Posts Tagged: resources

Custom Resource Categories

So it’s been a little while since we last blogged. But that’s because we’ve been busy working away on the next update to our room booking and resource scheduling software, MIDAS.

Over the next few posts, we’re excited to give you a first look at some of the new features and improvements in this forthcoming update.

First up – Custom Resource Categories!

“Resources” are additional items/services you can add to your bookings. Until now, resources have been split into three distinct categories; “Equipment”, “Staffing”, and “Consumables”.

The differences between each of these three categories are outlined below:

Equipment:

Resources categorized as “Equipment” are those which are charged per booking, irrespective of the length of a booking. For example, a Flip Chart may be added to this section, as its charge would be the same for 30 minutes or 2 hours. The “Quantity Available” allows you to define how many flip charts are available site-wide at any one time. So, if you own 5 flip charts, set the “Quantity Available” to 5. MIDAS will then not allow more than 5 flip charts to be in-use at the same time.

Consumables

Resources categorized as “Consumables” are those which would only be used one-time, and cannot be reused. For example, paper for a flip chart could be classed as a consumable. The “Quantity Available” figure is very fluid in this category. For example, you may have bulk purchased 100 flip chart paper pads. You would therefore set the “Quantity Available” to 100. However, unlike the other categories, whenever consumables are added to a booking, the remaining “Quantity Available” of that resource decreases by the amount added. So once all 100 flip chart pads have been used, they will no longer be able to be added to any further bookings. That is, until your stocks are replenished, and the “Quantity Available” updated accordingly. Consumables, like Equipment, are charged per booking.

Staffing

Staffing is a section to list human resources you have available to clients. These are charged per hour when added to bookings. For example, you may have 3 AV Technician’s on staff, with an hourly rate of $40. Adding these details to the Staffing section of resources allows your staff to be allocated to bookings with the client charged accordingly.


Following requests from a number of our users, for MIDAS v4.17, we’re adding more flexibility. You can now add your own custom resource categories to compliment the three default categories:

Custom Resource Categories in MIDAS
Custom Resource Categories

This will be beneficial to organizations with large numbers of resources. Resources can now be broken down into smaller groups.

Each custom resource category you add can be named, and resources assigned to it accordingly. You can also specify how resources assigned to the category should behave in terms of billing and remaining quantities. Items in custom categories can behave as either Equipment, Consumables, or Staffing for these purposes.

When adding resources to bookings, additional tabs will be shown on the Add Resources dialog for each of your custom categories:

Adding Resources From Custom Categories to Bookings in MIDAS
Adding resources from custom categories to bookings

We believe this new feature offers even more flexibility in managing your resources along with your venues in MIDAS!

You can become more familiar with how “Resources” work within MIDAS in our short video tutorial:

How To Setup Resources & Add Them To Bookings

How to setup resources and add them to bookings

Easily add additional Resources to Invoices

The next update to our web based room booking and resource scheduling software is fast approaching, and we’ve been giving you a “first look” at some of the new features and improvements you can look forward to in MIDAS v4.11.

In v4.11 we’re making it easier to quickly add resources from your inventory to invoices.

When manually creating a new invoice or modifying an existing one, you’ll now find an “Add Resources” button near to the top of the invoice area:

Quickly add resources to invoices

Clicking this button will open up your resource inventory from which you can select quantities of one or more resources to add to the current invoice, updating the invoice total accordingly.

MIDAS v4.11 will soon be generally available, however for now it is only available to Beta Testers. We’re currently looking for additional testers to help test and provide feedback/bug reports on this and future updates to our software before release. It’s free and no experience is required. Find out more here.

If you would like to be notified when v4.11 is fully released, then why not join our Mailing List?

Quickly Search Resources

Our web based room booking and resource scheduling software, MIDAS, allows you to assign and book resources along with your rooms. Resources may be added to the system in one of three categories; Equipment, Consumables, and Staffing (the differences between these three categories is explained here)

In earlier versions of our software, when it came to assigning pre-defined resources to bookings, a small window would open listing all resources over the three categories. For customers who have setup a large number of available resources in their MIDAS system, a user would need to scroll through the entire list to locate the particular resource(s) they wished to add to their booking.

Search and filter resources
Searchable Resources

Now, with MIDAS v4.10, at the top of the Add Resources window, there’s now a “Search” box which when you begin typing into will instantly filter the current list of resources to only show those matching the search term you’ve entered, allowing you to quickly locate the resources you wish to add to your booking.

There’s a host of other new and improved features in MIDAS v4.10, including two-factor authentication and invoicing improvements.

Oh, and today is the final day to get 10% off MIDAS with our Windows 10 offer – Find out more at [THIS OFFER HAS NOW ENDED], and hurry before it’s too late!

Want to help shape and improve future MIDAS updates? Then why not consider becoming a Beta Tester? – it’s free, there’s nothing to install, and no technical knowledge is required!

MIDAS v3.14 is here!

We are pleased to announce the release of MIDAS v3.14! This update contains a number of exciting new features and enhancements to our popular web-based scheduling software, including:

  • Receive notifications when consumables are low!
  • Receive notifications when specific resources are added to bookings!
  • Graphical Invoice Statistics on your clients, organizations and booking types!
  • Statistics can now be printed!
  • “Apply Discounts Silently” option to apply discounts, but “hide” reference to them on invoices
  • Ability to be notified if another user modifies/deletes bookings you created
  • Setting to have “Watches” and internal messages from other users automatically forwarded to your email address
  • Setting to suppress the “My Messages” popup upon login
  • Change what information is displayed on dates in the Monthly Overview

You can read more about these exciting new features in our previous blog entry, and we’ve also produced a 10 minute video tutorial guiding you through exactly what’s new in MIDAS v3.14…

New Features in v3.14

If you’re an existing MIDAS user with a current Annual Support Subscription, you can upgrade to v3.14 right now! Simply login to your MIDAS, click the “MIDAS Admin Options” icon and select “Manage MIDAS -> Update”. If your Annual Support Subscription has recently expired, don’t worry – you can quickly renew your subscription. …and if we host MIDAS for you, then you’ve already been updated to v3.14!

If you’re new to MIDAS, why not read more about the features of MIDAS and check out the online demo.

To get MIDAS working for YOUR company/organization, grab yourself a copy of MIDAS v3.14 now!