Reservation Portal Introduction

The Reservations Portal is the operational hub for creating and managing customer bookings across all product types within Expian.

It enables authorised staff to search, view, amend, cancel, and refund bookings, as well as place orders on behalf of customers, members, or contracted partners.

Reservations integrates seamlessly with POS, CRM, and Entitlements modules, ensuring that every booking, payment, and message is recorded consistently across systems.

The portal supports a wide range of sales and fulfilment scenarios including walk-ups, corporate groups, memberships, and deferred payment bookings such as Pay by Email or Pay by Invoice.

It brings all reservation activity into one place, helping you search, amend, refund, and track bookings with confidence and accuracy.

You can:

• Search and view existing bookings
• Place new bookings
• Amend or cancel existing bookings
• Issue refunds
• Override prices (e.g. cancellation or amendment fees)
• Resend confirmation emails
• View booking history, transactions, and messages
• Place bookings on behalf of Trade Partners or B2B customers

The Reservations Portal helps staff provide excellent customer service by giving them the tools to handle every stage of a booking quickly and securely.

Why It Matters

The Reservations Portal ensures that every booking, whether for an individual, group, or trade partner, is managed consistently across sales channels.

It reduces manual errors, improves customer satisfaction, and ensures accurate reporting for finance and operations.

Using the portal correctly helps:

• Keep bookings and payments consistent across systems
• Ensure clear audit trails for refunds, cancellations, and changes
• Save time by simplifying day-to-day reservation management
• Improve customer confidence through fast, accurate communication

Accessing the Reservations Portal

Log in to the Expian Reservations Portal using your assigned credentials.

Your access level and visible functions depend on your User Role and permissions configured in User Administration. Administrators can add, restrict, or customise user access to ensure operational control, security, and accountability.

If you are unable to view certain booking features, check your role permissions with your system administrator.

Navigation Overview

Landing Page

Upon login, you’ll arrive at the Reservations Dashboard, your central hub for managing bookings.

From here, you can:

• View recent orders
• Create new bookings
• Search historical data
• Access message and transaction history
• Initiate amendments, refunds, or cancellations

Every booking processed through the Reservations Portal is automatically synchronised across Expian modules including POS, Trade & B2B. If you also have integrations such as CRM and Finance, they too will be updated, ensuring consistency across all systems.

The Reservations Portal provides your operational workspace for creating, viewing, and managing bookings across all Expian products.

Its design supports quick, secure, and accurate handling of customer orders, including admissions, events, memberships, and trade bookings.

The interface is divided into three key areas:

• Top Navigation Bar: contains quick-access buttons for:
• New Order: create a new booking for any product type
• Search: open the advanced search and filter tools
• Scanner: access barcode or QR scanning for redemption and validation
• Date Filter: refine order visibility by date or period
• Central Workspace: displays your active view.
• On login, this defaults to the Dashboard, showing the latest bookings including:
• Reference
• Status
• Order Placed
• Customer Name
• Phone Number

Use this list to quickly access or verify recent customer interactions.

Left-Hand Sidebar

Provides access to all key Reservation functions.

Access and Permissions

Access to modules such as Reports or Trade Partner Orders may be restricted based on organisational configuration or user permissions.

This ensures that sensitive data, such as financial records and B2B contracts, remain visible only to authorised users.

If you require additional access, contact your system administrator.

Core Capabilities

Summary

The Reservations Portal is the central workspace for managing all bookings across Expian.

It connects front-line operations with finance, CRM, and Entitlements, ensuring every order is accurate, traceable, and easy to manage.

By bringing admissions, events, memberships, and trade bookings into a single system, it simplifies day-to-day processes and improves customer service through faster, more reliable handling of every booking.

The portal’s clear layout, advanced search tools, and real-time integrations mean teams can act quickly and confidently, whether creating a new order, processing a refund, or verifying partner activity.

Used correctly, the Reservations Portal strengthens operational efficiency, maintains financial integrity, and provides a consistent experience for customers and partners alike.

A customer says they didn’t receive their confirmation, staff resend it in one click.

Order Lookup

Icon

Apply authorised overrides for fees such as cancellations or amendments.

Gives at-a-glance insight into current activity and pending actions.

Search & Quick Access

A reservations manager filters by 'Cancelled' orders for a given week to check refund status.

Exit Session

Displays transaction or redemption data for audit and reconciliation.

Improves financial control and compliance.

Transaction & Redemption History

Protects data integrity and aligns with internal security policies.

Supports full visibility and accountability across teams.

Order Status Tracking

Accesses operational reports (if enabled) for order and performance metrics.

View financial transactions, redemption details, and audit trails for each booking.

Unified Booking Management

Reporting & Insights

Ensures trade agreements and partner pricing are correctly applied.

Audit Trail & Reporting

Finance teams verify ticket value and refund amounts from the same screen.

Price Overrides

Access all booking information, including ticket breakdown, payment status, and contact details.

Operations staff filter to show only Draft orders awaiting payment.

Advanced Filters

Managers can trace who amended or refunded an order.

? Search

? Reports

Amendments

Description

Example Use

? Home

Use the filter icon to search by company name, order status, sales channel, or event type.

Adds flexibility while maintaining a clear audit trail for finance teams.

Staff track refund history for audit or dispute purposes.

Area

Every change, refund, and resend is recorded with timestamps and user details.

Supervisor overrides a late cancellation fee as a goodwill gesture.

Saves time and ensures you can quickly locate customer bookings.

Gives staff a single, consistent system to manage every reservation.

Click a booking reference to view a quick summary of customer details, booking contents, and payments.

Resend confirmation emails or view message history, including PDFs sent to customers.

Cancel orders and issue refunds following organisational policies.

Reduces manual searching and improves accuracy for teams managing large booking volumes.

Sales Management

Update ticket quantities, types, or booking dates directly in the portal. The system automatically calculates payment differences.

Trade & B2B Bookings

Protects financial integrity and improves customer satisfaction.

Opens the advanced search screen to locate bookings by name, reference, or filter criteria.

Role-based permissions control who can amend, refund, or override bookings.

Staff book a group visit under an approved partner account, applying the correct commission rate.

A guest calls about a missing confirmation, staff enter their email and instantly view the booking.

Booking Creation

Order Preview Panel

Staff can see, amend, and refund any booking without switching systems.

Ensures transparency, data accuracy, and accountability.

? Sales Shift / Transactions

? Profile

Account Details

User Access & Security

Cancellations & Refunds

The Reservations Portal brings together all bookings, admissions, events, entitlements, and trade, in one place.

Reduces customer queries and ensures consistent communication records.

⚙️ Settings

Toggle to place bookings on behalf of trade partners or educational groups. Only eligible products appear.

Opens the New Order workflow to place bookings for Admissions, Events, or Entitlements.

Simplifies change management and prevents errors.

New Order Creation

Full Order Details

Offers instant insight without navigating away from the main screen.

Manage user preferences, interface options, and linked integrations (depending on role).

View or update your profile and login credentials.

Instantly see whether an order is Draft, Ordered, Amended, or Cancelled.

User Settings

Search by booking reference, name, email, or date range directly from the dashboard.

Why It Matters

? Log Out

? New Order

Refunds processed automatically appear in reporting and audit logs.

Securely end your Reservations session.

Staff quickly confirm booking details before taking an amendment call.

Customer Communication

Supervisors approve refunds; front-line staff can only view and edit.

Staff adjust a booking for a customer who wants to move to a later date.

Dashboard

Create bookings directly from the dashboard or the Search Orders screen. Choose between Admissions, Events, or Entitlements.

Function

Streamlines the booking process by keeping all order types under one workflow.

Description

Returns to the main Reservations home screen displaying recent bookings.

A staff member books a family for a museum event and adds a membership entitlement in the same order.