In a short story we’ll show you how to use Spreadsheets and Forms for a practical case.

Emma manages a resort on a beach in the south of Spain. They own three boats and they take them to the sea according to weather conditions, demand and repair cycles. She has four skippers and a receptionist. Skippers come and go, so she has to hire new skippers regularly and run them through the induction.

She has invested in a 10-user license of Confluence, Play SQL Spreadsheets and Forms, for a total of $70 (~50€). She uses Confluence to manage customer’s “Padi” levels. She filed inductions in Confluence too, so Seb, the receptionist, can instate newly hired skippers autonomously. And most importantly, she has designed a few spreadsheets and forms so they can manage their bookings. She has never looked back.

Spreadsheets for a scuba diving resort

You’ll need two spreadsheets:

• Bookings: You’ll enter the identity of your customers and the time they’ve booked a session. It has the columns:
  • Name: Free text
  • Phone: Free text
  • Booking: Free text
• Planning: You’ll enter which boats you prepare and who are their skipper. Here are the columns:
  • Day: Free text. Formatted as a link.
  • Bookings: Calculated,
  • Status: Calculated, formatted as an icon
  • Boat1, Boat2, Boat3: Formatted as a link. Contains the name of the skippers.

Entering new bookings

Sebastian the receptionist receives phone calls and enters new bookings using the Forms page:

A glimpse of the existing bookings is useful while taking the reservation, so clients can immediately be given a schedule.

Calculating available seats

Of course you want to calculate the number of available seats according to the current state of reservations. Open the column properties and enter formulas. For example the formula for the current bookings is: (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM bookings WHERE groups.booking = day).

A planning for each skipper

You’ll create one page per skipper so they can discuss their shifts with you. Also, it’s worth defining every column as a link, so records can be browsed.

In a few minutes, Emma has set up a friendly database to manage her resort. Don the skipper and Seb the receptionist can comment using their mobile and they have a solution to quickly answer phone calls and register bookings.