Agency Users

An AGENT booking workflow means when the Contractor accepts a booking, it will turn purple for the Client to confirm/decline OR for the Agent to confirm/decline on behalf of the Client.

Client Booking - Creating a Booking:

A client can be set up as Pending or Immediate. If a Client is operating via the Immediate workflow, it means as soon as a Contractor accepts a booking, it will automatically turn green and become confirmed. However, if a Client is operating via the Pending workflow, they will need to confirm each Contractor once they've accepted a booking. The above example is displaying the Client Immediate workflow.

What happens if the Contractor declines the booking?

If you've invited an individual Contractor to a booking and they decline it, the booking will turn Red, as an indicator that this is a call to action. From here, you'll need to invite additional freelancers in order to get the booking covered, or let the Client know you don't have any available Contractors on that date!

Confirming Bookings 'On Behalf Of' Clients

If agreed between the Agency and Client, Agent Users have the ability to confirm bookings 'on behalf of' their clients. This feature needs to be enabled in the backend of Hive, once this has been enabled - this is how you would action these requests:

Agent Roster Colours

Placeholder - Grey

The first colour to note is Grey. This colour doesn't offer much meaning to a booking, other than it's a placeholder. It's a shift that's been marked on a certain day, but it hasn't been offered to any freelancers yet.

CONTRACTOR to Confirm/Decline - Orange

When you create a booking, you'll assign it to at least one freelancer, asking them to accept or reject the booking depending on their availability. Whilst you are waiting for that freelancer to respond, this booking will be highlighted in orange.

CLIENT to Confirm/Decline - Purple

Once a freelancer has accepted a booking that you've sent them, this will change the colour of the booking to purple, meaning it now needs to be approved by the client. If the client invited the freelancer directly, as soon as the freelancer accepts the booking it will automatically change to green as there is no need for the client to approve this.

Confirmed Booking - Green

The most common colour you'll see on each roster view will be Green. These bookings are ones that have been accepted by the freelancer, approved by the client and are now confirmed.

Call to Action for Booking YOU Created - All Invites Declined - Need to Issue More Invites - Red

If, however, the freelancer you've invited rejects the booking, this will cause it to be highlighted in red. Red indicates there is a problem with a booking you've created; the likelihood being that you need to invite more people to this booking. Although it could also indicate that you may need to think about getting some more freelancers trained up for this shift in order to cover it!

Booking Created by the Client - requires more invites to be issued - Blue

If it wasn't you that made the booking and instead the client booked the shift directly then the colour will be different. If a client has invited a freelancer, or group of freelancers to a booking and they've all rejected it, this will cause the booking to be blue. This indicates the client needs to invite more people to the bookings, as you can't adjust a booking if it was created by a client, so it's their responsibility!

Bank Holidays

Hive highlights all UK bank holidays by marking each date with stripes. If different rates need to be applied then please check the custom rate section of this wiki.

Updating a Booking

As an Agent, you can update a booking easily. This can be done for both agent and client led bookings.

There are several fields you can update, as an Agent, which are as follows:

Job Title
Start Time / End Time
Unpaid breaks
Rates
Contact
Reference
Notes

You can update bookings in any colour state - it will then send an email notification to any stakeholders involved in that booked (Clients/Contractors).

See the below video demonstration of how quick and easy it is to update bookings!

Custom Rates - Buy and Sell (Agent Managers)

It's important to have the ability to customise specific Buy and Sell rates - sometimes a Contractor will charge more for a shift, due to having more experience or be paid a different rate on a public holiday.

This can be set in the Job record or added on the fly by editing a booking.

To set this is an ongoing rate to give the Contractor their own Buy or Sell rate, you will need to action this within the Account Data - Job section.

This doesn't need to be done when setting up a Job - you can insert a custom rate at any stage, even on pre-existing Jobs.

Within an 'Edit Job' form, you'll see the button to add Custom rates for Contractors - as shown in this example.

Once you've clicked to add a custom rate, a new section will open within the Job form, where you can enter the relevant details.

Once you begin typing in the Contractor section, it will automatically provide you with suggestion - click on the relevant Contractor.

You can then enter in the new, custom rates.

After entering all of the correct details, you can then Save.

Once saved, the form will now display the new custom rate, as well as the difference in percentage (from the old rate, in comparison to this custom rate). Blue meaning good, red meaning bad compared to the standard rate.

This custom rate will now be applied to all new bookings loaded into Hive, for that particular job and Contractor.

The custom rate information will be displayed, before the Contractor has been invited - so that both Client and Agent users are aware of the increase / decrease for this particular Contractor.

It's worth noting - only Users that can see financials will be able to see these custom rates. For example, a Client Chief will see if a Contractor has a custom sell rate, whereas a Client Worker won't.

Once this booking is confirmed, it will then adopt the Custom rate to this booking, as well to the financial metrics.

There is no limit to how many custom rates can be applied to one particular job.

To delete a custom rate, you'll need to go into the relevant job form and find which custom rate you want to remove.

Hover over the name of the Contractor, to be presented with the Edit button.

Once you've clicked the Edit button, you'll then be presented with a few options of what to do with this custom rate.

You can update the existing custom rate, or delete it.

A small window will pop up, to ensure you definitely wish to cancel this custom rate.

After clicking Yes, this rate will be wiped. This means all future bookings that are loaded into Hive for this job, will no longer display a custom rate for that particular Contractor.

Multiple Custom Rates - Public Holidays

What happens when you need to increase a rate just for one date? Eg. A Public Holiday.

There is the ability for Chief Agents to change rates on the fly which override individual rates.

Select the booking and select the + Add custom rate.

This rate change will update the specific date, and override the standard rate of the job and any custom rates.

*Overriding a custom rate for a specific date can only be applied to an individual date and not a series* If you need to change a rate for a specific date in a series you will need to spin it off.

Unpaid Breaks

How to insert unpaid breaks into a job and booking

In the event you have a job which operates an hourly rate but some hours within the booking are unpaid this can be handled in Hive by selecting the unpaid breaks tab.

From here you need to insert the time in minutes unpaid.

This field can be updated at any time by both the client and the Agent.

In the example below we insert 60 mins of unpaid break into this job.

This example above has 12hr duration with a 60 minute unpaid break = 11hrs payable.

11hrs x 10 = £110 Pay Rate

11hrs x 20 = £220 Sell Rate

Navigating The Roster

Filtering the Roster between Agent and Client Bookings

A great feature within the Roster view of Hive, is that you can filter it to only view bookings made by certain users.

For example, as an Agent user, if you wanted to see any problem bookings that applied to you - you can filter by Agent and will only view any bookings made by your Agent.

See below a video demonstration of how to do this:

How to Quickly Check Availability

If you want to quickly check a Contractor's availability, you can do this by filtering the roster to only view that specific Contractor. This can then be made even quicker by setting Contractor bookmarks.

Invite All Freelancers to a Booking

When booking in someone on Hive, you may find that you don't need someone specific to cover a shift - instead, you need to invite as many available Freelancers as possible in order to get the booking covered as quickly as possible.

In this instance, it would be useful to use the 'Invite All' button - see below video demonstration of how to do this.

Once you have selected Invite All, an email will be sent to each individual Freelancer to accept or reject the booking. Depending on the current workflow being used (Agent led, Client Pending or Client Immediate), once Freelancers start responding to the booking, it will remain purple for a Client's confirmation.

When the client confirms a Contractor for this booking, the rest of the Freelancers who accepted it will receive an email to advise they have not been successful.

Day to Night Filter

Hive can become very busy once you start inputting all your required shifts, so it's great to be able to visually see the difference between day and night shifts as an Agent, Client and Contractor.

As a Client or Agent user, you'll have a small Moon icon that will appear on any Night time booking on the booking form listed on the right hand side of the roster.

It's a slightly different display for Freelancers, they will see a Moon icon on the roster view as well as the booking form.

If you ever need to change a booking from a day shift to become a night or vice versa, you can! See the video demonstration below:

Timing Warning

When booking a freelancer that has a red exclamation mark next to their name - this warning is stating there could be a timing issue from a booking finishing or starting close to the booking you are loading in.

Series Booking

Clients and Agent users are now able to book Freelancers in for multiple shifts at once - instead of creating individual bookings for the same shift, you can select multiple dates and create shifts on all of the selected dates.

Series Bookings also allows Client users to confirm or decline Freelancers for multiple shifts at once, rather than individually.

How does Series Bookings work?

Similar to individual bookings, you still need to select an individual date and create the booking - however, within the booking form you can then select the 'Series' option.

Once you select Series, you'll be presented with a mini-calendar to select the dates you wish to load bookings on. As soon as you select the required dates and click Save, you'll be presented with a third column, outlining each available Contractor and the dates they are available to work.

The dates labelled under each Freelancers are the dates you have selected, that they are available for. You can then de-select dates and only invite a Freelancer to one of the dates or invite them to all. A Freelancer's availability will automatically update in the left hand side column, depending on which dates you select!

See below video example:

How does Series Bookings work for Freelancers?

Freelancers are presented with the same mini-calendar, where they can accept / decline any of the bookings within the Series.

At the confirmation stage for Clients, they will also have the ability to pick individual dates to confirm / decline Freelancers for - so if they needed to remove one of the dates from the series, they could do this here.

Cancelling bookings within a Series?

You are able to cancel all bookings in a Series within 3 clicks, or select individual dates to cancel.

See below video example of how to do this:

Updating bookings within a Series?

Similar to cancelling, you can update all bookings within a Series or you can spin them off to become individual bookings and then update them individually. By spinning off a booking, this removes it from the Series booking and creates it as it's own individual booking - meaning any updates you make to this individual date, will not affect the rest of the Series dates.

You cannot spin off the first date of a series. Simply delete that date and rebook as an individual date

See below video example of how to do this:

Series Bookings via Mobile

When viewing or actioning Series bookings via the mobile version of Hive, the bookings will be presented in the same way as desktop.

You will be presented with a view of all the dates on a mini calendar from which you can select and de-select dates to invite additional freelancers to.

In the same way as individual bookings, you won't be able to update or cancel Series bookings via mobile - this must be actioned through the desktop version of Hive.

Substitution Bookings

When a role has substitution enabled (done in admin job setting), this means a freelancer can substitute another freelancer in to cover their original confirmed booking.

What does a Client See?

When this happens the client user receives an update when a substitute has confirmed a booking.

The client will see the name of the originally booked freelancer with their name crossed out showing the name of the substitute freelancer.

What does an Agent See?

The agent sees every step of the substitution process from when contractor 1 loads a substitution (grey) to when they invite another contractor to accept (orange) to when the sub either accepts (green) or declines.

Hive handles the bookings as now being x2. The original and the sub.

Notifications fire to the relevant stakeholders at each step of the invite process.

Substitution Rules

Whilst the substitution workflow follows the standard colour and notification pattern, there is some key differences to highlight

Substitution can only be started by the confirmed freelancer.
Substitution can only be cancelled by the agents.
The end client only sees a confirmed booking (green) throughout the sub invite process. They receive an update once a new contractor accepts the sub invite.
The financials of the original booking are overridden. Eg. If Bob is on 100/200 buy and sell and subs to Jim at 50/100 the rate of 50/100 is applied to the booking. If these need to be changed then a manual update is required.

Substitution Invite Pending

Contractor 1 offers a substitute booking. Client only sees original confirmed booking.

Contractor 1 View

Contractor 2 View

Agent View

Client View

Substitution Invite Accepted

Contractor 2 accepts booking. All stakeholders receive notification of substitute being confirmed.

Contractor 1 View

Contractor 2 View

Agent View

Client View

Substitution Invite Rejected

Contractor 2 rejects booking - Client still sees original confirmed booking. Invite more subs or cancel original booking.

Contractor 1 View

Agent View

Cient View

Manual Bookings

So what happens if you need to add a booking manually avoiding the invite process? eg. for past, present and future bookings.

Currently Admin and Agent users are able to add in retrospective bookings - by clicking the plus + icon. The same process as usual however you will be shown a dropdown list of the potential freelancers you want to confirm.

*Important Points*

You can select any freelancer from your inventory. Not just those associated with this job.
The job information doesn't reference any custom rates so make sure you add those if needed.

Worker, Chief and Manager Users

There are three user types within Hive; Workers, Managers and Chiefs.

Worker - Ideal for Bookings Work

View Department Roster
View Job Roster
View Client User Roster
View Contractor Roster
Update Contractor Availability

Chief - Unlock Business Intelligence

View Department Roster
View Job Roster
View Client User Roster
View Contractor Roster
View all Agency User Rosters
Assign Historic Bookings
Update Contractor Availability
Access Financial Metrics - filter by Client / Department / Job / Contractor
Capture EBIT data

Manager - Ideal for managing more from booking to billing (same as Worker and Chief including)

Account data
Timesheeting
Billing disputes

Financial Metrics

Agent Chief Users are able to access real time financials from their roster view. This is done by selecting 'Financial Metrics' from the 'Booking States' drop down menu. Once selected, the financials will display on the right hand side of the roster view.

Currently, financials are summarised by Total, Department and Job. You can then filter this by months, as well as viewing Financials for specific Contractors too.

Download Reports

Hive has a number of reports that can be downloaded in CSV format. These enable the agent to get a more detailed picture of what's happening in the system whilst also being able to present that data in a spreadsheet.

Roster View Report

This is a detailed report of everything seen in the roster view.

Simply select the dates you want to export into the report and hit download as CSV - this can be done for multiple dates.

Client Activity Report

This report shows all activity not always displayed in the roster view - eg Cancellation data, detailed substitution data.

Admins and Agency Manager users can find this report in the client entry found on the accounts page.

There are two options of download;

Export last created = Will export all activity from this time period.

Export by booking date = Will export all booking activity related to bookings scheduled to fall within the selected timeframe.

Tags within Hive

When creating new jobs or Contractors within Hive, tags are a hugely important feature to include.

Tags are used to match Contractors to jobs, so that when you load in a new booking, you'll only be presented with available, relevant freelancers who can cover that shift.

Below are the tag sections:

Job Titles - The title of the job There can be a number of jobs titles used in order to reach the most relevant Contractors job titles. E.g. Avid Editor and Video Editor.
Systems Experience - This lists system knowledge required for role. This field will capture the key experience, ensuring only people with relevant systems experience tags match to the job.
Skills - Skills associated with role, these are frequently updated. This tag filter attempts to put the job's system experience into context.
Contractor Groups - The group name of Contractors who are preferred to work on this job. This filter shows the relevant Contractors at the top of a booking form.

Tags and Contractor Display

Within the booking form, you'll see the Contractors are laid out in relevance to the booking being offered.

Preferred

The top list of Contractors are the preferred ones; the Contractors who have the relevant tags matching the job title, systems experience, skills required and are tagged in that Contractor group.

Candidates with Matching Tags

The second list of Contractors are the ones that have some matching tags; they may have Avid systems experience, but don't have the tag of being an Editor.

They must have at least one matching tag in the job title reference field! Eg. The example below lists preferred first, then click to expand matching tag section which matches the job title tag associated with the job.

Where does this information come from?

All information put into the backend of Hive is derived from a template the Agent will have provided within the initial Hive set up.

We populate all of the specified information, to ensure it's exactly what the Agent requires.

However, if you want to include further Contractors or edit tags permanently - please contact support.

Cancelling Bookings

Cancelling a shift has been made as easy as booking a shift in Hive 25, for both the Client and the Agent.

Although Client users are only able to cancel their own bookings, Agent Users are able to cancel all bookings.

See this video demonstration to see how cancelling works:

Declining Bookings On-Behalf of a contractor

If a contractor is unable to work their pencilled (purple) booking, the agent is now able to reject the contractor from the booking. Similar to confirming a booking on behalf of the client, a "reject" feature has now been implemented in Hive for agent users.

When a contractor has been rejected in Hive, both the client and contractor receives an email to notify of changes to the booking.

Agent Hive Hacks

Want to select an individual date?

There's a keyboard hack for when you just want to view bookings on one date at a time - simply hold down the CMD key on your keyboard and select the date you wish to view!

Want to select an entire month at once?

In order to have all dates within one month selected on your roster, you simply need to click on the name of the month on the roster - this will then highlight all dates and present all bookings within that month on the right hand side menu!

Want to bookmark a specific Job, User or Contractor?

Watch the video example below to see how to quickly bookmark all your important roster views:

Marking Availability on Behalf of a Contractor

As an Agent User, you have the ability to mark availability on behalf of Contractors. This can be if a Contractor marks themselves as unavailable, but needs to change it to be booked in for a shift - you can update this for them.

See below video, demonstrating how to update availability!

Contact Support

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