# How scheduling works in AerScheduler

> The dispatch board, the five ways to look at it, and the life of a booking from booked through ramp out, ramp in, sign-off and invoice. Read this first if the rest of the section assumes something you have not seen yet.

Source: https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/how-scheduling-works
Section: Scheduling and dispatch. For: Owners, Admins, Dispatchers, Instructors, Students, Renters, Technicians.

Your whole schedule is one page. The **Calendar** link in the left nav opens a board
titled **The Ramp**, which shows every booking your school has for the day, week or
month you are looking at. Each booking then walks the same path: booked, ramped out,
ramped in, signed off, invoiced.

## The board, and what it shows

`Calendar` (web console) opens `The Ramp` (web console) at
`/schedule`. It is the whole organization's schedule, not just yours. Every member can
see it, on purpose, so nobody books over a flight they could not see.

What changes by role is which lanes are drawn and what you can act on:

- Owners, admins, dispatchers, instructors and students see aircraft, simulator and room lanes.
- Renters and technicians see aircraft lanes only.

A red now-line is drawn across today so you can see at a glance what is out. The
counter on the right reads something like `47 reservations`, and switches to
`12 of 47 matching` once you start filtering.

![Calendar, day view](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/schedule-day-board.png)

> **Note:** The board updates live when someone else books, moves or cancels a flight. If the
> live connection drops (sleeping laptop, flaky Wi-Fi), it reconnects on its own and
> falls back to a quiet refresh about every minute and a half. It holds updates while
> somebody is mid-drag, then applies them when the drag ends, so the block is never
> yanked out from under the cursor.

Cancelled bookings are not drawn on the board at all. To find one, use the
[Cancellations report](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/cancel-a-reservation) or open the booking's own
link. The iOS app's Reservations list does include them, under its Canceled filter.

## The life of a booking

Every booking carries a status badge in its detail panel. The badge is the fastest way
to see where a flight is stuck.

| Badge           | What has happened                                      | What happens next                                                                                                  |
| --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Not started     | It is booked. The aircraft is still on the line.       | [Ramp out](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/ramp-out-and-ramp-in) when it leaves.                      |
| In flight       | Ramped out. The departure Hobbs and tach are recorded. | Ramp in when the aircraft is back.                                                                                 |
| Awaiting review | The return readings are in.                            | Every pilot on it [signs off with their PIN](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/sign-off-with-your-pin). |
| Reviewed        | Everyone has signed off.                               | The invoice is raised automatically.                                                                               |
| Billed          | The invoice exists.                                    | The payer pays it.                                                                                                 |
| Paid            | Settled.                                               | Nothing.                                                                                                           |

A booking with no aircraft, such as a ground lesson in a classroom, skips the ramp
steps entirely. See [Close out a ground lesson](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/close-out-a-ground-lesson).

![Reservation detail panel](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/reservation-detail-panel.png)

The detail panel also carries a timeline of what happened to the booking: Booked,
Ramped out, Ramped in, Signed off, Invoiced, Paid, Cancelled, Last edited.

### The panel and the booking's own page

The panel beside the board is a summary. It answers what the flight is and offers the one
thing the booking is waiting for right now, in the button at the foot of it: Ramp out, Ramp
in, Confirm review, and so on. Editing and cancelling are in its **…**
menu, beside the close button.

Everything else about a booking lives on its own page, which **Open the full booking** at
the foot of the panel goes to: the readings, who pays what, corrections and hand-typed
rates under Adjustments, Report a squawk, the lesson grade, and the invoice. It has a real
URL, so it can be bookmarked and sent to a colleague.

## Day, week, month and list

Four ways to look at the same bookings.

| View  | What it draws                                                               |
| ----- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Day   | Rows are resources (aircraft, simulators, rooms), columns are hours.        |
| Week  | Seven columns, one per day, with a time grid down the side.                 |
| Month | A grid of whole weeks, up to three bookings per day, then a `+N more` link. |
| List  | The same bookings as a plain vertical list instead of a grid.               |

Use the Month / Week / Day tabs to switch, the arrows either side to step forward and
back, and **Today** to come home. There is a date picker in the header if you need to
jump somewhere specific.

The Board / List toggle is a desktop control. On a narrow screen you always get the
list, because a resource grid on a phone is unreadable.

![Calendar, month view](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/schedule-month-grid.png)

## Rows are resources, and one row is the catch-all

On the day board every row is a thing you can book: a tail number, a simulator, a room.
The row you click is what the new booking is for. Clicking a room lane opens the form
already set to Ground and a simulator lane already set to Sim. Clicking an aircraft lane
leaves the type alone, because six of the eight types book an aircraft.

The last row is the catch-all. It is labelled **Unassigned** when it holds bookings with
no resource at all, and **Other** when it also holds bookings whose lane is not drawn on
your board, such as a room booking seen by a renter.

![Calendar, day view, bottom row](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/schedule-unassigned-row.png)

> **Tip:** Nothing is ever dropped off the board. If a booking is not in a lane, it is in this row.
> Dual is the one type that can be booked with no aircraft, which is how you schedule a
> briefing, and those bookings live here.

## Where to find your own bookings

The board is the whole school. For just your own flights:

- `You → Schedule` (web console) lists the bookings you are on, grouped by Today, Tomorrow and then by weekday. **Group by** in the list's toolbar regroups them by status, resource, person or type, and **Then by** adds a second level, such as each day split by resource. The board's **List** layout has the same control. It shows the next 30 days; the **When** filter switches to this week or the past 30 days. A technician sees the maintenance they scheduled.
- `You → Home` (web console) shows your next reservation and the ones coming up.

Opening a booking from either place gives you the same detail panel as the board, so you
can ramp out, ramp in and sign off from there.

![My schedule](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/my-schedule-list.png)

## The calendar in the app

The app is the same account, narrowed to what a pilot needs away from a desk: the
calendar, your reservations, creating a booking, and the view-reservation screen with its
progress stepper (Ramp out, Ramp in, Review times, Completed).

The app's calendar has one header on every view. The month is the large title; tap it to
jump to a date. Beside it, the view button picks how the calendar is drawn:

| View        | What it draws                                                                                                                        |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Year        | Twelve small months. Tap one to open it.                                                                                             |
| Schedule    | Every day with a booking as a list, scrolling back and forward. Each day's date stays at the top while its bookings scroll under it. |
| Day         | One day's hours, with each booking's time and who is on it.                                                                          |
| Week        | Seven days side by side, Sunday first.                                                                                               |
| Month       | The whole month. In its List style, the chosen day's bookings sit underneath.                                                        |
| By resource | One row per aircraft, simulator and classroom, hours across. A grounded aircraft says Grounded in red and its row is hatched.        |

Day and Month have styles, on the button in the top-right group. Day can be **Single Day**,
**Multi Day** (two days side by side) or **List**; Month can be **Compact**, **Stacked**,
**Details** or **List**. Day and By resource show the week across the top, with a dot under
each day that has a booking; tap a day, or swipe the week, to move.

Tap a month on Year, or a day on Month or Week, and the calendar zooms into it. The button
at the top left then reads **‹ October** (or the year, or the view you came from) and takes
you back. Open the calendar from Home, or pick a view yourself, and that button is plain Back.

**Filter**, in the same group, offers **Only mine** and the reservation types. A type you
untick fades on the calendar rather than disappearing, so you can still see the time is taken.
**More filters** narrows the resources, the instructor and the location.

Correcting a reading after the fact and overriding a booking's rates are on both surfaces.
The app calls them **Update Details** and **Override Payment**; the console calls them
**Correct times** and **Override payment**, on the reservation panel.

## Where to go next

- [Which reservation type should I use?](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/reservation-types): The eight types, what each one books, and who may be on it.
- [Book a reservation from the dispatch board](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/book-a-reservation): How the front desk books for somebody else.
- [Book your own flight or lesson](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/book-a-solo-flight): For students, renters, instructors and technicians.
- [Find a booking on the schedule](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/filter-and-search-the-schedule): Why most filters dim instead of hiding.
- [Standby and suggested slots](https://www.aerscheduler.com/docs/scheduling/standby-and-slot-offers): Join standby, set standing preferences, or be suggested a cancelled slot that fits how you fly.