A booking event is a single bookable item on a single date. This article covers creating one. Sessions, custom forms, groups and reminders are separate steps once the event exists.
Starting the form
Go to Booked Events → Add event. Fill in the form, save as Draft, then add the trimmings.
Fields
Basics
- Name — what parents see. Year 6 Parent-Teacher Interviews — Term 2 is more useful than PTI.
- Date — the day the event runs. Australian format (DD/MM/YYYY).
- Start time and End time — the window during which bookings happen. If you’re using sessions, this is the range sessions are generated into.
- Description — appears under the event on the parent dashboard. Include the venue, what parents should bring, and any rules (e.g. one slot per family, please).
Capacity
- Capacity — total number of bookings allowed if the event has no sessions. With sessions, capacity is set per session and this field is ignored.
- Full — tick to manually mark the event as full even if there are spaces left. Parents see it as full and can’t book. Use this to close bookings early.
Visibility
- Hide — tick to hide the event from parents entirely (e.g. while you finish setting it up). Untick when you’re ready for bookings.
- Hide time (hours before start) — auto-hide the event from parents N hours before it starts. Set to 2, for example, to stop late bookings two hours before the event runs.
Form
- Booking event form — choose a Fobi form to attach. The form runs at booking time and captures whatever information you need from the parent (teacher preference, comments, etc.). See Linking a custom form to a booking event.
Group
- Event group — optional. Use a group if this event is one of several related events you want to manage together. See Grouping recurring booking events.
Slip prerequisite
- Requires submitted slip — when ticked, parents must submit a specified permission slip before they can book. See Setting eligibility and slip prerequisites.
- Slip required — pick the specific slip that must be submitted first.
Eligible students
- Students — tick which students the event is open to. Parents see the event only for children who are on this list.
If the event is in a group with override students turned on, this list is ignored — the group’s student list applies instead. See Grouping recurring booking events.
Saving
Save the event. You’ll land on the event detail page where you can:
- Generate sessions — see Setting up time slots.
- Configure reminders — see Sending reminder emails.
- Adjust eligible students later via Manage students.
Common starting patterns
Single-slot booking (RSVP) — no sessions, set a capacity, attach a form. Parents book once and the count goes up.
Time-slot booking (PTI) — set start/end to cover the whole interview window (e.g. 2 pm–9 pm), then generate sessions (e.g. 15-minute slots, 1 per slot). Use a group if the same interviews run across multiple days.
Sign-up to a fixed list — no sessions, capacity equal to the number of places, custom form to capture the parent’s selection.