The top part of the screen is "Accommodation Finance" and is used in the calculation of the invoice value.

The bottom half is the "Accommodation Booking" reflecting the Accommodation booking part of the process e.g. host family

If a student has their own accommodation, enter details in the top right hand corner.

Finance

From Date / To Date / Weeks
Class automatically fills these fields with the arrival /departure dates. Amend if necessary.

Price Item
Select the Price Item.
Once a Price Item has been selected only dates can be changed. If the wrong Item has been entered it has to be cancelled and re-entered.

Code
Code (of the price item) automatically entered in Class.

Booked Weeks means the actual duration

Charge Weeks means the charged duration

Charge Rate  means the rate used for booking

Permission settings will need enabling to allow results which produce "lower" prices, based on the 3 variables above, to be changed.

Invoice Agent / Student

Defaults - "Agent" for agent bookings and "Student" for 'direct' agent bookings. Flag can be changed if required eg. agent requests that accommodation is invoiced directly to the student.

Private Notes

Internal notes, typically used to indicate a particular issue eg. wants to share with X, wants to stay with Mrs Y, wants to be near a busroute etc.
In addition to the above, smoking, pets, children information etc can be entered, which can later be interpreted by the accommodation officer. Alternatively, this information is entered into the Include/Exclude Preference fields.

Special Requests
This entry is normally merged into the confirmation documents to the host family, eg. dietary requirements.

The Special Request comment also appears in the Accommodation Bookings Report.

The various note boxes can be used in a variety of ways and above is only one suggestion.

Preferences (Include / Exclude)
Add as required. Used by the "Match" process.

Booking Note for Family letter

This is specific to the booking line ie. to that family. The note shows on the Accommodation Bookings Report. To update, double-click on the booking line.

Booking

The booking line indicates that there is accommodation to be booked - "awaiting booking".
Details of this requirement will appear on the Accommodation Bookings Report to alert the accommodation officer.

Booking Accommodation

Accommodation is normally booked at a later stage, after registration is complete, and as a result of appearing on the Accommodation Bookings Report.
The accommodation officer may already know the family to book and will in this case press "Select" to allocate the family.
If not, the system can be used to help find an available family by using the "Match" option.
Available families are listed.

The criteria used by the system:

Include conflicts? The system will automatically exclude sex / language conflicts.
If this field is unticked, then conflicts will be shown in red. In this example, the search will start at "Murphy", but this can be set to any starting point required.

Additional selection criteria is available by selecting "More Matching Options".

Booking the family

Highlight and double-click the required family.

Cancelling a booking (before student arrives)

An entry may be cancelled by highlighting the item in the Bookings screen and selecting " Cancel Item".

The status will change automatically.

Cancelled bookings are automatically printed on the Accommodation Bookings Report.
To acknowledge to the system that the cancellation has been actioned, select the booking line and change the status to "Actioned".

Changes to Accommodation
Reducing tome with Homestay eg. booked 8 weeks of accommdation, but now only requires 4 weeks.

Change the Finance "To Date". The system will prompt to refinance - ifa  refund is due, answer Yes; otherwise, answer No.

The system, upon selecting OK, will offer to bring the actual Homestay Booking dates in line with the Finance dates, if possible, eg. if the host has not already paid past this point. If you answer Yes, the family will only be paid up to the new departure date.

If the family has already been paid past the new "To" point, the booking will need to be cancelled and re-entered with the new dates.
The effect of this at the next Accommodation Payment Run is to negate the old booking eg. -£800, and replace it with the value of the new booking eg. +£650. The overpayment of £150 will be offset against the next booking.

Changing Homestay

Shorten existing booking to the date the student leaves.

Add a new booking for the remaining dates.
Consider Booking dates as being from midday to midday.

Change of room

A room may be changed without affecting payments.

Booking Adjustments Log (double-click on Host Family Booking)

Note: The weekly payment value is the week 1 value from the price list and is displayed for information only.

Select the "Adjustments" tab to see a history of changes: