In previous Tourwriter versions, choosing the pax break for the group through the From Pax dropdown populated the rooms and price for each room type. In the latest Tourwriter version, we have introduced a feature to auto-populate room numbers.

Adding passengers to a groups itinerary

Previously, you could add passengers to a groups itinerary by dragging and dropping each contact from the Contacts menu. The latest Tourwriter version comes with the auto-populate feature. Let’s see how to add passengers to a groups itinerary:

1. In the Details section in the Clients tab, select the pax break finalised for the group through the From Pax dropdown. The rooms auto-populate based on the group setup.

2. Add passengers to the passenger grid by selecting Populate. The number of passengers loaded match up to the rooms booked.

• Note: As seen above, the room numbers remain unassigned at this stage.

3. To assign room numbers, select Populate Room Numbers. The rooms numbers correlate to the room types wherein a pair of double rooms are assigned the same number, three triple rooms are allocated the same number and so on.

Notes

• Contrary to previous Tourwriter versions, room numbers in each room type are not initialised to start with 1.
• To opt for a different room number than the one auto-assigned by the system, select a room number from the dropdown as soon as you populate them. Once the itinerary is saved or reopened, you do not see an option to switch to a different room number.

Adding passengers to a non-group itinerary

You can add Room types for a non-groups itinerary as explained in Room types. In previous versions, you could select a room number from the dropdown list. Now, however, room numbers are assigned automatically. To auto-assign room numbers:

1. Ensure the list of passengers is updated in the passengers grid as explained in the Passengers section.
2. Click on Populate Room Numbers to auto-assign room numbers to the passengers. The room numbers correlate to the room types wherein a pair of double rooms are assigned the same number, three triple rooms are assigned the same number and so on.

• Note: The rooms numbers are assigned sequentially, starting with 1. Generating room numbers in a sequential format gives you a number that is the total rooms to be booked, which is also the number shown as the room number for the final passenger. In the example in the screenshot below, you need to book 4 rooms, as that’s the room number assigned to the final passenger in the passenger grid.

The post Adding Passengers & Assigning Room numbers appeared first on Tourwriter Knowledge Base.

Split pricing is useful for small groups tours where different family groups can have different invoices or large group tours where individual passengers opt for Pre, Post travel or additional activities. Split pricing is also well-suited if you wish to alter between per passenger or group pricing. 

Let us go through the steps to get you started with the Split Pricing function.

Setting up Room types

Ensure your Suppliers are set up per Groups best practice following Enabling Groups. 

Populating Itinerary passengers

Users can add a new passenger or drag and drop an existing Contact Card. For instructions to create a permanent Contact Card, refer to the Passengers section in the Default Subtab article. In this section we’ll see how to add passengers just to an itinerary:

1. Navigate to the Clients tab on an itinerary and scroll down to the Passengers workspace.
2. Click the sign to add a new passenger.

Tip: If you utilise room types to define package pricing, add them under Room types. Selecting Populate in the Passengers workspace auto-populates the number of passengers to match the Rooms Type.  

1. The cursor defaults to text in the Display Name column. Type over the text New Member and enter the passenger name. 
2. You can fill in passenger information in the optional fields, i.e. First Name, Last Name, Company, Email, Country and Age. These fields are also available to be filled through a Contact Card. 
3. Assign a room to each passenger in the Room Type dropdown. Confirm whether the rooms assigned match up to the value in the Rms Bkd column in Room types.

4. Select the passenger type under the Type field. It is important to assign a relevant type to a Staff passenger, e.g. Driver, Guide. A Staff’s cost is split among all itinerary passengers only after selecting the correct Type value and unticking the Paying checkbox against them. 
5. Select whether the traveller is a paying passenger through the Paying checkbox field. 

Note: Each new passenger added to the workspace is marked Paying presuming the entry is for a non-staff passenger. In practice, you may want to untick Paying only for a Staff passenger.

Accessing the Passengers panel

The Passengers panel is where you override the default Room Type and paying settings. Through this panel, you can configure Extras List. Changes made here splits the cost accordingly and prices are reflected in the Split pricing configuration window.

1. Select Show > Details on the Bookings tab to access the Passengers panel. The panel lists the passengers along with the price they owe.. 
2. The panel is contextual, meaning the information in the panel column is unique to each booking item. Highlight a booking item to display information specific to that item in the panel.

Note: The initial layout displaying the passenger’s participation correlates to the Room types chosen for each passenger in the Clients tab. 

3. You can change the price each passenger owes by toggling the Paying checkbox against them. 

Note: A Staff’s cost is always split among all itinerary passengers. The price split only works if you untick Paying against the Staff in the Clients tab, in addition to selecting  the correct Staff Type value.

Accessing Split pricing configuration

The Split configuration window lets you alter your itinerary pricing view between pricing per traveller or group. You can also use this window to override passenger prices. A non-SIC itinerary is known as Pure Split tour.

1. Navigate to the Bookings tab of an itinerary.
2. Select Tools > Split pricing configuration to open the Split configuration window.

Note: You can’t access the Split configuration window if you have configured the itinerary for Groups pax break and vice versa.

3. The window initially pops up to display booking prices per group. Untick the By Group checkbox to view booking prices per passenger.

4. You can select Seat-in-Coach (SIC) pricing to change the itinerary design to a Seat-in-Coach tour. To learn how to add a package price for an SIC tour, proceed to the Adding an SIC package section. 
5. To apply a final override to each passenger pricing, select Override passenger prices.
6. You can either add a percent markup value for a passenger in the Markup % row or roundup the Subtotal amount by entering a final passenger price in the Override $ row.  
   • Note: The overridden price is auto-pushed to the Price Override field in the Passenger workspace under the Clients tab.

Note: You can only override per person pricing and not pricing by group. Untick the By Group checkbox to manually adjust per person price. Tick the By Group checkbox again to view the overridden final group price.

Arranging passengers in Groups

After adding traveller details to the Passengers workspace, you can assign passengers to groups. Assigning passengers to groups lets you view pricing by each group in the Split pricing window. 

1. Click Manage Groups at the top-right of the Passengers workspace to open the Define Groups window. The option to open the Define Groups window is also available on the Split pricing window.
2. Click to add a group.
3. The Define Groups window lets you modify a group by adding, deleting and editing multiple groups.

4. Choose a relevant group for each passenger by selecting a value from the Group name dropdown. 
5. Make sure a Staff is always assigned the default group, i.e. Individual.

6. You can choose to add independent travellers. Each passenger added to the workspace is tagged Individual. If the traveller does not belong to a group, proceed with Individual as the default group.

Note: A traveller assigned Individual is independent to other travellers with the Individual tag. Passengers showing Individual as their group are not correlated.

Adding a Package price for an SIC Tour

Tourwriter lets you define your Split pricing itinerary as either a Seat-in-Coach (SIC) tour or a Pure Split tour. The primary difference is that Pure split considers the Gross (final) price in the Bookings tab when calculating the price per traveller, while SIC considers a predefined package price. If you wish to design your itinerary as SIC, include an overridden package price for each room in Room types in the Clients tab. This is how the SIC price for each room calculates as the sum of the Sell Price and the Extras cost. 

A user may choose to participate in an “Extra” activity that others don’t partake in. This is when you define the booking as an Extra. To learn more about Extras List, head to the Extras List section

Adding an SIC Package

With SIC pricing enabled, you can set a package price for each room. To set a package price:

1. Make sure you have populated Rooms type under the Clients tab.
2. The price in the Sell price column initially appears as 0. Add a Sell price which will also be your package price.
3. To view total SIC pricing per passenger, head to Split pricing window. 
4. Enable the SIC pricing checkbox to observe 3 rows appearing at the bottom viz; Package Room Type, Package Price and Package + Extras.  

Note: If you enable By Group, you can access SIC pricing for each group.

Price Override 

You can override the Package price either in the Split pricing window or the Clients tab. We previously went through Override passenger prices in the Split pricing window. Now, let’s see how to override the package sell price in the Clients tab.

1. When the Room type field is populated, the Default Price field displays the price added for each room in the Sell Price field.
2. Override the price by entering a new value in the Price override field. 
3. The Comm% field displays the default commission. You can override this commission by entering a different percent value in the Cmm Ovrd field. 
   • Agent net is adjusted based on the overridden commission percentage.

1. • The overridden SIC price displays at the bottom of the Split pricing window. The overridden price changes are consistent with the changes seen in the Override passenger prices window. 

Extras List

You may want to design an itinerary for an independent passenger who wishes to take up additional activities. Split pricing subcategorises services into sub-tours, such as Pre-Tour, Post-Tour, Optional, and Additional to organise your Split pricing itinerary better. The Extras List column in the Bookings tab lets you achieve just that:

Accessing the default Extras List values

The newly introduced field is labelled Extras List. The label can be modified in Tourwriter Setup.

1. Navigate to Tools > Setup > Booking Labels.
2. The Type 1 field defaults to Extras List. The term also acts as the column header on the Split pricing window.

Entering values for the field

You can change the values that appear in the Extras List.

1. Go to Tools > Setup > Extras List and highlight Extras List.
2. Edit or add new List values. The values appear as dropdown options on the Bookings tab. 

Adding Extras to a Booking

To associate an Extras List to a booking, enable Extras List in the Bookings tab.

1. Enable the Extras field in the Bookings tab by selecting the Field Chooser in the top left corner and selecting the ‘Extras’ field.
2. Choose an Extras List value for each booking from the dropdown.
3. Head to Tools > Split pricing configuration to view your selection.

The post Split Pricing function appeared first on Tourwriter Knowledge Base.

The Edit Publishing Functionality will need to be enabled on your Tourwriter database. Please speak to your Customer Success Executive to learn more.

Choosing a Default Publishing Content

You can include additional description to your Itinerary through Content types. By choosing a Content type, you define your content to be in one of several progressive itinerary stages, like Quotation, Final and so on. Likewise, the language the report displays in can be listed as a Content type if you are dealing with multiple languages. For instance, Final German and Final Spanish are defined as two Content types. The new Is Default column lets you select your default Content type. Let’s take a look.

1. Navigate to General Lists which is found in Tools > Setup > General Lists.
2. Highlight Content types to view the pre-populated Content types List values.
3. Choose a Content type value as your default. The new Is Default field lets you do that.

4. On opening an itinerary, the Publishing Reset drop-down displays the default Content type.

Note: The Content type chosen through the Is Default field becomes the default Publishing Content option for all your itineraries. Once set, the Publishing Reset field cannot be blank.

5. Either continue with the default Content type or override it by selecting a different Content type from the Publishing Reset dropdown. When overriding the default Content type, you are prompted to confirm your selection.

Note: Choosing a new Content type overrides information saved in the previous Content type for all existing publishing that has not been locked. If you wish to save information for both the Content types, create a copy of the itinerary. 

The Edit Publishing Content Window

The Edit Publishing window displays the content that can be pushed to Minim. The window also lets you update the Supplier and the Service Content along with Publishing Note 1, Publishing Note 2 fields. Follow the steps below to access the Edit Publishing window:

1. Right-click a booking item in the Bookings List tab of an Itinerary and select Edit Publishing Content.

2. On the Publishing Content window, edit the Booking Name and the Item Description fields. The content for these fields is copied from the fields with the same labels in the Bookings tab. 

Note: If the text in the Booking Name and the Item Description fields in the Edit Publishing window are edited, the Booking Name and the Item Description fields in the Bookings tab won’t reflect edits.

3. Enter content for the Supplier by loading Heading, Content, Online Image and the Report Image field. 
4. Follow the same steps to load Service content. 

Note: Unlike the Booking Emailer window that groups bookings by Booking ID, the Edit Publishing window displays all bookings. Bookings with the same Booking ID, accordingly displays on separate Edit Publishing records.

5. Click the Refresh button  to restore content to its original values. 
6. Click the Lock icon to save the Content type information. After adding text to the Supplier and Service content fields, lock it to prevent a Publishing Reset from overwriting the Content type data.
   • For instance, say your default is set to Quotation. Edit the content and leave the Edited Booking Content unlocked , when you later opt for a different Content type (Final) through a Reset, it overwrites the data for the Final Type. 
7. Each content field can be expanded to zoom into the text by opening it in a separate window. Click Expand to open a larger window.

Note: At some point, you may want to load a Content type other than the default type selected for the itinerary. You can select a different Content type by picking the new content from the Publishing Reset dropdown on the Itinerary tab. However, if your old content isn’t locked, Publishing reset will delete existing Publishing Content and replace it with the newly selected Content type.

Push to Minim Settings

A Publishing Types subtab is now available on your Push to Minim settings. The subtab lets you map Tourwriter Content type fields to fields in Minim. Existing mappings for Check-In, Address, Locations and so on remain intact. To refer to current Tourwriter-Minim field mappings, visit Tourwriter-Minim Integration. Below are the steps to perform mapping in the Publishing subtab.

1. On the Bookings tab of an itinerary, head to Tools > Push Itinerary to Online… to open the Upload Itinerary pop-up.
2. Click on the Push to dropdown menu and select Minim

3. Select Settings to open Minim Setup.
4. Under the Mappings section, switch to the Publishing Types subtab.

Note: The Mappings section displays two other subtabs, Service Types and Status Types. To learn more, refer to the Mappings section in the Tourwriter-Minim Integration article. 

5. Click the dropdown under Tourwriter field to see a list of Edit Publishing fields. In the screenshot, Edit booking name maps to the Booking name field on the Edit Publishing window. 
   • Note: When you first open the subtab the Tourwriter field column will be set to blank. You must map each Minim field to a corresponding Tourwriter field from the dropdown.

6. Confirm the Tourwriter fields mapped to Minim fields and click Save to close the Minim Setup window. 
   • Even though you can select your choice of mappings, an ideal Publishing Types mapping looks like below:

7. Select Content Rules to review the chosen Content Rule template. 

Note: When you enable Edit Publishing, the Content type field on the Content rule setup window grays out. The graying out is to prevent you from selecting a different Content type than the one selected in the Itinerary > Publishing reset.

The post The Edit Publishing Functionality appeared first on Tourwriter Knowledge Base.

We have revamped Groups to allow you to easily override the default room type defined at Service setup.

The new Group Override functionality introduces the following features:

• For an Accommodation booking, manage Default Options Types at Itinerary, or by Booking line.
• You no longer require a single default Accommodation option throughout your database. Thus, you can base your per person pricing off Twin rooms as well as Double rooms in an itinerary.
• All existing Pax break functions are maintained. The new Groups override for Room type is an extension of the existing groups functionality.

Join Alper for a webinar on our new Groups Override functionality. To start using Groups, ensure your database is set up for Groups. If you are uncertain, please contact our friendly Support team or get in touch with your Customer Engagement Manager.

Setting up Groups

Begin your Groups set up by setting up passenger breaks. Bookings tab now displays the new Groups Override field.

Introducing the Group Override field

The Groups Override field lets you define which Room Type your per person pricing should base off. This field needs to be enabled via the Field Chooser.

Note: If you do not see the Group Override column within the Field Chooser of your database, the feature may be disabled on your database. Please reach out to us, and we will enable the Group Override feature for you.

1. Enable the Group Override field in the Bookings tab by selecting the Field Chooser in the top left corner of the Bookings tab and tick the Group Override field.
2. Adjust your column headers. Drag the unused columns to the top to temporarily disable them from the Bookings tab.

The field lets you select your Groups default option. Before you get to that, setup passenger breaks in the Groups setup window. Let’s see how.

Tourwriter Groups Setup window

The Groups setup window or the Pax Break window is where you configure each travelling group. By setting up Passenger Breaks, you’ll be specifying the number of Adults, Children and Staff.

1. On the Bookings tab, select Tools > Setup group configuration to open the Tourwriter Groups Setup window.
2. Base your per person pricing off either Gross price or Net price from the dropdown.
3. Select your default option type from the Override group default dropdown. The dropdown lets you select the default Room Type your per person pricing will base off. This ideally is the most used/sold Option Type. For most, this is the Double or Twin configuration. dropdown.
4. The Groups setup window displays the Group Default column to select a default at the setup. The Group Default column corresponds to the Group Override field on the Bookings tab.

5. Enter a group name in the Name: field. The Group name in the example above correlates with the number of Groups passengers.
6. Add values in the Adults, Children and the Staff fields to calculate per person price for the pax breaks. The Staff’s cost is covered by all the paying passengers.

Tip: To ensure the Room Types are copied to all Groups, create all your Pax break groups before you add the Room Types.

7. To add a Room Type, click in the bottom half of the Groups Setup window. Select from a list of options that can be configured under Tools > Setup > Option configs.

Note: It is a good practice to enter Room Types for all Accommodation services you require Supplement or Reduction pricing for. This means enter all Room Types that accommodate the same count of occupants. For instance, if the Service to add to an itinerary has a Single and a Twin room, add a Double Room Type to the Groups Setup window. Doing so will allow you to switch your default override between the Double and Twin Room Types without affecting the calculation. Additionally, you can keep your per person price calculation intact even if you select both Twin and Double as your default override.

The Calculate group price by dropdown

In group tours, sometimes the tour staff participates in certain services without paying for them. In previous Tourwriter versions, you could divide the staff’s cost amongst the paying adult passengers only. However, in some scenarios, the price for staff must be covered by children who are part of the itinerary. An example is an itinerary for a school trip. The new Tourwriter version lets you divide the staff cost amongst any one of the following pricing options: Adult, Child or both.

The Groups setup window now comes with the new Calculate group price by dropdown. There are 3 dropdown options that correlate to ways the staff pricing can be divided:

• Adult only
• Child only
• Adult & Child

Let’s look at scenarios where we’d be needing each.

The Adult only option

Entering the number of staff in the Staff column adds to the overall service price. Previously the staff’s cost was divided with the number entered in the Adults column, as shown in the example below:

In the screenshot above, the cost of 1 staff participating in the service is divided amongst 6 adults. The cost is not shared between the 3 children added to the Children field.

The Child Only option

The Child only dropdown option is ideal when the itinerary is for a school trip. For this option, the cost of the staff (tour guides) and adults (teachers and school staff) is divided amongst the paying children.

When the Child only option is selected, the staff cost is divided by the value specified in the Children field. In the example above, the cost of a single staff is divided among 6 children.

The Adult & Child option

The Adult & Child option is used when the adults and children partaking in the trip pay for themselves. When on a school trip, if the children (students) and adults (school staff) pay for themselves and decide to share the cost of the staff (tour guide), you can choose the Adults & Child option.

When the Adult & Child option is selected, the staff cost is divided by the sum of the values in the Adults and Children fields. In the example above, the cost of 1 staff is divided among 6 adults and 3 children, i.e., 6+3 = 9.

Adding Bookings to a Group Itinerary

Adding bookings to a Groups Itinerary is no different from adding bookings to any other itinerary. The two ways to add bookings to an itinerary are:-

• Drag and drop the Supplier from the Supplier menu. Or
• Search for a Supplier by clicking the on to the top-right corner of the Bookings tab.

Visit the Adding Bookings article for more information.

However, unlike other itineraries, there are factors to consider when adding bookings to a Groups itinerary.

Constraints with the Group Override Functionality

Even though the new Groups override feature comes with a lot of enhancements, there are a few limitations and constraints.

Selecting the correct Option Types

To start using groups, make sure your database is set for Groups. To verify that, open a Supplier, switch to the Services tab and click the View dropdown then select (tick) Groups. The following should happen:

• A Charge field appears under Services.
• A Type dropdown field displays under Pricing options for the highlighted season.
• A Default checkbox field appears under Pricing options for the highlighted season.

The new Groups Override feature works with 3 Charge types, namely Group, PAX and Room. Here’s a table that lists the differences between the three.

The table above summarises the following:-

• For a Service with a Charge Type Group, all the Option Types selected should be marked Default.
• A service with Charge Type Pax, one of the Option Types between Adult and Child must be marked Default.
• A Room Charge Type should have the Default set to the Option Type that the per person pricing will base off.

When you add bookings to a Groups itinerary, the Option Type and Default preference for each Booking should adhere to the rules stated above. If your bookings do not adhere to the Groups Configuration rules, you will see Warning messages. Here are a few examples of ways to add Services to a Groups itinerary incorrectly.

• For an Accommodation type, selecting a Room with no Default generates the following warning.

Note: You will also see the warning message above if you do not select all rows as Default for a Service with a Group Charge Type.

• Adding a Room with no Option Type result in the following pop-up.

• Similarly, adding a Service with a Group Charge Type that does not have a blank Option Type also results in a pop-up.

Warning – Assigning different Booking IDs to Bookings from the same Service

The Groups Override feature expects Bookings from the same Service to have the same Booking ID so that the per person pricing calculates correctly. You will see an incorrect Supplement or Reduction price when bookings from a Service are assigned different Booking IDs while they are added to the itinerary. A warning pops up when you assign a new Booking ID on the Booking Window. Let’s look at a scenario.

1. Drag and drop a Supplier onto the Bookings tab. Or click the to open the Add new booking popup window.
2. Select an Accommodation Service to auto-select all the Room types configured in the Group setup.
3. Untick the Auto-assign New BkID checkbox to ensure the per person calculations are correct. A Warning message pops up if you book the rooms without clearing the checkbox
4. Fill up the Time, Nts/days and the Qty fields in the lower grid of the window.

Note: Once added to the itinerary, you may manually split Bookings that have the same ID. See Split Bookings – Renaming Booking IDs for more.

Sorting the new columns on the Booking tab

After you add Bookings to your itinerary, you may have to reset the grid layout on your itinerary. Go to Tools (from Bookings tab) and select Reset grid layout. You may also reset the layout for the whole database through the My Account Details section. (click the link to learn more)

After setting up pax breaks and adding bookings to the itinerary, extra columns appear on your Bookings tab.

1. Scroll to the right of the screen to find the new columns.
2. Arrange columns as you would like to view them. You could move unused columns to the far right. The new columns are the Passenger Break listed as a field.
3. Hover over the column name to view the complete Pax Break name. Along with the Pax Break, each Room Type ( i.e. Double, Single, Triple…) added in the Group configuration appears as a separate column.

1. • Pricing shown in these new columns is for any Supplements or Reductions.
   • Whereas the Pax Breaks Columns (e.g.. 14 passengers + 1 escort] display the price per person for your Default Room Type option, in addition to any costs for FOC staff.
   • Thus, if, for instance, you have chosen Twin as your Default option, it won’t be listed as a column in the Bookings tab.

Override Itinerary at Booking line

You are also able to force each Booking line to be included in Pax Break calculations. For example, the Groups Override Default in your Itinerary is defined as Double, but a supplier only has Twin rooms. You can select the Twin service by clicking the appropriate Group override box. Let’s look at a scenario.

In the example above, the user manually enables the Twin Booking as the Default via the Group Override column. Thus, a user can choose services to be included in the Pax Break calculation at the itinerary level.

Refer to the Groups Operations Overview article for steps on adjusting the breakdown costs for each booking line, adding a Markup to your Groups itinerary and adjusting the Groups passenger list.

For instructions on adding passengers and assigning room numbers to a groups itinerary in the latest Tourwriter version, please refer to Adding passengers & assigning room numbers.

The post Introducing the Groups Override function appeared first on Tourwriter Knowledge Base.

Learn how to setup your suppliers, make group quoting and touch base on our new Split Groups feature. At the end, check out our new Split Group report and the Split Group Invoice report.

The post Groups Webinar – Pax & Split Groups appeared first on Tourwriter Knowledge Base.

Setting up Groups at the Supplier level

As seen with the Passenger Breaks feature for Groups, the Service pricing option for a Supplier needs to be set up initially to include Group pricing. In the Services tab of the Supplier, click View > Groups to enable groups. Enabling Groups defines the charge per service. To know more, go through the Enabling Groups section of the Services Tab Overview article.

Accessing the Split Group Interface

To set up split groups in Tourwriter, you need to access the Split Group Interface.

1. Navigate to the Bookings tab of an itinerary.
2. Select Tools > Split group configuration to open the Split Group window.

Note: For an itinerary, you can’t access the Split Group interface if you have Pax Break configured and vice versa.

3. The interface displays Item Description and Booking name, Date, Time, Nts and Qty fields to the left of the window.
4. The traveller names appear to the right.

Note: The traveller information in the Split Group window is populated from the Passengers grid in the Clients tab of the itinerary. Check out the different ways to add travellers to the Passengers grid in the Details Subtab article.

Adding Group Details

You can use the Split Groups interface to add, delete and edit groups.

1. In the Split Group interface, click Manage Groups.

2. Selecting Manage Groups opens the Define Groups window where you can add groups.
3. Click to add a group.
4. The Define Groups window lets you add, delete and edit multiple groups.

5. After you finish adding groups, the drop-down under each traveller displays the recently added groups. Map each traveller to a group by choosing the group name from the drop-down list.

Note: In the example above, we have created an itinerary to accommodate a trip for two groups. The first group includes 8 students from Victoria University, who have opted for 4 Double rooms at the DBB Lodge. The second group contains 8 Tourwriter Staff members, each of who have chosen Single rooms at the DBB Lodge. Additionally, there are 2 Tour Guides to guide both groups. Each paying traveller will share the expense of their Tour Guide’s stay at the DBB lodge.

6. The grid to the right defaults to sorting by each traveller. If you wish to sort by each group, click the By Group checkbox as shown in the screenshot below. You can untick the By Group option to revert to the original layout.

Note: In the example above, we have sorted the view By Group to display the two groups, i.e. Tourwriter Staff and Victoria University. Thus, by sorting the view by group rather than by passenger, you can configure split group pricing per group.

7. Ticking the Include check-box in the interface allows you to decide whether the traveller participates in the booking item. This way the traveller is linked to a corresponding booking item.
8. The Paying check-box in the interface allows you to select if the client will be paying for that booking item.

Note: As we see in the screenshot above, the Include and the Paying checkboxes against the DBB Lodge Double rooms are not ticked for the Staff members. That is because they have opted for Single rooms. The other group, University Students, has the Include checkbox ticked for the Double room. Even though the Tour Guide will be lodging, they will not pay for the room, and hence they do not have the Paying Checkbox ticked. The members of the group will share the cost of their respective Tour Guide.

9. The Split Interface even comes with the Select All functionality. The Sel column lets you select multiple Include and Paying checkboxes. Ticking the checkbox under the column name allows you to include all passengers for all bookings. Ticking the box at the row level lets you include all passengers for one booking.

10. After linking booking items to each member and choosing whether they are paying travellers, click Update Bookings. This selection maps the correct booking charge to each group. Each group appears as a column in the booking tab of the itinerary.

You can also add groups through the Passengers grid in the Clients tab of the itinerary. Clicking Manage Groups in the Passengers grid opens the Define Groups window. Once you add groups, you can choose whether they are paying travellers by selecting the Paying checkbox. You can further select the payee and the group they belong to in the Group name and the Payee drop-down.

Exporting the Split

This feature also lets you export your existing Split Group configuration to a spreadsheet.

1. Click the export icon on your Split Group interface to save the sheet to your system.

2. Open the spreadsheet to view the rows and fields that appear in the interface.
3. An added column next to Paying displays the amount owed by the traveller for that booking item. In the screenshot below, Staff1 owes $225 for a Double Room at the DBB Lodge.

Modifying Group Settings in the Passengers Panel

The Passengers panel is another area where itinerary prices can be adjusted and re-calculated. This panel lets you choose whether a traveller is a paying traveller. Additionally, here you can also override the price a traveller owes.

1. The Passengers panel is contextual, which means that the information in the panel column is unique to each booking item. Thus, highlighting a booking item lists information specific to that item in the panel.

2. To access the Passengers panel, go to the Bookings tab of an itinerary, click Show and choose Details from the drop-down menu. The panel lists the travellers and their respective groups. It also specifies the price each traveller has to pay if they are a paying passenger.
3. The Panel further allows you to override the amount that a traveller owes. Just overtype the amount in the Price column.
4. You can also select if the traveller is a paying traveller by ticking the Paying checkbox against the traveller.

Note:- The settings from the Split Group interface carries over to the Passengers Panel. The travellers not selected to pay for the row are greyed out.

5. Once changes for all the booking items are made, click Re-calc on the top of the panel. The changes will reflect under the Group name in the bookings tab.

Split Group Email Booking Template

Tourwriter allows you to book your Split Group itinerary using the new Split Group Email Booking Template. The template allows you to list the travellers, the group they belong to and the amount each traveller owes. The image below shows the table the Supplier will receive once a split group booking request is sent to them:-

The Split Group Email Booking template is available to download from the following link:

Split Group Email Booking Template

Download and Save the above .html template to your TourwriterData > Templates folder. To understand how to add the Split Group Email Booking template to your itinerary, go through the How to add an additional Booking Email Template section of the Activities Email Booking Request Template article.

Sub-categorise bookings for Split Groups

You may want to design an itinerary for people who do not always travel with each other. Through Split Groups, you can achieve that. You can subcategorise services into say Pre-Tour, Post-Tour, Optional, Complementary and so on to organise your itinerary better. Split Group has a new BookingType column that does just that.

Adding a Label to the BookingType1 field

The newly introduced field for Split Groups will be labelled BookingType1 by default. The label can be modified in the Setup area.

1. Navigate to Tools > Setup > Booking Labels.
2. Enter a name in the Type 1 field. The name will be the column header on the Split Group window

Entering values for the field

To have drop-down options available for the Type1 field, you will have to add values in Tourwriter Setup.

1. Head to Tools > Setup > Extras List. Locate the name of the recently labelled field.
2. Highlight the name and start adding the List values. The values will appear as a dropdown option on the Bookings tab. Once selected, you can see it on the Split Groups window.

Assigning a Subcategory

To assign and display a subcategory to a booking, you first need to add it to the Bookings tab.

1. Enable the Extras field in the Bookings List tab by selecting the Field Chooser in the top left corner tick the ‘Extras’ field.
2. Choose a subcategory for each booking from the drop-down menu.
3. Go to Tools > Split Groups Configuration to open the Split Groups window.
   • NOTE: Even though the field is labelled Extras on the Booking List tab, the Split Groups window will display the values under the label you chose in the Booking Labels section.

Note: The newly introduced Type field on the Split Groups window displays the Service Type for the corresponding booking.

The post Split Group Functionality appeared first on Tourwriter Knowledge Base.

There are three key areas to populate;

1. Services – What is being sold
2. Service details > Rates Tab – When (date period) the Service is sold
3. Pricing options for selected season – How the Service is sold

To create a new Service, click  on the Services Tab.

Name Field

Type the service name you wish to load e.g. Harbour View Room over “New Service”. For different supplier types, your services will have different types of names:

Accommodation suppliers
The name of the rooms you sell e.g. Harbour View Room, Garden View Room, Pool View Room etc.

Activity suppliers
The activities you sell e.g. Bungy Jump or Museum Admission.

Transport suppliers
The transport options you sell e.g. ‘Transfer from Auckland to Rotorua’ or ‘Private Coach Transfer from Queenstown to Wanaka’. If the supplier offers a service in the reverse direction this must be loaded as a separate service e.g. ‘Transfer from Rotorua to Auckland ’ or ‘Private Coach Transfer from Wanaka to Queenstown’.

Type Field

This is the Service Type – the drop-down list displays pre-loaded Service Types alphabetically. Ensure you load the correct Service Type here as this information populates various reports you can run from Tourwriter. To amend Service Types go to Tools > Setup > Service configs.

Adding Fields to the Services Workspace

There are two additional fields you can bring into the Services workspace: Currency and Charge. You only need to enable currencies if your supplier’s currency (the currency in which you buy a service from your supplier) is different to your Base System Currency (to view what your Base System Currency is go to Tools > Setup > Data setup > Currencies).  If you provide your clients with per-person-pricing, or if you quote on pax ranges, you need to enable the Charge column. Even if you don’t initially plan on using the Tourwriter Groups functionality it is strongly recommended that users enable Groups as a way of future proofing your database.

Enabling Currencies

Click View then select Currencies from the drop-down options. A tick will indicate Currencies is now enabled and a Currency field will appear within the Services workspace. 

If the currency you require is not offered, when you click on the down arrow to select a currency for your Service, go to Tools > Setup > Data setup > Currencies > Currencies Setup Tab and select (tick) the currency you wish to Enable from the list of Default Currencies.
IMPORTANT – Only enable Currencies where your Supplier’s currency (the currency in which you purchase a Service from a Supplier) is different to your Base System Currency  (Tools > Setup > Data setup > Currencies).

Enabling Groups

Enabling Groups refers to the way in which you load your Suppliers’ Services in order to use the Tourwriter Group Quote functionality. Click View then select (tick) Groups from the drop-down option.

The following things will happen:

• A tick will indicate Groups is now enabled.
• A Charge field will appear under Services.
• A Type field will appear under Pricing options for selected season.
• A Default field will appear under Pricing options for selected season.

IMPORTANT – Enable Groups for every Supplier loaded (this is a simple way to ensure your database is future proofed for handling Group bookings).

Charge Field

This is the Service charged per ROOM, per PAX or per GROUP. Select the Charge type accordingly.

Creating a new Service

In the Services workspace, click   to add a new Service. You will see a New Service line appears within the Services workspace. In the Name field type over New Service with the name of the Service you are entering.

• For an accommodation Supplier this is the name of the room sold, e.g. Standard Room, Deluxe Room, Family Suite etc.
• For an activity or tour Supplier this is the activity or tour being offered, e.g. Bungy Jump, Museum Admission etc.
• For a transfer Provider this is the Service being provided, e.g Transfer from Auckland to Rotorua, Private Transfer from Queenstown to Wanaka etc.

Allocating a Service Type

To allocate a Service Type click on the down-arrow in the Type field and a drop-down list will appear displaying Service Types alphabetically.  Select accordingly. Service Types can be amended by navigating to Tools > Setup > Data setup > Service configs.
It is very important that a Service Type is allocated to every Service that is entered within the Services Name field, as this drives the reporting functionality of Tourwriter (e.g. Accommodation vs. Meal, Activity vs. Tours etc).
Service Types are also coded to display in a certain manner if custom reports are created.

Allocating a Charge Type

A Charge type must also be allocated against each Service. Click on the down-arrow and select accordingly. You must decide whether the service is charged per ROOM, per PAX or per GROUP.
Once all the Services fields have been completed, within the Services workspace, you can move to the Service details workspace (right side of the Services Tab).

Entering Season Dates for a Selected Service on the Rates Subtab

Click  to add a new Season to the highlighted Service (on the left). Use the calendar window to select the Valid From and Valid To Season dates. Once the Season dates for the highlighted Service have been entered, you can move down to the Pricing options for selected season workspace to enter the Pricing options and rates for the highlighted Service.

Entering Pricing Options for a Selected Season

IMPORTANT – Ensure the correct Service and Season dates are highlighted before creating Pricing options.
Click   to add a new Pricing option. A new line will appear with New Option in the Option field. Type over the words New Option,  name of the Option  you are entering. For an accommodation Supplier this is the room configuration or occupancy e.g. Double, Twin, Single, Triple, Quad etc.

If no Season has been selected Tourwriter will prevent you from entering any pricing options (i.e. nothing will happen when you click the yellow plus).

IMPORTANT – You must create a Pricing option line for every Pricing option available, even if they are the same price.
This is so you can select the specific room configuration required for your client at the time of creating an Itinerary and so that you can ensure suppliers will be aware of the configuration required when they receive your booking request.

For example, a hotel might charge the same price for a room irrespective of whether single, double or twin configurations are booked, however all three configurations must be entered as separate lines in the Pricing options for selected season workspace. The same rates are applied to each Option.

We also recommend that you calculate and detail the group configuration when child pricing applies, e.g. Triple (3A), Triple (2A+1C 2-12 yrs inclusive), Quad (4A), Quad (2A+2C 2-12 yrs inclusive), Quad (3A+1C 2-12 yrs inclusive) etc.  

For an activity or tour Supplier, the Option text is Adult, Child, Infant etc., or Per Person if the Supplier does not offer tiered pricing according to age. With Child and Infant Pricing options, enter the age range applicable for each option, e.g. Child (2-14 yrs inclusive), Infant (0-1 yr inclusive); this allows the user to quickly determine which Pricing option is applicable to their client, when quoting the supplier. For a transport Supplier the Option text is Per group or Per transfer or, alternatively, multiple Options can be entered, if the cost for that service is different depending on the number of days booked,  e.g. separate entries for 1-4  days, 5-9 days, 10+ days.

For examples of how to load various pricing options into Tourwriter please refer to the following videos and pages:

Adding Accommodation Suppliers
Adding Tour and Activity Suppliers
Adding Transfer Suppliers
Adding Rental Car Suppliers
Adding Other Service Types

Allocating a Pricing Option Type

As part of the Groups functionality of Tourwriter, the Pricing option Type field must be populated for each Pricing option. The Type field options are pre-set within the Tourwriter database, with assigned divisors (to amend navigate to Tools > Setup > Data setup > Option configs).

For Services sold on a per ROOM basis, your Pricing option Type will be Double or Twin or Single or Triple etc. In most cases the Pricing option Type usually matches the name in the  Option field of the Pricing option.

For Services sold on a per PAX basis, your Pricing option Type will be Adult or Child or Infant etc. In most cases the Pricing option Type usually matches the name in the Option field.

For Services sold on a per GROUP basis, your Pricing option Type will be blank (i.e. no option Type is allocated).

Pricing Option Default Field

The Default field must be completed in order for Tourwriter to calculate Group pricing.

For Services sold on a per ROOM basis, your Pricing option Default will be your most commonly sold Pricing option. For example, if Double is your most commonly sold Pricing option, you will only tick (in the Default field) Double Pricing options and you will leave all other Pricing options blank (un-ticked).

If, however, Twin is your most commonly sold Pricing option, then you will only tick (in the Default field) Twin Pricing options and you will leave all other Pricing options blank (un-ticked). Twin would then be your Default option throughout your database.

IMPORTANT – If you have selected Double as your Default Pricing option throughout your database (for accommodation sold on a per ROOM basis) you can only select an alternative Pricing option as your Default, if Double is not a Pricing option offered by a particular Supplier.

For Services sold on a per PAX basis, your pricing option Default will be Adult. Tick all Adult Pricing options.

For Services sold on a per GROUP basis, your pricing option Default will be all pricing options (i.e. tick every Pricing option).

Adding Prices to Pricing Options

Either double click on a highlighted Pricing option or alternatively click   (far right of the Pricing option line).

The Tourwriter Price Editor window will pop-up. Choose an editing option (i.e. Net and Markup or Net and Gross or Gross and Commission) and enter the pricing information accordingly. Note that only two fields need to be populated; the remaining two fields will auto-populate.

If you have chosen Net and Markup as your editing option, you can round your Gross numbers, to the nearest 1, 5 or 10 (of your Currency), by ticking one of the Rounding boxes at the bottom of the Edit price box (Net and Markup is the only editing option that allows you to do this).  

Using the Copy Function at the Pricing Option Level

Once you have entered your first Pricing option line, you can copy it and then amend the necessary information in each field, for subsequent Pricing options. To do this click the Copy icon  to copy an entire Pricing option line, including the Option, Type, Default and all pricing details.  A new Pricing option line will appear below the last entry. Overtype the Option text with the new Option and select the appropriate Pricing option Type.  Please note that if you have copied a line that has the Default field ticked, you may need to remove the Default tick for your new line.  Then amend the prices accordingly.

Copying at Season Dates Level

It is very important to enter all the Pricing options for the first Season dates for each Service  before you copy information for the next Season dates, as this will save you from having to manually add in all the Pricing options again.

Click  and click the Yes button, in the pop-up Tourwriter Message window, to copy the season to the next start date.  Adjust the Valid To date and adjust the pricing for the Pricing options as required. If you have a contract where pricing is the same for different Season dates, you can copy the first Season dates and then adjust the Valid From as well as Valid To fields.
It is very important to remember to change the Valid From date as Tourwriter will automatically populate this field with the next day from the Valid To field of the copied season, which may not be applicable.

Copying at Services Level

Only copy at the  Services level once all Season dates, all Pricing options and as much information as possible has been populated on the Configs, Details and Warnings Subtabs. Copying at Services level copies all the associated information for the highlighted Service.

The post Services Tab Overview appeared first on Tourwriter Knowledge Base.

The following post will take you through how to set up a Package, how to add it into another Itinerary, and how it will look in your client’s Itinerary.

Creating a New Package

We recommend creating a new folder in the Itineraries Menu for your Packages, to keep them separate from your client quotations, bookings and itinerary templates.

Create a Package in the same way you create an itinerary; right-click on the folder to add a New Itinerary, and fill in the following areas:

• Itinerary Name: name your Package. This will be shown in the new Itinerary as a way to identify that a Booking Item belongs to a Package.
• Itinerary Start Date: Apply any date. This will be automatically adjusted as you drop the Package into the client’s Itinerary. Rates will also be updated to match the required dates.
• Status: Set the Status as Package (to set this up, please see this post, about how to add another Status in Setup). We recommend setting the Status as Package so that its data can be filtered from any pricing or management reports.
  

Bookings List:
Add your bookings to the list in the usual way.

• Pricing Options: We recommend selecting your most commonly sold pricing option, as this will save you having to adjust it in the Client’s Itinerary.
• Quantities: There are two options for what Quantity to load, based on whether your database is enabled for Groups:
  Not enabled for Groups – You can either create a Package based on your most commonly sold pricing options (e.g. a couple require 1 x Double Room and 2 x Day Cruises), and if the quantities are different in your client’s itinerary, update the quantities in the new Itinerary manually. Or, you may like to create a different Package for each quantity e.g. Greece Package 2 pax, Greece Package 3 pax etc.
  Enabled for Groups – With Groups enabled, you will have assigned Options Types to your Pricing Options. We recommend that you set the Qty to ‘1’ for all Booking Items when creating your Package. In your clients’ itineraries, you can then use the Update Booking Quantities feature to instantly update your quantities based on the number of passengers travelling.
• If you would like to sell these services at a different Gross Price than if they were booked separately, enter a Final Override. If not, leave this field blank; Tourwriter will add all bookings to the list as if they were booked separately.
• With the October 2017 release, you can now add any Booking, Voucher, Publishing or Private Notes to a booking in your Package itinerary. To do this, double click any item, select the Notes tab and enter your note into the fields provided. For more on this process, click here. Any Notes added to a Package itinerary will pull through into the Client’s Itinerary.

Using an Existing Itinerary as a Package

Packages can also be created by using an existing client Itinerary. Any Itinerary can simply be dragged and dropped from the folder it is stored in, to the new Itinerary’s Bookings List.
If you think you will reuse that Itinerary multiple times, you may like to create a copy of the Itinerary to access easily from your Packages folder. To do this, simply right-click the Itinerary in the Itineraries Menu, and select Copy. You can then right-click on your Packages folder and select Paste (copy) . Make sure to then adjust the Itinerary just like you would if creating a new Package (see above), e.g. Itinerary Name, Status, Pricing Options, Quantities and Final Overrides.

Adding a Package to an Itinerary

1. Open your Client Itinerary and go to the Bookings List Tab.
2. Locate the Package in the Itineraries Menu, then drag and drop the itinerary into the Bookings List/Workspace.
3. The New Package Window will open. Here you can adjust the Package Name, Package Date, and amend in a Package Sell Price.
   
4. Click OK. Booking Items will be added to the Itinerary.
5. Package Items can be identified by enabling the Package field from the Field Chooser.
   
6. If a Package Sell Price has been entered in step 3, the difference between the Package Gross (final) total and the Package Sell Price will be apportioned to each booking item once added to the Bookings List. The Gross (final) price in the Bookings List will be updated accordingly. Enabling the Package Override field will allow you to see this.
7. If Groups are enabled – Ensure the Clients Tab > Room Types table is updated with your pax information (for more information on how to do this please see Room Types). Then Update Quantities in the Tools drop-down menu on the Bookings List.
   If Groups are not enabled – Simply click into the Qty field for each booking line, and adjust the Quantity to suit your Client’s requirements, or double click the booking line, to open the Bookings Window and adjust the Quantity:
   
8. If an Error symbol is showing, hover over the symbol to check the error. It is likely that the rates and/or currencies will require updating. Go to the Bookings List Tools drop-down menu to update. To check what an Error message means, see this post.
   

Deleting a Package

To delete a package from your Itinerary, simply right-click and select delete, or highlight a line in the package, and select the red cross in the top right corner. You will be prompted with a Message Pop-up asking for confirmation that you would like to delete the package.

Each Booking Item of a package can now be deleted. Earlier you could only delete the entire package. You can now delete each Package booking item, one at a time, without affecting the other booking items.

There are three ways to delete a booking item from a package.

1. Right-click to select the delete option.
2. Right-click the booking item to select Edit or double-click the booking item to delete it. This feature allows you to view booking details in a view before deleting it.
3. And finally, you can delete a booking item by clicking the sign at the top right corner.

Deleting a booking item will open a new Package Editor window to list the remaining booking items present from the itinerary which had one of its booking item deleted.

Packages – Best Practices

• The start date of the itinerary added to the package can be edited to match the package start date. Changing the date in the Package Date field adjusts the booking dates for each booking item, keeping the duration and schedule of the itinerary intact. In the example below, changing the date in the Package Date field adjusts dates of all the booking items part of the itinerary. However, the itinerary duration remains the same.

• When you edit a booking item, fill the Notes tab in your itinerary with details prior to dragging it across to a Package. This way, the notes from the itinerary will be carried across to the Package. Your itinerary data from the Booking field, Voucher field, Publishing 1 & Publishing 2 field will also be seen in the package the itinerary is dropped in.

Editing a Package

Right click a Booking line for one of the Package items and select Edit Package:

The Package Editor Window will open:

Here you can edit the Package Name and Overall Package Sell Price.

To edit a singular booking within the Package simply double click and adjust as usual.

Changing to new Service/Option or new Supplier

And don’t worry if you don’t want to include all the bookings from the package in your client’s itinerary. You still have the flexibility to swap one service for another, or change the Supplier completely using the Change to new Service or Supplier options.

Simply right click and select either Change to new Service/Option, or Change to new Supplier.
When you select either of these, the following Warning Message will check that you would like the continue. If you have added a Package Sell Price, that price will be kept.

Bookings Emailer

When you are ready to book your Itinerary, simply go through the bookings process as normal.

The post Packages appeared first on Tourwriter Knowledge Base.

Itinerary Tips & Tricks – Webinar

Tourwriter Tips & Tricks – Webinar

Accounting Payment Terms – Webinar

What’s new in Tourwriter – Webinar

Supplier Payments Webinar – Part 2

Groups Webinar – Pax & Split Groups

Rental Car 24hr Booking Webinar

Integration with MailChimp

Searching Capabilities

Booking Tab Tips and Tricks

Tasks Work Space – Scheduled Tasks

Contacts and Passengers – In Depth

Email Booking Template Customisation

Accounting Sales

New Itinerary Builder

Flights

Supplier Payments

Groups

Packages

Rental Cars

Custom Sort

The post Webinars Overview appeared first on Tourwriter Knowledge Base.

If you’re using Tourwriter to store your Contacts you can now use the MailChimp API to map your Tourwriter contacts to MailChimp.

The Tourwriter MailChimp integration is available as part of our Professional and Enterprise plans, but is also available to our Lite customers to trial until 31 December 2017. From 1 January 2018, Lite customers can contact our Support team or their Customer Success Executive to upgrade their Tourwriter Plan and continue to enjoy the push to MailChimp functionality.

Prerequisites

• You’re an existing MailChimp user. If not, you can sign up for a free account at https://mailchimp.com/
• You’ve got Contacts created in Tourwriter, and they’re categorized using Contact categories (see Tools > Setup > General lists > Contact categories)
• Your Contacts include an email address

Ready to go? Read on to learn the setup steps in MailChimp, and how to export your Contact categories from Tourwriter to MailChimp.

API key creation in MailChimp

The purpose of creating an API key is so that Tourwriter can ‘talk to’ your MailChimp account and bring your selected Contacts across ready to send emails from MailChimp. Follow the steps below in your MailChimp account to generate an API key.

1. In MailChimp, navigate to your Username at the top of the navigation bar and click the down arrow, then select Account
   
2. On the next screen, select Extras > API keys:
3. On the API creation screen, scroll to the Your API keys section
4. Select Create A Key
5. Your API key will be generated, and available from the API key field shown below
   
6. This key is required for the Tourwriter integration. Copy this key, ready to paste into Tourwriter.

List Creation in MailChimp

The final step for integration MailChimp with Tourwriter is to create a list in MailChimp, for example your “Tourwriter Contact List”. This list will act as the parent for any groups that you’ll import to MailChimp from Tourwriter.

1. In MailChimp, on the main menu (top left) click Lists
   
2. Click Create List
3. Fill in the details required such as List name, Default “from” email and Default “from” name
4. Once you click Save, the List will be created.
   
5. Next, create a Group.
6. Go to Manage contacts > Groups
7. Click Create Groups
8. You’ll need to enter a Group category and at least one Group name in order to complete this setup step. In the below example, the Group category is Agents.
9. Next, locate the ListID. This will be used in the Tourwriter application for integration.
10. Click Settings > List name and defaults
    
11. On the List name and campaign defaults screen, there will be a List ID in the area highlighted below. Copy this ID number, ready to paste into Tourwriter.

Back in Tourwriter

1. Go to Tools > Contacts > Send email to > Export to MailChimp
2. On the Tourwriter Export to MailChimp screen, paste your MailChimp API Key and List ID into the fields provided
3. Tick the Categories you would like to export from Tourwriter to MailChimp
4. Click Export

Your contacts will be exported from Tourwriter into MailChimp. Once the Export to MailChimp window has closed in Tourwriter, you will be able to locate your new List in MailChimp.

The post MailChimp Integration Guide appeared first on Tourwriter Knowledge Base.