This article covers product setup in the Booking module. Booking products define what guests can reserve — boat rentals, kayaks, hotel rooms, vacation cabins, day-use facilities, guided tours, and similar time-based offerings. Each product belongs to a Booking Type and controls its own pricing, availability rules, and accounting.
This article covers the Booking module only. For Marina slip and mooring products, see Marina - Product Setup. For campground site products, see Campground - Product Setup.
Prerequisite: A Booking Type must exist before creating a product. Set up Booking Types at Booking → Settings → Booking Types. If you are adding a product to an existing Booking Type, no new Booking Type is needed.
When to Create a New Product
Create a new product when you add a bookable offering with different rates or rules from your existing products — for example, a new boat model at a different day rate, or a cabin with a different nightly rate and occupancy limit.
Properties set up with a small number of products and multiple rate plans tied to each should consider adding a new rate plan instead. Contact your Sharper installer to confirm the right approach for your configuration.
Getting Started
Go to Booking → Products.
Select Add New at the top right.
Select the Time Period:
Time Period | Use For | Billed |
Daily | Full-day rentals — boats, watercraft, day-use cabins | Per calendar day |
Nightly | Overnight stays — hotel rooms, vacation rentals | Per night |
Hourly | Time-slot rentals — kayaks, paddleboards, guided tours | Per hour or fixed rate |
The Time Period cannot be changed after the product is saved. Choose carefully before proceeding.
Product setup is organized across four tabs: General, Units, Booking Setup, and (conditionally) Advanced Pricing & Constraints. Complete them in order. Required fields must be filled before the product can be saved.
Tab 1 — General Information
Basic Information
Field | Description |
Item ID | Auto-generated when the product is saved. Read-only. |
Name (Required) | The product name shown to staff and guests on reservations and invoices. Must be unique across all products. |
Item Type (Required) | The accounting classification of the product. Most booking products use Non Inventory or Service. Selecting Inventory reveals additional accounting fields (Income Account, COGS Account, Assets Account). Cannot be changed after the product has transactions on record. |
Booking Type (Required) | The Booking Type this product belongs to. Controls which units are available on the Units tab. Must exist before creating the product. |
Booking Period | Automatically set to the Time Period chosen at creation. Read-only. |
Product Category | Optional grouping for organization and filtering. Categories are configured in Booking → Settings → Product Category. |
Description | Short description of the product. Appears on invoices. Max 4,095 characters. |
Images | Product images shown during reservation creation and in the online booking portal (.png, .jpg, .jpeg). |
Description displayed in search results | Rich-text description shown to guests in the online portal search results, below the product image. |
Accounting
Field | Description |
Tax Code (Required) | Tax classification for this product. Determines whether and how bookings are taxed. |
Account (Required) | Income account this product's revenue posts to. Shown for Non Inventory and Service item types. If deferred income is enabled, use the unearned/deferred account here and set the earned income account in the Deferred Income section on the Booking Setup tab. |
Income Account (Required for Inventory) | Revenue account — only shown when Item Type is Inventory. |
COGS Account (Required for Inventory) | Cost of goods sold account — only shown when Item Type is Inventory. |
Assets Account (Required for Inventory) | Inventory asset account — only shown when Item Type is Inventory. |
Accounting Class | Optional. Assigns this product to an accounting class for reporting segmentation (e.g., by department or property type). |
Additional Taxes | Supplemental tax rates applied to this product beyond the outlet's default rate (e.g., an occupancy tax or local surcharge). |
Base Pricing
Field | Description |
Price (Required) | Base rate per day, night, or hour. If Advanced Pricing is enabled on the Booking Setup tab, this value is overridden by rate plan pricing. |
Price Calculation | For Daily and Nightly products: always Per Period (rate × number of days or nights booked). Read-only. |
Payment Schedule | Optional. Assigns a payment schedule defining when deposits or installments are due. |
Tab 2 — Units
Assign the booking units (boats, rooms, cabins, watercraft, etc.) that belong to this product. Only units associated with the Booking Type selected on the General tab appear here.
A unit can be assigned to multiple products. Units must first be created in Booking → Settings → Booking Units. Units can also be assigned after the product is saved.
Tab 3 — Booking Setup
Booking Setup defines the rules governing how and when this product can be reserved. Complete all applicable fields before saving.
Visibility & Status
Field | Description |
Virtual | When enabled, the product does not consume unit availability. Used for offerings not tied to a physical unit (e.g., open-water activities). Cannot be changed after the product is saved. |
Hide in search results | When enabled, this product does not appear in the online booking portal. Staff can still create reservations for it from the back office. |
Inactive | When enabled, the product is fully disabled and cannot be booked by staff or guests. |
Online URL | Configured by your Sharper installer. A direct booking URL for this product on the online portal. |
Confirmation BCC Emails | Email addresses that receive a blind copy of every booking confirmation for this product. Useful for routing notifications to a dock manager or department inbox. |
Reservation Caption | A short label for this product used on reservation records. QuickBooks has a character limit for item names — if your product name is being cut off in QuickBooks, use this field to define a shorter name for sync purposes. |
Authorized Payment Default Amount | Default dollar amount pre-filled when staff initiate a card authorization hold for a reservation on this product. |
Check-In / Check-Out & Availability
These fields control the days and times this product is available for booking. Labels differ by Time Period:
Field | Daily / Nightly | Hourly |
Available days | Check-in Days and Check-out Days — days of the week available for check-in and check-out respectively | Days Available to Book — days of the week the product can be reserved |
Start time | Check-In time | Earliest Rental Time |
End time | Check-Out time (must be later than Check-In) | Latest Return Time (must be later than Earliest Rental Time) |
Hourly-only fields:
Booking Interval (Required) — The time increment guests use when selecting a start time. Example: 01:00 means bookings start on the hour only. Minimum and Maximum Duration must be exact multiples of this interval.
Buffer — Required gap between consecutive bookings on the same unit. Example: 00:30 provides a 30-minute turnover window between rentals.
Time Slots — Optional. Define fixed departure times (e.g., 8:00 AM, 1:00 PM) when structured rental windows are preferred over open time selection.
Booking Constraints
Field | Description |
Minimum Duration | Shortest reservation allowed. Specified in days for Daily/Nightly products, or hours:minutes for Hourly. Leave at 0 for no minimum. |
Maximum Duration | Longest reservation allowed. Must be equal to or greater than Minimum Duration. Leave at 0 for no maximum. |
Minimum Book in Advance | How many days ahead a guest must book. Setting to 1 prevents same-day bookings online. Leave at 0 for no restriction. |
Maximum Book in Advance | How far in advance guests can book, in days. Example: 30 prevents bookings more than 30 days out. Leave at 0 for no restriction. |
Minimum People | Minimum guest count required for a valid reservation. Leave at 0 for no minimum. |
Maximum People | Maximum guest count allowed per reservation. Leave at 0 for no maximum. |
Policy & Billing
Field | Description |
Policy | The deposit or cancellation policy applied to reservations on this product. Policies are configured in Booking → Settings → Policies. |
Invoice Offset Days | How many days before the reservation start date an invoice is generated when automatic invoice processing is active. Use a negative value to generate the invoice before the start date — for example, -7 generates the invoice 7 days before the reservation begins. Automatic invoice processing is configured by your Sharper installer. |
Booking Credits | Number of booking credit units consumed when this product is reserved. Used only at properties with a booking credit system configured. |
Sort Order | Controls display order in lists and the online portal. Lower numbers appear first. |
Extras, Contracts & Custom Statuses
Field | Description |
Extras / Price Adjustments | Fees automatically applied to reservations on this product. See How-To Make Reservation Price Adjustments. |
Product Contracts | Digital contracts presented to guests at checkout. Contracts are created in Booking → Settings. |
Custom Reservation Status | Custom workflow statuses available on reservations for this product. Configured in Booking → Settings → Custom Reservation Statuses. |
Deferred Income
Enable deferred income if revenue from this product should be recognized over time rather than on the invoice date — for example, a multi-day rental where revenue is recognized per day rather than all at once.
Field | Description |
Enable Deferred Income | Toggle on to activate deferred revenue recognition for this product. |
Frequency (Required if enabled) | How often revenue is recognized (e.g., daily, nightly). Determines the pace at which the deferred balance moves to earned income. |
Sales Income Account (Required if enabled) | The income account revenue is recognized into as it is earned. Must be a different account than the one in General Information (which should be your unearned/deferred account when deferral is active). |
For full deferred revenue setup guidance, see Accounting - Deferred Schedule Configuration and Recognition.
Advanced Pricing Mode
At the bottom of the Booking Setup tab, select the pricing mode for this product:
Base Pricing / No Constraints (default) — The product uses the base price set on the General tab. No rate plan logic applies.
Advanced Pricing / Constraints — Enables Tab 4 (Advanced Pricing & Constraints), where rate plans, seasonal pricing, and day-of-week pricing rules are configured. When selected, the base price on the General tab is overridden by rate plan pricing.
Dynamic Prices & Metas
Dynamic Prices — Price adjustments that trigger at defined guest-count thresholds. Each entry specifies a threshold and the adjusted rate. Used for group pricing scenarios.
Metas — Custom key-value metadata attached to this product. Used for online portal filtering and integrations. Configure only if directed by your Sharper installer. See System Settings - Metas.
Tab 4 — Advanced Pricing & Constraints
This tab is only available when Advanced Pricing / Constraints is selected on the Booking Setup tab. It contains rate plans and rule-based pricing that override the base price under specific conditions such as season, day of week, or booking duration.
Select Add Effective Date, Add Season, or Add Year to Calendar to define a pricing period.
Select Add Rate Plan to add pricing rules within that period.
Enter the rate for each plan. Rate plans can be priced per hour, per day or night, for a fixed number of hours or days, or as a flat amount — determined by the rate plan configuration.
Advanced Pricing can be configured after initial product creation — save the product first, then return to set up rate plans.