Purpose: This article explains how to diagnose and resolve common booking problems in Administrate. Use it when a booking cannot be created, edited, cancelled, confirmed, or behaves differently from what you expect.
Bookings interact with several parts of the system including events, student records, invoices, payments, attendance tracking, and status workflows. Troubleshooting usually requires identifying which part of the system is affecting the booking.
If you are new to the topic, start with Bookings Overview. For the operational lifecycle, see Managing Bookings.
How to troubleshoot a booking problem
When a booking does not behave as expected, review the following areas in order. Most booking issues are explained by one of these system relationships.
- Confirm the correct event and student are involved.
- Check the current booking status.
- Review whether the booking has linked invoices or payments.
- Confirm whether attendance tracking has started.
- Check whether the booking was created through manual entry, portal registration, WebLink, or integration.
Once you identify which system area is involved, the problem usually becomes easier to diagnose.
Booking cannot be created
If you cannot create a booking, check the following:
- The event exists and is open for registration.
- The student record exists.
- Your permissions allow you to create bookings.
- The booking is not being created through a process that expects registration through a portal or WebLink workflow instead.
If the booking should be created through online registration instead of manually, confirm the learner is following the correct registration process.
Booking cannot be edited
If booking details cannot be changed, review these possible causes:
- A linked invoice may be paid or locked.
- Attendance tracking may have already started.
- Your role may not have permission to edit bookings.
- The booking may be linked to records created through a legacy workflow.
If financial records exist, review Booking Payments and Invoices.
Booking cannot be cancelled
If cancellation is not possible, the booking may be restricted by one of the following:
- A locked or paid invoice.
- Attendance tracking already in progress.
- Operational rules configured by your organization.
In some workflows the booking must be adjusted through financial corrections or attendance updates before cancellation can proceed.
Status does not match expectations
If the booking status appears incorrect, check whether the system has received the action that would normally change it.
Status does not automatically change based on related activity unless automation has been configured.
- Invoices do not automatically change booking status.
- Payments do not automatically change booking status.
- Attendance may affect status depending on configuration.
Review Managing Booking Status if the behavior seems inconsistent with your workflow.
Duplicate bookings appear
Duplicate bookings can occur when multiple enrollment paths are used at the same time.
This most often happens when:
- A learner registers through a portal while an administrator creates a manual booking.
- WebLink registration and manual enrollment are used simultaneously.
- An integration creates bookings while operational teams also create them manually.
Confirm which workflow should be responsible for registration and remove duplicates accordingly.
Booking appears on the wrong event
If a learner is booked onto the wrong event:
- Confirm which event instance was selected during booking creation.
- Review whether the learner should be transferred instead of cancelled.
- Confirm that multiple events with similar names are not being confused.
Use Editing or Cancelling a Booking if the booking must be corrected.
Financial records look incorrect
If the booking's financial records appear inconsistent:
- Review the invoice state.
- Confirm whether the invoice has been paid.
- Check whether the invoice is locked.
- Confirm whether multiple invoices exist for the booking.
Financial records may restrict certain booking changes until the financial state is resolved.
When to escalate a booking issue
If none of the troubleshooting steps explain the problem, review the following before escalating:
- the booking creation method
- the booking status
- any linked financial records
- whether attendance tracking has begun
- whether the booking was created through an integration
This information helps determine whether the issue is operational, financial, configuration-related, or technical.