Product guide: FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Practical answers about tours, freelancer workflows, reports, and connected tools. Use the feature guides for step-by-step instructions.
Getting Started
What does EasyPlanning help a tour operator do?
EasyPlanning brings dated departures, freelance staff, assignments, availability, tour documents, and operational reports into one workspace. Start with the feature catalog to see what each area does, then follow the setup guide for your first schedule.
Read more →Do managers and guides use the same workspace?
Managers use the company workspace to plan tours, manage freelancer connections, and review assignments and reports. Guides use the freelancer workspace to manage their profile, availability, company connections, requests, applications, and confirmed tours. A freelancer can connect to multiple companies.
Read more →Do I need to install an app?
EasyPlanning works in a web browser on desktop and mobile. Some planning controls, including calendar view selection and Excel export, are available on desktop. Freelancers can open their tour details from their phone.
Read more →How do I invite freelancers?
Open Freelancers → Invite in the company workspace. Send an invitation by email, or copy the company invitation link or code. Ask freelancers to complete their profile and availability before you start assigning tours.
Read more →Tours & Scheduling
What is the difference between a template and a departure?
A template stores reusable tour details such as the name, duration, meeting point, languages, tags, and staff requirements. A departure is a specific dated event on the calendar. A staff position, also called a seat, is for a guide or another team member; it does not mean a passenger seat.
Read more →Can I create repeating tours or multiday itineraries?
Yes. Repeating series create departures on selected weekdays within a date range. Multiday itineraries use a separate creation form with daily times, locations, languages, and staff requirements. Review the generated dates and individual departures after creation.
Read more →Can I keep partner booking references with a tour?
Yes. A departure can store a booking number, voucher number, partner name, and separate partner booking reference. Partner fields are company-only. You can also add customer details, a vehicle type, and tour price where needed.
Read more →Freelancers & Assignment
How do availability and time off work?
Freelancers add date ranges, working hours, and weekdays under Settings → Availabilities. Blockouts record time they cannot work. Their profile also includes a time-between-slots setting. Existing assignments and tour requirements must be considered alongside declared availability.
Read more →Can freelancers record tours booked outside EasyPlanning?
Yes. In the freelancer Calendar, use Personal tour to record outside work. It marks that time as busy and keeps the personal tour details visible only to the freelancer. It is not a request for new company work.
Read more →What is the difference between requests and applications?
For manual assignment, a manager selects a freelancer for a position and sends a request. The freelancer responds to it. In the applications workflow, eligible freelancers apply for open departures and the manager reviews those applications. Requested and pending states are different from a confirmed assignment.
Read more →Does automatic allocation assign any available freelancer?
Automatic allocation uses pending applications and free staff positions. Managers can generate a preview, inspect or adjust the proposed assignments, and submit the allocation. The preview alone does not confirm assignments, and allocation does not recruit freelancers who have not applied.
Read more →What happens when a freelancer cancels?
A cancellation allowed by the template’s cancellation policy frees the staff position. The manager can review the departure and choose a replacement or handle new applications. If the deadline has passed or self-service cancellation is disabled, the freelancer needs to contact the company. A replacement is not guaranteed automatically.
Read more →Can I organize freelancers into groups and rate them?
Yes. Manage groups under Freelancers → Groups and select a group on a tour template where appropriate. Managers can maintain a company rating in Edit Freelancer. The rating is not a customer review score. Languages, tags, cities, and roles remain separate profile information.
Read more →Tour Information & Reports
Can guides access tour documents and guest details?
Tour details include Details, People, Documents, and Comments tabs as applicable to the tour and assignment status. Documents and Comments unlock once the freelancer is confirmed. Customer names and countries appear on the People tab of tours the freelancer can see. Public Notes are shared with freelancers; Private Notes and partner references are kept for the company.
Read more →Where can I see recorded schedule changes?
Open a departure in Calendar and select History to review its recorded actions, including relevant assignment and cancellation events. This departure history is different from a company-wide compliance audit export with complete before-and-after values for every field.
Read more →What do fill rate and utilization measure?
Fill rate is the share of staff positions that are requested or confirmed, not passenger bookings or ticket sales. Utilization compares busy time, including tour hours and blockouts, with recorded capacity. The Free Time chart has its own date range, grouping, and freelancer controls.
Read more →Can I review guide hours and costs?
Yes. Reports includes guide hours, guide costs, guide distribution, applications, cancellations, and tour activity. Use these as operational inputs for workload review and payment calculations. A report is not a payroll payment or a guide quality score.
Read more →Import, Export & Connections
Can I import a schedule from Excel?
Confirmed tour import is implemented and enabled separately per company. When Import is visible in Calendar, choose one populated .xlsx sheet, review the timezone and parsed data, resolve matching issues, and save the ready rows. Guides match by email among active company contacts. Missing templates can be created during import. Ask support if the option is not available.
Read more →Does Excel import keep the spreadsheet synchronized?
No. Import appends confirmed departures after review; it is not ongoing synchronization. Existing voucher numbers are skipped, duplicates within the file need attention, and multiday itineraries are unsupported. Export downloads a separate snapshot for your chosen dates and calendar filters; editing that file does not change the schedule.
Read more →Can I add an assignment to my personal calendar?
Supported tour emails include a .ics attachment that adds a single event to Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook. This is not a continuously synchronized calendar subscription. Email notification delivery depends on the event type and the freelancer’s notification preferences.
Read more →Can I connect an external AI assistant?
Yes. Create a company API key in Settings → API Keys and connect a compatible MCP client to the EasyPlanning server. Available tools can read tour and scheduling information, create templates or departures, and update departures. The toolset does not expose every application feature. Read the connection guide and review any scheduling changes.
Read more →Does this include two-way synchronization with booking platforms?
This guide covers confirmed Excel import, schedule export, individual calendar invites, and the MCP toolset. It does not describe a built-in two-way booking-platform synchronization. Contact support to confirm the current options for your reservation system before planning an integration.
Read more →Access, Pricing & Help
Is Excel import available to every company?
Excel import is enabled separately for each company. Confirm access with support before including it in a customer workflow.
Read more →Where can I check plans, pricing, and account-specific terms?
Use the current pricing page for published plans and contact the EasyPlanning team for account-specific terms or feature access. This user guide does not set billing rules, contractual commitments, or release dates.
Read more →Where can I find privacy information or get help?
Read the Privacy Policy for published data-handling information. For company setup, optional feature access, or specific requirements, contact hello@easyplanning.io. The Getting started guide provides the path from company setup to a first confirmed departure.
Read more →Still have questions?