Setup & Breakdown Periods

Setup and Breakdown Periods in MIDAS

Most bookings don't start the moment the previous one ends. A training room needs to be rearranged between sessions. A catering setup takes 30 minutes before the event and 20 minutes to clear afterwards. If the booking system only accounts for the event itself, staff end up discovering they don't actually have enough time when they arrive.

MIDAS handles this with setup and breakdown periods: additional time blocks that can be attached to any booking, representing the time needed before and after the main event.

How setup and breakdown periods work

When adding or modifying a booking, you can specify a setup duration (before the booking starts) and a breakdown duration (after it ends). These appear as distinct blocks in the booking grid, visually connected to the main booking but identifiable as preparation or clearing time.

Overlap control

You can configure whether setup and breakdown periods are allowed to overlap with adjacent bookings. If a room needs to be completely clear for 30 minutes before a booking, set the setup period to block that time. If the overlap is acceptable - perhaps setup can happen while the previous booking is finishing - you can allow it.

Reflected in invoicing

Setup and breakdown time can be treated as uncharged preparation time or included in the billing calculation, depending on how your facility operates. This is configurable at the system level.

Visible to all users

Setup and breakdown periods appear in the booking grid for all users, not just administrators. This means anyone looking at availability can see that a room is in use for preparation, avoiding assumptions about free time that isn't actually free.

→ Start a free trial and test setup and breakdown periods with a booking in your trial system.