YellowWork’s Smart Booking Process

YellowWork has built one of the most sophisticated booking systems, designed specifically for freelance work. Powered by an intelligent Calendar, it allows bookings to be added by a client or freelancer and for them to invite the other party to view and confirm the details. Bookings can also be made directly by the client to the freelancer using the ‘Book a Freelancer’, ‘Share Availability’ and ‘Book Me’ features. 

YellowWork caters for a variety of bookings, from hiring freelancers for specific dates and delivering a project by a deadline to flexible, time-tracked work and teams who are booked for shifts.

It also allows freelancers to add hourly rates, daily rates or the total job price, as well as additional costs (for items like equipment), discounts and tax. The booking then calculates the total cost automatically.

The booking status also updates once it reaches a specific point in the process, from an ‘Invitation’ to ‘Pending’ and then ‘Confirmed’. 

When a freelancer receives a booking Invitation, it’s displays as a yellow booking in their Calendar. The freelancer can then respond with their rates and additional costs, which will change the status to a purple ‘Pending’ booking. If the client awards the job to the freelancer and the freelancer confirms, the booking status will update to ‘Confirmed’.

The freelancer booking process, however, is rarely this linear. YellowWork has built its booking system to be as flexible as the work, meeting the ever-changing requirements of companies and freelancers. Its proprietary booking system provides the ability to edit any of the details throughout the process. When editing a ‘Confirmed’ booking, changes need to be authorised by the other party in order for the booking to update, while offering a smart way to negotiate details such as costs.

Editing A Pending Booking

A Pending booking can be edited by both the client and freelancer by clicking on the pencil icon found in the upper section in most tabs across the booking.

Clients can edit any of the ‘Pending’ booking details (such as the dates and location), but they cannot edit the costs. If the client edits the booking, the freelancer is notified about the changes that have been made. In some occasions such as the dates being changed, the freelancer may be required to reply with new costs.

Conversely, the freelancer may want to edit the costs that they have previously submitted to the client. To do this, they can withdraw their costs (changing the booking back to an Invitation) and submit new costs.

Editing A Confirmed Booking

Once the booking is ‘Confirmed’, the client can edit any of the booking details, apart from the costs. A freelancer can edit the costs but cannot edit the booking details.

If a client edits the ‘Confirmed’ booking details, the freelancer is made aware with a notification. They then have the option to ‘Accept’ or ‘Decline’ the changes that the client made to the booking. This is because the booking details have already been confirmed, and changing them may introduce conditions that the freelancer may not be able to fulfil. 

If the freelancer declines, the booking will revert back to its original ‘Confirmed’ state. If the freelancer accepts, the booking will update to display the new confirmed details.

If the client edits the dates, the freelancer will see a summary of what has been edited.

Clicking on the summary will display an overview of the date changes.

When the dates have been edited, the freelancer will be required to respond with new costs (instead of just accepting the changes).

The client will then have the option to ‘Accept’ or ‘Decline’ the costs that the freelancer submitted.

If they ‘Accept’, the Confirmed booking will update with the new details. If they ‘Decline’, the freelancer will be made aware and will have the option to ‘Submit New Costs’ or ‘Decline’ the original changes that the client made to the booking.

This process will go back-and-forth until the new costs are agreed, which will update the booking to the new ‘Confirmed’ status. If an agreement wasn’t made (by both declining the changes), the booking will roll back to display the original ‘Confirmed’ booking details.

The freelancer may also wish to edit a confirmed booking whenever there are changes to their costs. For example: the freelancer wants to add expenses or equipment.

If the freelancer edits their costs, the client will be made aware with a notification and be required to ‘Accept’ the new costs or ‘Decline’ them. If the client accepts, the confirm booking will update with the new costs. If the declined, The booking will revert back to its original confirmed booking status, and the freelancer will have the opportunity to edit the booking again to submit new costs.

Written by Richard Jeffs
Former freelance TV Producer and Director of Photography. Now Founder and CEO of YellowWork.io

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