Scripture Union Online Booking Guide
Welcome to the guide to help Booking Secretaries deal with bookings for holidays via the online system. We hope that this booklet will give you all the information you need to deal with bookings speedily and efficiently. If you have any queries, please contact your holiday administrator in the National Office in the first instance. Additionally, if you think of developments that would enhance the system for future years, please also pass these on to the office for consideration.
Please be aware that this system – although automated – does require your intervention to accept bookings and manage them.
Thank you for all that you do in enabling thousands of children and young people be involved in Scripture Union’s programme of holidays and missions.
Simon Barker
Volunteer Ministry Team Leader December 2012
Contents
1) How to book a child on a Holiday as a Parent/Guardian 3
2) Overview of the System 4
3) Processing New Bookings 5
4) Confirming a Booking 7
5) What to do with the bookings/Action Required 7
6) Following Up Balance Payments (Bulk Email) 8
7) Additional Communication 10
8) Grants 10
9) Children of SU staff / Team 10
10) Reporting 11
11) Multiple Bookings 11
12) Declined Bookings or Change of Holiday 11
13 ) Full for Bookings 11
14) Information and Medical Forms 12
15) Insurance 13
16) Change of detail…………………………………………………………………………………13
17) Data protection…………………………………………………………………………………..13
FAQs ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….15
Appendix 1 - Automatic System Confirmation Email to parent 16
Appendix 2 – Automatic System Confirmation Email to Booking Secretary to notify new booking 16
Appendix 3 – Appendix 3 – Confirmation Email from Booking Secretary to Parent ……………....16
Appendix 4 – Automatic System Confirmation Email to parent of balance due ………………..….16
Appendix 5 – Automatic System Confirmation Email to parent of balance paid ………………..…16
1) How to book a child on a Holiday as a Parent/Guardian
To use the system as a parent (or Booking Secretary) you must be registered on the SU website which is www.scriptureunion.org.uk and there is a Login / Sign up button at the top of every page.
· If you are registered on the SU website, select Login.
· If you are registered but have forgotten your password, select Login and Forgot your password?
· If you have not registered on the SU website, select Sign up and follow the on-screen instructions
Once you are logged in, navigate to the holiday website - www.scriptureunion.org.uk/holidays
Select the holiday that you want to book and click the Book Now button at the top / bottom of the page.
This will bring you to the online booking form (see below). It will be pre-populated with some of the parent’s details so they won’t need to complete this information again.
Before they fill in the form they should check they are booking onto the correct holiday, which can be seen in the first section of the form - ‘Holiday Choice.’ All fields marked with a * are mandatory.
They should then follow the on-screen instructions.
· The last page will ask for the amount to pay. They can select either £30 deposit or the full amount for that holiday. The card payment details will be entered here. These details are encrypted and will not be seen elsewhere nor show up on the booking form in the system.
· The parent/guardian will then be taken to a new web page that confirms their provisional booking and they also receive an email confirming payment and the provisional booking. (See Appendix 1)
· The Booking Secretary will also receive an email saying who has (provisionally) booked onto the holiday. (See Appendix 2)
· The Booking Secretary will then need to confirm (or decline) this booking as outlined below.
2) Overview of the System for Booking Secretaries
1. Select Login as described above and shown below. To avoid confusion your e-mail address should be the same as that advertised online / in the brochure.
2. Click on Online Administration on the left hand side menu (See above). This is only visible to those who have administration rights and is not visible to the public.
3. This will then bring up a new list of options on the left hand side
These options are:
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· Manage Applications
· Bulk Email (See point 6)
· Reporting (See point 9)
· Resources (Forms / Leaders manual etc.)
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Select Manage Applications – this is where you will see your bookings. There are 9 Status tabs.
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1. Inbox
2. New
3. Awaiting References
4. Awaiting CRB
5. CRB at Bureau
6. Awaiting Payment
7. Declined
8. Withdrawn
9. Approved.
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Please note not every application has to go through all of these statuses; most are for Team Clearance only.
Filter / Sort
It is possible to filter by:
· Type (Guest or Volunteer or both)
· Event (This is designed for those who are administering more than one holiday)
· Action Required (This is predominantly for SU office staff but you may find it helpful.)
You can sort on any field in the grid (table); just click on the field header to sort.
Please note that the system will remember your last filter or sort preferences even after you have logged out so, as a Booking Secretary, it is useful to keep the Type filter set to Guest.
Totals
As well as the total within each status tab (on the left) you are also able to quickly establish the total number of male and female guests on the event across all status tabs (except those in Declined and Withdrawn). To obtain the Event Total you need to filter by event and by type. This is the number you have already accepted along with any that are new which you need to accept or decline.
The other way to see all people on your holiday is to export the report in Excel; please see section 10
3) Processing New Bookings
· When there is a new booking you will receive an email (See Appendix 2) letting you know someone has booked their child onto your holiday. Click on the link in the e-mail and, if you are not already logged on, login to the Scripture Union Website
· Then select Online administration – Manage Applications – Inbox. The Inbox shows new bookings
· The statuses you will use as Booking Secretary are predominantly Inbox, Awaiting Payment, and Approved. You may need the declined/withdrawn statuses if necessary. The other status tabs are for Team Clearance purposes.
· Above you can see the Management Screen with applicant details. If you click on details and then Application Form you can then read through the booking form.
· If you wish to clarify some details before accepting / declining the booking (for example some Special Needs holidays need applicants to complete a further form before they can be accepted) please move the applicant into the Awaiting Payment tab (if they only paid the deposit) or the Approved tab (if they paid full fees) as detailed below and tick the Action Required box under their details. If they are later accepted, simply un-tick the Action Required box; if they are not accepted then move them to the Refused tab. This ensures that SU Staff who are monitoring the system are aware that you have seen and responded to the booking and so don’t chase you.
· You can clarify details by clicking on the applicant’s details on the Manage Applications screen and select the send email tab and selecting blank email to parent/child under the E-mail template section.
· Alternatively you can do this either through your own e-mail. Please note that if you need to use an attachment (e.g. completing an additional form such as on a Special Needs holiday), you can do this by clicking on the Send Email or Send Bulk Email screens, and selecting Browse adjoining Attachment 1. The system can accept up to 5 attachments providing their combined total does not exceed 10MB.
4) Confirming a Booking
· You will need to confirm their booking if there is space available on your holiday.
· To do this Select Send E-mail (tab at top). Then select from the drop down list the Holiday Booking Confirmation under E-mail template. This will pre-populate an email (see Appendix 3). Select Send e-mail to send the e-mail.
· This tells them that the booking is confirmed and a deposit has been made and a further reminder of the balance of fees will be sent in due course. If they have already paid the full amount you can change the wording - however the wording does suggest that you understand if they have paid in full. You can add additional text or edit this message as you wish.
There are several other tabs on this screen:
· Details – Details of the child / notes you may have made and the amount paid
· Application Form – the child’s Booking Form
· Log / Forms – keeps a record of what emails and forms you have sent out via the online system
· Transfer/Copy – Don’t use this. It is for the National Office to transfer children between holidays
5) What to do with the bookings / Action Required
· Once you have read through the application and sent the confirmation email (having made any notes you wish to make), you need to move them into either Awaiting Payment if only the deposit was paid or Approved if they have paid in full.
· On the Application Details screen select the Details tab and then choose the appropriate status in the drop down menu.
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· You then need to un-tick the action required box when they move out of the inbox and into awaiting payment tab (if full payment has not been received) or approved (if they have paid in full). Select Update to make / save these changes.
6) Following Up Balance Payments (Bulk Email)
· To follow up remaining balance payments due, you can use the Bulk Email function on the left hand menu. This will send an e-mail to all parents in the status that you select, e.g. Awaiting Payment
· BE SURE TO SELECT GUEST in application type – we don’t accidentally want to send the emails to volunteers. (Both appear in the Application type drop down menu so choose Guest.)
· Select your Event and then the required Application Status e.g. Awaiting payment – this is so you can send a bulk email just to those in Awaiting payment to request the full payment. (Be aware that if you forget this stage and e-mail those who have paid in full, they will receive an e-mail asking for a payment of £0.00 so there is no great harm done.)
· From E-mail Template select Holiday Payment Request which automatically selects Payment Form from the Form to Request section.
· Please note that all payments MUST be processed in this way via the online system. The e-mail that it generates to the parent is person-specific and provides the link that enables their payment to be made and accurately tracked. It is not possible to phone and ask for payment (though you may chase up the e-mail) nor can you use your personal e-mail to ask for payment.
· DO NOT ERASE OR EDIT THE FORMULAE IN BRACKETS [ ] WITHIN THE E-MAIL. These pick up required information and so the system will not work if tampered with. You may change the general text of the email so long as the spaces either side of the brackets are kept.
· This email will generate the child’s name, which holiday they are on and the amount they are due to pay. An example of the email that the parent receives is shown in Appendix 4.
· If someone has received a grant or other help with payment you will need to take them out of the Awaiting Payment tab at this point and customise an email just for them. (see Section 8)
· If an email bounces back, (e.g. if the applicant has changed their e-mail address) an error message will go to the email inbox in the National Office and an administrator will contact you.
· An automatic response email will be sent to the parent once they have made a payment (see Appendix 5) but you can send any further emails or make contact another way if you wish.
· You will not receive an e-mail to indicate that the balance (any payment) has been made so you will need to keep a check on monies coming in.
· Once the balance (or indeed any payment) has been made the application will automatically move back into the inbox and the payment will show up in the paid column and in the applicant’s details
· A parent is able to overtype the amount requested and so if a parent would prefer to pay by instalments (which we don’t recommend but may help a few for whom money is tight), they can overtype the amount requested as the full balance. What they pay will be added to the total displayed on the Management Screen and when you next request a balance it will ask the parent for the difference… which they can then overtype etc etc etc.
· If a parent has lost / deleted their payment request e-mail (sometimes they can go in to “Junk or Spam”), you can simply re-send the request.
· You should now change their status to Approved (if paid in full) or Awaiting Payment (if a payment is still due) by selecting the details tab on the Manage Applications screen. Select the status you require on the drop down menu. Remember to un-tick the action required box and select update as shown in the screen picture in section 5.
7) Additional Communication
· In the Bulk Email function it is also possible to send a customised email to parents or children by selecting Guest on the Application type and then E-mail Blank Parent or E-mail Blank Child (which will only work if an e-mail address was provided for the child) on the E-mail template section. You can write your own text and send it to the people you want.