Assign unassigned BookingKoala bookings to providers

1. Open Bookings > Unassigned Bookings in the BookingKoala admin dashboard and pick List View, Calendar View or Map View.
2. Sort the work by the priority triangle: red is high, orange is medium (the default for jobs added by admin or staff), green is low, and customer waitlist requests arrive green with an orange "WL" tag.
3. For each job, click the assign provider icon and read the list of available and NA providers; BookingKoala leaves out providers whose bookings clash with the job time or length.
4. When nobody fits, click the envelope icon to invite providers by email, SMS or app alert, then come back later and use the clock icon to send a reminder.
5. The pain: the BookingKoala folder shows one job at a time, so spreading work evenly means checking every provider's day in another tab, and a job left in the folder until the morning of the service is a customer still waiting for a confirmed cleaner.

Go through the BookingKoala unassigned folder for this week. Give each job to the free provider with the fewest bookings that day, high priority first, and tell me which jobs nobody can take.

1. 01

   Read the folder, nearest jobs first

   The agent calls list_bookings with folder unassigned for the window you named, usually today to the end of the week, and works through the jobs by arrival time. A job tomorrow morning gets a provider before a job next Friday, because it has the least time left to be covered.

2. 02

   Look at the job, then at the day

   get_booking shows the service, address and notes, so a move-out clean that needs two people or a note that names a preferred team is not handed to a single new hire. list_providers for that date shows who is active and how many jobs each one already has; inactive providers are left out.

3. 03

   Choose the lightest load that does not clash

   Among providers whose existing jobs leave room for this one, the agent picks the one with the fewest bookings that day. It avoids placements BookingKoala would mark NA, such as overlapping the next job, and pairs two providers only when you allowed pairing for both.

4. 04

   Show the plan, then assign

   You see every job with the proposed provider and the reason in one list. Each assign_provider call waits for your OK, and once it goes through the job leaves the folder, so no provider can grab it in the meantime.

5. 05

   Leave the hard ones to you

   If a provider grabbed a job while the plan was open, the agent skips it instead of reassigning it. Jobs where every provider clashes are not forced onto anyone; the agent lists them and suggests sending an invitation from the folder or offering the customer another time.

Unassigned folder, Mon 13 to Fri 17 Oct: 5 jobs
Assigned #48213 Sarah Miller, Deep clean, Wed 9:00 to Team Blue (2 jobs that day)
Assigned #48220 Tom Becker, Standard clean, Wed 13:00 to Marcus Reed (1 job)
Assigned #48231 Lena Ortiz, Move-out clean, Thu 8:00 to Marcus Reed + Ana Silva (paired)
Skipped #48226: Ana Silva grabbed it before the run
Not placed #48240 Greg Hall, Fri 10:00 (WL): every provider clashes. Invite providers or offer 14:00

• BookingKoala providers see the unassigned folder only when "Would you like to allow your providers to see bookings in the unassigned folder and accept them?" is Yes in Store Options and "Show unassigned jobs to the provider?" is Yes on that provider's profile.
• After a BookingKoala provider clicks Grab Job, the job stays on their schedule; only an admin or staff member can return it to the unassigned folder.
• BookingKoala adds an "NA" tag to a booking assigned outside the provider's working hours, overlapping another job or cutting into a travel break, so an assignment can go through and still show the provider as not available.
• Customers on the BookingKoala waiting list can get an automatic notice when their job is covered, and get a notice that no provider was found if the job is cancelled unfilled.
• Pairing two BookingKoala providers on one booking needs "Can this individual be combined with other providers (pairs)?" set to Yes in each provider's Forms settings for that industry and booking form.

assign_provider asks for your OK by default. To run it daily without you, switch confirmation off for that tool in your dashboard.

Sources: BookingKoala Help: The unassigned folder and waitlist settings · BookingKoala Help: Using the unassigned folder · BookingKoala Help: Three types of scheduling · BookingKoala Help: N/A (not available) scheduling · BookingKoala Help: Provider pairing

curl https://cotlet.dev/api/v1/bookingkoala/assign_provider \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $COTLET_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"booking_id":"48213","provider_ids":["312"]}'

{
  "booking_id": "48213",
  "status": "assigned",
  "folder": "upcoming",
  "providers": [
    {
      "id": "312",
      "name": "Team Blue"
    }
  ]
}

MCP: add https://cotlet.dev/mcp/v1 with the same key; the tool is bookingkoala_assign_provider. Example data.

• Reschedule BookingKoala bookings, one job or a whole day
• Create BookingKoala bookings from phone and email requests
• BookingKoala API and MCP server: every tool
• All use cases