Troubleshoot common Cognivox event booking issues, including unavailable events, capacity problems, occupancy discrepancies, expired reservations and payment issues.

Troubleshooting Event Bookings

Most event booking activity is handled automatically by Cognivox, including availability checks, capacity allocation, reservation expiry and the transition from Reserved to Confirmed occupancy.

If something does not appear as expected, this guide explains the main areas to check.

An Event Cannot Be Booked

If an event exists but cannot be booked, check the event configuration.

Review:

Active status
Event start and end dates
Booking Opens
Booking Closes
Overall Event Capacity
Available capacity
Package status
Option status
Option capacity

An event being present in the Event Directory does not necessarily mean it is currently available for new reservations.

Check That the Event Is Active

An inactive event should not normally be offered for new bookings.

Open the event and check:

Active

If the event should currently accept bookings, ensure it is active.

Do not activate an event simply to solve an availability problem without first checking its dates, capacity, packages and options.

Check the Booking Window

The event has separate dates controlling when reservations may be accepted.

Check:

Booking Opens
Booking Closes

For example, an event may take place in October but have bookings configured to close several days before the event begins.

If the current date is outside the configured booking window, the event may not be available for a new reservation.

The Event Shows No Availability

Check the event occupancy figures:

Capacity
Reserved
Confirmed
External
Occupied
Available

Available capacity is determined from:

Capacity - Reserved - Confirmed - External

For example:

Capacity	Reserved	Confirmed	External	Available
100	10	70	20	0

The event is fully occupied.

No additional attendee places are available.

The Available Figure Looks Wrong

If the Available figure does not look correct, first check each component of the calculation.

For example:

Capacity: 100
Reserved: 5
Confirmed: 50
External: 15

Available should be:

30

If this appears incorrect, determine which occupancy figure is unexpected before changing anything.

Confirmed Occupancy Looks Wrong

Confirmed occupancy is maintained from confirmed Cognivox bookings.

Do not manually compensate for an incorrect Confirmed figure by changing External Attendees.

Instead, compare the event with the underlying Event Bookings.

If confirmed booking records exist but the event's Confirmed occupancy is inconsistent, use:

Recalculate Occupancy

This rebuilds Cognivox-managed occupancy from the booking records.

Reserved Occupancy Looks Wrong

Reserved occupancy represents active reservations awaiting payment.

Review Event Bookings with:

Awaiting Payment

status.

Remember that reservations may also expire automatically.

If the booking records and Reserved occupancy appear inconsistent, Recalculate Occupancy can rebuild the value from the underlying bookings.

External Attendees Looks Wrong

External Attendees is different from Reserved and Confirmed occupancy.

It is maintained by the administrator and represents places allocated outside Cognivox booking records.

If the value is wrong, correct External Attendees on the event.

Do not use Recalculate Occupancy to correct this value.

Recalculation intentionally preserves External Attendees.

Recalculate Occupancy

Use Recalculate Occupancy when Cognivox-managed occupancy needs to be rebuilt from booking records.

It recalculates:

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

It does not change:

Event Capacity
External Attendees

When Should I Recalculate?

Recalculation is appropriate when:

Existing bookings pre-date occupancy tracking
Booking records have been imported
Reserved occupancy appears inconsistent with bookings
Confirmed occupancy appears inconsistent with bookings
Option occupancy appears inconsistent
You need to verify the occupancy counters

It should not normally be required after every reservation or payment.

Cognivox maintains occupancy automatically during normal booking operations.

Recalculate Does Not Change External Bookings

Suppose an event has:

Capacity: 100
External Attendees: 15

Running Recalculate Occupancy will not reset External Attendees to zero.

The value remains:

External Attendees: 15

because Cognivox cannot derive external allocations from its own booking records.

The Event Has Capacity but an Option Cannot Be Booked

Overall Event Capacity and option capacity are separate.

For example:

Event Available: 40
Single Room Available: 0

The event still has room for attendees, but no Single Rooms remain.

Check the selected option's:

Capacity
Reserved Occupancy
Confirmed Occupancy
Active status

Option availability is:

Option Capacity - Reserved Occupancy - Confirmed Occupancy

The Option Shows Capacity but the Booking Still Fails

The reverse situation can also occur.

For example:

Double Rooms Available: 5
Event Available: 1

A customer wants:

2 attendees
1 Double Room

There is sufficient room capacity but insufficient overall attendee capacity.

Both capacity checks must succeed.

PerUnit Booking Has Unexpected Capacity Usage

For PerUnit options, check both:

Attendee Count
Unit Count

For example:

Attendees: 2
Units: 1
Option: Double Room

This should consume:

2 overall attendee places

and:

1 Double Room unit

Do not expect the option occupancy to increase by two simply because two people are attending.

A Single Room Booking Has One Attendee

A typical Single Room reservation may contain:

Attendees: 1
Units: 1

This consumes:

One overall attendee place
One Single Room unit

The system therefore records both the person attending and the accommodation unit being used.

The Booking Is Awaiting Payment

This is expected for a newly created chargeable reservation that has not yet been fully paid.

An Awaiting Payment booking:

Has a booking reference
Holds capacity
Contributes to Reserved occupancy
May have an outstanding balance
Has not yet become fully Confirmed

Check:

Total

Paid

Balance

to determine the financial position.

Payment Was Received but the Booking Is Still Awaiting Payment

Check whether the full required amount has actually been recorded.

For example:

Total: £500.00
Paid: £400.00
Balance: £100.00

The booking is not yet fully paid.

A partial payment does not necessarily change the reservation to Confirmed.

Review the payment history to ensure all received payments have been entered.

A Payment Is Missing

If money has been received externally but does not appear against the booking, check whether the payment was actually recorded in Cognivox.

Receiving a bank transfer or telephone card payment does not automatically create a payment record unless the payment source is integrated with Cognivox.

Record the externally received payment against the correct booking.

The Amount Paid Looks Wrong

Open the booking and review its individual payment records.

Check:

Amount
Currency
Payment method
Reference
Payment date

The total Paid amount should reflect the payments recorded against that booking.

Do not add another payment simply to make the total look correct without first identifying the discrepancy.

The Balance Looks Wrong

The remaining balance is based on the booking total and payments recorded.

For example:

Booking Total: £500.00
Paid: £350.00

The expected balance is:

£150.00

If the balance appears wrong, check the booking total and individual payment records.

The Booking Is Confirmed but Capacity Did Not Increase

When an Awaiting Payment reservation becomes Confirmed, its capacity does not increase overall occupancy again.

Instead, occupancy moves from Reserved to Confirmed.

For example:

Before confirmation

Reserved: 2
Confirmed: 20
Total Cognivox Occupancy: 22

After confirmation

Reserved: 0
Confirmed: 22
Total Cognivox Occupancy: 22

This is correct.

The capacity was already being held by the reservation.

Reserved Capacity Disappeared

Check whether the reservation has expired.

Awaiting Payment reservations only hold capacity until their configured expiry.

When an unpaid reservation expires:

Reserved attendee capacity is released
Reserved option capacity is released
Availability increases accordingly

This is expected behaviour.

A Customer Wants To Pay an Expired Reservation

Do not assume the original capacity is still available.

After expiry:

The reservation's capacity is released.
Another customer may reserve that capacity.
The original option may now be full.

Check current event and option availability before deciding how to handle a late payment.

A Reservation Email Was Not Received

First confirm that the booking contains the correct customer email address.

Also check that the reservation itself was successfully created.

Email delivery and reservation creation are separate operations.

A failure to send the email does not necessarily mean the reservation failed.

Use the Event Booking record to establish the authoritative booking status.

A Payment Confirmation Email Was Not Received

Check:

The customer email address
The booking status
Whether the required payment was successfully recorded
Whether the booking became fully paid

A confirmation email failure should not reverse a successfully recorded payment.

The Event Booking and its payment history remain authoritative.

Money Received Does Not Show the Booking

The Money Received page displays payment transactions rather than every event booking.

An Awaiting Payment reservation with no payment recorded will not have a payment transaction to display.

Use Event Bookings to review reservations.

Use Money Received to review payments.

A Payment Appears More Than Once for the Same Booking

A booking can legitimately have multiple payment transactions.

For example:

Payment	Amount
Deposit	£100.00
Second Payment	£200.00
Final Payment	£200.00

All three transactions relate to the same booking.

Check the payment amount, date, method and reference before assuming a duplicate exists.

External Attendees and External Payments Are Being Confused

These represent completely different things.

External Attendees

People whose places were allocated outside the Cognivox booking records.

External Payment

Money received outside Cognivox for an existing Cognivox booking.

For example:

Cognivox creates a booking for 2 attendees.

The customer then pays by bank transfer.

Record the bank transfer as a payment against that booking.

Do not also add two External Attendees.

The attendees are already represented by the Cognivox booking.

Event Capacity Cannot Be Reduced

If Cognivox prevents the event capacity from being reduced, check the current occupied capacity.

For example:

Reserved: 5
Confirmed: 70
External: 15
Occupied: 90

The event cannot safely be reduced to:

Capacity: 80

because 90 places are already allocated.

Existing allocations must be protected.

Option Capacity Cannot Be Reduced

The same principle applies to option capacity.

For example:

Single Room Capacity: 10
Reserved: 2
Confirmed: 7

Nine units are already allocated.

The capacity cannot safely be reduced below nine while those allocations remain.

Saving an Event Reports That It Changed

Event booking occupancy can change while an administrator is editing an event.

For example, another reservation may be created while the event editor is open.

Cognivox protects booking-managed occupancy when administrative event changes are saved.

If an update cannot safely be completed because the event changed concurrently, reload the event and review the latest occupancy before trying again.

Do not overwrite newer booking occupancy with older values from an already-open administration screen.

Package or Option Is Not Being Offered

Check whether:

The package is Active
The option is Active
The event is Active
The booking window is open
Event capacity remains
Option capacity remains

An inactive package or option should not normally be offered for a new reservation.

Event Information Is Incorrect During an Enquiry

Review the information configured against the Booking Event.

Check:

Event name
Description
Venue
Dates
Package names
Package descriptions
Option names
Option descriptions
Prices
Price basis

Cognivox should use the configured event information rather than inventing missing details.

Correct the source event configuration where necessary.

Avoid Manual Counter Corrections

Do not attempt to correct Reserved or Confirmed occupancy by manipulating unrelated values.

In particular:

Do not alter External Attendees to compensate for a Confirmed discrepancy.
Do not change Event Capacity simply to make Available look correct.
Do not add duplicate payments to correct a payment total.
Do not duplicate Cognivox bookings as External Attendees.

Identify the underlying cause first.

Recommended Troubleshooting Order

When an event booking problem occurs, use the following order:

Open the Event Booking and check its status.
Check attendee and unit counts.
Check Total, Paid and Balance.
Review the payment history where relevant.
Open the Booking Event.
Check Event Capacity.
Check Reserved, Confirmed and External occupancy.
Check the selected package and option.
Check option capacity and occupancy.
Check Active settings.
Check the booking opening and closing dates.
Check reservation expiry where relevant.
Use Recalculate Occupancy if the booking records and occupancy counters are inconsistent.

This approach helps identify the cause without unnecessarily changing valid event or booking information.

If Occupancy Still Looks Incorrect

If the underlying Event Bookings are correct but Cognivox occupancy still appears inconsistent:

Note the current Event Capacity.
Note the current External Attendees.
Review the relevant Event Bookings.
Select Recalculate Occupancy.
Review Reserved and Confirmed occupancy again.
Review package option occupancy.
Confirm that Event Capacity and External Attendees have remained unchanged.

If the resulting figures match the underlying booking records, the event occupancy is synchronised.

Next Step

The core configuration, reservation, capacity, payment, administration and troubleshooting workflows for Events & Bookings are now documented.

The next stage will be a Quick Guide to Creating Your First Event, providing a shorter step-by-step guide for a new Cognivox administrator who wants to configure an event and make it ready for bookings.