What are groups, and do I need them?
Overview
A group is a name you attach to people and to the reservations they make.
It is how you answer "how much did that company actually do for us this year" without building a spreadsheet. Without groups, twelve people from the same employer are just twelve people. With a group, they are one partnership with a history. This article is for administrators.
1. What does a group usually stand for?
- A company sending a team for a day
- A congregation or community organization
- A school, a class or a student society
- A family coming together
The common thread is that the outside world thinks of them as one unit, and so should your reporting.
2. Where does the group name actually show up?
Once a reservation carries a group name, that name follows it everywhere the reservation appears:
- On your schedule and the check-in kiosk, so whoever is on the door knows who has arrived.
- In your reports, so participation by organization is a number you pull rather than a spreadsheet you assemble.
- Across years, so a recurring partner's whole history sits in one place.
That last one is the real argument for groups. A partnership you can only describe anecdotally is a partnership you will struggle to renew.
3. Groups and group reservations are not the same thing
This is the most common confusion, and the names do not help.
- A group reservation is one person booking several spots. It is set up under Operate, and it works on Pro without the Groups module at all.
- A group is a named entity in your database that people and reservations belong to. That needs Enterprise.
You can run group reservations forever without ever creating a group. What you cannot do is total them up by organization afterwards, because without a group there is nothing to total by. Linking a reservation to a named group is what turns a series of separate bookings into a partnership history.
4. Who decides which group somebody belongs to?
Three approaches, and the trade is always accuracy against effort:
- Admins only. You attach people to groups yourself. Cleanest data, and it is work.
- People choose their own. They pick or name their group when they reserve. Much less admin, and worth a periodic tidy.
- Both. People can pick, and you correct or reassign afterwards.
Most organizations should start with both. Self-selection gets you coverage, and the ability to correct means the occasional "Acme" and "ACME Inc." duplication is fixable rather than permanent.
5. What are group tags?
Tags on the group itself, not on people. They categorise types of group: Corporate Group, School Group, Faith Group, and so on.
The point is reporting one level up. Group tags let you answer "how much did our corporate partnerships contribute" across every company at once, rather than adding up twenty named groups by hand.
Worth distinguishing from profile tags, which sit on a person and gate what they can see. A group tag describes the group. It is a label for grouping your groups.
6. Do groups get their own chatroom?
They can. Group is one of the six levels Vome can generate a chatroom for, and its membership stays synchronised with the group's current people.
It is off by default, and it is the natural way to talk to a partner organization as a unit rather than messaging their people individually.
7. Can an administrator be limited to a group?
Admin access is scoped by site, opportunity and profile tag rather than by group, so a group is a reporting and communication object rather than a permissions boundary.
If you need somebody to only ever see one partner's people, look at profile tags and admin scoping instead.
8. Do I actually need groups?
Ask what reporting you are asked for at the end of the year.
If anyone ever asks you how many hours a particular company, school or congregation contributed, you need groups, and you need them before the year starts rather than after. Group membership is not something you can reconstruct convincingly from memory in March.
If nobody asks that, and people arrive as individuals, groups are an Enterprise module you can genuinely skip.
Summary
- A group is a name attached to people and their reservations, so a partnership has a history you can total.
- The group name follows the reservation to the schedule, the kiosk and your reports.
- Group reservations are not groups. Reservations work on Pro; named groups need Enterprise, and only groups let you report by organization.
- Membership can be set by admins, self-selected, or both. Both is the usual answer.
- Group tags categorise groups themselves, so you can report on all corporate partners at once.
- A group can have its own auto-generated chatroom, synced to its current members.
- Groups are for reporting and communication, not for limiting administrator access.