Resourcing is where you plan who works on what, when, and see who's available. It brings your talent and crew– photographers, stylists, models, hair & makeup artists, and more– onto a single calendar alongside your production sessions, so availability and bookings live side by side. Use it to manage and communicate one reliable, shared view of who is committed for each day.

➕ Add On: Resourcing is an add-on that integrates with the Planning Module. If you are interested in using it in your studio, please contact your CSM to chat.

Introduction

This article introduces Resourcing and each of its parts, and covers enough of its dedicated Studio Settings for the rest to make sense before you go looking for it– for the calendar and Booking Portal themselves, see each related article linked in the table found here.

🛠 Permissions: Access to Resourcing is gated via Planning permissions under the user role. Configuring Resourcing settings also requires 'Edit' access under 'Studio Settings' → 'Resourcing.'

Supply & Demand

Resourcing can be fundamentally thought of as a way to address the supply and demand of your studio's most important asset– its people. Each side is already something you manage elsewhere in Planning; Resourcing is what connects them.

Module	Side	Description
Talent & Crew	Supply	Your roster of people, their skills, rates, and agency. Resourcing pulls each person in as a row on the calendar. Learn more.
Sessions	Demand	The shoots that need people. These are what you're assigning your roster to. Learn more.

The Solution

Resourcing has three connected surfaces, each built for a different audience– and each acting as a different part of the solution. Planners work in the Resourcing calendar, resources respond in the Booking Portal, and administrators shape the experience in Settings– keeping everyone in sync.

Product Area	Function
Resourcing Calendar	Plan the production: build your resource list, place holds and bookings, and manage sessions on a shared calendar. Planners match talent to sessions through three entry types– Availability, Booking, and Session Assignment. Learn more.
Booking Portal	A no-login web app where talent and crew confirm bookings and share their availability. When you need a resource to confirm something, they receive an email with a secure, no-login link to a response form where they confirm or decline. Their answer flows straight back and updates the calendar automatically. Learn more.
Settings	A dedicated Resourcing group in Studio Settings controls how everything appears and behaves across the calendar and the Booking Portal. To get started, head to Studio Settings → then select Resourcing on the left-hand menu. The rest of this article will provide context and then walk through what each setting actually controls, so the options make sense the first time you open them.

🗣️ Example Session: In addition to the above linked articles focused on specific areas of Resourcing, we also have an article that walks through an example working session– tying together many of the concepts discussed throughout. For that practical example walkthrough, see our article found here.

Statuses

Resourcing uses two families of statuses: Availability and Booking. Every status name and color shown throughout this guide may differ from your own controls. Your studio can rename and recolor any of them in Settings, so don't worry if what you see on your own calendar reads differently.

Status Type	Description
Availability	Describes when someone can work. Things like 'Available,' 'Unavailable,' or 'Out of Office.'
Booking	Describes where a booking stands. Such as 'Option,' '1st Hold,' '2nd Hold,' 'Confirmed,' 'Released,' or 'Cancelled.'

Beyond name and color, each status belongs to a group that determines how it behaves when it's sent to a resource. Understanding these groups matters before you touch the calendar, since they decide what a resource is even able to do with a request.

Availability Statuses

Availability statuses are split into two groups, based on whether they require interaction with the resource user or not.

Status Type	Description
Resource Confirmable	Can be sent to resources as availability requests. The resource sees the status in the Booking Portal and confirms whether it applies to them.
Planner Only	Set directly by planners and never sent to resources for confirmation– there's nothing for someone to confirm about being marked unavailable.

Availability Settings

Within the settings section, you can configure a number of options for how your Availability status actions appear and behave.

Status Setting	Function
Change Color	Use the color picker and palette to change the color associated with the status on the calendar page and quick action bar.
Change Icon	Use the icon picker and palette to change the icon associated with the status on the calendar page and quick action bar.
Pin Quick Action	Decide whether the status should appear as an option on the Quick Action Bar, which allows rapid & bulk application.
Hide from Calendar	Decide whether the status should appear or be hidden from resource users when viewing their calendar in the Booking Portal.

Booking Statuses

Booking statuses are split by the kind of response they ask for, either whether they require a user to confirm a choice (accept/decline), or if they just need to acknowledge it.

Status Type	Description
Accept or Decline	A two-button response. The resource confirms or declines the booking.
Acknowledge Only	A single-button response. The resource just confirms receipt– for informational statuses like Released or Cancelled, where declining wouldn't mean anything.

Booking Settings

Status Setting	Function
Change Color	Use the color picker and palette to change the color associated with the status on the calendar page and quick action bar.
Abbreviation	Add an abbreviation for the booking option (3 characters) This appears to help represent the entry's Quick Action
Full Name	Name the Booking Option in full This appears when hovering over the Quick Action, on the calendar view entry in Gamma, as well as on the resource user's booking portal calendar.
Pin Quick Action	Decide whether the status should appear as an option on the Quick Action Bar, which allows rapid & bulk application.
Hide from Portal	Decide whether the status should appear or be hidden from resource users when viewing their calendar in the Booking Portal.

Confirmations

Every calendar entry is either Confirmed or Unconfirmed. When you create an entry, you decide on its confirmation status and whether to notify the resource and request a confirmation.

Status	Visualized	Description
Confirmed	The marker on the calendar is filled in with the assigned color.	The entry has been marked as confirmed. Confirmed entries should be created when there's no need to ask a resource for confirmation of availability or a booking.
Unconfirmed	The marker on the calendar has a marked outline with the assigned color.	The entry has been added but not marked as confirmed. This is how the entry appears when marked as unconfirmed, with no request to notify sent.
Pending	The marker on the calendar has a marked outline with the assigned color, and it has an email set as the icon.	The entry has been added but not marked as confirmed. An email has been sent to the user asking them to confirm availability.
Declined	The entry on the calendar has a strikethrough on the name.	The entry has been added and declined. An email had been sent to the user asking them to confirm the booking, and they declined.

Entry Default Settings

Calendar Entry Defaults control the starting state of these toggles every time a new entry is created, set separately for Availability and Booking. You can still change any individual entry away from its default when you create it.

Default Option	Description
Confirmed	The entry is created as confirmed; no request is sent.
Unconfirmed (with request)	The entry is tentative, and a confirmation email is sent.
Unconfirmed (no request)	The entry is tentative, and no email is sent.

📝 Portal Visibility Override: A confirmation request is only ever actually sent for statuses that are visible in the Booking Portal. For hidden statuses, entries are created unconfirmed with no notification, even when "with confirmation request" is selected here.

Booking Portal

The Booking Portal is the non-studio user end of Resourcing. When you need to interact with an end user to confirm their availability, or notify them about a change in set scheduling, those details will be reflected in their booking portal– accessed via an emailed magic link.

Booking Portal Settings

The Session Info toggle controls whether the session assigned to a booking is shown in the Booking Portal's response view. If your session names ever contain internal or otherwise sensitive information, you may want to keep the toggle disabled.

Setting
Session Info	Toggle On/Off. When enabled, the session name assigned to a booking is shown in the Booking Portal response view.

Email Settings

With the Email Signature settings, you can choose how your name appears in emails and in the Booking Portal when a request is sent.

Signature Setting	Description
Creative Force User Name	Uses the name of the logged-in Creative Force user who initiated the request on the calendar.
Studio Name	Use your Creative Force studio account name, as registered in the main Studio Settings.
Custom	Enter and save a custom signature to be used.

Reply Setting	Description
Reply to Email	Toggle On/Off. When enabled, resources can reply directly to notification emails, and the reply will be forwarded to the Creative Force user's registered email. When disabled, replies are not possible.

Response Notifications

Response Notification settings allow you to control the visibility of decisions made by external users via the Booking Portal.

Response Setting	Description
Email Notification	Toggle On/Off. When enabled, a notification email will be sent to the related parties when a resource user has made a decision in the Booking Portal in response to a request.
Recipients	This controls who receives the notification emails when the Email Notification setting is enabled. Select between: Requester Only: An email will be sent to the Creative Force-associated email address of the user who initiated the request. Requested & Select Roles: An email will be sent to the Creative Force-associated email address of the user who initiated the request AND to all Creative Force users in the specified roles.

Resourcing Overview