Activity Schedules are created through the menu item Setup Your Activities → Master Schedules.

The Master Schedule page will display a list of all current activity schedules, which can be expanded to include expired schedules in red by checking the ‘Show inactive?’ box.

If an operator provides just one activity, which always runs to the same schedule (ie, their trips depart every day throughout the year at 9am, 12pm, and 3pm), they may just have one Master Schedule, but most operators will have several active at any given time.

Separate Master Schedules are required for each activity, but multiple schedules are also needed for the same activity if departures have differing capacities, or run at different times depending on the day of week, the month, or the season. In addition, trip departures can only be combined on one schedule if they are timed for the same minutes past the hour, so departures at 8am and 1.30pm will require two concurrent Master Schedules.

It is common therefore, to have several Master Schedules coexistent for the same activity. As an example, shown in the image above - the operator runs an additional departure at 5.30pm on weekend days only; so this schedule has to be created separately from the daily departures of 12pm, 2pm, and 4pm.

Creating a Master Schedule

All activities must have a Master Schedule in order for them to be ‘bookable’ on the RTBS booking platforms of the TMO, CRS, or OBL. That being said; once the Master Schedule is set, if the activity is set as ‘Active’ and that ‘Operator/Agents/OBL Can Book’, it will become immediately visible and available for booking through these systems, so it is important that either all the activity information and pricing is correct prior to establishing the schedule, or the activity status is kept as ‘unavailable’ while these details are completed.

To create a Master Schedule, click the ‘New Entry’ tab in the top left corner of the Master Schedule Screen. Select the relevant Activity Id (name) from the dropdown list, and enter an appropriate Master Schedule Id. It’s good practice to include departure times whenever possible in the Master Schedule Id, as this can be helpful for quick reference when looking at the Master Schedule main page in future. The Season Id is optional, but it can sometimes help to identify an unfamiliar Master Schedule. ‘Capacity’ is a very important field, as this dictates how many spaces are available to be booked by frontline agents and through the OBL. Operators should not be so cautious as to enter their minimum capacity in this box, but rather than ‘normal’ availability, as individual trip capacities can be altered later or day-by-day through the ‘Manage Availability’ tab. For more information on this, see How to Close off Trip Capacity.

The schedule is set by selecting the relevant Hour(s) and the Minutes past the hour of departure, the Months in which these departures will take place, the Days of each month affected, the applicable Years, for which Weeks in each month, and the relevant Days of the Week.

Note: It is always worth setting up a Master Schedule for a few years, even if the activity schedule may undergo several changes in that time period. Master Schedules can always be altered or deleted at a later date, but creating the schedule for just the current time leaves open the possibility of it expiring, and the activity disappearing from view.

Scheduling ‘On Demand’ Activities

Even activities with no set schedule, which run on an ‘On Demand’ or charter basis, require an allocated Master Schedule.

To set an ‘On Demand’ schedule, set the time of departure to 12:00am:

This tells the system that the activity does not have a regular schedule, and will list the product as ‘On Demand’ so it can be booked for any departure time. 

If desired, an operator can create an ‘On Demand’ schedule as a charter option to run alongside their scheduled departures.