EMS uses a three-tiered approach to handling reservations. The three levels are: (1) reservation, (2) booking, and (3) booking detail.
In EMS, a “reservation” can be thought of as a file folder. On the outside of the folder is a label that simply says that Group X is reserving some space for an event with a particular name. In other words, the reservation is the “who” and the “what” of an event.
The next level is the booking level. These are the “sheets of paper” in the folder. They indicate the “where” and the “when” for the event. There can be one or more bookings in each reservation. For example, a group might schedule a conference that spans three days with two rooms reserved on each day. In other words, they have one reservation with six bookings. At the same time they are scheduling the conference, they might also want to schedule a staff meeting for next month. The staff meeting would be a separate reservation containing just the one booking.
Within each booking, there can be any number of booking details. You can think of them as the line items on the papers in the folder. Booking details are the items or services needed for an event. Things like miscellaneous charges and notes can also be applied to a booking. Some booking details have associated “service orders.” Service orders are timeframes for the use of an item or service. For example, you might have a catering service that takes place from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. within an event that runs from 9:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
By dealing with your data on these three levels, EMS allows you to create new reservations or access and modify existing reservations quickly and efficiently.