Availability Engine - Getting Started Guide

Availability Engine - Getting Started Guide

Once you have been set up with the Availability Engine (AE) feature, it will be running in the background for your account.

During this setup phase, you can explore how the AE schedules your fleet — without affecting your live bookings.
This gives you time to check that everything looks right before connecting to your live Booking APIs.

This quick start will walk you through two essential steps to get your Availability Engine running smoothly:

  1. Set your Turnaround Hours

  2. Review your Location Sharing settings

Once these are set, you’ll be ready to view your Availability Booking Sheet and see how your scheduling rules work in action.

Step 1: Set Your Turnaround Hours

Turnaround hours tell the Availability Engine how much time you need between a vehicle’s return and its next hire.
This ensures your schedule is realistic — no instant back-to-back hires unless you want them.

Why it matters:
Without a turnaround buffer, the engine may schedule bookings too tightly, leaving no time for cleaning, inspection or transfer between locations. 

To set Turnaround Hours:

  1. Go to Web Site Interface → Web Locations → Turnaround Hours [tab] 

  2. Enter the time you need between returns and next hires, for every location back to itself. 

    1. E.g. SYD -> SYD = 5 hours; CAN -> CAN = 2 hours

  3. If you intend to move vehicles between branches, add the transfer time needed between locations, in both directions. 

    1. E.g. SYD -> CAN = 48 hours; CAN -> SYD = 48 hours

Step 2: Review Your Location Sharing Settings

If two or more branches share a common pool of vehicles, tell the Availability Engine how to link them.
Location sharing allows the AE to virtually-reserve vehicles even they're not physically at that branch yet - using the Turnaround Hours between locations.

Why it matters:
Location sharing helps you accept more bookings by allowing the AE to move vehicles between locations and improve overall utilisation.

To review Location Sharing:

  1. Go to Web Site Interface → Web Locations 

  2. Check that locations sharing vehicles have a common Vehicle Availability Master Location

  3. See example below, where Sydney Airport and Canberra both share the same pool of vehicles:


Step 3: See It in Action

Once your turnaround hours and location sharing are set, open the Availability Booking Sheet to see how the AE builds your schedule.

You’re still in test mode - nothing is live yet!
This is your chance to review how the engine behaves before turning on live integration.

To view the AE Booking Sheet:
  1. From the usual Reservation Sheet, you will see a "Switch" button in the top left corner:

You’ll see:

  • Allocated bookings and Maintenance bookings  as per the usual Reservation Sheet

  • Unallocated bookings, in their most optimal positions (semi-transparent orange)

  • On Request bookings, optimally placed (orange with pink border)

  • Unallocated bookings the AE can’t place, shown as yellow ATTENTION/ALERT at the bottom of the category

Try adding some test unallocated bookings to see how the AE handles them.

Example:  Availability Booking Sheet guide


What’s Next?

You’re now ready for the next stage — connecting the Availability Engine to your live system.

Next step:  Switch the Availability Engine to Live Mode via Integrations:  See article here

You might also wish to explore some of the other features that we have such as Contingency Rules, Utilisation Rules, Placeholder Bookings 

Need Help?

If you have any questions, our team is here to help.

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