The Find Reservation Dialog

Note:  Many common questions related to making and editing Reservations have been answered in our newsletters -- be sure to check the Newsletter Category Index (click this link) to see if your question is answered there.

This dialog can be opened directly from the main menu (Reservations / Find Reservation), or from the Reservation Details dialog if that was opened from the main menu.  It's also used in various functions such as listing all reservations for a given site or conflicting reservations, so you can view or edit the details of each reservation.  It can even be used to generate simple reservation listing reports with your own filtering criteria.

There is also a handy shortcut key that will open this dialog -- Ctrl-F.

The Find Reservation dialog allows you to search the reservation database in a variety of ways.  By default, it will show all reservations that are on site during the next week (Filter by Date selected, starting today, ending 7 days later, and Resv period selected).  In many cases, this may be sufficient to find what you're looking for, but several other options are available.  The default sorting is typically by Last Name, but you can sort by any column shown to help you look (just click on the column heading as usual).  You can also change the default to sort by date instead of name, if that's often more appropriate for your usage -- see Maintenance / Program Options / Functions.

In addition to (or instead of) filtering by the reservation dates or the date the reservation was made, you can also filter by the Last Name, Confirmation Number, Site Name, Operator, or Notes, and also Label if that field is enabled.  Any custom Reservation fields you've added will also be available to filter.  To select one of these filters, first check the Filter by box. The default is Last Name, but you can change that in the drop-down box next to Filter by.  Then enter the text in the next field, which will either be labeled "Starting With" or "Containing" depending on the search type selected.

When searching by Last Name or Operator, you don't have to enter the whole name, just the first part.  Of course the more letters you enter, the more precise the search will be.  After entering a few letters, press Tab or Enter (or click Search).  A list of matches will show up,  and you can scroll down the list to select another one using the arrow keys.  When searching by Confirmation Number, Site Name, or Notes, any reservation containing the text entered will match (it doesn't have to start with the text entered).

If you've enabled the Customer "Scan Code" field, then there is additional functionality for quickly looking up and optionally Automatically Using the matching customer.  See the Scan Code section of the documentation for details.

If you prefer to see the entire list of reservations (not recommended for large lists of several thousand), you can uncheck both the Filter By option and the Filter by date option.  All reservations will be shown, and you can sort by any column to help you find a customer.

For even greater control of what reservations to search or view, use the Reservation Filtering button.

Scan Code

If you've enabled the Customer "Scan Code" field, then there is additional functionality for quickly looking up the customer and any currently active reservations.  The "Automatically 'Use' if unique matching scan code" box will be selected if appropriate, but can be temporarily disabled if desired..  See the Scan Code section of the documentation for details.

Other functions

Once a list is displayed, you can print the entire list, or print a Form for any reservations selected, by clicking the Print List / Forms button.  Therefore this dialog can also be used to print out filtered reservation lists, or for batch-printing forms, envelopes or labels for selected reservations.  Once this button is clicked, the Select Form dialog will allow you to choose what to print -- the list in grid format or a form for each selected reservation.

Once you find the desired reservation, select it by clicking the line with the mouse.  The Search button will change to either View or Use, depending on what it will do (determined by how you came to the Find Reservation dialog).  Click View or Use, or double-click on the reservation line, to complete the selection and perform the indicated function. (If only one reservation is displayed, you can simply press Enter).