How do I Create Timed Ticket Products?

This tutorial guides operators through creating a new timed product—such as an encounter, rental, class, or activity—that customers will book online or purchase in‑store. Creating a product correctly ensures that it displays properly in the shopping cart, appears as a POS button, includes accurate pricing and descriptions, and is tied to the correct capacity‑managing resource.

Because timed products function as reservations, they must be configured with:

• A customer‑facing name
• A POS button name
• A retail price
• Short and long descriptions
• An image
• A reporting group
• Online and in‑store availability settings
• A resource that controls capacity, waivers, and reservation behavior

This setup ensures the product behaves correctly across the entire system—from e‑commerce to POS to reporting.

For a video walk through please visit: Video Training


Problem Being Addressed

1. Preventing Overbookings and Capacity Conflicts

Timed products must reduce availability when purchased.
If a product is created without attaching a resource:

• The system cannot limit capacity
• Customers may overbook sessions
• Staff may be overwhelmed
• Animal encounters, tours, or activities may exceed safe limits

Adding a resource ensures the system automatically manages availability and prevents overbooking.

2. Ensuring Proper Reservation Workflow

Timed products require:

• A customer account
• A date and time selection
• A reservation confirmation

Without configuring the product as a reservation:

• Customers could purchase without selecting a time
• Staff would not know when guests are arriving
• Experiences could overlap or conflict

Resources trigger the reservation process and enforce proper booking behavior.

3. Enforcing Waivers When Needed

Many experiences require a digital waiver for safety and liability.
If the product is not linked to a waiver‑enabled resource:

• Waivers cannot be required
• Staff must manually verify waivers
• Liability risk increases

Attaching the correct resource ensures waivers are automatically enforced.

4. Avoiding Incorrect or Incomplete Product Setup

If a product is created without:

• A POS button name
• A price
• A reporting group
• A description
• An image
• Online/in‑store availability settings

…it may not appear correctly in the POS or online store, or may not be sellable at all.

This tutorial ensures every required field is completed correctly so the product is functional and visible.

5. Managing Multi‑Activity or Combo Experiences

Some products include multiple activities (e.g., Capybara + Giraffe Encounter).
Without offsets:

• Both resources would be consumed at the same time
• Scheduling would be inaccurate
• Capacity would be blocked unnecessarily
• Sales opportunities would be lost

Offsets allow each activity to consume its resource at the correct time.

6. Ensuring Accurate Reporting and Accounting

Selecting the correct:

• Income account
• Reporting group
• Unit type (person, guest, participant, etc.)

…ensures clean reporting, accurate revenue tracking, and proper POS behavior.

This tutorial solves the operational challenges of creating timed, capacity‑limited, waiver‑required products by guiding operators through:

• Proper product naming and pricing
• Adding descriptions and images
• Attaching and configuring resources
• Setting consumption time and offsets
• Enforcing waivers and reservation requirements
• Assigning reporting groups and POS settings
• Ensuring the product is available online and in‑store

Following these steps ensures that every product behaves correctly, prevents overbooking, and delivers a smooth experience for both staff and guests.