Sending a booking request
Book a person for a role — choose a contact, set the schedule source, pin a rate card, and send the request.
Booking someone is how you fill a role. You pick a contact, decide where their schedule comes from, optionally pin a rate card, and send the request. The person responds — from their CrewGrid account, or from a unique email link if they don't have one. This page walks through the request.
Start from a role in Staffing and choose + New booking request (or Send request → on a contact you've already queued). The New booking request dialog opens.
Choose a contact
Search your contacts by name or email and pick the person. Next to each, a coloured availability dot hints at how free they are (if they've chosen to share it):
- Green — free or very likely available.
- Amber — close to other work or partly blocked.
- Red — mostly blocked.
- Hollow — not shared.
This is only a hint — you can book anyone regardless of colour. See Calendar and availability for the freelancer's side.
📷 Screenshot:
/images/docs/staffing/booking-request-contact.pngThe booking request dialog on the contact step, with availability dots. Alt: The New booking request dialog showing a contact search with coloured availability dots.
Set the schedule source
Under Seed the booking schedule from, decide where this person's working days come from:
- Live timeline — build the schedule from your current plan, using the items linked to this role on the timeline. See Linking crew and roles.
- Snapshot — build it from a specific saved version of the timeline.
- Custom dates — set the days by hand: pick a date range and mark each day as work, travel, hold, or off.
If the person is already booked on overlapping days, CrewGrid shows a warning — but it's only a warning, and you can continue.
If this project doesn't use the Timeline tool
Pin a rate card (optional)
Under Rate card, you can pin an agreed rate card to the booking now, or leave it for later. The rate card sets how the booking's cost is worked out. See Adjustments and rate changes.
Send
Click Send request →. CrewGrid sends the booking request. What happens next — the person confirming, declining, or asking a question — is covered in The booking lifecycle.