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

The Master Schedule page will display a list of current activity schedules for all active activities.

Click 'Include Expired' to see past schedules, or 'Include inactive activities' to view schedules for activities set as inactive.

Most activities will have at least one Master Schedule; and some will require several, depending on the times and dates they are available.

Multiple trips/sessions can be combined within a single Master Schedule, but only if they have the same minutes past the hour (and run for the same date range).

For example - if Activity A departs at 8am and 1pm year round, this could be achieved through a single Master Schedule. However, if it departs at 8am and 1.30pm, or departs at 8am during the first half of the year and 1pm the rest of the time, either of these situations would require multiple schedules to be set up.

Creating a Master Schedule

Like most records in RTBS, Master Schedules can be created from scratch, or duplicated from an existing similar record.

To create a new Master Schedule, click the + button at the top of the page.

Select the Activity the schedule is for, and enter a Description that will help future users to understand what times and period the Master Schedule covers (e.g. "8am May-Sept 2017/18").

Enter the default Capacity that you want to apply to each trip/session created (the capacity can later be adjusted for certain dates or times - for more information see Managing Trip Capacity).

Highlight the relevant Hour or Hours and the Minutes (past the hour) that the trips/sessions will take place, as well as the Months and Years the schedule should be applied to. All Days and Weeks of each month will automatically be highlighted, as will all Week Days, but these can be de-selected if applicable (for example, to set a schedule to only apply for the first and third Wednesday of each month, highlight Weeks 1 and 3 and Week Day 'Wednesday').

Click Save New to create the schedule.

Scheduling ‘On Demand’ Activities

Even activities with no set schedule, which run on an ‘On Demand’ or charter basis, require an active schedule to be 'bookable' on RTBS interfaces.

To set an ‘On Demand’ schedule, create a Master Schedule as above but set the time 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 (Note: This option is not recommended for live bookings).

Setting a Schedule to Start or Finish Mid-Month

If an activity schedule starts, stops, or changes part-way through the month, this can be handled in a few different ways.

In general, the best way is to create additional Master Schedules for just the part-month period.

Example:

If an activity departs at 8am during Summer and 9am during Winter, but Summer is defined as October 15th - April 15th, the following Master Schedules would need to be created:

• 8am Daily Jan-March & Nov-Dec
• 8am April 1-15th
• 8am Oct 16-31st
• 9am Daily May-Sept
• 9am April 16-30th
• 9am Oct 1-15th

An alternative option would be to create just two Master Schedules:

• 8am Daily Oct-April
• 9am Daily April-Oct

You could then adjust capacity to zero-out the 8am trips for the end of April and start of October, and do the same for the 9am trips at the start of April and end of October; however these 0-capacity trips would still be listed as departure schedules (just without any capacity), so the first option gives a neater presentation.

A third option would be to create just the full months using the Master Schedule page, and use 'Add One off Trip' for every day in April and October, but this is quite a bit more work than setting up the six schedules recommended above.

Updating Master Schedules

Warning: Whenever an existing Master Schedule is updated (i.e 'Save Changes' is clicked), every trip/session connected to that Master Schedule will be updated with the default Capacity set in the Master Schedule. Please be very careful before editing Master Schedules if they may relate to trips or periods that have previously been blocked out (set with zero or reduced capacity).

To edit a Master Schedule, click on the Description, or click the 'Edit' icon to the right of the row.

Adjust the schedule as required - remember to update the Description to keep this relevant to the new schedule - and click 'Save Changes' to update.

Following a Master Schedule update, you may want to check through any trips associated to the Master Schedule and confirm that capacity is correct or adjust where necessary (eg. Over Christmas or New Year).

Unscheduled Bookings

Please note that if a trip schedule is removed by a Master Schedule update (i.e The trip is no longer scheduled at the exact date and time as before) and bookings had already been made for that trip, the bookings will remain in tact in RTBS by they will display on your Manage Bookings page as "Unscheduled" (because there is no longer a trip schedule at the date and time). To correct "Unscheduled" bookings, select 'Reschedule' in the 'Edit Booking' screen and transfer them onto a new departure. (We recommend advising the client before making such adjustments).

Trip Notes

Trip Notes will be preserved when a Master Schedule is updated so long as a trip still exists for the Activity at the same Date and Time, or a booking exists for the Activity at that Date and Time. If the trip schedule is removed and no bookings exist (or the bookings are rescheduled away from the date and time), the Trip Note will be removed.