A session is one of the times a venue runs: "Saturday 10:00, 1 hour", a holiday camp from Monday to Friday, or "the second Sunday of each month". Each venue has its own list of sessions, in its Times sheet, and each session is added and changed in the Session sheet.
Where to Find This
Open What you sell in your console, choose the Venues tab and press Venues. In the Venues pane, press the venue. Its sheet is headed Times at followed by the venue's name.
You can also start from a class. Press the class, then Schedule and venues. Press the venue's row to open that venue's times, or press Add a time to start a new session for the class. Only administrators can add or change sessions. See The What You Sell Screen.
The Times Sheet
The sheet answers Which sessions run here? It holds:
- Let Bizzly fill your week, with the line "Say the sessions in a sentence and Bizzly adds them to Hove Park Pavilion." It stands above Add a session, only for a venue that takes sessions, only for an administrator, and only on a plan that includes Ask or tell Bizzly. See below.
- Add a session, with the line "Every week, on a date or a run of dates, or one day of each month". A venue that takes appointments only has no sessions to add; the sheet says "Hove Park Pavilion takes bookings by appointment, so it has no regular sessions to change here."
- every session that runs now, as a row. A row shows its name (or Session), when it runs, who it is for and how many can book what. For example "Sat 10:00, 1 hour", "Ages 3 to 5 years" and "12 places, for Football and Rugby". Press a row to open it.
- with nothing yet, No sessions yet. With only finished ones, "No sessions coming up. The ones that have finished are below."
- a line such as One session has finished or 3 sessions have finished, which opens to show them. They are for reading only.
- rows that lead on: How it books (see How a Venue Takes Bookings), Where (see Adding and Changing a Venue), and Closures, which says the next closure at this venue (see Closures).
- if you have seasons, Which seasons run here? with each season's dates at this venue. Press one to open it. See Setting Up Your Seasons.
With more than twenty sessions, they are told apart by Weekly and One-off, each with a count, and a search box appears (Search by name, day or time). A session on dates is a one-off. Every session that repeats, each week or one day each month, is weekly.
If you came here from a class, the line under the title says "Adding times for Beginner Group", and the session you add starts with that class chosen.
Add a time on a class's Schedule and venues goes straight to the Session sheet with the class chosen. With one venue that takes sessions, the line under its title names the venue. With more than one, the line says "For Beginner Group" and the sheet first asks Where does it run?. With no venue that takes sessions yet, the Venues pane opens so you can add one first.
Letting Bizzly Fill Your Week
If you would rather say the week than fill in a sheet for each session, press Let Bizzly fill your week. Ask or tell Bizzly opens with the box already holding a sentence that begins with the venue, for example "At Hove Park Pavilion: Saturday at 9:00 for 12 people, then 11:00 and 13:00 for 16 each". The cursor sits just after the venue's name, with the example after it. Change the example to your own days, times and places, then press Send.
Nothing is sent for you, and nothing changes until Bizzly has shown you what it would do and you press Do it. When a change has been made, the Times sheet behind it reads the venue again, so the new sessions appear in the list. See Ask or Tell Bizzly.
Adding a Session
Press Add a session. The sheet is headed Add a session, with "At" and the venue's name under it. A new session starts from the venue's first weekly session (its start, finish, places, classes and ages), to save typing. Its name and days start empty.
- 1
Name it (optional)
Name is what customers see. "Customers see this. You can leave it empty."
- 2
Say when it runs
Under When does it run?, choose:
- Every week: tap the days it runs, for example Sat and Sun.
- On dates: choose the First day. Leave Last day empty for one date. Give a last day to make a run of days, with one session on every day of it, such as a week-long camp.
- Monthly: tap one weekday, and under Which one choose First, Second, Third, Fourth or Last, for example the second Sunday of every month. There is no fifth, because most months do not have one: use Last. To run on two weekdays, add two sessions.
- 3
Set the times
Choose when it Starts and Finishes. A line under them says how long it lasts, for example "Lasts 1 hour". Move the start and the finish moves with it. A session lasts from 15 minutes to 12 hours, and has to finish the same day: it cannot run past midnight, so finish it by 23:59.
- 4
Choose what it is for
Under What is it for?, tick the classes and camps customers can book into it. At least one is needed. For a new session, ticking a class also sets Finishes so the session lasts as long as the longest class you ticked, unless you have already typed a finish yourself. This is asked here for a new session; for a session that already exists it sits under More options. With no classes yet, the sheet says "Add a service or programme first, then you can choose what this session is for." It uses your business's own words, so a kids' club sees "Add a session or camp first, then you can choose what this session is for."
- 5
Say how many places there are
How many places are there? stands beside the times for every session, because its places are the change you make most often. A session has between 1 and 100 places. A line under it says which dates the places change, for example "On every Saturday this session runs." For a session that already exists and has bookings, the sheet counts them and the line adds, for example, "The most booked on any coming date is 3, so it cannot go below 3." The places cannot be set lower than that. Cancel or move some of those bookings first. The check is made again when you press Save, and if the count cannot be made just now the sheet says so and leaves the check to the save.
- 6
Say who can attend
Under Who can attend? a line says Any age, or for example Ages 3 to 5 years. Press Edit to change it. See below.
- 7
Press Add the session
A message at the bottom of the screen says Session added, with Undo.
If you added it as part of adding a class, the sheet stays open and offers the next step, setting a price. See Adding a Class or Camp, Step by Step.
Who Can Attend
Edit opens the age boxes:
- No youngest age and No oldest age are ticked for an end with no limit. A new session starts with the ages of the venue's first weekly session, so an end that session limits starts with an age in its box. Untick one to give that end an age, or tick it to take the limit off.
- The ages are typed in years, in halves, for example 3, 3.5 or 5. A baby can be given as a part of a year, such as 0.5.
- "Both ends count: someone of exactly the youngest age, or exactly the oldest, can join." Once you give an oldest age, the sheet adds a sentence saying who is just too old for it.
- The oldest age cannot be younger than the youngest.
When your account profiles ask for a date of birth and that question is set to decide who can book, a customer outside the ages cannot book the session, and the booking button says why, for example "For ages 3½ to 5 years" or "Add a date of birth to book". The class's row on What you sell shows the span of ages of the sessions it has coming up in the next two weeks, from the youngest age any of them takes to the oldest. A class with a session open to any age shows no ages line.
Other Requirements
If your account profiles ask a question that is set to decide who can book (a level, a choice, a yes or no, or a number), a second line under the ages says what the session asks of it. It reads No other requirements until you set one. Press Edit to open one control for each such question:
- A level is a list that starts with No requirement. "Anyone at this level or above can book."
- A choice is a row of buttons. "Pick the ones that can book. Pick none for no requirement."
- A yes or no is a tick, Must be ticked to book.
- A number has At least and At most boxes. "Leave a box empty for no limit on that side." If the most is less than the least, the sheet says "The most cannot be less than the least."
Once you have set one, the line reads it in words, for example "Swimming level: Improver or above". A business with no such question sees no second line. See Account Profiles for how to set a question up.
More Options
Closed under its title, More options holds:
- Services (or your business's own word for what it sells, such as Sessions and camps), for a session that already exists
- How often it comes round, for a weekly session: Every week, Every 2 weeks or Every 4 weeks
- What the website says about this session, a box for a few words. "Customers read this on the booking page. You can leave it empty."
- the days it skips, a line that says No days skipped (or Skips 2 days) with Edit. Add a day to skip adds a date. "Days it does not run, such as a holiday week. Closures you have set for every venue already apply, so leave those out." A session on one date has no other days to skip, so give it a last day to skip days inside the run. A skipped day has to fall between the first and the last day.
It opens by itself when it already holds something, such as a session that repeats every 2 weeks, one with a description or one with skipped days.
Skipping a Run of Days
For a holiday week, you do not have to add each day one at a time. Under More options, press Edit on the days it skips. Under Skip a run of days, choose Skip from and Skip to, then press Skip these days. "Leaves out every session it has between the two days, both counted, such as a school holiday." Every day the session would have run between the two is added to its list of days to skip, and the sheet says how many, for example "5 days added to the days it skips." Nothing is saved until you press Save.
If you leave either day empty, the sheet says "Pick the first and the last day to skip." If the last is before the first, it says "The last day to skip cannot be before the first." If the session does not run on any day between them, it says "It does not run on any day between those two, so there is nothing to skip." A session with no days yet says "Pick the days it runs first, then you can skip a run of them."
Changing a Session
Press the session's row. The sheet holds the same fields. Press Save; a message at the bottom of the screen says Session changed, with Undo.
To stop a weekly session running on one of its weekdays for good, untick that day. When you press Save, the sheet asks, for example, Stop Under 7s on Saturday? and says "It comes off the timetable on those days. Anyone already booked on one keeps their booking as it is and is not told, so let them know yourself." Press Stop those days to go ahead, or Keep them to leave the day as it is. To pause it on particular dates only, use a closure or a day to skip.
A line above the button says "Anyone already booked keeps their booking as it is and is not told about this change. Let them know yourself." To move a whole session and tell the people booked on it, see Moving a Booking or a Whole Session.
If the Sheet Will Not Save
When you press the button and something is missing, the sheet says what, in words, and takes you to it: "Say what time it starts.", "Say what time it finishes.", "A session has to last at least 15 minutes.", "Pick the first day.", "The last day cannot be before the first.", "Pick at least one day." (or "Pick the day of the week." for a monthly session), "Pick at least one service."
Removing a Session
At the foot of the sheet, apart from Save, is the quiet button Remove this session. It asks, for example, Remove this session from Hove Park Pavilion? and names the session and its times. Type delete and press Remove the session, or press Keep it. If anyone is booked on it, it is not removed, and the sheet says so. Cancel or move those bookings first. See Cancelling Bookings. A removed session cannot be put back: there is no Undo.
Where a Session Is Kept
Sessions are kept in the venue's Google Calendar, in the venue's time zone. A change here is live as soon as it is saved. There is no separate publish step. To read your venues' times back as a timetable, see Checking Your Times on the Week Screen.
When you open a session, an administrator sees Change how this session runs among the rows that change it. The row names the session, for example Match Play, Saturday 7 November at 11:15, Kings Heath, and opens that session's own sheet in What you sell, under Venues, headed with the session's name, where its places, times, ages and skipped days are changed. To add a new session instead, choose the Venues tab, press the venue, then Add a session.
Related Articles
- Adding a Class or Camp, Step by Step - Adding a session as part of a new class
- Adding and Changing a Venue - The venue the sessions belong to
- Closures - Days when nothing runs
- Taking the Session Register - The session on the day
- Moving a Booking or a Whole Session - Changing a session that has bookings
- Checking Your Times on the Week Screen - Reading your times back as a timetable