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Approval Workflow

Some facilities require bookings to be reviewed and approved by an admin before they are finalized. This is common at facilities that need to manage court allocation, verify membership levels, or control peak-hour usage.

This page explains how the approval workflow works for both players and admins.

How Approval Works​

When a facility enables booking approval, the flow changes from the standard booking process:

Player confirms booking
        |
        v
  Status: PENDING approval
        |
        +--------------------------+----------------------------+
        |                          |                            |
        v                          v                            v
  Admin approves            Auto-approve timeout          Admin rejects
  Status: APPROVED          Status: AUTO_APPROVED         Status: REJECTED
        |                          |                       (reason provided)
        v                          v
  Player notified           Player notified              Player notified
  Booking is active         Booking is active            Booking is cancelled
info

When approval is not required, bookings skip the PENDING state entirely and go directly to CONFIRMED. The approval status is set to NOT_REQUIRED.

For Players​

What You'll Experience​

  1. You book a session through the normal flow (browse, select, hold, confirm).
  2. After confirming, instead of seeing CONFIRMED, your booking shows PENDING approval.
  3. You receive a notification that your booking is awaiting approval.
  4. Once the admin takes action, you receive another notification:
    • Approved: Your booking is confirmed and you can attend your session.
    • Rejected: Your booking is cancelled and the admin's reason is included in the notification.

While Waiting for Approval​

  • Your booking appears in My Bookings with a PENDING status badge.
  • The time slot remains reserved for you -- no one else can book it while your request is pending.
  • You can cancel a pending booking at any time without fees.
tip

If your facility has auto-approve enabled, you may not have to wait for manual approval. Bookings are automatically approved after the facility's configured timeout (commonly 30 minutes).

For Admins​

Enabling Approval​

To require approval for bookings at your facility:

  1. Navigate to Facility Settings > Booking Settings.
  2. Enable Require Booking Approval.
  3. Optionally, set the Auto-Approve After timeout (in minutes). If set, bookings that are not manually reviewed within this period are automatically approved.
  4. Save your settings.
SettingDescriptionExample
requireBookingApprovalWhether new bookings need admin approvalEnabled / Disabled
autoApproveAfterMinsMinutes before a pending booking is auto-approved30 minutes

Reviewing Pending Bookings​

When a new booking requires approval:

  1. You receive a notification that a booking is pending.
  2. Navigate to Bookings > Pending Approval in your admin dashboard.
  3. Review the booking details: player, resource, time, and booking type.
  4. Choose an action:
    • Click Approve to confirm the booking.
    • Click Reject to decline the booking. You must provide a reason.

Approving a Booking​

  1. Open the pending booking from the Pending Approval list.
  2. Review the details.
  3. Click Approve.
  4. The booking status updates to APPROVED and the player is notified.

Rejecting a Booking​

  1. Open the pending booking from the Pending Approval list.
  2. Review the details.
  3. Click Reject.
  4. Enter a reason for the rejection (required).
  5. The booking status updates to REJECTED, the time slot is released, and the player is notified with your reason.
warning

Rejection reasons are visible to the player. Keep them professional and clear -- for example, "This time slot is reserved for league play" or "Membership level does not include peak-hour booking."

Auto-Approve Behavior​

If you configure the autoApproveAfterMins setting:

  • When the timeout elapses and no admin has acted, the system automatically approves the booking.
  • The approval status is set to AUTO_APPROVED (distinct from manual APPROVED).
  • The player is notified that their booking has been approved.
  • This ensures players are not left waiting indefinitely if admins are unavailable.
caution

If you set the auto-approve timeout too short, bookings may be approved before you have a chance to review them. Choose a timeout that gives your staff enough time to respond during operating hours.

Admin-Created Bookings and Approval​

Bookings created by admins (via the admin booking flow) skip the approval step entirely. Since an admin is already involved in the creation, no further approval is needed. The approval status is set to NOT_REQUIRED.