Creating and managing resource kinds
Where resource kinds live, how to create one, the four categories, and what the 'primary' kind does to the schedule columns.
Resource kinds are the skeleton of your catalog. They’re the groups — “Stylists”, “Rooms”, “Courts”, “Devices” — that individual resources live in. Services require kinds, never specific people or rooms; the Catalog hub’s left column is built from your kinds; the schedule’s columns come from whichever kind you marked as primary.
So it pays to lay them out once and correctly. This article walks the page, the dialog, the four categories, the “primary” flag and — most importantly — the deletion rules.
1. Where kinds live
- In the left icon rail, pick your board.
- Click Catalog.
- In the hub’s left column, find the Team & resources group. Its first row is Resource kinds and shows how many you have (“3 kinds”).
- Below it there’s one row per kind, with a resource count (“4 resources”).
- At the bottom of the group there’s a quiet New kind link — it opens the page with the create dialog already up.
The dot next to each row is a signal: grey = empty kind, green = has resources, amber = some service can’t be booked because of this kind.
Clicking Resource kinds opens the page itself.
2. The “Resource kinds” page
The heading is Resource kinds, described as “Groups of bookable resources — for example Masters, Rooms, Courts, Equipment. Each offering picks which kinds it requires.”
Top-right sits the Add kind button.
Each card shows:
| Part | What it is |
|---|---|
| Icon in a coloured square | the chosen icon; the tint comes from the category |
| Name | the kind’s label |
| Primary badge | only if it’s marked primary |
| Second line | ” |
| Three-dot menu | Edit and Delete |
Under the grid there’s a permanent note: “The primary kind is shown as columns in the calendar by default.”
If you have no kinds yet, the grid is replaced with “No resource kinds yet. Click Add kind to create the first one.”
3. Creating a kind — step by step
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Click Add kind. The New resource kind dialog opens, described as “A kind groups similar resources. Examples: Masters, Rooms, Courts, Cameras.”
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Name — required; the save button stays greyed out while it’s empty. The hint is “Name shown to your team in the admin panel — keep it short.”, the placeholder “e.g. Stylists”.
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Category — four radio buttons with a hint underneath:
Category Hint People ”Bookable people — masters, instructors, doctors, teachers.” Places ”Bookable physical spaces — rooms, courts, cabinets, halls.” Equipment ”Movable items, possibly with quantity (cameras, instruments, machines).” Things ”Anything else that doesn’t fit the other three.” -
Located in — appears only for the Equipment category. Options are Not tied to a place plus every Places kind; with none it reads “Add a place kind first”.
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Icon — a grid of fourteen icons. The selected one is tinted.
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Use as primary kind — a toggle explained by “The primary kind is shown as columns in the calendar by default.”
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Create.
After creating you get “The "
The name is for your team in the admin… with one exception: customers see the kind’s name as the heading of the picker step on rentals, and on the cards of non-person resources. Keep it short and sensible for both audiences.
4. Editing a kind
Three dots on the card → Edit. The dialog is identical, just titled Edit resource kind, with a Save button.
You can change everything, including the category. Changing the category is the official way to fix “I set my devices up as Things” — see People, places & things.
What happens after each change:
- Name — updates everywhere: navigation, schedule, service dropdowns and the public page.
- Icon — cosmetic only.
- Category — changes which sections appear on every resource of that kind.
- Primary — changes the schedule’s default columns.
Changes reach the public page within about a minute (there’s a short cache).
5. The “Primary” flag — what it does and doesn’t
The kind marked Primary decides which group of resources becomes the schedule’s columns by default. With “Stylists” as primary, the schedule opens with one column per stylist.
What it does not do:
- it does not affect pricing or the bookable-spots limit;
- it does not make the kind mandatory for services;
- it does not stop you viewing the schedule by another kind — you switch that inside the schedule.
Nothing stops you marking more than one kind as primary, but there’s no point: the schedule takes the first and ignores the rest. Keep exactly one.
Which kind should be primary: the one you organise your day around. Salon — “Stylists”. Tennis club — “Courts”. A cosmetology studio with one therapist and three rooms — “Rooms”.
6. Services require kinds
A kind does nothing on its own until a service asks for it. That happens in the service editor, under Resources & add-ons:
- Main resource — a dropdown of every kind with its bookable count (“Stylists · 4”);
- Add-ons — a second or third kind the service also occupies.
Pick a kind with no bookable units and you immediately get “This kind has no active "
If you have no kinds at all, the same section says “Add a resource kind first to set a requirement.”, and the new-resource form says “Create a resource kind first.”
Order of operations on an empty board: kind → resources → service.
7. Deleting — the three cases
Three dots → Delete. The dialog is titled Delete
Case 1: the kind is empty
The body reads “This kind has no resources. You can recreate it later if needed.” The Delete button works and the kind disappears, with ”
Case 2: a service requires this kind — hard block
The body reads “2 services require this type: Haircut, Colouring. Remove the requirement from the services first.” The Delete button is greyed out and can’t be pressed.
That’s deliberate. Deleting a required kind would make those services silently unbookable. Open each listed service first, change its Main resource (or remove the add-on), then come back.
Case 3: the kind has resources
The dialog warns “3 resources of this kind will also be deleted.” — but the deletion won’t go through. The server refuses while at least one non-archived resource of the kind exists, and you get an error message (in English) saying the kind is still referenced by N active resources.
What to do instead:
- Open Catalog →
. - For each resource: three dots → Delete (which actually archives — see Hiding & archiving resources).
- When the list is empty, go back to Resource kinds and delete the kind.
The dialog’s “cascade delete” promise doesn’t match the real behaviour. Follow the order above.
8. How many kinds you need
Fewer than you think. Every kind adds a step to configuring every service.
| Business | A sensible set |
|---|---|
| Small salon, everything at one chair | Stylists — one kind |
| Salon where the chair is the bottleneck | Stylists + Chairs |
| Cosmetology studio | Therapists + Rooms (+ Devices if scarce) |
| Tennis / padel club | Courts (+ Gear) |
| Yoga studio | Instructors + Halls |
| Clinic | Doctors + Consulting rooms |
| Photo studio | Halls + Equipment |
Don’t create a kind “just in case”. An empty kind shows in the navigation with a grey dot and confuses the team. Add it when you have something to put in it.
9. Troubleshooting
The Create button is greyed out. The Name field is empty.
I don’t see the “Located in” field. It only appears for the Equipment category.
“Located in” says “Add a place kind first”. You have no Places-category kind. Create one first.
I deleted a kind and a service stopped being bookable. The service held a requirement on it. Open it and pick a current kind — the message is “One of the required resource types no longer belongs to this board. Remove it and pick a current one.”
I renamed a kind and the old name is still on the public page. The public page has a short cache. Wait a minute and reload.
The schedule opens with the wrong columns. A different kind is marked Primary. Open the right one → Edit → switch Use as primary kind on (and off on the old one).
I can’t delete a kind even though the list looks empty. There may be a resource the list isn’t showing. Check the other filters on the kind’s page (search and the branch filter).
What’s next
- People, places & things — what each category unlocks.
- Resource kinds & capacity — kind vs. resource, and where parallelism comes from.
- Equipment stock and parallel capacity — the Equipment special case.
- Add a resource — the next step after creating a kind.