The Company Preferences module is where you create and manage your organisation-wide settings in GRATIS, including picklists, fees, credit cards, and standard documents. If you have more than one office in GRATIS, anything you configure here is shared across all offices.

It’s recommended that all team members can view this module, but editing rights should be restricted to managers.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Accessing Company Preferences
• Employee Tab
• User Templates
• Reservation/Venue Tab
  • Source
  • Reason for Lost/Cancelled Business
  • Confirmed Venue Reason configuration
    • Setting up Confirmed Venue Reasons at the client level
    • Behaviour on a booking
    • Open an Event Booking.
  • Reason for event
  • Sustainability Ratings
  • Venue Regions
  • Venue Category
  • Exception Reporting
• Fees Tab
  • VAT %
  • Default Commissions
  • Fee Bands
• Credit Cards Tab
• File Bank Tab
  • General File Bank
  • Default Attachments
• Survey Tab
• Messages Tab
• Options Tab
  • Report Options
  • CRM Options
  • MyEventsPortal Options
    • In MyEventsPortal display the clients preferred venues when loaded
    • Allow all your clients to confirm online at MyEventsPortal
    • Allow all your clients to have Instant Book enabled in MyEventsPortal
  • Company Passkey
• Comms Tab
  • Creating email templates
• DropDowns Tab
  • Client Field Dropdowns
  • Event Types
  • Client/Contact Regions
  • Use this setting to maintain the region values used for clients and contacts in GRATIS. These dropdown values help standardise regional information for records and reporting.
  • Contact Activity Types
  • Ambassador Statuses
• Employee Tab
• Reservation/Venue Tab
  • Configuration
  • How it behaves on a booking
• Fees Tab
  • Fee Bands
  • Default Commissions
• Credit Cards Tab
• File Bank Tab
• Messages Tab
• Options Tab
• Comms Tab
• DropDowns Tab

Accessing Company Preferences

1. From your GRATIS home page, go to the Setup menu in the top-right corner.
2. Select Company Preferences.

Employee Tab

Use the Employee tab to define the job titles and departments that will be available in the Employee Admin module.

To add a new job title or department:

1. In the appropriate box (e.g. Job Title or Department), type the new value.
2. Click Add to save.

These values become available throughout the system wherever employee details are used.

User Templates

This field can be used to create reusable user setup profiles in GRATIS, making it easier to apply a consistent access configuration to employees who need the same role or level of access. 

This fits with the existing Employee Profiles setup, where user access is controlled through the Permissions tab, and administrators can already copy one employee’s setup by importing their profile. 

To use User Templates, create or select a template with the required access levels, save it with a clear name, and then apply it to the relevant user, making any small changes afterwards if needed.

Reservation/Venue Tab

The Reservation/Venue tab manages picklists used in the Bookings module for:

Source

• Tracks where enquiries originated.
• Used for reporting in the Reports module.

Reason for Lost/Cancelled Business

• Values appear when a booking is marked as Lost or Cancelled.
• Reports are available based on these reasons.

Sustainability Ratings

• Define your own venue sustainability rating scale (e.g. A = Excellent to E = Poor).
• These ratings can then be selected on the Notes tab in the Venues module.

Venue Regions 

• Use this setting to create and manage the region values used when organising and searching for venues in GRATIS. 
• These values support venue search filters, where users can refine results by geographic location, such as Region, Country and Destination to narrow down suitable venues more easily.

Confirmed Venue Reason configuration

The Confirmed Venue Reason is a configurable picklist field captured when you confirm a booking. It is controlled at both Company and Client level.

• Setting up Confirmed Venue Reasons at the client level

  1. Open the Clients module and select the relevant client record.
  2. Go to the Agent tab and scroll to the Additional settings section.
  3. Tick Display confirmed reason dropdown in General tab – controlled in Company Preferences to enable Confirmed Venue Reasons for this client.
  4. When this is enabled for a client, GRATIS will require a Confirmed Venue Reason when confirming bookings for that client.

• Behaviour on a booking

  1. Open an Event Booking.

  2. On the General – Booking tab, you’ll see the Confirmed Venue Reason field.
  3. When you click Confirm (and the client setting is on), a Confirm Reason popup appears with a Confirmed Reason dropdown that: 
  4. Pulls its values from the Confirmed Venue Reasons list in Company Preferences.
  5. Select a reason and complete the confirmation.
  6. The selected value is stored on the booking in the Confirmed Venue Reason field.

Reason for event

• Use this setting to display and/or require a reason for the event on the General tab of the booking. 
• When Display is enabled, consultants will see the field when creating or updating a booking. When Mandate is enabled, the field must be completed before documents can be created. 
• This field can also be shown on bespoke client enquiry forms in MyEventsPortal, allowing clients to provide the reason for the event when submitting an enquiry.

Venue Category

• Use this setting to maintain the category values used to describe and filter venues within GRATIS. 
• These values help users refine venue searches using venue-related criteria, making it easier to identify suitable options based on the type or style of venue required. 

Exception Reporting

• Use this setting to display and/or require an exception reason when something falls outside policy or needs special approval in an enquiry or booking. 
• When Display is enabled, consultants will see the field during the booking process, and when Mandate is enabled, they must complete it so exceptions are recorded consistently across GRATIS.

Fees Tab

The Fees tab controls organisation-wide fee settings.

VAT %

• The VAT % is pre-set to the current prevailing rate.
• You can update it here when rates change.
• Any changes apply to onward bookings made for the selected dates across the system.

Default Commissions

In the Fees tab you can also set default commission values. These defaults will automatically pull through to enquiries and/or bookings for:

• Conference bookings
• Accommodation bookings
• Supplier bookings

Adjust these defaults here so they match your standard commission policies.

Fee Bands

Use Fee Bands to create and maintain different fee structures.

• A Standard fee band is pre-loaded.
• To view it, click on Standard.

• To create a new fee band:

1. In the Band Name field, enter a name for the new band.
2. Click Add.
3. Choose and click on your new band to open the fee band editor.

You can now Add individual fees:

• Description – what the fee is for.
• Fee – the amount.
• Notes – any Additional details.

Click Add after each fee to save it.

Once you have created your fee bands, assign them to the relevant clients in the Clients module → Accounts tab. The associated fees will then be available in the Bookings modules under the Fees section.

Credit Cards Tab

Use the Credit Cards tab to store client credit card details for use on bookings.

To Add a card:

1. Enter the card details in the relevant fields.
2. Click Add to save.

Once stored, you can allocate credit cards to clients via the Client module → Accounts tab and then use them on client bookings.

File Bank Tab

The File Bank allows you to store shared documents, especially useful for remote workers or team members without access to a shared drive.

General File Bank

To upload a new document:

1. Click Choose file or drag and drop a file into the green drag and drop area.
2. Enter a Description.
3. Click Upload to save it.

These files become available to all team members.

Default Attachments

The Default Attachments section allows you to define attachments that are automatically sent with specific GRATIS documents.

To set default attachments:

1. In the Default Attachments area, tick the document type(s) the attachment should be sent with (you can choose multiple).
2. Click Choose file and select the file to attach.
3. Enter a Description.
4. Click Upload.

From now on, whenever that document type is sent (for example, a Client Option document), the configured attachment will be included every time.

Survey Tab

Use this tab to create and manage your surveys in GRATIS. 

Surveys set up here can then be used as part of your wider booking and reporting process, with survey-related reports such as Survey Return Rate and Survey Answer Summary available in the Reports module. 

Messages Tab

Use the Messages tab to create messages and information bulletins for colleagues. Published messages appear at the top of each user’s GRATIS home page.

To create and publish a message:

1. Tick Publish.
2. Type your message in the text field.
3. (Optional) Add a hyperlink to more information.
4. Click Add.

Messages can later be marked as Read but remain accessible. Use the View dropdown to switch between all and unread messages.

To schedule or prepare a message for later:

1. Create the message, but leave the Publish box unticked.
2. Click Add.
3. When ready to publish, click the edit link next to the message, tick Publish, and save.

Options Tab

The Options tab controls key company-level settings:

Report Options

• Trading Year Start Date
  • Enter your company’s financial/trading year start date.
  • This drives the date range selector in the Reports module.

CRM Options

Require the user to create a follow-up activity for all Enquiries

In GRATIS, activities are scheduled reminders that can include an activity type, date, time and notes, and when a user creates an activity, it will appear on their Home page for follow-up.

MyEventsPortal Options

In MyEventsPortal display the clients preferred venues when loaded

Allow all your clients to confirm online at MyEventsPortal

• Use this setting to allow clients to confirm or decline a venue and cancel a booking through MyEventsPortal. 
• This feature can be switched off for all clients, on for all clients, or enabled for individual clients only, with the final client action still needing to be processed by the GRATIS user in GRATIS. 

Allow all your clients to have Instant Book enabled in MyEventsPortal

• Use this setting to allow clients to use Instant Book in MyEventsPortal, which lets them make bookings directly through the portal without first submitting an enquiry. 
• Instant Book is switched off by default, but it can be enabled for all clients at once or for specific clients only, with client-level control also available in the Branding tab.

Company Passkey

• View your current company Passkey.
• Reset it here if needed, following your internal security processes.

Comms Tab

The Comms tab is used to create email templates that can be inserted directly into booking emails.

Creating email templates

1. In the Comms tab, create your email text and save it as a Template.
2. Name the template clearly (e.g. “Standard Confirmation – UK”, “Cancellation – Corporate”).

Using templates in a booking email

1. From a booking, open the Email document.
2. Click the Templates hyperlink (usually near the email body).
3. A list of available templates appears.
4. Select a template and click Use.
5. The template content is copied into the email body, where you can adjust it before sending.

DropDowns Tab

The DropDowns tab is used to manage Additional system-wide pick-lists used throughout GRATIS (beyond those covered above).

Use this tab to:

• Add new dropdown values
• Edit existing options

Your changes here will immediately affect the related dropdown fields wherever they appear in the system.

Client Field Dropdowns

• Use this setting to create and manage the dropdown values available for client fields in GRATIS. 
• These values can be used on enquiries and bookings, including in MyEventsPortal, so clients or consultants can select from a predefined list instead of entering free text. 

Event Types

Client/Contact Regions

Contact Activity Types

• Use this setting to create and manage the list of activity types available against contacts in GRATIS. 
• These values are used to categorise contact activity consistently and can be marked as active where needed. 

Ambassador Statuses