes for any or all resources over a date range. Changing only the return time or the comments updates the current status without starting a new entry; when that entry closes, it keeps the last comment entered. A return time that is already in the past is dropped when you save.

A resource's schedule is its own calendar. It is not part of the shared company calendars under the Calendar menu, and nothing on it appears there.

1. Open Resources and select the resource's name link.
2. Select Schedule. If there is no Schedule button, see I added a resource, but I can't schedule it below.
3. The calendar opens on the month, or on a list of the week on a phone. The buttons in the upper-right corner switch between month, week, day, and list views; prev, next, and today move around.

That view is how you check whether a resource is free before you book it. Read it before you reserve—see Does InOutBoard stop two people booking the same resource? below.

To reserve the resource:

1. Select New, beside today in the upper-left corner. (Selecting a day on the calendar itself opens a shorter form with just Subject, Start and End; select More options there for the full form.)
2. Enter a Subject. This is required.
3. Set the Start Date, Start Time, End Date, and End Time, or tick All Day to drop the times. New offers you the next quarter hour and an hour's booking, which you can change.
4. Leave the repeat dropdown on Does not repeat, or choose how it should recur.
5. Under EVENT DETAILS, add a Location, a Category, an Assigned To user, a Starting status change, an Ending status change, and a Description if you want them. All are optional.
6. Select Save.

Location here is free text. Category comes from the shared calendar category list, which Administrators manage.

Select the gray Back button to return to the resource.

Yes. Change the repeat dropdown on the reservation form from Does not repeat to Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. Each opens its own options:

• Daily—every day, or tick Weekdays only.
• Weekly—every 1 to 4 weeks, on the days you tick (Su through Sa).
• Monthly—every 1 to 4 months, either on a weekday you choose (First, Second, Third, Fourth, or Last) or on the date of the reservation itself.

Then say when it should stop: No end date, End after a number of occurrences, or End by a date.

1. Open the resource, select Schedule, and select the reservation on the calendar.
2. Select Edit to change it, or Delete to cancel it.

You see Edit and Delete if you created the reservation, or if you are an Administrator. Anyone else can open a reservation and read it, but not change it—so a colleague who needs a booked room released has to ask whoever booked it, or an Administrator.

Editing or deleting a reservation that repeats asks which you mean first, with a choice of This event or All events in series. This event is selected for you, so check it before saving a change you meant to apply to the whole series.

Canceling a reservation does not change the resource's current status. If the reservation had already switched the resource to its starting status, set the status back yourself with Update Status.

Yes. A reservation that overlaps another reservation on the same resource is refused when you save it, with a message naming the resource and the time it is already reserved. Back-to-back reservations are fine. A repeating reservation is checked occurrence by occurrence and refused as a whole if any one of them would clash.

The schedule still shows what is booked, so look before you reserve a popular room, and use the Assigned To field and a clear Subject so it is obvious who has what.

Yes—this is the one place where the schedule and the current status meet, and it only happens if somebody asks for it on the reservation.

1. Open the resource, select Schedule, and add or edit a reservation.
2. Under EVENT DETAILS, choose a Starting status change, an Ending status change, or both. Both sit on None unless you change them.
3. Select Save.

When the reservation starts, the resource's status changes to the starting status and its return time is set to the reservation's end. If the reservation has an Assigned To user, the resource is assigned to them at the same time. When the reservation ends, the status changes to the ending status and the return time is cleared.

Leave the Starting and Ending Status on None and the status of the resource will NOT change.

Everyone sees a resource's schedule in their own time zone, the one set on their user record. You enter a reservation in yours, and a colleague three hours away sees the same booking at their local time—you do not need to convert anything.

Status history and return times work the same way. If a booking looks like it is at the wrong time, check the time zone on that person's record, in Settings → Users.

The Schedule button only appears when Available For Scheduling is Yes, and new resources start on No. A new reservation also needs Active set to Yes: if the button is there but saving says “This resource is not available for scheduling,” the resource is inactive.

1. Open Resources and select the resource's name link.
2. Select Edit.
3. Set Available For Scheduling to Yes, and Active to Yes if it is No.
4. Select Save. The Schedule button is now on the resource's page.

Any user can make this change.

Deleting a resource removes it from the resource list, the status board, and every schedule, and cancels every reservation on it that has not started yet, including the rest of any repeating series. Its photo is deleted. Reservations that have already happened and its status history are kept so past reports still add up, but no screen shows them once the resource is gone, and they are left out of the Resource Status History Report. The delete page tells you how many upcoming reservations will be canceled, and the delete cannot be undone.

To delete one: open the resource, select Delete, type DELETE in capitals in the Enter DELETE to confirm box, then select Delete Resource. The Delete button is only there for the person who created the resource and for Administrators.

Setting Active to No is almost always the better move. It marks the resource as out of service, stops anyone making a new reservation, and keeps the reservations and the history, which the Resource Status History Report shows when you select Include inactive resources. Reservations already on its schedule stay there until you change or cancel them.

Deleting a single reservation is separate, and does not affect the resource.