Adjusting Party Times (Area Timeslots)

  1. First, you will need to ensure that your Hours of Operation are set for the Holiday. To do so, an Admin can navigate to the “Corporate” tab on the Navigation Pane, then “Locations”.  
    • Note: If your store’s Hours of Operation do not need to be changed for the Holiday, skip to Step 10.
  2. Find your location and click “Edit” to open the record.
  3. On the left-hand sub-categories menu, select “Hours of Operation”. This will show a list on the right-hand side of all Availability Rules currently set up at your location – These rules create your Hours of Operation.
  4. Before we can set up the Holiday, we must first find the Rule that would normally fall on that date. For example, 12/25/16 would normally be a Sunday during the School Year, so we need to find the rule that will cause the store to be open on that date. 
  5. Once the rule is found, select “Create an Exception”. A pop-up will appear that allows you to select the date. Enter the date of your Holiday, or select it from the Calendar. Click Save when finished.
  6. Now that the store will no longer be open on that Holiday, we can create a new rule that is specifically for the day. At the top of the page, select the green Add button, a drop-down will appear. Select “Add Hours of Operation Rule” from the list.
  7. The new pop-up window will allow you to create the rule. Review the fields below to create a rule that will only be available on the specific date of your Holiday.
    • Title: Enter a name (we recommend using the Holiday)
  8. Timezone: Enter the timezone that this Holiday will be in. For this case, 12/25/16 will be in Standard Time, so we will enter EST for Eastern Standard Time. (Be sure to adjust it based on your location’s timezone!)
  9. All Day: This box will not be used, however, if you changed the Timezone, be sure to toggle this box ON then OFF. The end result will leave this box unchecked – but by toggling it you refresh the Start and End Times below to adjust for any Timezone changes.
  10. Start and End Date: Enter the Start and End Date of the Holiday. No matter how long the Holiday is, always enter the Start Date at the beginning of the Holiday, and the End Date will always need to match the Start Date.
  11. Start and End Time: Enter the Start Time and End Time for the Product. 
    1. If you want the Product to be available while you are open, enter the Start and End Time as when you open and close.
    2. If you want the Product to only be available for a specific amount of time, simply enter that amount of time in the fields. Keep in mind, this is the time the Product can be purchased for, and it does not take duration into account. If you have a 2 HR Jumptime Product, be sure to end the Product about 1.5 Hours earlier than you plan to allow them to jump for.

 

  • Repeat: Set the Repeat box as checked to open the Repeat Cycle. Even if your Holiday is only a single day, turn on Repeat.
  • Repeats: Enter Weekly in almost all cases, as it will give you the most accurate entry
  • Repeat Every: Enter 1 to have it repeat each week (even though it will not be repeating)
  • Repeat On: Select the day of the week your Holiday(s) fall on. In this case, we are selecting Sunday for 12/25/16

 

  1. Ends: Select “On Date” and enter a Date that is less than 1 week away, but more than 2 days after your Holiday ends. In this case, we will enter 12/28/16.
  2. Now that all of your information is entered, Save the record. The store should now have the proper Hours of Operation for the Holiday.
  3. Once you are certain your Hours of Operation are in place, navigate to the “Events” tab on the left-hand Navigation Pane, select “Area View” from the drop-down.
  4. The default for the Area View is the current date. To easily change the date, select “Month” in the top-right corner of the Area View to display the Month view. If necessary, use the right arrow on the left-hand corner of the Calendar to move forward to the next Month. Once you are located in the month your Holiday falls on, select the date of your Holiday by clicking the number on the Calendar.   
  5. This will navigate you to that Date, but in the Day view. In the top-right corner, select the “Areas” button to display the Area View for that day. This shows a much more visual Calendar of each Area (Party Tables, Rooms, etc.) that we will need to make adjustments.
  6. Now that you can see all of the Areas, click the right arrow again to move to Monday, December 26th. Once the page loads, you will see all of the Areas and their associated timeslots for that day. As we will be using this as our template (because we want the 25th to match a Monday’s standard schedule), take a screenshot of the Area View on Monday the 26th (the day you will be using as your template) 

 

  • Use “Print Screen” on your keyboard, then open Microsoft Paint and click Paste to extract your screenshot. Or, if using Windows 10, the Snippet Tool is very handy.

 

  1. Keep the screenshot open to review. Now, navigate back to your Holiday using the arrows in the top-left corner. Compare your Holiday’s Area View with the Template you took the screenshot of and mark any differences. Often, the two will be relatively similar, but they may be staggered by 30 minutes. 

 

  • If any of the timeslots are the same, mark them off on your Template so you know not to adjust those. 

 

  1. Now that you have a list of all timeslots to keep, you can start creating Exceptions on all other timeslots on your Holiday that will need to be removed. 
  2. Navigate to the “Corporate” tab then select “Areas” to get a list of all of your Areas at your location. 
  3. Starting with the very first Area, press Edit to open a pop-up window. Select the second tab along the top named “Availability List”. This will show a list of all Availability Rules and any Events that have been created at that Area.
  4. First, we need to find the Rules that are creating the current timeslots on your Holiday. The easiest way to do so is use the Find function (Control + F) and type in the Start time of the first timeslot that was on that Area for your Holiday. 

 

  • Example: Your first timeslot on December 25th is 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Use Find (Control + F) and type “1:00” to highlight all Rules that contain 1:00.

 

  1. Be sure to review the Rule very carefully, as you can easily cause your current repeating schedule to be ruined by making improper adjustments. Look at the “effective” date and if it says “until”.

 

  • Example: “Every 1 week(s) on Sunday, effective 6/1/2016 EDT until 9/1/2016 from 1:00 p.m. EDT to 3:00 p.m. EDT”
  • This Rule you do not want to adjust, as it is no longer in effect. It ended on 9/1/16, and the Holiday is on 12/25/16. 

 

  1. Once you find the Rule you need, select “Create An Exception” and enter the date of your Holiday.
  2. Find all timeslots for this Area that need to be unavailable on your Holiday and use Create An Exception on each of them.
  3. You will need to repeat this process for all Areas and all of their timeslots that you do not want available for your Holiday. This will essentially wipe the slate clean for your Holiday – unless you left any timeslots untouched due to being correct.
  4. Once you are done creating Exceptions, you will now need to create Availability Rules at each of the Areas to build new timeslots that match the Template you took the screenshot of. 
  5. Go back into Corporate, then Areas, and Edit on the first Area. Navigate to the second tab: “Availability List” and select the orange “Add” button on the far-right side.
  6. Follow the instructions in Step 7 above to create a new Availability Rule for each timeslot.

 

  • For example: If your Party Table 1 needs to have a timeslot from 1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m., 3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., and 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 pm., you will need to create a rule for each of those three timeslots. The rules will all be exactly the same, except the Start Time and End Time.

 

  1. Repeat this process for all timeslots across all Areas. Once you believe you are complete, go back to the “Events” tab and Select “Area View”. Use the Month view to quickly navigate to your Holiday, then change to the Area view by selecting the “Area” button in the top-right corner. Compare the timeslots you see with the screenshot you took of your template day.

 

  • If all of them are the same, you have successfully created your Holiday’s schedule. 
  • If there are errors, navigate back into “Corporate” then “Areas”, and click “Edit” on the Area that had an incorrect timeslot. Go to the Availability List on the second tab and find the rule that appears to be wrong. Review it entirely and make corrections. Below are some easy-to-miss mistakes that will be helpful to take a second look at.
  • Start Date and End Date need to be identical (12/25/16)
  • Start Time and End Time need to be properly set to a.m. or p.m.
  • Repeat checkbox needs to be turned ON (checked)
  • The Repeat Cycle needs to be set to:
  • Repeats: “Weekly”
  • Repeat Every: “1”
  • Ends: “On Date”
  • On Date: “12/28/16” (3 days after your Holiday is a good rule-of-thumb)

 

  1. Review any incorrectly display timeslots and attempt to correct them. If they are corrected and your data matches your template, you are finished. If not, please contact Active8 Support (support@active8pos.com) for assistance.