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Kennel booking

You can use this module to maintain an advance booking schedule for boarding accommodation. It will handle up to 10 different types of accommodation; these might be spaces for different species, quarantine or places on obedience courses, etc. Each type can hold up to 1000 places. The number of advance bookings and the booking period are dependent on disk space, but may not in any case be greater than 32000 bookings or days respectively.

Chapter contents

  • Getting started Introduction to the kennel booking menu, and how to initialise the system
  • Taking a booking How to add a booking
  • Examine kennel space Displays information about your kennels' availability
  • Amend/Delete a booking Find a specific booking and view, edit or delete it
  • Status reports Occupation of your kennels by date
  • Utilities program Kennel booking housekeeping tasks

    • Getting started

    When you enter kennel booking, the following menu will be displayed: 
    Take a booking
Display kennel space
Amend/delete a booking
Status reports
Utilities programs
Return to program
    If this is the first time you have used the module, you will need to select <U>tilities in order to initialise your files. This will allow you to set up the kennel booking system according to your requirements. The utilities menu will then be displayed: 
    Expand file sizes
Change accommodation names
Completely initialise files
Restructure files
Reorganise files
Return to kennel menu
    Select <C>ompletely initialise files.

    You will be asked to confirm that this is really what you want to do. After confirming by replying 'Y', you will be asked for the maximum number of bookings to be held on file at any one time. This should be between 100 and 32000. You will also be asked for the number of days in advance to maintain bookings for. Again this must be between 100 and 32000.

    After some of the files have been initialised (which will take a few seconds) you will be asked to enter the accommodation type names and the number of places available for each. For example, let us suppose that the accommodation types are: dogs, cats, quarantine, ponies and cage birds, then enter these as accommodation types 1 to 5. It is advisable to use the singular rather than the plural because then the report headings will be grammatically correct, e.g. "DOG arrivals on 12.12.91".

    When you have finished entering all the types required, type "E" for <E>nd and you will be asked for the number of places available for each type. Type "E" again when this has been done. The rest of the files will then be initialised and you will be returned to the utilities menu. Select <R>eturn to kennel menu.

    Taking a booking

    Select <T>ake a booking from the main kennel menu. The booking form will be displayed on the screen: 
    Name
Animal name
Accommodation type
Arrival date
Leaving date
Nights' stay
Notes

    Note: If the booking file is full, then an error message will display. You will need to go into the utilities program and expand the bookings file to handle more bookings. We will cover this process later in the chapter.

    Enter the client name (up to 12 characters). Enter the animal name (up to 12 characters). Enter the accommodation type number and then the description of the type will appear on the form. Enter the day of arrival in DD.MM.YY format.

    Then you can either enter the departure date or the number of nights' stay. To skip the departure date question and go on to the night's stay question, just press <RETURN> . If you enter a departure date the nights' stay question will be skipped. Whichever question you choose to answer, the value for the other will be worked out automatically. Then enter any notes for this client or animal (up to 20 characters). You will then be asked to confirm that the entries are correct. If not then answer "N" and you can go back and re-enter whichever line is incorrect.

    Note: If the arrival date or the departure date are not within the booking period specified by the file set-up, an error message will display. You will need to expand the files to cover the date you are entering. Alternatively, use the 'Reorganise files' option in the utilities program to remove historic bookings and set the booking period not to include dates in the past. Both options are covered later in this chapter, under 'Utilities'.

    It may be that a particular accommodation type is already fully booked, for all or part of the period of this particular booking. In this case a warning will be displayed: 

    No space available - book in anyway?
    Answer accordingly.

    Examine kennel space

    This is option 2 on the main kennel menu. Space allocation for the current date will be displayed along with a prompt line: 
    Date:21.06.86
Type  Places Used    (%)   Left  (%)   Over   (%)

DOG     200   146   73.00   54  27.00   0
CAT     200   207  103.50    0          7      3.50

Total   400   353   88.25   54  13.50   7      1.75

<F>orward <B>ack <E>nd or date required.

    Amend/Delete a booking

    TIP: You can also use this option also to look at a particular booking without necessarily changing it.

    The system uses 3 criteria to search for a particular booking: name, animal name and arrival date. Use one or more of these to find the booking you require. If you specify no criteria then the program will just skip through all the entries until it comes to the one you want.

    When it finds a match, the following prompt line is displayed: 

    Match found <D>elete <E>dit <N>ext <Q>uit
    If you select D for delete, you will be asked to confirm, and if you reply 'Y' the record will be deleted. Editing an existing booking is similar to editing a booking when first entering it.

    If you delete a record, or if you edit a booking and thereby change the arrival or departure dates or the accommodation type, then the kennel space allocation information will be amended accordingly.

    If no matches are found, or if you reply N until the program reaches the end of the booking file, the following message will appear: 

    Search finished - end of file <R>e-enter <Q>uit
    Your original search criteria will also be displayed. At this point, either select "R" for new search criteria, or "Q" to exit the main kennel menu.

    Status reports

    When selected, a sub-menu will be displayed: 

    Arrivals report
Leavers report
Stayovers report
Return to kennel menu
    The arrivals report will display the booking details for all animals due to arrive on a particular date. The leavers report will display the details for all animals due to leave on a particular date, and the stayovers report will list all stayovers, i.e. the booking details for all animals who will be resident for all of that particular day and not arriving or departing.

    You will be asked for the date the report is to cover, and then you will be asked the accommodation type(s) you want it to cover, either one particular type or all types. At the end a totals figure will also be displayed. Use option 4 of this sub-menu to return to the main kennels system.

    Utilities program

    This is entered by selecting option 5 from the main kennel menu, and is used for making various alterations to the structure of the files. A sub-menu will be displayed: 

    Expand file sizes
Change accommodation names
Completely initialise files
Restructure files
Reorganise files
Return to kennel menu
    Use <E>xpand file sizes, either to expand the number of bookings you are allowed to have at any one time, or to extend the period the booking system is to cover.

    Use <C>hange accommodation names to change the names of the accommodation types. Your new changed names will then be used henceforth in all references to any accommodation type number. No other changes are made to the file structure as a result of accessing this option.

    The option for completely initialising the files has already been dealt with in the section "getting started".

    It may be that the number of places available for accommodation may change, at particular times of the year for example, in which case use <R>estructure files, or you may simply wish to change the number of places available.

    You are asked first if there are any accommodation type names you wish to change, and this has the same effect as the change names option above. If you are adding a new accommodation type you would use this to change an "unused" type to the accommodation type name you require to add. If there are no more names to change, enter E.

    You are then asked for the date the change is to be implemented from. If you enter E for <E>xit at this point you will be returned to the utilities menu and no further changes will be made. The current number of places for each type will then be displayed, and you will be asked to enter the new number of places for each type in turn. When there are no more to be changed, enter E and the number of places available will be altered according to your specifications from the date required. You will then be returned to the utilities menu.

    <R>eorganise files should be run from time to time, when convenient. This removes all historic bookings from file, i.e. bookings where the animal has been and gone, and allocation information for all days prior to the system date. The space on disk which was used up by these bookings and days will then be able to be re-used by the program.

    <R>eturn to kennel menu returns you to the main kennel booking program.

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