Bookings, trainers and travel costs for a UK training company

The problem

The company runs face-to-face courses and webinars for care providers all over the UK, delivered by a team of freelance trainers. Every session meant matching a trainer, booking a venue, working out travel and overnight costs, putting it in the right calendars and sending the paperwork afterwards. The small admin team did most of that by hand, and a lot of it lived in people's heads.

What we worked on

I work on the company's Airtable and automations alongside their admin team. Together we've covered:

• Courses with clear codes. Every course has a code built from its length, format and whether it's open, closed or bespoke, so pricing, templates and reports all line up.

• Nearest trainers. For each session, Airtable uses Google Maps to suggest the trainers closest to the venue.

• Travel and accommodation costs worked out automatically. The calculation uses real rush-hour traffic for arriving an hour before the start, and adds an overnight stay when the drive is two hours or more. If Google's service is down, existing figures are left alone instead of being wiped.

• Calendars that keep themselves up to date. Sessions are pushed to Google Calendar with the trainer, customer and course in the title, and update when anything changes.

• Reminders and certificates that go out on their own before and after each course.

• Booking confirmations. Sessions are grouped by customer and course type, and when the trainer has confirmed, a ready-to-check confirmation email with the right handouts is drafted in the shared inbox.

The result

• Planning a session is a few clicks, not an afternoon of maps and spreadsheets.

• Travel costs match what trainers actually face, so quotes and invoices hold up.

• The admin team stays in control. Emails are drafted for them to check, and they can hold back any session that isn't ready.

Spending your week on admin that follows the same steps? Book a free rant session.