Service booking limitations

ABPro is not a ‘Service Booking’ system but rather it is a system for booking appointments with resources.

A subtle but often critical distinction.

A service is an attribute of the resource being booked. That is, the booking would be for a ‘technician’, and the service you want is ‘PC Repair’.

ABPro does not support choosing the service before the resource.

Some work arounds might be..

Example 1:
Use ABPro Categories for services.
ABPro supports one level of subcategory.
Resources can be assigned to a category.

Category = Auto Detailing
Sub Cat 1 = Car
Sub Cat 2 = SUV
Sub Cat 3 = Van

Assign resources to appropriate sub category. When customer chooses cat/sub cat, resources who do that will be displayed.
Booking duration is not related to category so you may also need to incorporate services if your need to vary the duration.


Example 2:
Use ABPro Extras as services. Extras can adjust the cost and duration of a booking.

Resource = "Hair Stylist"
Services (ABPro Extras)
"Cut" - duration 20 min, cost $x
"Perm" - duration 1 hr, cost $y

Customer would select the resource 'Hair Stylist" and add whatever services (ABPro Extras) they want done.


Example 3:
Define generic resources:

Service Bay 1
Service Bay 2
Service Bay 3

Example 4**:
Define single generic resource with max seats to control how many bookings at one time are supported:

Garage - set Max Seats to 3 to allow up to 3 people to book any specific timeslot.

If you need to vary the number supported by weekday you could use a combination of #3 and #4

Service Bay - max seats 3, available only on Mon-Thur
Service Bay - max seats 4, available only on Fri-Sat
Service Bay - max seats 2, available only on Sun

** Example #4 uses max seats and is therfore not compatible with service based duration - all services must be the same duration if you employ max seats.


Example 5:
A single practitioner who performs multiple treatments.
The ABPro resource is the practitioner and the treatments are ABPro services.
Run in Single Resource mode so the customer just selects the treatment, the resource is already selected.