There may be instances where you'll need to make a booking for a user and accept payment externally. Spacebring supports these situations with the "External" payment method.
The member web portal and mobile app are designed to empower users to make bookings effortlessly on their own without needing administrator assistance. Promote self-served bookings for a more efficient user experience.
Make bookings with the "External" payment method
The "External" payment method is available only to administrators in Spacebring and only for room, desk, parking space, and equipment bookings.
To make such bookings, administrators do the following:
Navigate to Resources > select Rooms, Desks, Parking, or Equipment page.
Select a resource the user wants to book.
Find the customer in the "Booker" field.
If the user is not a member or a nonmember yet, find the
New nonmemberoption. Fill in the user details and pressCreate. This will create a nonmember profile for the user automatically.
Fill out the other booking details.
If the user is eligible for any discount, select a coupon in the "Coupon" section. The discounted price will be displayed immediately.
Choose the "External" payment method and select a "Status" based on the payment stage:
Paid — the customer has already paid outside of the system.
Pending — the customer hasn't paid yet, but only reserved the booking.
Enter the customer's billing details, if they haven't yet. Billing details fields appear depending on the "Require billing details" setting.
Confirm the booking.
Understand paid external bookings
When you select "Paid" status during creation, Spacebring treats the transaction as finalized and confirmed.
The booking is secured on the calendar with a solid color. In the Bookings list, the status appears as "Confirmed".
The customer receives a notification about the booking created for them and can view this booking on their Account page.
Manage pending external bookings
If you select "Pending," the booking is created with "Tentative" status, allowing you to hold the resource while waiting for payment.
You can differentiate pending bookings on the Rooms calendar and the Bookings list to track outstanding payments.
Once you receive the payment (or if the customer fails to pay), update the status:
Open the booking > in the "Payment" section, change "Status" to "Paid" or "Canceled."
If Paid: The booking is automatically confirmed, and an invoice and receipt are generated.
If Canceled: The transaction and booking are marked as canceled and automatically removed from the calendar.
How external bookings reflect in Analytics
Bookings made with the "External" payment method are included in the "Invoices", "Payments", "Rooms", "Desks", "Equipment", and "Parking" dashboards in Analytics. Explore Analytics
The "Invoices", "Invoice items", "Transactions", and "Bookings" reports also include these bookings, reflecting their payment type as "External", and payment status as "Paid" or "Pending".
