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.
Add the type of event, numbers, privacy and notes when booking from the app
Making a booking in the Village Hall Hub app now asks the same optional questions the website does. Tap Diary, then New booking, and under Anything else you can put the type of event, how many people are coming, whether it is a private booking, notes for the committee, and notes for the hirer. Private bookings show as Private booking on your public calendar, without the name, and a hirer you have marked as always private is ticked private for you. Committee notes stay with the committee; notes for the hirer appear on the booking in their app and portal. Update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play to get this.
New feature
App
Hirers can see which times are already booked before they ask
Hirers asking for a booking in the Village Hall Hub app were choosing a time without knowing whether the room was free, and you found out first. Now, on the Book tab, once they pick a room and a day, the app lists the times already taken that day, and warns them if the times they have chosen overlap one. They can still send the request - you may be able to move something round - so nothing is refused on their behalf. Days the hall is shut, set under Bookings, then Holidays & Closures, show as closed, and if you leave a gap between bookings under Bookings, then Booking Settings, Changeover Buffer, the times shown include it. Hirers only ever see that a time is taken, never whose booking it is. They will need to update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play to get this.
New feature
App
Ring or email a hirer or a committee member with one tap
In the Village Hall Hub app, tap More, then Hirers or Committee. Telephone numbers and email addresses are now links: tap a number to ring it, or an email address to start an email. Press and hold instead to copy it, for when it is going into a text. Update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play to get this.
New feature
App
Switch between your halls from the top of the app
If you are on the committee at more than one hall, you no longer have to sign out and back in to move between them. In the Village Hall Hub app, tap the hall's name at the top of the Today, Diary or Money screen - it has a small arrow beside it when you have more than one hall - and choose the other hall from the list. The whole app changes over to that hall. Going back to a hall you have opened on that phone before is instant, and works even with no signal. Anybody on one committee sees the hall's name as before, with nothing to tap. Update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play to get this.
New feature
App
Your hirers can be told on their phone when a booking is confirmed or an invoice arrives
Hirers who use the Village Hall Hub app can now get notifications on their phone as well as email: when you confirm a booking they asked for, when you send them an invoice, when an invoice is due or overdue, the morning of their booking to say their door code is waiting in the app, and, if you ask hirers how it went, the day after. The door code itself is never shown on the phone's lock screen - it is one tap away inside the app. Each hirer chooses which ones they get by tapping the settings cog at the top of the app. Nothing changes about the emails they get, and there is nothing for you to set up. Your hirers will need to update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play to get this.
New feature
App
The app can now tell you straight away when something needs the hall
The Village Hall Hub app can now send notifications to your phone, as well as the emails you already get. The first time you open the app after updating, it explains what it would tell you and asks whether you want them; you can say Not now. You can be told when somebody asks to book, when a hirer confirms or lets go of their pencilled-in dates, when a hirer reports something broken, when a hirer pays an invoice by card, when an email to a hirer bounces, and when a safety check, maintenance job or compliance item comes due. Each one goes to the same people who get that email today; if your hall's emails go to a shared address like bookings@, they go to the committee members who look after that part of the hall. Tapping one opens the right place in the app, and switches hall first if it is about another hall you sit on. To choose which ones you get, tap More, then Settings, and use the switches under Notifications. Emails carry on exactly as before. Update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play to get this.
Fix
App
Long lists in the app no longer stop at a hundred
In the Village Hall Hub app, the hirer list, payments, invoices, compliance items, volunteer hours and a busy week of bookings each stopped after the first hundred, without saying so - so a hall with a long history could not find an older hirer or payment on the phone. They now show everything, the same as the website. Hirers' own bookings and invoices in the app are fixed the same way. Update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play to get this.
New feature
App
A week at a glance in the app's diary
Tap Diary in the Village Hall Hub app and the week is now along the top: seven days with a dot under each for its bookings, and the day you are looking at filled in. Tap a day to see what is on, swipe across the week or use the arrows to move a week at a time, and tap the calendar button at the top right to jump to any date. Back to today appears whenever you are looking at another day. Update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play to get this.
New feature
App
Answer enquiries from your phone, and turn one down with a word to the hirer
When somebody has asked to book and is waiting for an answer, the Today screen in the Village Hall Hub app now says so at the top - for example 3 enquiries waiting. Tap it for the list, soonest first, with what each person wrote when they asked. Tap one to answer it: Confirm this booking (the hirer is emailed, as on the website), Pencil it in for now to hold the room, or Say no. Saying no from the app offers to email the hirer for you, with a reason in your own words if you want to give one - or switch that off if you would rather ring them. A pencilled-in booking can now be confirmed or turned down from the app too. Declining on the website is unchanged and still tells nobody. Update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play to get this.
New feature
App
Change a booking's details from the app
Open any booking in the Village Hall Hub app - from Today, the Diary or a hirer's page - and tap Change the details. You can change what it is called, the day and times, how many people are coming, whether it is private, and the note the hirer can see. If a new time clashes with another booking in the same room, the app says so and nothing is changed. Moving a booking to another room or hirer, or changing what it costs, is still done on the website. Update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play to get this.
New feature
App
Open an invoice in the app, see its PDF, and look up paid ones
Tap Money in the Village Hall Hub app, then any invoice, to see it in full: every line it charges for, each payment made against it, what is still owed, and a See the invoice as a PDF button that opens the same PDF the hirer was sent - handy for forwarding. Record a payment is there too while anything is owed. Above the list, Unpaid, Paid and All let you look up invoices that have already been settled. Update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play to get this.
New feature
App
Each hirer has their own page in the app
In the Village Hall Hub app, tap More, then Hirers, then any hirer. Their page shows how to reach them - tap the number to ring it - and underneath, two tabs: Coming up, with what they have booked from today on, and Invoices, with every invoice they have had and anything still owed at the top. What they owe is on the Invoices tab itself, so you can see it without opening it. Tap a booking to see it or answer it, or an invoice to open it. Correct these details, at the top, is where changing their phone number or address now lives. Update Village Hall Hub from the App Store or Google Play to get this.
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.