Frequently Asked Question
INVENTORY SETUP
Let Deskworks Support Help!
Signing up with Deskworks includes an in-depth onboarding process, during which Deskworks onboarding staff will assist you in building your Inventory. To get started please submit a ticket to us through our Support Page and let us know when you’d be ready to have a 30-60 minute meeting with us. We can discuss your products, prices, reservation units, and get that information formatted into a workbook we’ll use to populate your Deskworks site.
Manual/Self Set Up
If you wish to proceed with populating your site manually, below you will find information and instructions on how to do so. Please contact us with any questions by calling or submitting a Support Ticket.
Your Inventory
Your Inventory consists of 6 sections, and it is easiest to start setup at the top of the list and work your way down:
- Pricelists
- Membership Types/Categories
- Product Categories
- Products
- Reservation Types/Categories
- Reservation Unit
1. PRICELISTS
Pricelists are the tool that allows your Deskworks site to have multiple price-points for single products. Each user in Deskworks, whether Member or Non-member, can be on only a single Pricelist.
EXAMPLE: You have a room called Conference Room A and you want to charge your members $50/hour and non-members $75/hour. You will need to set up a Product called “Conference Room A per Hour” to begin. That single Product can then have two Pricelists attached to it – one Pricelist for Members and one for Non-Members. The Members Pricelist for the product can have a cost of $50, and the Non-members Pricelist a cost of $75 (see instructions for creating a Product below). If you do this, when an order is created for a member using the Conference Room A per Hour Product, they will automatically be charged $50; Non-members will automatically be charged $75.
To set up a Pricelist:
- Go to Inventory>Pricelists
- Click Add+
- Fill in Name as appropriate (you want this to be descriptive of the level of membership the Pricelist applies to – so, “Member” or “Non-Member” or “Office Member”, “Desk Member”, “Virtual Member”, etc., where each Pricelist reflects a group of users/clients that get a unique pricing scheme)
- In “Use This Pricelist for" select Members or Non-members (if set to None, this Pricelist will not be available to use).
- Check the box “Visible for Visitors During Registration” to display prices on the Simple Reservation/Book It Now calendars.
2. MEMBERSHIP TYPES
Membership Types (AKA Membership Categories) are used as broad groupings into which you can organize the membership Products you offer the public. Common Membership Types would be “Office Memberships” or “Desk Memberships” or “Virtual Office/Mailbox Memberships”. Within each of these Types/Categories you can have several different membership Products (which you’ll create via the Products page later). So, for instance, you may have Membership Type “Desk Memberships”, which is the broad type/category that Desk Membership A for $100, Desk Membership B for $200, and Desk Membership C for $250 are included within. This level of organization is primarily visible on your Self-Registration system, where new members will first select the Membership Type (“Desk Memberships”, etc.) they are interested, and then the membership plan/Product (“Desk Membership A”, etc.) within that Type.
To create new Membership Types:
- Go to Inventory>Membership Types
- Click Add+
- Name the Type/Category, and enter the description you’d like members to see during Self Registration if they click on the Type/Category to sign up
3. PRODUCT CATEGORIES
A common question we hear is "Why do we need Product Categories AND Products"? The answer is the Income By Item report Deskworks includes. This report is your “Accrual” report that shows bills generated in a given time period, regardless of if they’ve been paid off. The billing items shown on this report are broken out into Subtotals, allowing you to see how much income different groupings of Products are bringing in for you. You group products together on the Income By Item report by placing those products into Product Categories.
Product Categories themselves are just numeric codes formatted as X-XX. Each Product Category should begin with a number between 1 and 4. That first digit will indicate the following:
1 – Product is for Membership or Registration
2 – Product is for Rental Hours (reservation/day pass/usage of physical space in facility)
3 – Product is for Printing
4 – Product is for a Service (a Service being anything that does not fall into one of the above groups)
After this first digit there is a dash and two additional digits. These digits identify the Product Category itself, and they can be whatever you wish. For instance, if you refer back to the screenshot above, you’ll see that both the Product Category numbers for "Private Office, Full Time" and for "Virtual Office - Mailbox" begin with 1, because both are Membership products. If you were creating a Product Category for Conference Room Rentals, you would begin that Product Category number with “2”, because Conference Room rentals would be considered “Rental Hours”.
SAMPLE:
To create Product Categories:
- Go to Inventory>Product Categories
- Click Add+ to open a new set of fields
- In the blank fields that appear, enter the Product Category number (1-03, 4-09, etc.) into the left field; enter the name of the Category into the right-hand field
The new Category will automatically save after a moment - no need to click a "Save" button.
4. PRODUCTS
There are 5 different kinds of Products you can create in Deskworks: Registration, Membership, Rental Hours, Print, and Services. Products are broken into these distinct types based on differing options available for each type.
Membership Products:
- Name: This is the name of your product, as it will appear throughout your Deskworks system and on all invoices.
- Description: Product Descriptions are public facing only for Membership Products which you make available for Self-Registration and Rental Hours products displayed on the Book It Now calendar.
- Item Category: Drop-down menu to select the appropriate Product Category.
- Item Number: A 2-digit number unique to the product. This number only has to be unique within the chosen Item Category (e.g. You should not have two products with the code "2-0100" - each product in the "2-01" Item Category should have a unique Item Number after it - "2-0100", "2-0101", "2-0102", etc.)
- Product Type: Select between Membership, Registration, Rental Hours, Print and Services – your selection determines the settings available for the Product.
- Membership Category: Select the most appropriate. See Membership Category section above for more information.
- Billing Frequency: You can set memberships to automatically bill either by the Month, Quarter, Semi-Annual (6 mo.), Annual (1 year), or As Needed (Pay as you go/Punchcard/Bucket of hours or days). Keep in mind – if you set up a member with ONLY a Quarterly, Semi Annual, or Annual product as their Recurring Billing, reservations and other usage will NOT be captured each month.
- Has Reservation Credit: Check this box if you want to give your members free time in meeting rooms or other spaces. Reservation Credits are a pool, the hours or dollars you give members in Reservation Credit can be used toward ANY space that is reserved on your calendar (which you allow use of credits on).
- Has Passes: Check this box if you want to give members free time in a specific room, or if you want to give only a certain number of day passes/days of use per month. The time and room you give them Passes for is controlled via #10 below.
- Product To Use For Pass: This menu is only available if you check the box “Has Passes”. The drop-down menu will list all your Rental Hours products – select one to give to members with this product.
- Count Check Ins per: This menu is only available if you check the box “Has Passes”. Set to “Co-member" if you want Co-members checked in simultaneously to be counted separately (e.g. if two co-members are checked in for one hour and have passes for Café 1 Hour product, two Café 1 Hour passes will be used). Set to “Company” if you want check ins to count only towards organizations as a whole (e.g. if two co-members are checked in for one hour and have passes for Café 1 Hour product, only a single Café 1 Hour pass will be deducted).
- Can only Reserve During Non-Member Hours: Not commonly used. If checked, any member with this product set as their Recurring Billing will only be able to book rooms on your Reservation Calendar during Non-Member hours (see Reservation Units section below for more on Member/Non-member calendar rules).
- Taxable: Only applies if you have set up a Tax in Setup>Facilities. If Tax is created and this box is checked, additional Tax fee at the rate defined in Setup>Facilities will be applied to all orders with this product automatically.
- Hide for Self-Registration: Check this box if you do NOT want members to be able to self-register for this product.
- Has Registration Fee: Check if you want your Registration products to automatically apply to the first order automatically created for newly registered members on this product.
Registration Products:
All options/settings for Registration Products also exist on Membership Products – see above for field-specific instructions.
You should only need one Registration product. You can put this Registration Product on as many Pricelists as you like, with differing rates. If Registration fees differ from one membership product to another, you’ll need each Membership Product to exist ONLY on the Pricelist that matches the Registration product Pricelist at the correct rate.
EXAMPLE: If you have Membership A with a Registration fee of $25 and Membership B has a Registration fee of $50, you would need to have two Pricelists for these products. Create Pricelist 1 and Pricelist 2. In the Registration Fee product, add Pricelist 1 with a cost of $25 and Pricelist 2 with a cost of $50 (see “Adding Pricelists” below). Then in your Membership A product add ONLY Pricelist 1, and in Membership B add ONLY Pricelist 2. Those signing up for Membership A will have a $25 Registration fee automatically applied to their first order, those in Membership B will have a $50 Registration fee applied.
Rental Hours Products:
- Name: This is the name of your product, as it will appear throughout your Deskworks system and on all invoices.
- Description: Rental Hours Product descriptions are not public facing.
- Item Category: Drop-down menu to select the appropriate Product Category.
- Item Number: A 2-digit number unique to the product. This number only has to be unique within the chosen Item Category (e.g. You should not have two products with the code "2-0100" - each product in the "2-01" Item Category should have a unique Item Number after it - "2-0100", "2-0101", "2-0102", etc.)
- Product Type: Select between Membership, Registration, Rental Hours, Print and Services – your selection determines the remaining settings available for the Product.
- Can Be Used With Reservation Credits: Check this box if you would like members with Reservation Credits to be able to use them towards the room this product applies to.
- Can Be Bought on Splash Page: Applies only to Deskwork clients with our Network Check In feature. If you have Network Check In the Splash Page is your sign-in screen that pops up when members connect to your internet. If you would like non-members visiting your location to be able to buy the product self-serve, checking this box will create a link for them to do so – all they have to do is connect to your network and follow the prompts. The non-member will then have a network connection until the end of the day.
- Taxable: Only applies if you have set up a Tax in Setup>Facilities. If Tax is created and this box is checked, additional Tax fee at the rate defined in Setup>Facilities will be applied to all orders automatically.
- Pass Size (hours): This is the field where you can define the number of hours included in a reservation for the price you will later attach to this product. For example, in Rental Hours Products screenshot above we see a “Conference Room Lg., per Day” product. It’s Pass Size is “8” which means that this product applies to reservations that are 8 or more hours.
- Min. Time Billed after First Pass: This menu sets how you will bill for time above the Pass Size. If a user exceeds the highest pass time available, they can be billed in ¼ hour, ½, 1 hour, or 2 hour increments. For example, if a member books a room that is only billed per hour, the Pass Size for that Product would be 1. If the member books 1.5 hours in that room, if you have the Min. Time Billed after First Pass set to “1/4 hr” they will be billed for 1 hour plus 0.25 of an hour, and another 0.25 of an hour. If you set the Min. Time Billed After First Pass to 1 Hour, though, then if they booked for 1.5 they would be billed for 2 hours, since the minimum time that can be billed for is 1 hour after the first pass is billed.
- Max Passes Billed in 24 Hour Period: Limits the number of passes that can be billed in a 24 period. For example, if you want members to be able to book a room for whatever length of time they wish, but they should never be billed for more than 2 hours, then you’d set this to “2” – once they’ve been billed for 2 hours on that date, they will not be billed for their further time in that specific room.
- Reservation Category: The Reservation Category setting acts as the bridge or middle-man between the pricing you establish on a Rental Hours product and your Reservation Calendar. All your Reservation Units (see below) will also have a Reservation Category setting. When a member makes a reservation, Deskworks will first look to see what Reservation Category the room reserved is in. The software will then review all Rental Hours Products with that same Reservation Category and select the most appropriate Rental Hours product to use for billing based on Pass Size (e.g. if a 5 hour reservation is placed and Deskworks sees there are three Rental Hours Products available in the Reservation Category, one with Pass Size 1, one with Pass Size 4, and one with Pass Size 8, Deskworks will bill using the Product with Pass Size 4 since the reservation duration of 5 hours is greater than 4 but less than 8).
Print Products:
Print Products are very straightforward – simply name them and select whether they are Taxable. You’re done!
Service Products:
Service Products are any products that do not fit into another type. This can include anything from Admin services (such as document creation, filing work, etc.), storage, parking, food and beverages – anything at all. All setup for Service Products is the same as mentioned above, but there are two things to point out:
- Billing Frequency: Services, like Membership Products, can be set up as Recurring Billings for your members (so, for instance, you can charge them automatically each month for Parking, etc.). This is why “Billing Frequency” is included in settings for this Product Type.
- Hide for Self-Registration: Services can be added to an initial bill via Self-Registration by the member themselves. If you do not want a particular service to be visible to your members during Self-Registration, check the box to “Hide for Self-Registration”.
Adding Pricelists:
Once you’ve completed setting up the options discussed above, you’ll need to click Save. When you do this, a new section of the Product Edit page titled “Pricelists” will open that looks like this:
This is the section of a Product where you will define the Cost, Reservation Credit balance, and Pass balance for the product. To add a Pricelist to the Product, click “Add a Pricelist” and select the pricelist you wish to add from the menu that appears.
Adding Pricelists to Membership Products -
Membership Products should only ever have ONE Pricelist attached to them, and that Pricelist must be set to work with Members. If you attach multiple Pricelists to a Membership, the system will always default to applying the price from the first Pricelist added to the Product, or the least expensive Pricelist option if pricing differs.
Depending on what boxes you checked while setting up a Membership Product, you’ll have the following fields to fill in:
Passes: Enter the amount of passes you wish the member to receive per month/quarter/year/etc.
Credit: Enter the amount of Credits you wish the member to receive per month/quarter/year/etc. (Credits can be in either dollars or hours – see Setup>Settings>Reservations>Reservation Credit Unit)
Price: Enter the price of for the product.
When you’ve entered values for all fields, click the checkmark icon to the right of the Price field to save.
Adding Pricelists to All Other Products -
All Products aside from Membership can have as many Pricelists as you would like. If you do not attach an existing Pricelist to a Product, any user on that Pricelist (see their Members>View/Edit Profile screen) will NOT be billed for using that product – this is especially important for Rental Hours products/reservation billing.
Once you’ve added all appropriate Pricelists to a Product, enter the price for each Pricelist. Finally, click the checkmark icon to save the price you’ve entered. You’re done!
5. RESERVATION TYPES/CATEGORIES
Reservation Types/Categories are the broad categories into which you can organize similar Reservation Units. All Reservation Units assigned to a single Reservation Category MUST be offered at the same price. If two Reservation Units have different pricing, they CANNOT be in the same Reservation Category.
EXAMPLE: Your space has 15 Flex Desks and 2 Conference Rooms. You charge $15/hr for each Flex Desk, but Conference Room 1 is $50/hour and Conference Room 2 is $60/hour. You would need three Reservation Categories: “Flex Desks”, “Conference Room 1” and “Conference Room 2”. (See above: PRODUCTS>Rental Hours Products>#12 “Reservation Categories” for an explanation of why the two Conference Rooms cannot be in the same Category due to price differences)
To create a Reservation Category:
- Enter a Name for the category
- Enter a Description in the large field on the page
- Set Cancellation Notice requirements for all Units in that Category (e.g. if you set Cancellation Notice Required for Members “24” your members will not be able to cancel their reservations within the 24 hour immediately before their reservation start time)
- Add Photos
Photos and Descriptions added to Reservation Categories will be visible to users on your Book It Now or Simple Reservation Calendars (which can be linked to from your website). Please note that:
- The first photo you upload will be the “Featured” photo which users will see first. Further photos added will be able to be scrolled through.
- When adding the photo use the “Add+” button in the bottom right. If you click the “Pencil” icon directly below an existing photo or the gray “Photo” placeholder, you will not be able to add a photo.
6. RESERVATION UNITS
The Reservation Units page should list all spaces in your facility that can be:
- Rented via the Reservation Calendar
- Occupied full time by a member
Open, shared areas of seating – anywhere in which seating is first come/first serve – can be left out of the Reservation Units.
To create a new Reservation Unit, click Add+ at the bottom of the Reservation Unit page (for those centers with multiple locations – be sure you’re Current Center is set to the center you need! The Reservation Units page is center-specific!). Enter the name, select the Reservation Category the unit should go into, and add a description if you wish (visible via the Book It Now/Simple Reservation calendars).
There is a checkbox marked “Sync with Calendar” – this and the Calendar ID fields are used for Calendar Integration. See Google Calendar Sync section of the Knowledgebase.
Reservation Unit Calendar Rules
Once you’ve saved a Reservation Unit, if you set the "Who Can Reserve?" field shown in the screenshot above to “Anyone”, “Members” or “Non-members” you will see the full Reservation Calendar Rules area, as also shown in the screenshot above. You can control when members and non-members can and cannot reserve the space via these settings:
- Who Can Reserve? This can be set to Anyone (any member can reserve for themselves, and non-members can reserve via the Book It Now or Simple Reservation calendars IF they pay upfront), Members (only Active Members and Co-members can reserve the unit), Non-members (Only non-members can reserve the unit, and only via the Book It Now or Simple Reservation calendars by paying upfront), Staff Only (the unit will still be visible on your calendar but anyone trying to book it will be referred to contact your staff), and Not Available (the unit will be hidden from the calendar).
- Full Time Product/Price: This can be set if a unit can be taken full-time by a member. Select from the drop-down the Membership Product that coincides with the space (e.g. Flex Desk 4 is available on the calendar now, but if someone took it full time they would be a Dedicated Desk member for $300/month, therefore select “Dedicated Desk $300.00” from the Full Time Product/Price menu)
- Minimum Reservable Time: Set the least amount of time you want a Member or Non-member to be able to book the unit – you can have different rules for members or non-members.
- Maximum Hours/Day/Person: This is “Maximum Hours per Day per Person”. This setting is most commonly “Unlimited”. If there is a particular room that you do not want anyone to be able to book for more than a set number of hours per day, though, you can define that here.
- Days In Advance Reservation Permitted: Set how many days in advance a reservation can be made. (e.g. if you do not want anyone to book your conference room more than 30 days in advance, you would set this to 30 Days)
- Member Rules: In the Daily Rules section (Sun, Mon, Tues., etc.) you can also set different availability times for Members or Non-members. In the screenshot above you can see that Members are set to Available. When availability is set this way, it means that members can book on that day at any time from 12 AM to 11:59PM. For information on limiting availability, see #7 and #8 below.
- Add Hour Restrictions: The “+” button allows you to add one level of time restriction to the rules for a particular day. If you refer to #8 below, you’ll see that non-member rules for Monday are limited to 9AM to 5PM – click the + button to open the fields where “9AM” and “5PM” appear. You can add multiple levels of restrictions – for example, if you wanted a unit to be available from 9AM to 12PM, then unavailable for one hour, but available again from 1PM to 5PM, you would click + once to open fields for 9AM and 12PM, then click + again to open fields to enter 1PM and 5PM. You can add as many levels of restriction as you wish.
- Non-Member Rules: This is the Non-Member row for setting calendar rules. By default non-members are restricted to having access to units only Monday-Friday, between 9AM and 5PM, but you can reset these restrictions however you wish. To reset rules consistently for each day, set the rules you want as described above in #7, then click the menu in that day reading “Available”. You’ll see options to “Copy From Mon”, “Copy from Tues”, etc. – if you select “Copy from Tues.” in the Wed. column, the Wednesday time restrictions will re-format to be identical to Tuesday.
- Use Default Facility Rules: The Use Default Facility Rules button allows you to create a set of rules once, then immediately apply those rules to any new Unit you create. If you go to Setup>Facilities, edit your facility, and scroll to the bottom of the page that comes up you’ll find the area where you can set these Default Rules. Set them on that page, then when you create any new Reservation Unit if you want it’s rules to match the Default Rules, just click the button!
Any changes made to the Active Reservation Calendar Rules or the Default Calendar Rules areas will auto-save immediately.