Overview of provisional bookings
The Provisional Bookings feature is a powerful tool to help you forecast sales and manage your sales pipeline. If you have a lead that has yet to be confirmed, MagManager allows you to create a provisional booking.
To provide a sales forecast, it can be useful to use probability for unconfirmed bookings to estimate your revenue.
MagManager enables you to put in a percentage value for the likelihood that a booking will be confirmed. For example, a booking “likely” to be confirmed would have an 80% likelihood, a booking that will “perhaps” be confirmed would have a 50% likelihood.
MagManager can then work out your projected revenue based on the likelihood that your bookings are confirmed. For example, suppose you had three bookings available for £100 each. One of them has been confirmed, one you provisionally booked as “likely” (80%) and the other you provisionally booked as “perhaps” (50%).
You would have a revenue estimate of £100 + £80 + £50 = £230.
When you use provisional bookings, the Home page / Dashboard displays the total booked for your current publications, along with a forecast based on your provisional bookings
In the example below, there are 5 provisional bookings valued at £1375.00 with a percentage likelihood of 56.55%. The “Expected Amount” for provisional bookings is therefore £777.50, and in the final pink column the “Expected Amount” £1232.50 for the publication is the sum of the total booked £455.00 (confirmed) plus the £777.50 estimate from provisional bookings.
Clicking on the number in the Items column will open the Provisional Bookings tab - with details of each provisional booking.
How to switch on provisional bookings in MagManager
Step 1 - Go to the main Settings page.
Step 2 - Under Settings > Select System Defaults.
Step 3 - Locate Use Provisional Bookings and turn on the toggle switch. Green = On, Grey = Off.
Step 4 - Click Update to save the changes.
How to set up your own provisional percentages (Optional)
The default provisional percentage are:
Almost Certain 95%, Likely 80%, Perhaps 50%, Maybe 20% and No Change 0%.
You have the option to update these or add your own percentage values for provisional bookings by following the steps below.
Step 1 - Go to the main Settings page.
Step 2 - Under Publications & Bookings > Select Provisional Percentages.
Step 3 - Click on one of the default values to open the Manage Provisional Percent dialog box and update the percentage value to suit your own requirements.
Step 4 - Click Save to update the changes.
Step 5 - To add your own click the New Percentage button > Add the details > Click Save.
Steps to make a provisional booking
Step 1 - Select Clients on the top navigation bar > Click the client name to open the client record.
Step 2 - Select the Bookings tab - then Adverts tab.
Step 3 - Click on the + symbol next to the publication name > a new pink row will be revealed labeled with TBC after the publication name.
Step 4 - Locate the pink row with publication name TBC in the side bar and the corresponding issue in the header, then click where it says ‘Click To Book’, a green tick will appear.
Step 5 - Click the green Complete Booking button top-right of the screen.
Step 6 - Complete the booking in the normal way and select a percentage likelihood under the Chance.. drop-down menu.
Step 7 - Click Save Booking.
Steps to email a quote with details of the provisional booking
The process is the same as sending a normal booking confirmation and is covered here:
How to send or print a booking confirmation
Note: The Select Email pop-up with the drop-down menu will only appear if you have multiple Booking Confirmation or multiple Provisional Booking email templates set up, simply choose the template from the drop-down menu and click select > the email preview will open as normal ready to click send.
You can edit the Provisional Booking Confirmation Template by going to the main settings page > Under Admin > Select Document Templates > Under System Documents > Select Provisional Booking Email. The process is covered here:
How to customise the system document templates
Steps to confirm a provisional booking
Step 1 - Select Clients on the top navigation bar > Click the client name to open the client record.
Step 2 - Select the Bookings tab - then Adverts tab.
Step 3 - Locate the pink coloured provisional booking, it will be booked against the publication name TBC.
Option1 - Click on the crossed arrows move icon and drag and drop the booking to the required publication row.
Option 2 - Open the provisional booking and click the purple confirm button on each issue row. Or if it's a larger booking you can click Confirm All at the bottom of the screen.
How to view and keeping track of provisional bookings
Step 1 - Select Bookings from the top navigation bar
Step 2 - Select the Provisional Bookings tab
NOTE: The provisional booking tab will only be displayed if you have provisional bookings in the issues selected.
Step 3 - Select the required publications & issues from the side bar - The provisional bookings for those selected will be displayed.
Step 4 - Once confirmed the booking will move to the Converted Bookings tab.
Step 5 - On the home page / dashboard below the confirmed bookings, you'll find displayed in pink, the number and expected amount of the provisional bookings for the publications & issues selected in the sidebar.
Step 6 - Clicking on the number in the Items column open up the bookings screen displaying the provisional bookings tab with more details about each provisional booking, as per Step 3.
Additional useful links:
How to create a proposal from a provisional booking - proposals allow you to combine, advert, content and miscellaneous bookings into a single proposal to email to your customer.
