Manage your venues and catalogs

Configure your venues, their spaces, service catalog and billing profile for consistent quotes.

In Joinways, a venue is the starting point of your whole commercial setup: it groups together its bookable spaces, its service catalog and its billing details in one place. Configured well, it turns building a quote into a series of checkboxes rather than tedious retyping, and it keeps everything you bill consistent from one event to the next. It is also the foundation on which availability, scheduling conflicts and your occupancy reports rest.

Taking the time to get this setup right up front saves you hours of corrections and costly omissions later. This guide explains not only how to configure a venue, but above all why each setting matters and what it triggers across the rest of the app.

What you'll learn

Create and configure a venue, with its name and address
Split your venue into bookable spaces with a capacity
Build a service catalog whose prices are reused in quotes
Fill in the billing profile reused automatically on quotes and invoices
Understand how these elements feed availability, quoting and reporting

The four building blocks of a venue

To get off to a good start, keep in mind the four elements that make up a venue and the role of each. The rest of the article comes back to them in detail.

The venue: the container, with its name and address. It identifies the site, and its address reappears on your documents.
The spaces: the bookable rooms of the venue, each with a capacity. Availability, blocks and conflicts all apply to them.
The catalog: your services and their prices, reused in quotes. Each line becomes a checkbox.
The billing profile: the legal and tax identity stamped automatically on quotes and invoices.

Create a venue

The venue is the container for everything else: without it, you have no spaces to book and no catalog to bill. Creating it first gives you the frame into which spaces and services will fit. Its name and address aren't merely administrative: they identify the site for your teams and your clients alike, and the address reappears on your commercial documents.

Go to Settings then Venues: you land on the list of your sites.
Click New venue ; a form opens. Enter the name and address, then save: the venue appears in the list right away.
Add its spaces and their capacity (see the next section): until a venue has a space, it isn't bookable yet.

Good to know: a single account can host several venues. Each keeps its own spaces, its own catalog and its own billing profile, so you can manage several sites without mixing them up.

Split the venue into spaces

A space is a bookable room or area of your venue — the main hall, the orangery, the garden — with its own capacity. It is the basic unit of your schedule: availability, a block or a conflict applies to the space, not the venue. So take the time to split your venue into realistic spaces, because that breakdown drives your whole schedule.

From the venue, add its spaces one by one, giving each a name that speaks to your clients and teams ("Liberty Room — 120 covers").
Enter each space's capacity: it will be used to check that a number of guests fits the room at quote time.
Repeat for every bookable room or area: one venue can combine spaces rented separately or together.

Once created, your spaces become bookable: you'll later attach them to events, and it is their availability that gets checked and shown in the schedule. A well-named, correctly sized space prevents assignment errors and booking conflicts.

The service catalog

The catalog gathers everything you can sell at this venue: space rental, catering, equipment, options. The goal is to record your services and their prices once and for all, so you never retype them again. A complete catalog saves you huge amounts of time and prevents omissions in quotes, because when building a quote you pick from a ready-made list rather than retyping everything from memory.

Services: rental, catering, equipment, options. Enter every service you offer, with a clear label.
Prices: reused automatically in quotes. When you add a service to a quote, its catalog price is carried over as is, which keeps your pricing consistent.

In practice, each catalog line becomes a checkbox in the quote. The more your catalog covers your real offering, the more building a quote comes down to selecting the right lines — and the less likely you are to forget a billable service.

💡 Tip: a complete catalog saves you huge amounts of time and prevents omissions in quotes. Invest a few hours up front and you'll recoup them on every quote.

The billing profile

The billing profile carries the legal and tax identity that must appear on your commercial documents. Filling it in correctly isn't a formality: this information appears automatically on quotes and invoices, so any error or omission flows straight through to the documents your clients receive.

Company name, tax ID, VAT number: your business's legal identity.
Billing address: the one that should appear on documents.

Once these fields are filled in, you no longer have to think about them: every new quote and invoice carries this information over with no action from you. That's why it's best to check it before issuing your first quote.

Field reference

Here, at a glance, are the key fields of each block and what they trigger.

Venue name: shown in the venues list and chosen when creating an event or a quote.
Venue address: carried onto the venue's commercial documents.
Space name: identifies the room in the schedule and when attaching it to an event.
Space capacity: used to check the number of guests at quote time.
Service label and price: carried over as is into a quote line.
Billing profile: company name, tax IDs and address, stamped on quotes and invoices.

How it works

A venue's three building blocks don't live in isolation: they chain together. The venue and its spaces define what is bookable and for how many people; the catalog defines what is billable and at what price; the billing profile defines who bills and under what identity.

When you create a quote, Joinways relies on this whole set: it checks the space's capacity against the number of guests, carries over catalog prices for each ticked service, and automatically stamps the billing profile information. This chain is what makes your quotes both fast and consistent.

Downstream, spaces also feed your schedule and your reports: their availability and occupancy are tracked across events. A clean breakdown of spaces therefore produces reliable activity and occupancy reports, whereas a rough one distorts both availability and the figures.

Edge cases

Several venues on one account: this is entirely possible. You manage several sites, each with its own spaces and catalogs, without them mixing. Pick the right venue when creating an event or a quote.

Combinable spaces: one venue can offer spaces rented separately or together. Create them all distinctly, then decide case by case which to attach to an event.

Services shared across venues: if the same service exists at several sites but at a different price, enter it in each venue's catalog with its own price, so every quote reflects the right local rate.

Reconfiguring a room: if you change a space's layout (banquet, theatre, cocktail), its real capacity varies. Enter the capacity most representative of your usual use; the quote-time check is a guardrail, not a rigid rule.

Change of company name: if your business changes legal entity, fix the billing profile before issuing new quotes. Documents already issued don't change retroactively; only later ones carry the new identity.

One-off service outside the catalog: for an exceptional request, you can add a line directly to the quote. If it recurs often, add it to the catalog instead so you can reuse it without retyping.

💡 Tip: before issuing your very first quote, do a full pass of the venue — spaces and capacities, catalog and prices, billing profile. Five minutes of checking avoid a quote sent with the wrong address or a missing price.

Best practices

Update your prices regularly: an up-to-date catalog avoids billing old rates.
Use clear service labels: your teams and clients should understand every line without explanation.
Check the billing profile before your first quote: it's what appears on all your documents.
Give spaces names that speak and a realistic capacity, so the capacity check stays reliable.
Structure your catalog by families (rental, catering, equipment): finding a service at quote time then becomes instant.
Review the venue at the start of the season: rates, capacities and legal details are then up to date for the whole year.
With several venues, name spaces and services unambiguously across sites, to avoid ticking the wrong line in a quote.

Troubleshooting

A price isn't carried into the quote. Cause: the service doesn't exist in the catalog yet, or its price wasn't filled in. Solution: add the service to the venue's catalog and set its price; it will then be available to select in your quotes.

Billing information is wrong on a quote. Cause: the venue's billing profile is incomplete or incorrect. Solution: fix the company name, tax ID, VAT number or address in the billing profile; subsequent documents will carry the correct data.

A space doesn't seem bookable. Cause: the space wasn't created on the venue, or its capacity wasn't filled in. Solution: add the space to the venue with a name and a capacity; it then becomes available in the schedule and attachable to events.

A service shows at the wrong price on a quote. Cause: the catalog price was changed after the quote was created, or the wrong line was ticked. Solution: check the catalog price, then fix the line directly on the quote if needed.

Real-world example

Take a hotel launching its events business on Joinways. It starts by creating its venue with the establishment's name and address. It then splits it into 4 spaces: the main hall, a lounge, a terrace and a meeting room, each with its capacity — say 200 covers for the main hall, 40 for the meeting room.

It then builds a 30-service catalog: rental of each space, catering packages, equipment rentals, various options, each with its price. Finally, it fills in its billing profile once and for all: company name, tax ID, VAT and address.

The result: creating a quote now means ticking boxes rather than retyping everything. The team picks the space, checks at a glance that the capacity fits, ticks the wanted services, and the quote is built with the right prices and the right legal details. What took long minutes now takes a few clicks, with nothing forgotten.

Second example: a second site

A year later, the same hotel opens a second address, a villa with a garden. On the same account, it creates a second venue, distinct from the first, with its own address.

The villa has only two spaces — the great lounge and the garden — and higher rental rates than the original site. The team enters the villa's own catalog, with these local prices, rather than reusing those of the first venue.

Since each venue keeps its own catalog and billing profile, a quote for the villa automatically carries the right prices and the right address, with no risk of confusion with the hotel. Picking the right venue when creating the quote is enough to align everything.

FAQ

Can I manage several venues on one account?

Yes, manage several sites, each with its own spaces and catalogs. Each venue stays independent, which avoids any mixing between your different establishments.

Do I have to recreate my catalog for each venue?

The catalog is attached to the venue. If your sites offer identical services at different rates, enter them in each venue with their own price so quotes reflect the right rate.

What happens if I change a price in the catalog?

New quotes will carry over the updated price, since catalog prices are reused automatically. So keep your catalog up to date to never bill old rates.

What is a space's capacity for?

It is used to check that a number of guests fits the room at quote time. A realistic capacity avoids promising a room too small for the planned event.

Why check the billing profile before the first quote?

Because this information appears automatically on quotes and invoices. Checking it up front avoids sending a document with the wrong company name or an incorrect address.

Can I remove or disable a space I no longer rent?

Remove the space from the venue when it's no longer for rent: it then drops out of the schedule and is no longer offered for assignment. Past events attached to it keep their history.

Does the catalog handle VAT per service?

Each service carries its catalog price, reused as is in the quote. Enter your prices consistently with your billing profile so the documents stay correct.