Booking Software for Parish Centres in Ireland
The choir, the Active Retirement group and a First Communion party all want the same rooms. One diary for every one of them, with outside hire invoiced and paid in euro.
Parish groups use the centre free of charge, and outside hirers pay for it. Parish centre booking software puts both on one timetable, so two groups never arrive for the same room and every paid hire is billed.
Parish use and paid hire, kept apart in one diary
Most parish centres host the parish's own groups at no charge and let the same rooms to the wider community for a fee. Axiom gives each kind of use a booking type of its own and shows them side by side.
- Parish Groups at No Charge
The choir, the pastoral council and the prayer group hold their rooms like anyone else, on a booking type that carries no fee, so they show in the diary alongside the paid hire.
- Approved by the Parish Office
Requests from outside the parish can wait for the parish secretary to approve them. The hirer knows it is a request, and nothing is charged unless it is approved.
- An Account for Each Hirer
Every outside group has an account of its own: who to contact, what it has booked, each invoice raised, the balance outstanding and anything the office has noted about it.
The main hall, the meeting rooms and the kitchen on one screen
A parish centre is several rooms in use most days, and often only the parish office knows what is on. Axiom puts the whole building on one diary that everyone who takes bookings can see.
- Every Room in One Diary
The main hall, the meeting rooms and the kitchen side by side, so whoever answers the phone sees the whole building rather than one room's calendar.
- No Two Groups in One Room
Bookings that overlap in the same room are stopped before they are confirmed, so the bingo and a funeral tea never land on the same afternoon.
- Emails From the Centre, Not From Home
Hirers get an email when a booking is made, changed or cancelled, and the parish office never has to send one from a personal account.
Christenings, Communions and funeral teas, booked without ringing the office
Families book the centre around the sacraments, and they rarely do it during office hours. Your own booking page lists the free times and takes a request whenever suits them.
- Free Times, Out in the Open
A family planning a Confirmation party finds a free afternoon themselves instead of leaving a message on the parish phone.
- Deposits Paid Online
Take a deposit or the full hire fee by card through Stripe, paid into the parish's own account rather than handed over at the door.
- Hire Conditions on the Confirmation
Each booking type carries a short note on its confirmation email, pointing the hirer to your conditions of hire.
- Cash in an Envelope Still Counts
Plenty of hire fees still arrive as cash at the parish office. Record them against the booking beside the card payments, and the books show a single total.
Set up the weekly groups once and the year follows
Parent and toddler on a Tuesday, bingo on a Thursday, the ICA once a month. Each group goes in once with its pattern, its dates fill the calendar for the year ahead, and its contact is emailed if one of them changes.
- A Pattern for Each Group
Weekly, fortnightly or monthly: give each group its interval and an end date, and the calendar fills in up to it.
- When a Group Changes Night
Edit the series, not the dates. Moving the bingo to a Wednesday moves every remaining week at once.
- Invoices Already Filled In
A regular group's invoice lists its dates and what each one cost, so whoever keeps the books only has to read it over.
Clear figures for the parish finance committee
The finance committee wants to know what the centre brings in and who still owes it. Axiom will not write the parish accounts, but it keeps every hire, invoice and payment in one place, so the figures are ready when someone asks for them.
- Every Payment on Record
Each payment, refund and credit note is logged against its invoice, with what the account stood at before and after it.
- Who Still Owes the Centre
Outstanding amounts show on each hirer's account, and the dashboard adds them up for the whole centre, ready for the next committee meeting.
- VAT Only Where You Set It
Tax rates are set by the parish, so an invoice carries VAT only where the parish has set a rate for it.
The safeguarding statement, the insurance and the rest of the paperwork
A parish centre is asked for its child safeguarding statement, its insurance and its risk assessments, by the diocese, by insurers and by the groups that hire it. Store them in a document vault belonging to the parish, so nobody has to track down whoever had the folder last.
- Every Version Kept
Each review of the safeguarding statement adds a new dated version and keeps the old one, so the version in force on any past date can be produced.
- Told Before It Lapses
Set a review date on the insurance, the safety statement or a certificate, and the person responsible gets an email ahead of it.
- Each Group's Cover on Its Account
A hiring group's insurance certificate sits on that group's account, next to its bookings, where the parish office will look for it.
The room set out for whoever has it next
Every booking records how the room should be arranged and any extras that come with the hire, so whoever opens up can have it ready before the group comes in.
- Saved Room Arrangements
Save the arrangements the hall is used in, each with its own notes, and choose one when the booking is made.
- The Urn and the Cups on the Booking
Funeral teas want the urn and the cups, and the parish council wants a projector and rows of chairs. Add the extras to the hire and they travel with the booking.
- Closed for Works
A room can only be booked during its open slots, so removing the slots for the weeks of the works closes it. Axiom won't remove a slot that still has a hire in it.
For much of the parish,
the centre is where people meet.
When the bookings look after themselves, the parish office has more time for the parish. Axiom handles the diary and the paperwork so volunteers can look after the people.
One diary for everyone
Parish groups and paying hirers on one calendar, with no second diary to keep and no ringing round to find out what is on.
Less paperwork for the office
Confirmations and cancellations go out without anyone writing them, and invoices come pre-filled from the booking.
Figures ready for the committee
Hire income, payments and balances are recorded as they happen, so the finance committee's questions already have answers.
Ready to give your parish centre one diary?
Start free for 28 days, no card required. Send us your rooms, your regular groups and your hire charges, and we enter them for you, then support the parish office as it settles in.
Start free for 28 days. No card required.
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