theSimCal · Staff & Admin Guide thesimcal.com · Last updated October 2026

Staff & Admin Guide

For staff and admin accountsLast updated October 23, 2026

Everything staff and admins need to run theSimCal day to day: processing booking requests, managing the calendar, reviewing feedback and analytics, and setting up your center. Chapters in the Administration part apply to admin accounts only.

Select a chapter to jump straight to it.

Have an idea? Spotted something that could work better? Share it on our feedback board and vote on suggestions from other centers.

Chapter 1 · Daily work

Contents

Processing Requests

Every booking request arrives as a New Request. Staff review it, adjust the details if needed, assign people and equipment, and then approve it, keep it pending, or decline it. The requester is emailed at each decision. Open incoming requests from Requests in the sidebar.

The Requests list

The Requests screen with the sidebar badge, the Pending tab, a New Request badge and a Pending badge numbered — The Requests list, with each area numbered.

1Requests: The red badge shows how many new requests are waiting to be reviewed.

2Pending tab: Holds every request that still needs a decision (New Request & Pending). Approved bookings move to the Approved tab. Completed, declined, and cancelled requests move to the Completed tab. A booking is marked Completed automatically once its session end time passes.

3New Request: Not yet reviewed by staff.

4Pending: Under review, usually waiting on more information from the requester.

Select a request to open it.

Reviewing and editing a request

The request opens with its details split into sections. Select the pencil icon on any section to edit it. Select Save to keep your changes, or Cancel to discard them.

An open request with Booking Information in edit mode, with activity history, View in Calendar, Save and Cancel, date, assigned rooms and time breakdown numbered — Booking Information in edit mode, with each area numbered.

1View Activity History: Lists every change and decision on the request so far.

2View in Calendar: Opens the date in the Staff Calendar, so you can check for conflicts.

3Cancel and Save: Appear while a section is being edited.

4Date: Move the booking to another day.

5Assigned Room(s): Add rooms from the list, or select the × on a room to remove it.

6Time Breakdown: Adjust set-up, session and clean-up times. The bar and total update as you go.

Below Booking Information, two more sections can be edited the same way:

Details: The requester’s name, email and phone number, plus the session name, number of attendees and session details.

Additional Information: The requester’s answers to your custom questions from the Booking Request Form.

The Details section in edit mode, with name, email, phone number, session name, number of attendees and session details — The Details section in edit mode.

Assigning people and equipment

The lower part of an open request with Attachments, the Assets section with people and equipment, and the Approve, Keep Pending and Decline buttons numbered — Attachments, Assets and the decision buttons, with each area numbered.

1Attachments: Add files to the request. Each file can be up to 100 MB.

2Assets: Select the pencil icon to open it, as shown here.

3People: Choose people from your Asset Inventory. Each person appears as a tag you can remove with the ×.

4Equipment: Choose equipment from your Asset Inventory. Each item appears as a tag you can remove with the ×, and has its own ID so it cannot be double booked.

5Approve Request

6Keep Pending

7Decline Request

Approving, keeping pending, or declining

When the details are right, use the buttons at the bottom of the request. Each one opens a confirmation box with the session name and a note field. The note is added to the email sent to the requester, whose address is shown below it.

The Approve Booking confirmation box with an optional note — Approve: note optional.

The Keep Pending confirmation box with a required note — Keep Pending: note required.

The Decline Request confirmation box with a required note — Decline: note required.

Approve: The requester is emailed that their booking is confirmed. Adding a note is optional.

Keep Pending: Use this when the requester has not given enough information to approve the request. The note is required, so tell them exactly what you need. The request’s status changes to Pending.

Decline: The requester is emailed that their request has been declined. The note is required, so explain why.

Chapter 2 · Daily work

Contents

Staff Calendar

The Staff Calendar is your working view of a single day. Every room appears, followed by any equipment and people that are assigned to a session or blocked that day. It is where you check what a day actually looks like. Open it from Staff Calendar in the sidebar, under Staff.

What each area does

1Date navigation: The ‹ and › arrows step back and forward one day. Select the date itself to open the month picker and jump straight to any day. Today returns you to the current day.

2Block Assets and Block Rooms: Hold time without a booking behind it. Covered in Blocking time below.

3Rooms grid: Your rooms, one per row, with each room's number beneath its name.

4Equipment grid: A row appears for each piece of equipment assigned to a session or blocked that day.

5People grid: A row appears for each person assigned to a session or blocked that day.

6Timeline arrows: Every column is an hour. The ‹ and › arrows inside a grid, beside the hours, scroll that grid to show earlier or later times.

7Legend: What each block color means, explained below.

8Download: Exports your schedule as an .ics or .xlsx file.

Note: The People grid shows people assets from your Asset Inventory, the bookable resources, not the people who hold theSimCal accounts.

The month picker open beneath the calendar date — Select the date to open the month picker.

What the colors mean

Every block on the calendar is color coded, and the legend runs along the bottom of the screen.

Session: Confirmed, booked time. The block carries the session name.

Set-up & Clean-up: The shorter blocks sitting either side of a session. The gear icon is set-up time before it, the sparkle icon is clean-up time after it.

Pending: A request that has not been approved yet, whether it is a New Request or marked Pending. The time is held but not confirmed.

Blocked: Time held by a block you or a colleague created.

Closed: Time outside your center's operating hours, which are set in Facility Details.

Opening a booking

Select any block on the calendar to open it in a panel on the right. Its status appears as a pill in the top corner. The panel works the same way as an open request, covered in Processing Requests. It adds one section:

CC Recipients adds email addresses that receive the booking's notifications alongside the requester.

The booking panel showing Booking Information, Details and Additional Information sections with edit icons — The booking panel. Contact details are hidden here for privacy.

Lower in the booking panel, the CC Recipients, Attachments and Assets sections, with one person assigned and no equipment — Further down the same panel. **Assets** is where people and equipment are assigned to the session.

Before you cancel: Cancel Booking at the bottom of the panel emails the requester automatically, releases the room and any assigned assets straight away so others can book them, and is recorded in the booking's Activity History.

Blocking time

Blocking holds time on the calendar without a booking behind it, so a room, a piece of equipment, or a person cannot be booked or assigned. Use it for equipment loans, vacations, maintenance, holidays, or anything else unrelated to a session. If an asset is needed for a session, assign it in the booking's Assets section instead.

Select Block Rooms or Block Assets, top right. Rooms are blocked separately from equipment and people, so use whichever matches what you need to hold. To hold both, create one block of each.
Give the block a name. This is required, and it is the label that appears on the calendar, so make it something a colleague will understand at a glance.
Decide whether to Include in Analytics.
Set the date, start time, and end time.
Select what to block. All Rooms or All Assets selects everything at once, or select individual rooms, people, and equipment. Anything grayed out is already booked or blocked during the times you chose.
Select Block Rooms or Block Assets at the bottom to save.

Tip: what Include in Analytics does. When it is on, the block's time and usage are counted in your Analytics figures. Leave it on when the block represents real simulation activity. Turn it off when the time has nothing to do with simulation, such as closing rooms for a public holiday, so your utilization numbers are not inflated by time that was never available in the first place.

The Block Assets dialog with name, analytics toggle, times, and checkboxes for people and equipment — Block Assets covers people and equipment.

The Block Rooms dialog with name, analytics toggle, times, and checkboxes for rooms — Block Rooms covers rooms.

Exporting the schedule

The Download buttons in the bottom right corner export your calendar events. Both ask for a start and end date, so you can export a whole stretch of time rather than only the day on screen.

.ics imports into Outlook, Google Calendar, and Apple Calendar.
.xlsx opens in Excel, useful for reporting or sharing a schedule with someone who does not use theSimCal.

The Export Calendar dialog asking for a start date and an end date — Choose a date range to export. The .ics dialog works the same way.

How this differs from the Calendar

There are two calendars in theSimCal and they do different jobs. Calendar, under User in the sidebar, is the month view your requesters see. It is public and view-only, so nothing can be added, edited, or blocked from it. The Staff Calendar is the one you work in.

The public Calendar month view with a day's events listed in a panel on the right — The public Calendar. A month at a glance, and read-only. See Browsing the Calendar.

Chapter 3 · Daily work

Contents

Staff Notes

Staff Notes is your team's noticeboard. Post an update, attach a file, ask a question, and reply to each other in one place, without it living in somebody's inbox. It is visible only to staff and admin accounts. Open it from Staff Notes in the sidebar, under Staff.

What each area does

1The composer: Select the bar at the top to open it and write a note. Covered in full below.

2Pin icon: Marks a pinned note. Pinned notes sit at the top of the list so an important announcement does not get pushed down.

3Attachment: Files posted with a note appear as a row showing the file name and its size. Select the download icon to save a copy.

4Reply: Opens the note's thread. The number beside it counts the replies already there.

5New badge: A note you have not read yet. It clears once you have seen the note.

6Unread count: The red badge on the sidebar item counts notes you have not read, the same way Requests and Notifications work.

Writing a note

Select the bar reading ‘Share updates, attach files, or add links...’ at the top of the screen. It expands into the full composer.
Type your note. The counter in the bottom left shows how much of the 5,000 character limit you have used.
Format it if you need to. B makes the selected text bold and U underlines it. The link icon turns selected text into a link, which is tidier than pasting a long address.
Select the paperclip to attach a file, such as a manual, a floor plan, or a photograph of a fault.
Select Post to publish it, or Cancel to discard it.

The expanded note composer with bold, underline and link buttons, a paperclip for attachments, a character counter, and Cancel and Post buttons — The composer, expanded.

Note: Posting a note adds to everyone's unread count (see 6 above), so keep notes worth the interruption.

Replying to a note

Select Reply at the bottom of a note to open its Thread panel on the right. The original note sits at the top, with its attachments, and every reply is listed beneath it in the order it was posted. Replies stay attached to the note they belong to, so a question and its answers are read together rather than scattered through the list as separate notes. Anyone on the team can reply to any note.

Write your reply in the box at the bottom of the panel. It takes the same formatting, attachments, and 5,000 character limit as a note. Select Post to add it, then the × in the top corner to close the panel.

The Thread panel open on the right of the Staff Notes screen, showing the original note with its attachment, one reply beneath it, and a reply box at the bottom — The Thread panel. The note list behind it is blurred here for privacy.

Pinning and deleting

The ... menu in the top right corner of a note holds two actions.

Pin moves the note to the top of the list and marks it with a pin icon beside the timestamp. Use it for anything the team needs to keep seeing, such as a closure or a policy change.
Delete removes the note for everyone.

The Actions menu on a note, offering Pin and Delete — The ... menu on a note.

Deleting cannot be undone. If a note holds information the team may need later, such as a supplier reference or a set of instructions, copy it somewhere permanent before you delete it.

Chapter 4 · Reporting

Contents

Feedback Results

When a session ends, it is marked Completed automatically, and theSimCal can email the requester a short feedback form, if an admin has switched it on in Feedback Form. They rate their experience from one to five and can leave a comment. Feedback Results gathers every response in one place, so you can see how sessions are landing and read what people said. Open it from Feedback Results in the sidebar, under Staff.

What each area does

1Sidebar item: Where to open it.

2Date range: Set From and To to choose which responses are counted. Everything on the screen updates to match.

3Summary: The average rating, the total number of responses, and the response rate, which is the share of people sent a form who filled it in.

4Rating distribution: How many responses gave each rating, from five stars down to one, with the percentage of the total beside each bar.

5Rating filter: Narrows the list below to five star, four star, or three star and lower responses. All shows everything.

6A response: Who sent it, the session it relates to and its date, their rating, their comment, and when they submitted it.

7Export Report: Downloads the results for the selected date range, useful for an annual review, a funding application, or a thank you to the team.

Tip: Compare like with like. Looking at one term or one quarter at a time makes it easier to spot a change than a range spanning several years.

Reading the responses

The User Feedback list shows the newest responses first. Each one names the person who sent it and the session it is about, so you can match a comment to the booking behind it. If someone rated the session without writing anything, their response reads No comment provided. It still counts toward the ratings.

To find the responses that need attention, select ≤3 in the rating filter. Select All to go back to the full list.

Note: Only people who were sent a form can respond, so a low response rate means fewer voices behind the average. Read the average rating alongside the number of responses before drawing conclusions.

Chapter 5 · Reporting

Contents

Analytics

Analytics turns your bookings into numbers you can act on: how many hours your center is booked, which rooms work hardest, which days are busiest, and how much of your equipment and your team’s time each period takes. Use it for annual reports, staffing decisions, and the case for new rooms or equipment. Open it from Analytics in the sidebar, under Staff.

What each area does

1Sidebar item: Where to open it.

2Date range: Set From and To to choose the period. Every figure on the screen updates to match.

3Key insights: The busiest day of the week, the most used room and its utilization, and the average session length, picked out for you.

4Hour totals: Total hours booked, split into set-up, session, and clean-up hours, plus the total number of attendees across all sessions.

5Sessions: How many requests were approved, cancelled, and declined in the period, with each as a share of the total.

6Users and duration: How many different people booked, and the average length of a booking including set-up and clean-up.

7Attendees distribution: How many sessions had 1 to 5 attendees, 6 to 10, and so on, so you can see the group sizes you usually host.

8Session length distribution: How many sessions fell into each length band, from under two hours up to a full day.

9Export Report: Downloads the analytics for the selected date range. Exporting the same period each year, such as your fiscal year, gives figures you can compare over time.

How the hours add up

Total Hours Booked is the time your space was held, from the start of set-up to the end of clean-up. It is the sum of the three boxes beside it: Set-Up Hours, Session Hours, and Clean-Up Hours. Each shows its share of the total underneath.

That is why the two averages differ. Avg. Session Length in Key Insights counts session time only. Avg Duration under Users and Duration includes set-up and clean-up, so it is always the longer of the two.

Usage by room, equipment, and people

Further down the screen, four panels break the hours down by what was booked and when.

The lower half of the Analytics screen with each area numbered, showing Room Usage, Day of Week Session Usage, and Asset Usage for equipment and for people, with their detail tables open — The usage panels, with their details open.

1Room usage: How many rooms were used and their combined hours. Open the details for a row per room.

2Sorting: Select a column heading to sort the table by it. Select it again to reverse the order.

3Utilization: The hours a room was booked as a share of the hours it was available in the period. Green marks the rooms used most, red the least.

4Day of week: How many sessions ran on each day, and each day’s share of the total.

5Equipment: How many items were booked, their combined hours, and a row per item.

6People: The people assigned to sessions, with the number of sessions and hours for each person.

7Details: Opens a panel’s table. Select Hide Details to close it again.

Note: The usage panels count each room, item, and person separately. A session that uses two rooms adds its hours to both, so the combined hours in a panel can be higher than Total Hours Booked.

Chapter 6 · Administration

Contents

Facility Details

Facility Details holds the settings that apply to your whole center: its name, logo, and contact details, the hours you take bookings, how far ahead people can book, and which emails theSimCal sends automatically. Most centers set it up once and revisit it only when something changes. Open it from Facility Details in the sidebar, under Administration.

Basic and contact information, with each area numbered.

What each area does

1Sidebar item: Where to open it.

2Facility name: Your center’s name as it appears in theSimCal. Required.

3Facility logo: Select Replace to upload a new logo, or Remove to take it off.

4Address: Street address (required), a second line for the building or room, then city, state or province, country, and postal code.

5Email: Your center’s main email address. Required. A phone number is optional.

6Additional emails: Anyone else who should receive notification emails. Type an address and press Enter to add it.

Tip: Use a shared inbox for the main email, such as a team address, rather than one person’s account. Notifications keep arriving when someone is away or leaves.

Hours of operation

Set the hours your facility is available for booking requests. Each day has a switch and a start and end time.

Switch a day on to take bookings on that day, or off to close it. A closed day shows N/A.
For each open day, choose the opening time in the first box and the closing time in the second.

Analytics also uses these hours to work out room utilization, so keeping them accurate keeps your reports accurate.

Booking restrictions and emails

Booking Restrictions set to 2 business days of notice and an 18 month window, Reminder Emails for 1 day, 1 week, and 1 month before, and Email Notifications for Request Submitted and Request Cancelled, all switched on — Booking restrictions, reminder emails, and email notifications.

Use − and +, or type a number, to set each booking restriction.

Minimum Advance Notice: How many business days ahead a request must be made. With 2, nobody can request a session for today or the next two business days, which gives your team time to prepare.
Maximum Booking Window: How many months ahead people can book. Requests further out than this are not allowed.

Reminder Emails go to requesters automatically before their booking. Switch on any combination of 1 day, 1 week, and 1 month before.

Email Notifications choose which events send an automatic email. Switch Request Submitted and Request Cancelled on or off as your team prefers.

Saving your changes

When you have finished, select Save Changes at the bottom of the page. Nothing takes effect until you do. Cancel discards your edits and keeps the settings as they were.

Note: Changes here apply to the whole center, for every user. Check with your team before shortening the booking window or switching off reminders.

Chapter 7 · Administration

Contents

Room Inventory

Room Inventory is where you list the spaces people can book. Rooms are grouped into room types, such as a sim bay or a skills lab, and each type holds one or more actual rooms. Requesters choose a room type when they book, and theSimCal uses each type’s capacity and set-up times to find space that fits. Open it from Room Inventory in the sidebar, under Administration.

What each area does

1Sidebar item: Where to open it.

2Drag handle: Drag a room type up or down to change the order. The order you set here is the order requesters see on the Select Rooms page when they book.

3A room type: Its name and Quantity, the number of rooms of that type. Select it to open and edit it.

4Add Room Type: Opens a blank panel to set up a new type.

Adding a room type

Select Add Room Type in the top right corner. A panel opens on the right. Fill in each section from the top.

1Name of Room Type: What requesters will see and choose from, such as Sim Bay or Skills Center. Required.

2Room Capacity: The largest group one of these rooms holds. Use − and +, or type a number.

3Room #1: The name or number of the actual room, such as 097. Required.

4Add Room: Adds another room of the same type. Each one you add raises the quantity shown in the list.

5Set-up and clean-up: The default time theSimCal blocks before and after every request for this room type. Staff and admins can change it on an individual request.

The Add Room Type panel with each field numbered: name, capacity, room number, Add Room, and set-up and clean-up times — The top of the Add Room Type panel.

Add a description and photo, covered below, then select Create Room at the bottom of the panel. Cancel closes it without adding anything.

Set-up and clean-up are added to every booking automatically. For example, a two hour session with 30 minutes either side holds the room for three hours, and theSimCal only offers times that fit inside your hours of operation.

Tip: Group rooms into one type when they are interchangeable, so a requester can take whichever is free. Give a room its own type when it has something the others do not.

Description and photo

Room Description tells requesters what the room is for and where to find it. It holds up to 1,000 characters. A short summary of what the space suits, followed by the building, floor, and room number, is usually enough.

Room Photo helps people recognize the space. Select the upload area, or drag an image onto it. A landscape photo 1,280 pixels wide by 960 tall works best. On an existing room type, use Replace or Remove.

The lower half of the Edit Room Type panel, showing a room description with its location, a room photo with Replace and Remove buttons, and the Delete Room Type section — The lower half of the Edit Room Type panel.

Editing and deleting

Select a room type in the list to open its Edit Room Type panel. It has the same sections as a new room type, filled in with the current details. Change what you need, then select Save Changes at the bottom of the panel. Cancel closes it and keeps the details as they were.

To remove a room type completely, scroll to the bottom of its panel and select Delete Room Type.

Deleting cannot be undone. If a room is only out of use for a while, such as during a renovation, block it on the Staff Calendar instead so it comes back when it reopens.

Chapter 8 · Administration

Contents

Asset Inventory

Asset Inventory lists everything besides rooms that a session can need: the people who run sessions, such as sim technicians and educators, and the equipment they use, such as manikins and task trainers. Once an asset is listed here, it can be assigned to bookings so nothing is double booked, and its hours appear in Analytics. Open it from Asset Inventory in the sidebar, under Administration.

What each area does

1Sidebar item: Where to open it.

2People and Equipment tabs: Switch between the two lists. The button in the top right changes to match.

3An asset: Select a row to open its details.

4Add Person: Opens a blank panel to add someone. On the Equipment tab it reads Add Equipment.

Adding a person

Select Add Person on the People tab. Enter their name under Asset Name, set up their notifications if you want them, then select Create Person. Cancel closes the panel without adding anyone.

1Asset Name: The person’s name as it appears when they are assigned to a session. Required.

2Email assignment information: Switch this on to email the person when they are assigned to or removed from a session, or when one of their sessions is rescheduled or cancelled.

3Email: Where those emails go. Only needed if the switch is on.

4Assigned Schedule: Every session the person is assigned to in the month shown, with its date, time, and title. Use the arrows to move between months.

The Asset Information panel for a person with each area numbered: name, the email assignment switch, email address, and assigned schedule for September 2026 — A person’s details, with each area numbered.

Equipment

The Equipment tab lists every type of equipment your center books.

1Equipment tab: Shows the equipment list.

2Quantity: How many items of this type you have. A quantity of 7 means up to seven can be booked at the same time. Each item has its own unique identifier, so theSimCal can assign a specific one to each booking without double booking it.

3Add Equipment: Opens a blank panel to add a new type.

Adding equipment

1Asset Name: The name of the equipment type, such as the make and model. Required.

2Unique Identifier #1: Something that tells this item apart from others of the same type, such as a serial number, asset tag, or location. Required.

3Add Item: Adds another item of the same type with its own identifier. Each one raises the quantity.

4Asset Description / Notes: Up to 1,000 characters on what it is, what it is used for, or how to look after it.

5Asset Photo: Select the upload area, or drag an image onto it. A landscape photo 1,280 pixels wide by 960 tall works best.

Select Add Equipment at the bottom of the panel to add it, or Cancel to close the panel without adding anything.

The Asset Information panel for new equipment with each field numbered: name, unique identifier, Add Item, description, and photo — Adding equipment, with each field numbered.

Editing and deleting

Select any person or equipment type to open its details. Change what you need, then select Save Changes at the bottom of the panel. Cancel closes it and keeps the details as they were.

To remove an asset completely, scroll to the bottom of its panel and select Delete Person or Delete Equipment.

Deleting cannot be undone. If someone is on leave or a piece of equipment is out for repair, block it on the Staff Calendar instead so it is available again when it returns.

Chapter 9 · Administration

Contents

Booking Request Form

The Booking Request Form is where you add your own questions to the booking process. Everything you build here appears on the last step of a booking request, Step 4: Details, after the standard questions every request already asks. Open it from Booking Request Form in the sidebar, under Administration.

What each area does

1Sidebar item: Where to open it.

2System-required fields: Every request already asks for first and last name, email address, CC emails for notifications, phone number, session name, number of attendees, and session details. You do not need to add these.

3Add Field: Opens the list of field types you can add.

4Drag handle: Drag a field up or down to change where it appears on the form.

5Collapse arrow: Folds a field’s settings away so a long form is easier to scan. Select it again to open them.

Adding a field

Select Add Field, then choose a type. It is added to the bottom of the list, ready to set up.

1Input Fields collect an answer from the requester.

Text FieldA short, one-line answer, such as a course code.

Long TextA longer answer over several lines, such as learning objectives.

Number FieldA number, entered or set with the minus and plus buttons.

CheckboxesA list where the requester can pick as many options as apply.

Radio ButtonsA list where the requester picks exactly one option.

2Design Elements do not collect anything. They help organize the form.

NoteA block of information text, such as instructions or a policy reminder.

TitleA large heading to start a group of questions.

DividerA line that separates one part of the form from the next.

The Add Form Field menu with Input Fields and Design Elements numbered — The Add Field menu.

Setting up a field

Every input field has the same core settings. The Text Field below shows them all.

A Text Field’s settings with each one numbered: Field Name, Display field name to users, Placeholder Text, Required field, and Delete Field — A Text Field’s settings, with each one numbered.

1Field Name: The question or label the requester sees, such as “Course code”.

2Display field name to users: Shows the field name above the field. Switch it off if a Title or Note just above already explains what to enter.

3Placeholder Text: Optional hint text shown inside the empty field, such as an example answer. Available on Text Field and Long Text.

4Required field: When on, the request cannot be submitted until this field is answered.

5Delete Field: Removes the field from the form, after you confirm.

Checkboxes and radio buttons

Checkboxes and Radio Buttons have the same settings as other fields, plus a list of options for the requester to choose from.

A Checkboxes field’s settings with the Options list and Add Option numbered — A Checkboxes field, with its options numbered.

1Options: Type each choice into its own line.

2Add Option: Adds another line for a new choice.

Notes, titles, and dividers

A Note holds information text for the requester, up to 1,000 characters.

A Note’s settings with the formatting toolbar and character count numbered — A Note’s settings, with each area numbered.

1Formatting: Make text bold, underline it, or add a link, such as to a policy document.

2Character count: How much of the 1,000-character limit you have used.

A Title has one setting, Title Content, for the heading text. A Divider has no settings. Drag it to where you want the break.

Tip: Put a Title above each group of related questions, and a Divider between groups. A long form is much easier to fill in when it is broken into clear sections.

Previewing the form

Below your fields, Form Preview shows the form exactly as requesters will see it on Step 4. It updates as you add, edit, and reorder fields, so check it before you finish.

The Form Preview showing a text field, long text field, number field, checkboxes, and radio buttons as requesters will see them — The Form Preview.

Saving and deleting

As soon as you make a change, Save Changes and Cancel buttons appear. Select Save Changes to update the form requesters see, or Cancel to undo everything since your last save.

When you select Delete Field, a box asks you to confirm. Select Delete Field again to remove it, or Cancel to keep it.

Deleting cannot be undone. To bring a deleted field back, you have to add it and set it up again from scratch.

Chapter 10 · Administration

Contents

Feedback Form

When a session ends, it is marked Completed automatically, and theSimCal can email the requester a short survey asking them to rate their experience. The Feedback Form is where you switch that email on and add your own note and files to it. The ratings you receive appear in Feedback Results. Open it from Feedback Form in the sidebar, under Administration.

Email settings

1Sidebar item: Where to open it.

2Send Feedback Emails: When on, every requester gets the feedback email once their session is marked Completed. Switch it off to stop sending it.

3Add Custom Note & Attachments: Adds your own note and files to the bottom of the email. Switch it on to show the Note and Attachments areas.

4Formatting: Make note text bold, underline it, or add a link.

5Character count: Notes can be up to 5,000 characters.

6Upload area: Select Click to upload, or drag files onto it. Each file can be up to 100 MB.

7Remove: Each attached file is listed below the upload area. Select the × to remove it.

Email preview

Below the settings, Email Preview shows the email exactly as requesters will receive it. It updates as you change the note and attachments. Apart from those two, the email’s wording is set by theSimCal and cannot be changed.

1Your center’s name: Shown under the theSimCal logo. It comes from Facility Details.

2Star rating: The requester rates their session from 1 (Poor) to 5 (Excellent). Their answers appear in Feedback Results.

3Note from staff: Your custom note, if you added one.

4Attachments: Your files, as links the requester can open.

5Footer: Your center’s name and address, also from Facility Details. The email comes from a no-reply address, so requesters cannot answer it directly.

The Email Preview showing the feedback email with each area numbered: center name, star rating, note from staff, attachments, and footer — The Email Preview, with each area numbered.

Saving your changes

As soon as you make a change, Save Changes and Cancel buttons appear. Select Save Changes to update the email, or Cancel to undo everything since your last save.

Chapter 11 · Administration

Contents

Accounts

Accounts lists everyone who can sign in to your center’s theSimCal, sorted by role. This is where you add admins and staff, change what someone can access, and remove accounts. Open it from Accounts in the sidebar, under Administration.

The three roles

AdminSees everything, including the Administration section where you set up your center.

StaffSees the Staff section, such as the Staff Calendar and Staff Notes, but not Administration.

UserSees only the User section, to submit booking requests and track them. Anyone who creates an account to book is a user.

The Accounts screen on the Admins tab with each area numbered: the sidebar item, the role tabs, the actions menu on an account, and Add Admin — Accounts on the Admins tab, with each area numbered.

What each area does

1Sidebar item: Where to open it.

2Admins, Staff, and Users tabs: Switch between the three lists. Each tab shows how many accounts it holds.

3Actions menu: Select ••• on any account to change its role or delete it.

4Add Admin: Opens the invite panel, covered below. On the Staff tab it reads Add Staff.

Each account shows the person’s name, email address, and phone number. Phone numbers are optional, so they only appear if the person added one to their profile.

Adding an admin or staff member

Select Add Admin on the Admins tab, or Add Staff on the Staff tab.

1First and last name: The person’s name as it will appear in theSimCal. Both are required.

2Email: Where the invite is sent. This becomes the email they sign in with. Required.

3Send Invite: Emails them an invitation to set up their account. Cancel closes the panel without sending anything.

The Add Admin User panel with First name, Email, and Send Invite numbered — The Add Admin User panel, with each field numbered.

Downloading user emails

On the Users tab, the top-right button changes to Download Emails. Select it to download an Excel spreadsheet with the first name, last name, and email address of every user. It is handy for sending an announcement to everyone who books with you, such as by pasting the addresses into the BCC field of an email.

The Users tab with the Download Emails button numbered — The Users tab, with Download Emails numbered.

Changing a role or deleting an account

Select ••• on the account to open its Actions menu.

1Change Role: Opens the list of roles.

2Role list: Select Admin, Staff, or User. The account moves to that tab, and the person’s access changes to match.

3Delete: Removes the account, after you confirm.

The Actions menu on an account with Change Role, the role list, and Delete numbered — The Actions menu, with each option numbered.

When you select Delete, a box asks you to confirm. Type DELETE into the field, then select Delete Account. Cancel keeps the account as it is.

Deleting cannot be undone. The person loses access, and their profile information is permanently removed. If you only want to limit what someone can see, change their role instead.

The Delete Account confirmation box.