Event Booking Administration Guide

The Cognivox Events & Bookings system provides administrators with the information needed to manage events from initial reservation through to confirmed attendance.

Day-to-day administration normally involves:

• Reviewing event bookings
• Checking customer details
• Checking attendee numbers
• Monitoring Awaiting Payment reservations
• Recording payments received
• Reviewing confirmed bookings
• Monitoring event capacity
• Maintaining External Attendees
• Reviewing money received
• Checking reservation expiry
• Recalculating occupancy when necessary

Event Bookings

The Event Bookings area provides the main view of reservations created for your events.

Use this area when you need to review individual customer bookings.

A booking can contain information including:

• Booking reference
• Customer
• Email address
• Telephone number
• Event
• Package
• Option
• Number of attendees
• Number of units
• Booking total
• Amount paid
• Balance remaining
• Booking status
• Reservation expiry
• Payment history

Finding a Booking

When dealing with a customer enquiry, first locate the correct booking.

The most useful identifier is normally the:

Booking Reference

You can also use customer and event information to confirm that you have opened the correct reservation.

Before changing payment or booking information, verify that the booking belongs to the customer and event you intend to administer.

Viewing a Booking

Use the View action from Event Bookings to open the full booking.

The detailed booking view provides more information than the booking list and should be used when investigating the state of a reservation.

Check the booking details before performing administrative actions.

Check the Booking Status

The booking status is one of the most important pieces of information.

The principal booking states include:

• Awaiting Payment
• Confirmed
• Expired

Each status has a different meaning.

Awaiting Payment

An Awaiting Payment booking is an active reservation for which the required payment has not yet been completed.

While the reservation remains valid:

• Attendee capacity is reserved
• Option capacity is reserved
• The customer has a booking reference
• A balance may remain outstanding
• The booking is not yet fully confirmed

Do not tell a customer that an Awaiting Payment reservation is confirmed.

Confirmed

A Confirmed booking has progressed from reservation to confirmed booking after the required payment has been recorded.

Its capacity remains allocated to the customer.

The occupancy is represented as Confirmed rather than Reserved.

Expired

An Expired booking is a reservation whose temporary hold has ended.

Its reserved capacity has been released.

An expired booking should not be assumed to still have availability.

If a customer contacts you about an expired booking, check the current event and option availability before making any commitment.

Check the Number of Attendees

Every booking records an attendee count.

For example:

Attendees: 2

This means the booking consumes two places from the overall Event Capacity.

Attendee numbers are particularly important when reviewing event occupancy.

Do not confuse attendees with units.

Check the Number of Units

A booking may also contain a Unit Count.

This is particularly relevant to PerUnit options.

For example:

Attendees: 2
Option: Double Room
Units: 1

This booking consumes:

• 2 overall attendee places
• 1 Double Room unit

The attendee count and unit count therefore serve different purposes.

Check the Booking Total

The booking displays the total amount due.

For example:

Total: £500.00

The total represents the authoritative amount established when the reservation was created.

Also check:

Paid

and:

Balance

to understand the current financial position of the booking.

Outstanding Balance

For example:

Total: £500.00
Paid: £200.00
Balance: £300.00

This means £300 remains outstanding.

The booking should not be treated as fully paid simply because one or more payments have already been received.

Recording Money Received

If a customer pays through an external source, the payment can be recorded against the booking.

Examples include:

• Card payment taken by telephone
• Bank transfer
• Cash
• Cheque
• Another external payment method

Record the actual payment received rather than simply changing the booking status.

This maintains the payment history and allows Cognivox to determine the amount paid and balance remaining.

Partial Payments

A booking can receive several payments.

For example:

Until the required total has been received, the booking can remain Awaiting Payment.

Full Payment

When the required amount has been received:

Balance: £0.00

the reservation can progress to:

Confirmed

The capacity previously shown as Reserved moves to Confirmed.

It is not allocated for a second time.

Payment Confirmation

Where the customer has supplied an email address, Cognivox can send a confirmation email when the booking becomes fully paid and confirmed.

The confirmation provides the customer with a written record that payment has been received and the booking has been confirmed.

An email delivery failure does not itself invalidate a successfully recorded payment.

Reviewing Payment History

The booking's payment history should be used when you need to understand how the booking has been paid.

Payment information can include:

• Amount
• Currency
• Method
• Reference
• Payment date
• Notes

This is particularly important when several payments have been received against one reservation.

Money Received

Use Money Received when you want to review payments across multiple event bookings.

This provides a transaction-oriented view rather than an individual reservation view.

Use it to review information such as:

• Payment dates
• Booking references
• Customers
• Events
• Payment methods
• Payment references
• Amounts

Open the associated booking when more detailed reservation information is required.

Monitoring Event Capacity

Administrators should also monitor capacity from the Booking Events area.

The event occupancy information includes:

• Capacity
• Reserved
• Confirmed
• External
• Occupied
• Available

For example:

This provides an overall view of the event's current attendee availability.

Reserved Occupancy

Reserved occupancy represents capacity being held for Awaiting Payment bookings.

It changes automatically as reservations are created or expire.

Administrators should not normally need to manually maintain this figure.

Confirmed Occupancy

Confirmed occupancy represents capacity belonging to confirmed Cognivox bookings.

It changes as bookings become confirmed.

This figure is derived from Cognivox booking activity and should not normally be manually maintained.

External Attendees

External Attendees are different.

This value exists so administrators can tell Cognivox about attendee places allocated outside the Cognivox booking records.

For example:

Capacity: 100
Cognivox Occupancy: 60
External Attendees: 20

Cognivox must consider 80 attendee places occupied.

Only 20 remain available.

Maintaining External Attendees

If your organisation receives bookings through another source, update External Attendees as those allocations change.

For example:

Monday

External Attendees: 10

Five additional places are then booked through another system.

Update the event to:

External Attendees: 15

If three external bookings are later cancelled:

External Attendees: 12

Keeping this figure current is essential when multiple booking channels share the same physical event capacity.

Do Not Duplicate Cognivox Bookings as External Attendees

A booking created in Cognivox already contributes to Reserved or Confirmed occupancy.

Do not also include those attendees in External Attendees.

For example, if Cognivox contains a confirmed booking for two attendees, those two people are already represented in:

Confirmed Attendees

Adding another two to External Attendees would count them twice.

Externally Received Payment Is Not an External Booking

A customer may reserve through Cognivox but pay through another source.

For example:

1. Cognivox creates the reservation.
2. The customer pays by bank transfer.
3. The administrator records the bank transfer against the Cognivox booking.

This remains a Cognivox booking.

Do not add the attendees to External Attendees merely because the payment was received externally.

Reviewing Option Capacity

Remember that overall Event Capacity is only one part of availability.

Individual options can also have their own capacity.

For example:

Event Available: 30
Single Rooms Available: 0

The event can still accept attendees, but the Single Room option cannot accept another reservation.

When investigating availability, review both:

• Overall Event Capacity
• Relevant option capacity

Reservation Expiry

Awaiting Payment reservations have an expiry time.

If payment is not completed before expiry, Cognivox can release the capacity being held.

This means the Reserved figure can decrease even when an administrator has not manually changed the event.

That is expected behaviour.

Monitoring Reservations Approaching Expiry

When reviewing Awaiting Payment bookings, pay attention to the reservation expiry.

A reservation close to expiry still holds capacity until it is processed as expired or becomes confirmed.

If a customer says they have paid but the payment has not yet been recorded, verify the payment situation before assuming the reservation is confirmed.

Late Payment After Expiry

A late payment requires particular care.

If a reservation has already expired:

• Its attendee capacity may have been released
• Its option capacity may have been released
• Another customer may have subsequently taken that capacity

Do not automatically assume that the original booking can simply be restored.

Check current availability first.

Recalculate Occupancy

Under normal operation, Cognivox maintains Reserved and Confirmed occupancy automatically.

The Recalculate Occupancy function exists to rebuild these figures from the underlying booking records.

Use it when:

• Historical bookings existed before occupancy tracking
• Booking data has been imported
• Occupancy appears inconsistent with the booking records
• You need to verify the event counters

It should not be necessary as part of routine booking administration.

What Recalculate Occupancy Changes

Recalculation rebuilds Cognivox-managed occupancy including:

• Event Reserved Attendees
• Event Confirmed Attendees
• Option Reserved Occupancy
• Option Confirmed Occupancy

What Recalculate Occupancy Does Not Change

Recalculation does not change administrator-managed values such as:

• Event Capacity
• External Attendees

These remain under administrator control.

Changing Event Capacity

The overall Event Capacity can be changed if the physical capacity of the event changes.

For example:

Capacity: 100 → 120

This can make additional attendee places available.

However, the capacity should never be reduced below the number of places already occupied.

Existing customer reservations and confirmed bookings must be protected.

Deactivating an Event

If an event should no longer accept new bookings, it can be made inactive.

This can be preferable to deleting an event, particularly when booking history already exists.

Keeping the event allows historical reservations and payments to remain associated with the correct event.

Deactivating Packages or Options

The same principle applies to packages and options.

If an option should no longer be offered for new bookings but has already been used by existing customers, making it inactive may be preferable to removing it.

Existing booking history should remain understandable.

Daily Administration Checklist

For an event currently accepting bookings, administrators may find it useful to review:

1. Current overall Event Capacity.
2. Reserved attendee count.
3. Confirmed attendee count.
4. External attendee count.
5. Remaining availability.
6. Option availability where capacity is limited.
7. Awaiting Payment reservations.
8. Reservations approaching expiry.
9. Payments received.
10. Outstanding balances.

The frequency of these checks depends on how actively the event is booking.

Before the Event

As the event approaches, review:

• Total confirmed attendees
• Current Awaiting Payment reservations
• External Attendees
• Overall Available capacity
• Package and option occupancy
• Outstanding balances
• Customer booking information

This provides a clearer picture of the expected attendance and remaining availability.

Administrative Principles

When administering event bookings, keep the following distinctions clear:

Reserved

Capacity held for an active reservation awaiting payment.

Confirmed

Capacity allocated to a confirmed Cognivox booking.

External

Capacity allocated outside Cognivox booking records.

Attendees

Number of people consuming overall Event Capacity.

Units

Number of option-specific units consumed where applicable.

Paid

Money already recorded against the booking.

Balance

Amount still outstanding.

Maintaining these distinctions keeps capacity, reservations and payments consistent.

Event Administration Workflow

A typical administrative workflow is:

1. Review new Event Bookings.
2. Check Awaiting Payment reservations.
3. Record payments actually received.
4. Verify that fully paid bookings become Confirmed.
5. Review payment confirmation information.
6. Check reservations approaching expiry.
7. Maintain External Attendees when bookings arrive through other channels.
8. Review overall Event Capacity.
9. Review limited option capacity.
10. Use Money Received for payment reconciliation.
11. Use Recalculate Occupancy only when occupancy needs to be rebuilt or verified.

Next Step

The principal Event & Booking administration workflow is now documented.

The next stage will cover Troubleshooting Event Bookings, including common reasons a booking cannot be created, capacity discrepancies, unavailable options, expired reservations, payment and balance issues, and when Recalculate Occupancy should be used.