Instant Book, or request to book?
Overview
Approval for an opportunity is what lets somebody see and reserve its shifts. Instant Book decides what happens in the moment they reserve one.
Those are two different questions, and keeping them apart is most of what this setting is about. This article is for administrators.
1. First, what this setting does not do
Nothing here changes who can see a shift. That is settled by the opportunity: people see the shifts inside opportunities they are approved for, and nothing else.
Instant Book is the next question along, and it has one job. When somebody takes a spot, is it theirs, or is it a request?
2. The two behaviours
Instant Book on
- The reservation is confirmed the moment it is made.
- The spot is theirs, and the shift's remaining count drops straight away.
- No admin is involved, so nobody is waiting on anybody.
- The person knows immediately whether they are on the shift.
Instant Book off, so requests to book
- Reserving sends a request to the shift's coordinator.
- The spot is held as pending while the request waits, so it cannot be taken from under them.
- The coordinator approves or rejects it, and the person is notified either way.
- You get a say on every individual shift, at the cost of every individual shift needing one.
That held-pending detail is worth noticing. Turning Instant Book off does not mean somebody waits and then loses the spot to a faster person. The spot is reserved for them while you decide.
3. Which one should I choose?
Turn Instant Book on wherever approval for the opportunity already means you trust that person on any of its shifts. That is most of the time. If you were happy to approve them for the work, the specific Tuesday rarely changes your mind.
Turn it off when the shift itself needs a second judgement:
- Scarce spots you want to allocate deliberately.
- A task needing a particular skill mix on the day.
- An event roster you are balancing by hand.
Leaving it off everywhere out of caution is the failure mode to avoid. It turns every reservation into a task on somebody's list, and the queue is what people actually experience as your organization being slow.
4. You can set it differently per opportunity
Instant Book is set per opportunity, so different opportunities can behave differently.
An open drop-in shift can confirm instantly while a specialist role still routes every reservation to its coordinator. Most organizations end up mixed, and that is the right answer rather than a sign of indecision.
5. Attention: how this pairs with auto-approve
Auto-approve on an opportunity and Instant Book on its shifts are two different checkpoints, and this is where organizations accidentally double up.
With both on, somebody can go from stranger to confirmed on a shift without an admin touching anything. That is exactly right for open sessions.
If you want one human checkpoint, put it in one of the two places, not both, or you will be approving the same person twice: once to let them into the opportunity, and again for the shift they then picked.
The usual right answer is to put the judgement at the opportunity, where you are deciding about the person, and let Instant Book confirm the shifts, where you are only deciding about a date.
6. What about somebody joining a recurring series?
The same distinction applies. On an instant-book opportunity, joining a recurring schedule adds the person right away. On a request-to-book opportunity, the join is submitted for approval and a coordinator has to approve it before they are added to the shifts.
This is worth thinking about before you turn Instant Book off on a series opportunity, because one person joining an ongoing schedule is a single request, but it commits them to every future occurrence.
Summary
- Approval decides who can see and reserve a shift. Instant Book decides what happens when they do.
- On: confirmed immediately, count drops, no admin, the person knows straight away.
- Off: a request goes to the coordinator, and the spot is held as pending so it cannot be taken.
- Turn it on wherever approval for the opportunity already implies trust for its shifts.
- Turn it off for scarce spots, a needed skill mix, or a roster you balance by hand.
- It is set per opportunity, so a mixed setup is normal.
- Auto-approve and Instant Book are separate checkpoints. Put your human check in one of them, not both.
- Joining a series follows the same rule: instant on an instant-book opportunity, approval-gated otherwise.