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 box 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 list 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.
