Reftab gives admins several ways to control how users reserve, check out, and return assets. These settings help organizations manage shared equipment, prevent overbooking, limit how long items are in use, and give staff enough time to prepare items before pickup.

This guide explains the main reservation and checkout settings available in Reftab, what each setting does, and when you may want to use it.

Quick List of Reservation and Checkout Settings

Business Hours

What are Business Hours?

Business Hours let admins set open and closed times for each location in Reftab.

These hours control when users can schedule reservation pickup and return times. When a location is closed, those times are blocked on the reservation calendar.

What are Business Hour Exceptions?

Business Hour Exceptions let admins block off specific dates when a location is closed outside of its normal schedule.

Example:
A location may normally be open Monday-Friday, but closed during holiday break, such as Christmas week. Admins can add an exception for those closed dates so users cannot schedule pickups or returns during that time.

Reservation Time Blocks

What are Reservation Time Blocks?

Reservation Time Blocks let admins create preset time slots that users must select when reserving an asset.

Instead of allowing users to choose any pickup and return time, Reftab can show specific clickable blocks on the calendar.

Example:
An admin creates a reservation block from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM, Monday through Friday.

When users reserve an item, they can only select one of those available blocks. They cannot choose times outside of the configured blocks.

When to use this:
Use Reservation Time Blocks when items can only be picked up, returned, or used during specific windows.

Common examples include:

• Staffed equipment rooms
• School media labs
• Tool cribs
• AV checkout desks
• Lab equipment pickup windows

Maximum Loan / Reservation Times

What are Maximum Loan / Reservation Times?

Maximum Loan / Reservation Times control how long an item can be reserved or checked out.

These limits can be configured by asset category and access role, which means different types of users can have different time limits for the same kind of item.

Example:
A camera can be reserved for:

When to use this:
Use this setting when you want to limit how long users can keep certain items, especially high-demand equipment.

This is different from the future booking window. Maximum Loan / Reservation Times control how long the item can be used, not how far ahead the reservation can be scheduled.

Reservation Minimum Notice Times

What are Reservation Minimum Notice Times?

Reservation Minimum Notice Times control how much advance notice is required before a reservation can start.

These rules can be set by category and location Or via a global setting.

To set the global setting, use:

Otherwise, to set by location / category for more granular options use the button “Configure Reservation Minimum Booking Times”

When this is set, users will see a notice informing them of the setting:

Example:
A lab manager sets a 1-hour minimum notice time for lab equipment in the Biology Lab.

If a user tries to reserve that equipment for pickup in 30 minutes, Reftab will prevent the reservation because the required notice time has not been met.

When to use this:
Use Reservation Minimum Notice Times when staff need time to prepare items before pickup.

Common examples include:

• When devices require charging prior to use
• Cleaning equipment
• Preparing lab gear
• Inspecting tool kits
• Pulling equipment from storage

Default Checkout Hours

What are Default Checkout Hours?

Default Checkout Hours automatically pre-select a return time when an asset is checked out.

This is mainly a convenience setting. It helps speed up checkout by filling in a default due date/time.

Example:
If Default Checkout Hours is set to 48 hours, then when an asset is checked out, Reftab automatically selects a return time 48 hours in the future.

When to use this:
Use this setting when most checkouts follow the same standard loan period.

For example, if most equipment is normally checked out for two days, setting a 48-hour default saves staff from manually selecting the return time every time.

Important:
This setting pre-fills the return time. It is not the same as Maximum Loan / Reservation Times, which enforce the maximum amount of time an item can be used.

Maximum Assigned Items

What is the Maximum Assigned Items setting?

Maximum Assigned Items limits how many items a user can have assigned or checked out to them at one time.

Example:
If the maximum assigned item limit is set to 5, a user cannot have more than 5 items in their possession at the same time.

When to use this:
Use this setting to prevent users from holding too much inventory.

This is helpful for schools, labs, tool rooms, AV teams, or any organization where shared equipment needs to stay available to other users.

Maximum Reserved Items

What is the Maximum Reserved Items setting?

Maximum Reserved Items limits how many active or upcoming reservations a user can have at one time.

Example:
If the maximum reserved item limit is set to 3, a user cannot have more than 3 active reservations.

When to use this:
Use this setting to prevent users from overbooking equipment or reserving more items than they realistically need.

This is different from Maximum Assigned Items.

Amount of Days into the Future Reservations Can Be Scheduled

What does this setting do?

This global setting controls how far into the future users can schedule reservations. When this setting is enabled, the calendar will disable dates that are outside of the range set.

Note: this setting can also be configured by location as well as globally.

Example:
If this setting is set to 30 days, users can only create reservations with a pickup/start date within the next 30 days.

If they try to reserve an item 45 days from now, Reftab will prevent the reservation.

When to use this:
Use this setting when you do not want users booking equipment too far in advance.

This helps keep availability manageable and prevents users from reserving items months ahead of time.

Important:
This setting controls how far ahead users can book, not how long they can keep the item.

Maximum Overdue Limit Amount

What is the Maximum Overdue Limit Amount?

Maximum Overdue Limit Amount controls whether users with overdue items can continue checking out additional items.

Example:
If the overdue limit is set to 1, a user with 1 or more overdue items may be blocked from checking out more equipment.

When to use this:
Use this setting when you want to prevent users from continuing to take more items while they already have overdue equipment.

This helps encourage users to return overdue items before receiving anything else.

Reservation Early Fulfillment

What is Reservation Early Fulfillment?

Reservation Early Fulfillment controls how early a reservation can be fulfilled before the scheduled pickup time.

This setting is entered in hours.

Example:
A user has a reservation scheduled for pickup at 2:00 PM on the 15th.

If Reservation Early Fulfillment is set to 24 hours, the item can be checked out to the user as early as 2:00 PM on the 14th.

If the user tries to pick up the item on the 10th, Reftab will prevent the reservation from being fulfilled because it is too early.

When to use this:
Use this setting when users are allowed to pick up reserved items slightly early, but not too far before the scheduled pickup time.

This is useful when staff want some flexibility while still protecting inventory availability.

Reservation Buffer Time

What is Reservation Buffer Time?

Reservation Buffer Time creates a required gap between the end of one reservation and the start of the next reservation.

This setting is entered in minutes.

Example:
If Reservation Buffer Time is set to 15 minutes, and an item is returned at 10:00 AM, the next reservation cannot begin until 10:15 AM.

If another user tries to reserve the item starting at 10:00 AM, Reftab will prevent the reservation because the buffer time has not been met.

When to use this:
Use Reservation Buffer Time when items need time between uses.

Common examples include:

• Cleaning
• Charging
• Inspection
• Resetting equipment
• Checking accessories
• Moving items between locations

Reservation Booking Window by Location

What is the Reservation Booking Window by Location?

The Reservation Booking Window by Location controls how many days into the future users can reserve items at a specific location.

When editing a location, you’ll see an input for this setting:

Example:
If a location’s booking window is set to 7 days, users can only book items from that location within the next 7 days.

If today is the 1st of the month, users can reserve items from that location for pickup dates between the 1st and the 7th. If they try to select the 10th, Reftab will prevent the reservation.

When to use this:
Use this setting when different locations need different booking rules.

For example:

• One equipment room may allow reservations 30 days ahead.
• Another location may only allow reservations 7 days ahead.
• A temporary job site may only allow reservations 3 days ahead.

Important:
The location booking window overrides the global “Amount of Days into the Future Reservations Can Be Scheduled” setting.

Common Questions