Scenario: An instructor needs the training room an hour early to set up equipment, or needs a preparation day before delivering a course. You want that time protected in Administrate so nothing else gets booked into it, without changing the event times that learners see.
What's happening
Administrate does not have a dedicated setup or teardown time field on events, sessions, or resources. Two facts shape how prep time should be reserved:
- Event times are derived from sessions. The event start and end that learners see in communications and portals span from the earliest session start to the latest session end. Adding an earlier "prep" session therefore moves the visible event start earlier.
- Sessions cannot be hidden from learners. There is no per-session visibility setting, so any session added for preparation appears in the event schedule.
The reliable way to protect prep time without changing what learners see is to block the instructor's or resource's own calendar, rather than extending the event.
What you can do
Reserve a room or equipment with a standalone resource booking
Resources can be booked independently of any event, and those bookings feed conflict detection.
- Configure a Resource Booking Reason such as "Event setup" if one does not exist. See Instructor Absence and Resource Booking Reasons.
- Navigate to the resource, select Book, and enter the prep window with the booking reason and any details.
- Save. If anyone attempts to assign that resource to an event overlapping the booking, Administrate raises a conflict warning. See Scenario: Resource conflict warnings & override behavior.
Because the booking belongs to the resource rather than the event, learner-facing event times are unaffected. Creating these bookings requires resource booking edit permission.
Reserve an instructor's time with a staff absence
Instructor absences participate in every availability and conflict check, including event assignment, the Scheduler, and the planner.
- Configure an instructor absence reason such as "Preparation". See Instructor Absence and Resource Booking Reasons.
- Record an absence for the instructor covering the prep period. See Staff Absences.
When someone tries to assign the instructor to anything overlapping the absence, the conflict warning shows the absence reason by name, so a clearly named reason such as "Preparation" keeps the warning self-explanatory.
Add a prep session to the event (use with caution)
Adding an extra session to the course template or event does block the instructor and resources for that time. However, because the visible event span stretches to the earliest session, learners will see the event starting earlier, and the prep session appears in their session list. Use this approach only when learners seeing the full span is acceptable, and time your communication templates with the prep session in mind.
Why this matters
Conflict warnings are what stop double-booking in Administrate; they appear at scheduling time rather than hard-blocking the save. Reserving prep time through resource bookings and instructor absences puts that protection in place while keeping learner-facing event times accurate, which avoids confused learners arriving during setup. Consistent, well-named booking and absence reasons also keep calendars and reports readable.