Meeting Packages allow you to create a monthly allocation of free hours against different meeting rooms for a member. Once the allocation is used within a month, the member will then be charged for any additional hours. Meeting Packages cannot be used for a member who already has discounts against meeting room rates.
​
You can assign a Meeting Package directly to a customer's Account, regardless of whether they have a Licence or not. Therefore, the package can be standalone or included as part of a Licence.
​

To do so, please make sure that your Account page layout includes the "Meeting Plan" field, so that you can see it on your Account page. If the field is not added to the page layout, please follow this article to add it.

Once the field is added, simply edit your customer's Account and select a package from the list.

Once you have created Meeting Packages, you can provide them to members by adding them to their Licences.

When Setting up a Licence, simply select a meeting package from the dedicated dropdown list.

This list will provide all of the packages that you have created following the setup mentioned above.

To add a meeting package to an existing Licence, go to Member > Licences and edit the relevant Licence. Under the General section of the Licence, you will be able to select a Meeting Package. Select one from the list, then save your changes.

You can also add a new list view filter to view Meeting Packages.
​

1) Meeting Package filters calculate hours on a calendar month

The package rules work for full calendar months only. The hour allocation starts fresh on the first of every month and ends on the last day of the month. If you wish to use Meeting Packages, you will have to adjust your bill run so that meeting room hours are captured for full bill months in arrears.

For example, a bill run for May fixed fees from May 1 to May 31 is generated on April 20th. The meeting room capture will need to be a full month and so should be set to capture March 1- March 31.

2) Hours are deducted based on the date on which the booking was made, not on the date when the space will be used

For example, a customer has 8 hours free, of which all 8 are used in day office, and 4 can be used in a boardroom. The reservations were booked in the following way:

On March 1: Reservation for 5 hours was made in day office for March 31st = 5 hours used / 3 hours remaining

On March 3: Reservation for 3 hours was made in day office for March 25th = 3 hours used / 0 hours remaining

On March 5: Reservation for 2 hours was made in boardroom for March 5 = 2 hours charged as no remaining hours.

Even though this was the first actual use of the meeting rooms, the 2 prior bookings made on March 1 and March 3 already ate up the hours.

Bookings for durations equal to or or greater than half day rate, or full day rates you have set will alter any overage charges

For example, your hourly rate for a room is $50 p/hr. Your half day rate is set at 4 hours (160mins) at a rate of $150. A customer books for 5 hours, and only has 4 hours of free hours left. Instead of the last hour being charged at $50, the calculation will be the day rate of $150 (4 hours) plus $50 for the additional hour = $200. This will then be divided by 5 hours ($40 p/hr) so the additional hour will charge at $40 instead of the normal hourly rate of $50

Meeting Room Products who do not have a check on the “included in meeting room concessions” will never have hours allocated to them, or discounts, regardless of whether you allocate hours on a Package

Cancelations with Allowances 

Hours that are originally used within an allocation can be re-used for future unmade reservations if a client cancels a room where hours are used towards their Meeting Plan. However, keep in mind that cancelations are not retroactive. Example: If a client has 8 allowance hours total and books 10 hours up front, he will be charged for those 2 additional hours. If he then later decides to cancel a 4-hour booking, the 2 additional hours he was charged for initially will remain as is. However, if the client chooses to book another room later in the month, the Meeting Plan will recognize that there are 4 unused hours due to the cancelation that can now be used towards the future reservation(s).

Changing Meeting Plans on account can cause discrepancies unless done correctly.

If a client has a specific meeting room package, then downgrades or upgrades, any hours booked from when the plans are changed, to the end of that month will still be affected by the original Meeting Package. For any accounts with plan changes, put a task to check that the hours accrued correctly for the next 2 months of billing from date of change.

Customizing standard Meeting Packages

Whilst it is not recommended, if you have a situation where a new client received an allocation of hours outside of standard parameters, you can select the Meeting Package that is closest to the plan your customer was offered and hit the asterisk button next to the plan to make edits. This will only affect the plan on this account, it will not edit the master Meeting Package. Please use this method with caution and after consulting with the helpdesk.

Essensys Credits vs. Meeting Credits vs. Meeting Packages - These three features are different. Please read the linked article to find out more about the major differences.