In broad terms, a resource is anything (a guide, kayak, tour bus, etc.) that can be “used” by a particular activity. FareHarbor’s shared resources feature allows you to manage resources that are used for multiple activities, and keep track of their uses to avoid overbooking.
A few examples of shared resources:
- You have one boat which can run one of two tours. You can have both tours available for booking online until one of them is booked. At that point, the second tour will no longer be available. This prevents the resource from being double-booked.
- You have four guides who lead your afternoon tours. For every 10 people who sign up for an afternoon tour, a guide will be assigned. Once all guides have been assigned for the afternoon, tours will be marked as full.
- You have 15 single-person kayaks and 10 two-person kayaks available for rental. Any number of single- or two-person kayaks can be reserved on a booking, until all kayaks are in use.
Setting up shared resources
If you do not already have shared resources set up in your Dashboard and are interested in doing so, please get in touch with FareHarbor Support. Our team will work with you to determine the best setup for your business, which will allow us to create and assign your resources as needed.
Once your resources are ready to go, you can track them and manage overrides directly from your Dashboard.
If you need to add, remove, or make changes to existing resources, just let the FareHarbor Team know and we’ll be happy to adjust your settings for you.
Managing your resources
Note: We highly recommend contacting FareHarbor Support if you need to add, remove, or make changes to your resources. Because resources affect your online calendar, book form, availability capacity, and more, it’s best to let us know so we can ensure all parts of your Dashboard are updated accordingly.
Resources are created and managed in the Items section of your Dashboard. Go to Items and select the Resources tab. This will show you all of your resources and an overview of their main settings.
Click on a resource to view its Overview. Here you’ll see a calendar that includes, for each day:
- The resource’s maximum uses
- Any resource overrides that have been set up
- The resource’s current uses
You can further customize this view by using the Display options menu. With this menu, you can choose to show archived resources, Usage for resources on an item or on shared resources requirements, as well as a variety of Columns containing information like the resources’s ID, Max Use, and more (by default, the Name and Edit columns are always displayed).
Any columns on the table with small up and down arrows can also be sorted in ascending or descending order, similar to a spreadsheet. Click the name of the column you wish to sort by, and the data will sort automatically. Your display selections will be remembered if you navigate away and back from the page, or if you refresh your browser (but options will reset to the default settings if you manually clear your storage, log onto a different device, or it’s been an extended amount of time since you logged in).
Display resource return information to customers
You can display resource return times and dates to customers in automated communications. This gives customers a written record of when their resources are due back, helping reduce confusion and streamline the check-out and check-in process for resource-based bookings.
Return information is automatically calculated from the resource end associated with the booking. If a booking includes multiple applicable resources, FareHarbor displays the return information for each resource.
To display resource return information:
- Navigate to Settings > Advanced company settings > Bookings.
- Check the Show resource return time and date box.
When enabled, return information for the applicable resource is included in automated customer communication.
Detailed uses
When resources are being used on a certain day, you can view more details by clicking on the number of uses (for example, “10 uses”). This will show you when the resource is being used, and for which item, customer type, and booking.
This view can be grouped or sorted by start time, use count, customer type, item, or booking.
Keeping track of resources
In addition to the shared resources section, you can keep track of resource uses from the Manifest or Bookings section of your Dashboard, as well as on an individual availability.
Manifest
- Go to your Manifest for the date/availabilities you want to view.
- From the toolbar, select the Columns menu.
- Click Shared resources. This will display a list of resources being used for the visible availabilities on your manifest.
- Check the box next to the resources(s) you want to see.
This will add a column to any applicable availabilities, showing you how many of the resource is being used.
You can also organize the manifest by resource by customizing your manifest view.
Bookings
When viewing the Bookings section of your Dashboard, you can use the resources timeline to visualize your resources for the day. Learn more about using the resources timeline.
Other options
Even if you’re not using the resources timeline, you can still include resource uses in your calendar view.
To include resources to your Bookings calendar:
- Go to the Bookings section of your Dashboard.
- From the toolbar, select the Display Options
menu.
- Check the box next to Resources.
Optional: If you only want to see a specific resource, uncheck the box “Show counts for all resources” and select which resource(s) you want to be displayed.
Power user feature: The “Show virtual resources” option will also include any resources with a zero or negative use count. In most cases, this option will not apply to your setup.
Availabilities
You can view resource uses for a particular availability by opening the availability overview and selecting the Capacity menu at the top. This will show you a breakdown of your total and customer type capacities. Click Resources to see how many resources are currently being used on that availability.