Made with care for the volunteers who keep Britain's halls running.
Product updates
Everything we have changed, and when
Most of what is on this page started as an email from a village hall. We write these in the same words we send our
halls, so you can see for yourself how often this thing actually moves.
New under Settings: Import your data. If you are moving from another booking system, or keep things in a spreadsheet, you can bring across your rate cards, rooms, room prices, hirers, bookings and invoices instead of typing them in again. Your file can have any columns, named anything at all, because you match them up to ours on screen. Every import has an Undo button, and if a few rows will not go in you can download just those, correct them in Excel, and import that smaller file.
Fix
Payment reminders now count part payments
Reminder emails were asking for the full invoice amount even when a hirer had already paid some of it, and they showed the same hundred-times-too-small figure as invoice emails. Both are fixed, so a reminder now asks for exactly what is still outstanding. The View Invoice button in those emails also works properly now, taking the hirer straight to their invoice instead of a sign-in page.
Fix
Invoice emails showed the wrong amount
Invoice emails sent to hirers were showing the amount a hundred times too small, so a £44 invoice read as £0.44. The invoice itself and the PDF were always correct, and only the figure in the email was wrong. It is fixed, and any invoice you send from now on will show the right amount. If a hirer queried an odd-looking figure recently, that was why.
New feature
Put your enquiry form on your own website
The booking enquiry form can now be embedded on your village hall website, just like the calendar. Visitors enquire without leaving your site, and the form picks up your brand colour from Settings, Branding. Find the copy-and-paste snippets under Settings, Embed on Your Website.
New feature
Calendars now show finish times
Bookings on your public calendar and the calendar embedded on your own website now read "10:00-13:00 Yoga Class" instead of just the start time, so visitors can see exactly when the hall is free. Thanks to a suggestion from one of our venues.
Fix
Creating your first invoice now works for every venue
Some venues hit an error when raising their very first invoice, caused by a numbering clash behind the scenes. That is fixed - every venue's invoices now start cleanly at INV-00001 and count up from there.
New feature
Say how hirers can pay, in your own words
Only accept bank transfer? Under Finance, Payment Settings now has an Accepted Payment Methods box - whatever you write there appears on your invoice PDFs instead of the standard "BACS, cheque, or card" line. Leave it blank to keep the standard wording.
New feature
Help & Guides, and straight answers about security
The Getting Started page is now called Help & Guides so it is easier to spot at the top of your menu. And for your trustees, a new Security & Your Data page on our website explains in plain English where your data is stored, how it is protected, and that it is always yours to take with you.
New feature
One-click standard meeting agenda
Creating a meeting? Click "Insert standard agenda" and the usual seven items - apologies through to date of next meeting - appear ready to edit, instead of typing them out every time.
New feature
See the year ahead in your Reports
Finance Reports now include a Looking Ahead section: the income you can expect month by month from bookings already in the diary, with confirmed and provisional shown separately. Useful for treasurers forecasting the year.
New feature
Manage a whole series of bookings at once
Repeating bookings are now marked with a circular-arrows icon in your bookings list, you can filter to just the series, and a new "Cancel this & remaining sessions" action stops the rest of a term in one click - earlier sessions are left untouched.
New feature
Bookings on "the first Thursday of the month"
Repeating bookings gain a new option: monthly on the same weekday. Perfect for groups that meet on the first Thursday or last Friday rather than the same date each month.
Most of this came from a village hall asking
If your hall needs something this does not do yet, say so. That is how nearly everything above got built.