Setup and Configuration

FLEET Booking lets your organisation manage a pool of shared vehicles that staff can book for use. This article covers how to set up and configure the booking system.

For information on how to use the booking calendar day-to-day, see Booking an Asset. For commuter use and private use booking setup, see Commuter Use and Private Use Bookings. For maintenance scheduling, see Managing Pool Vehicle Maintenance. For charging configuration, see Booking Charging. For KeyWatcher setup, see KeyWatcher Configuration.

Initial Setup

To get the pool booking system running, complete these steps in order:

Create one or more vehicle pools
Assign assets to those pools
Review and configure the booking system settings
Assign pools to user accounts

Additional steps may be needed depending on your organisation's requirements — for example, setting up allocations, configuring hire rates, or setting up KeyWatcher integration.

Booking Configuration Settings

The Configuration page controls the overall behaviour of the booking calendar. To access it, navigate to the System Administrator Menu, open the Asset Booking dropdown, and select Configuration.

Changes saved on this page take effect immediately but will not appear on any browser window that has the booking calendar already open — those users will need to refresh their page.

Booking Behaviour

These settings control what the booking calendar allows and how it responds to certain conditions.

Setting	What it does
Disallow selection when an asset has an outstanding Urgent Daily Driver	When turned on, assets with an unresolved urgent Daily Driver fault are automatically blocked out in the calendar until the fault is resolved.
Disallow selection when an asset has an active Safety Tag	When turned on, assets with an active Safety Tag are automatically blocked out until the tag is removed.
Disallow selection in non-hire hours	When turned on, bookings cannot be created outside the hire hours set on an asset. Users with an allocation to that asset are exempt from this restriction.
Allow users to book assets for other users not part of the asset's pool	When turned on, users can create a booking on behalf of someone who is not a member of that vehicle pool, by selecting them in the Requested By field.
Allow users with allocation to book during unavailable times	When turned on, users with an allocation for an asset can ignore that asset's unavailable block-out times when creating bookings.
Maximum Booking Duration (hours)	Sets the maximum length a booking can be across the whole system. If a maximum booking duration is also set on an individual asset, that value takes priority over this setting.
Cancel booking if not commenced within (minutes)	Bookings that are not commenced within this many minutes of their start time are automatically cancelled. Leave blank to disable automatic cancellation. Users with an allocation to that asset are exempt.
Auto Disable Repair Booking Handling	Controls how the auto-disable block-out function behaves when an asset has scheduled maintenance.
Default auto commence / auto close	When turned on, all new bookings will have auto commence and auto close checked by default.
Disallow editing of auto commence / auto close checkboxes	When turned on, users cannot change the auto commence or auto close setting on their own bookings.
Show repeat booking fields	Must be turned on for the repeat booking feature to appear for any users. Turning this off hides the feature from everyone.

Permission Settings

These settings are applied per account type — select which account types the permission should apply to.

Setting	What it does
Permission to book an asset during unavailable times	Selected account types can create bookings regardless of an asset's unavailability.
Permission to book multiple assets	Selected account types can create overlapping bookings for different assets.
Permission to create a booking which exceeds the maximum booking duration	Selected account types can override the maximum booking duration.
Permission to edit non-commuter use bookings	Selected account types can edit any booking that was not auto-generated for an allocated commuter use driver.
Permission to edit commuter use bookings	Selected account types can edit automatically generated bookings for allocated commuter use drivers.
Permission to access bulk update functions	Selected account types can see the bulk cancel, close, and delete booking buttons in the Bookings panel on the Asset Booking page.
Permission to generate repeat bookings	Selected account types can use the repeat booking tool. Requires Show repeat booking fields to be turned on.
Permission to view closed bookings	Selected account types will see closed bookings displayed on the calendar.
Permission to view cancelled bookings	Selected account types will see cancelled bookings displayed on the calendar.
Disallow booking maintenance	Selected account types cannot commence, close, or update their own bookings. They can still cancel bookings.
Display resources with link	Selected account types will see asset names as clickable links to the asset's page in the booking calendar.
Collapse locations other than user location on form load	For selected account types, the calendar will load with their own location expanded and all other locations collapsed.
Permission to view 'Maintenance' booking reason	Selected account types can see Maintenance as an option in the Reason for Booking dropdown. Note that Maintenance must be listed in the Booking Reason Options field for this to work.
Show Commence / Close booking buttons for KeyWatcher assets	Selected account types will see commence and close buttons on bookings for KeyWatcher-enabled assets.

Note: Displaying cancelled bookings can make it difficult to select exact times on the calendar where a cancelled booking overlaps. Consider limiting this permission to account types that need to review cancellations.

Booking Form Fields

These settings control which optional fields appear on the booking creation form. Each field can be set to hidden, shown, or mandated. Mandating a field means it must be filled in before a booking can be created.

Field	What it captures
Display Booking Notes	A free-text notes field for the booking.
Display Booking Reason	A dropdown or free-text field for the reason the asset is being booked.
Display Booking Destination Map	A map where the user selects where they will be using the asset.
Display Job	A Job or Account Code to associate with the booking.
Display Phone	The phone number of the person the booking is for. Defaults to the mobile number on their account, or work number if no mobile is set.
Show Resource Details in Tooltip	Selects which asset information is shown in a tooltip when a user hovers over an asset in the booking calendar.

Booking Reason Options

The Booking Reason Options field sets the list of options available in the Reason for Booking dropdown. Enter options as comma-separated values. To make Maintenance available as a reason, it must be listed here with a capital M.

Calendar Display

Colours for different booking statuses and calendar states can be customised. Each colour has a picker and a reset button that returns it to the default.

Colour setting	What it applies to
Timeline Header Colour	The header row at the top of the calendar
Timeline Alt Header Colour	The alternating header colour
Asset Unavailable Colour	Periods when an asset is blocked out as unavailable
Asset Tagged Out Colour	Periods when an asset has an active Safety Tag
Urgent DD Colour	Periods when an asset has an urgent Daily Driver fault
Asset Repair Colour	Periods when an asset is blocked out for maintenance
Commuter Use Colour	Auto-generated bookings for commuter use allocations
Non-Commuter Use Colour	Standard bookings
Reserved Status Colour	Bookings with a Reserved status
Hire Commenced Status Colour	Bookings that have been commenced
Cancelled Status Colour	Cancelled bookings (if visible)
Closed Status Colour	Closed bookings (if visible)
Maintenance Booking Colour	Bookings with Maintenance selected as the reason
Leave Booking Colour	Bookings with Leave selected as the reason

Display disabled reason in cells — when turned on, the reason an asset is unavailable is shown as text inside the blocked-out cell on the calendar.

Resource Sort Order

Controls the order assets appear in the left-hand column of the booking calendar.

Setting	What it does
Resource Sort Field	Sort assets by number of hires, alphabetically by name, alphabetically by asset type, or alphabetically by make.
Resource Sort Direction	Set sort order to ascending or descending.
Number of days to capture booking documents for resource booking counts	The number of days used to calculate the hire count displayed next to each asset. Minimum 7 days, maximum 180 days.

Vehicle Use Policy

A vehicle use policy can be displayed to users the first time they open the booking calendar. Users must acknowledge the policy before they can make a booking.

Setting	What it does
Vehicle Use Policy	The policy text shown to users. Updating this field will reset acknowledgements for all users, prompting them to re-acknowledge the new policy.
Delay Before Acknowledge (seconds)	The number of seconds a user must wait before the acknowledge button becomes available. Set to 0 to allow immediate acknowledgement.
Test Display Vehicle Policy	Opens the policy exactly as it will appear to users, including the acknowledgement delay. Use this to preview the policy before publishing changes.

Account Notifications

Automatically create notification document for new accounts — when turned on, any new user account created in the system will automatically be subscribed to booking confirmation notification emails.

To subscribe all existing users in bulk, see the bulk update process in Managing User Access below.

Vehicle Pools

A vehicle pool links assets and user accounts. Users can only book assets that belong to a pool they have access to. Both assets and users can belong to multiple pools, which allows flexible access arrangements across your organisation.

Creating a Pool

From the System Administrator Menu, open the Asset Booking dropdown and select Pool Management.
Select New Pool.
Enter a Name for the pool.
Optionally enter Notes about the pool's purpose.
Optionally select an Icon and Icon Colour for the pool.
Save the changes.

Adding Assets to a Pool

From Pool Management:

From the System Administrator Menu, open the Asset Booking dropdown and select Pool Management.
Select the pool the asset belongs to.
In the Pool Details panel, select the asset in the Select Asset field and then select Add Asset To Pool.

Alternatively, from the asset's page:

Navigate to the asset and open the Booking / Hire panel.
Add the applicable pool or pools to the Vehicle Hire Pool field.
Save the changes.

Modifying a Pool

To update an existing pool, navigate to it from the table on the Pool Management page. Users and assets that have been added to the pool are listed in tables on the pool document.

Configuring Assets for Booking

Minimum Requirements

For an asset to appear in the booking calendar it must:

Have an Asset Status of Active
Be assigned to at least one vehicle pool

Assets with any other status are excluded from the booking calendar. Asset Status is the lifecycle status found in the Classification panel — not to be confused with the hire status, which is updated automatically by the system when an asset has an active booking.

To set an asset's status to Active:

Navigate to the asset and open the Classification panel.
Set Asset Status to Active.
Save the changes.

Location

Setting a location on an asset determines which group it appears under in the booking calendar. Locations need to exist before they can be assigned to assets.

To create a location:

From the System Administrator Menu, open the Asset Booking dropdown and select Pool Management.
In the Locations panel, select New Location.
Fill in the location details and save.

To set the location on an asset:

Navigate to the asset and open the Classification panel.
Select the appropriate location in the Location field.
Save the changes.

Available Hire Times

Available hire times define when an asset can be booked. For assets with allocated users, commuter use bookings are automatically generated for periods when the asset is listed as unavailable — so setting these times accurately is important for any asset that has an allocation.

Navigate to the asset and open the Booking / Hire panel.
Select the days the asset is available in Available For Hire Days. If no days are selected, the asset is available every day.
Set a Day Start Time and Day End Time. Note that days must be selected before times can be set.
Save the changes.

Maximum Booking Duration

To set a booking duration limit for a single asset that overrides the system-wide maximum:

Navigate to the asset and open the Booking / Hire panel.
Enter the maximum duration in hours in the Max. Booking Duration (hrs) field.
Save the changes.

For hire rate configuration, see Booking Charging.

Managing User Access

Giving a Single User Access to a Pool

Navigate to the user's account and open the User Business Role Details panel.
Select the appropriate pool or pools in the Vehicle Hire Pool field.
Save the changes.

Bulk-Assigning Users to a Pool

From the System Administrator Menu, open the System Administration dropdown and select Account Management.
Under the User Accounts panel, select Account Bulk Update.
Select the accounts to update from the table.
Select the pools to assign in the Vehicle Hire Pool field.
Select Update/Create and wait for the bulk update to complete before navigating away.

Users can also be added to a pool directly from the pool document in Pool Management.

Bulk-Subscribing Users to Booking Notifications

To subscribe all existing users to booking confirmation emails in a single step:

From the System Administrator Menu, open the System Administration dropdown and select Account Management.
Under the User Accounts panel, select Account Bulk Update.
In the Create Booking Notification Documents panel, select Create Notifications and wait for the update to complete before navigating away.

Allocations

Users can be allocated to specific assets. An allocation gives the user special booking permissions for that asset and can automatically generate commuter use bookings for them during the asset's unavailable hire times.

For full setup instructions, see Commuter Use and Private Use Bookings. Learn more about Allocations.

Published: April 2026 · Formbird FLEET 4.2.8