Many Options Available for School Facility Rental Software

With recent improvements in school facilities, more opportunities for use by outside groups have become available. As a result, facility use requests can pile up, which makes scheduling those spaces, including prioritizing their use, a bigger task than putting a note on a calendar.

Complicating the basics of keeping track of who is using the facilities is the increased rental use of these spaces and the need to track that activity. The person responsible for a school’s facilities not only needs to schedule each space, but also manage the time and cost associated with use by outside groups.

Before you invest in a vertical market software package, you may be able to create a scheduling and invoicing system using software already available. Excel is likely the program of choice to track and schedule facility use through database management, request forms, confirmation documents and invoicing. While typically a standalone solution, putting the file (or related set of files) on a shared drive such as DropBox, iCloud or OneDrive would allow multiple users access.

Excel has some basic password protection as well to ensure that only those authorized to do so can access the information. Google Sheets would be a similar solution, but it has fewer features such as forms and limited calculations than Excel. True database software, such as FileMaker Pro and Microsoft Access, could also be used to deal with your school’s facility use and rental.

In addition, there are some subscription online database services that, with some creativity, would be able to provide the forms, data management and invoicing that your facility point-person would need. These services come with templates for a variety of purposes, extensive online and phone support, and the advantage of being Cloud-based and thus available to users from any device, anywhere. These programs include AirTable and Cognito, each of which share some features, with AirTable being more of a data manager and Cognito more designed for data capture. These programs offer a non-profit/educational pricing structure to keep the monthly or annual costs down.

If your needs are extensive enough to consider purchasing facility rental software, there are dozens of choices, each with features that you will value and features that you may not ever want to use. The key features that interest most users are ease of scheduling, ease of billing and receiving payment, online sharing, and clear printouts. Before a school makes a commitment to this type of software, it should make a thorough analysis of needs and requirements to make sure the purchase matches the purpose. Buying more capability is always a better choice than buying limited capacity and ignoring features or functions that are needed or even critical.

When making such a purchase, you need to be aware of several potential pitfalls. Many of the software packages available in this vertical market focus more on facility maintenance and repair than scheduling and invoicing. If the tasks you wish to accomplish do not involve keeping your facilities up-to-date or re-supplied or upgraded, you should avoid these types of platforms. Be sure that the program allows you to schedule both rental and school-use events so that you are not having to create your own invoicing process or having the system invoice those who should not be. Make sure the scheduling module allows for the timeframes and clock times applicable to your facility. Having to continually explain to users that the times on their schedule or invoice are inaccurate due to program limitations takes away from the efficiency the program promised.

To anyone who is a fairly active Excel and FileMaker Pro user, the vertical market platforms reviewed were impressive in their presentation and ease of shared access, but lacking in the ability to handle any aspects of the facility use that did not fit the established parameters. Knowing how flexible one needs to be in all educational plans, especially those that involve groups from outside the school building, the analysis of needs prior to the investment in that software becomes even more critical. Like all school purchases, a clear definition of what is expected and how those expectations will be met will ensure that an appropriate purchase is made and that the program will fulfill its purchase for years to come.