Understanding Booking Statuses

Mica uses a two-tier status system to track bookings from creation through to payment. Some statuses apply to the booking as a whole, while others apply to individual playweeks within that booking. Understanding how these levels interact — and when statuses change automatically — helps you manage invoicing, shipping, and MaccsBox integration efficiently.

Table of Contents

1. Booking-Level vs Playweek-Level Statuses
2. Status Transitions
3. MaccsBox and Shipping Impact
4. Invoicing Rules by Status
5. Changing Statuses in Bulk
6. Best Practices
7. Troubleshooting

Booking-Level vs Playweek-Level Statuses

Booking-level statuses apply to the entire booking and all its playweeks:

• Expected — booking created but not yet active
• Confirmed — booking is live (also applies at the playweek level)
• Cancelled — booking will not proceed

Playweek-level statuses track each week independently as box office figures arrive:

• Confirmed → Partial Returns → Returns In → Invoiced

A single booking can have playweeks at different stages. For example, a three-week booking might show Week 1 as Invoiced, Week 2 as Returns In, and Week 3 still Confirmed.

One additional playweek status exists for special cases: No Invoice closes a playweek without invoicing (used for press screenings, charity events, or promotional bookings where no rental is charged).

Status Transitions

Some status changes happen automatically when Mica receives data; others require manual action.

Automatic transitions

• Confirmed → Partial Returns — when BOR figures arrive for some (but not all) play days
• Confirmed → Returns In — when BOR figures arrive for all play days at once
• Partial Returns → Returns In — when the remaining BOR figures arrive
• Returns In → Invoiced — when you create an invoice for the playweek

Manual transitions

• Expected → Confirmed — when you're ready to activate the booking
• Any status → Cancelled — when the booking is called off
• Returns In → No Invoice — when no rental applies (press screenings, charity events)

MaccsBox and Shipping Impact

A booking's status determines whether it's visible to the exhibitor and whether content delivery begins.

The key transition is Expected → Confirmed. This is when the booking becomes visible to the exhibitor in MaccsBox and DCP/KDM delivery requests are automatically sent to your configured suppliers. Until you confirm a booking, nothing is sent externally.

Invoicing Rules by Status

Editing locked playweeks

Once a playweek is Invoiced, it's locked — you can't change figures, terms, or dates. To make corrections, credit the invoice first. This reverts the playweek to Returns In, where you can edit it and re-invoice.

Changing Statuses in Bulk

Both the Bookings and Playweeks pages have toolbar buttons for changing statuses in bulk. Select the rows you want to update, then use the status buttons.

On the Bookings page, the toolbar offers:

• Confirm — changes Expected bookings to Confirmed (sends DCP/KDM requests and exports to MaccsBox)
• Cancel — cancels selected bookings

On the Playweeks page, the toolbar offers more options:

• Confirm, Returns in, Cancelled, No invoice — for status changes
• Create Invoice — invoices multiple Returns In playweeks at once (see How to Create an Invoice)
• Terms — bulk-update terms for selected playweeks

Each button shows a count of how many selected items are eligible for that action. Only valid transitions are available.

Best Practices

• Keep bookings as Expected during negotiations. Only confirm when the deal is final — this prevents premature content delivery and exhibitor confusion.
• Confirm at least 3–5 days before play starts. This gives the DCP/KDM suppliers time to process delivery requests.
• Wait for Returns In before invoicing. Partial Returns means some BOR data is still missing. Invoicing too early creates extra work if you need to credit and re-invoice.
• Review Flash vs BOR differences. When a playweek reaches Returns In, compare the Flash and BOR totals. Investigate variances greater than 10% before invoicing.
• Cancel rather than delete. Cancelling preserves the audit trail and properly expires the booking in MaccsBox. Deleting loses that history.

Weekly status review

1. Check Expected bookings starting this week — confirm any that are ready
2. Review Confirmed bookings that ended last week — BOR should be arriving soon
3. Follow up on Partial Returns — contact exhibitors about missing figures
4. Invoice all Returns In playweeks
5. Check for shipping errors — resolve any red indicators immediately

Troubleshooting

Related Articles

• Playweek Statuses - Quick Reference — color-coded status definitions and lifecycle flow
• Create a Booking — setting the initial status when creating bookings
• How to Create an Invoice — invoicing from Returns In and bulk invoicing
• How to Process Holdovers — extending bookings into additional playweeks