A school calls back two weeks before their field trip: they’d like to add the planetarium show, and three more chaperones are coming. The reservation is already booked and the deposit is paid. Do you edit the reservation, or start over?
Edit it. In Altru group sales, a reservation is meant to change after it’s booked. Adding a program or more admission to an existing reservation is routine work. What trips people up is everything around the edit: capacity, pricing, the balance due, and the confirmation the group already has in hand.
The short version
- Open the existing reservation from group sales (search by group name, contact, or reservation number).
- Go to the itinerary and add the new item: a program on its own time slot, or another admission price type and count on the existing itinerary.
- Check that the event has room and that the right price list applies to the group.
- Save, then review the updated total and balance due.
- Send the group a revised confirmation or invoice so their paperwork matches yours.
Exact screen names vary a little between Altru releases and depend on how your group sales setup is configured, so treat the steps above as the shape of the task rather than a click path. If your screens look different, your Blackbaud support contact or a sandbox test will confirm the specifics quickly.
Adding a program vs. adding admission
A program
Programs are usually scheduled events with a fixed time and capacity, like a guided tour, a classroom session, or a show. When you add one to an existing reservation, you’re picking a specific occurrence. Before you promise it on the phone, check that occurrence’s remaining capacity. Group holds and school-season block bookings can fill a program faster than the general calendar suggests.
Also check timing against the rest of the itinerary. Altru can place a program anywhere on the day, but it won’t stop you from booking a 10:00 show for a bus arriving at 10:15. A quick glance at arrival time saves a scramble at the door.
More admission
Adding admission is usually a matter of adding price types or increasing quantities: more students, more paid adults, extra chaperones. The detail to watch is whether those people get group pricing. If your organization limits free chaperones to a ratio (one per ten students, for example), Altru won’t apply that rule for you unless you’ve built it into how you price chaperones. Decide the rule, then price the added people the same way every time.
What happens to the money
Once you save, the reservation total changes. Any deposit already received stays applied, and the balance due grows by the cost of what you added. A few things to confirm before you hang up:
- Payment terms. If your policy requires a deposit percentage on the full total, decide whether the group owes an additional deposit now or simply pays more on the day.
- Already paid in full? The reservation will show a balance again. Note who is paying for the addition, especially when a school’s office paid the original invoice and a teacher is calling with changes.
- Daily close. If the original payment has already been posted in a closed batch, adding items doesn’t change that history. The new revenue will show when the additional payment is taken. Your finance team will thank you for a note on the reservation explaining the change.
When the edit doesn’t go through
A few situations block or complicate editing an existing reservation:
- The group has already arrived or been checked in. Many organizations handle same-day additions as a separate sale at the desk rather than editing the reservation. Choose one approach so your group reports stay clean.
- The program is full. You may be able to override capacity depending on your security role. If you can’t, it’s a policy question for whoever owns that program, not a software problem.
- The reservation was cancelled or its date has passed. Reopening it is often harder than creating a new one. If you’re unsure whether your configuration allows editing in that state, test it in a sandbox before trying it on a live record.
- Your role doesn’t have permission. Editing itineraries and pricing on reservations can be restricted by security role. If an option is greyed out, check your role before assuming it’s a bug.
Keep the group’s paperwork in sync
The most common follow-up problem isn’t in Altru at all. The group leader is still holding the original confirmation, and on arrival day their paperwork says 40 students and no show while yours says 43 and a planetarium session. Always send a revised confirmation after an edit, and say what changed in the first line of the email so they don’t have to compare documents.
Internally, make sure the people running the program see the change too. If your educators work from a printed schedule or a report run earlier in the week, an addition made on Thursday may not reach them by Monday. Re-run the schedule or itinerary report after late changes, or agree on a cutoff after which additions go straight to the program lead.
Quick answers
Should I cancel and rebook to add something?
Generally no. Rebooking can lose the deposit history, notes, and original booking date. Edit the existing reservation unless you’ve confirmed with Blackbaud support that your situation needs a new one.
Can I add a program on a different day to the same reservation?
That depends on how your organization structures multi-day visits. Many teams create a separate reservation for each visit date and link them by group. Check with whoever set up your group sales to see which approach your reports expect.
