City of Whittlesea
Standardising community facility bookings and automating invoicing with Attekus Bookable
Customer Profile
How Whittlesea introduced Attekus Bookable to modernise bookings, customer management, payments and communications – reducing manual invoicing effort and giving customers real-time access to availability and their booking history.
Watch the case study
Why Watch This Case Study
Hear directly from council peers who’ve run a complex rollout with real operational realities.
In this session, Whittlesea shares:
- What it takes to move from legacy, manual processes to an online bookings portal
- How Attekus Bookable improved customer self-service and real-time visibility
- The biggest internal efficiency gain: eliminating monthly manual invoicing effort
- Practical lessons on change management, communication, and payments (including the impact of offering offline payment methods)
If you work in a similar organisation, this is a practical, real-world example of what’s possible.
Council's Challenge
Whittlesea’s facilities and bookings environment required a system that could do more than “take bookings”.
Key challenges included:
- Multiple steps and manual processes to manage customers, finance, communications and reporting
- Heavy reliance on staff handling processes that should be automated
- Inconsistent or unclear customer experience when trying to find information or make changes
- Limited ability to give customers always-on access to availability, bookings and payments
- The practical complexity of coordinating internal departments and systems (finance, IT, comms and web)
The council also experienced real-world implementation constraints, including delays caused by the pandemic and staff turnover.
The Approach
After extensive planning and multiple tender processes over several years, City of Whittlesea went live with Attekus Bookable on 30 March 2023.
Whittlesea’s implementation focus included:
- Defining and reviewing booking rules (lead times, bonds, access hours, approval requirements)
- Mapping the customer and staff journey to identify time savers vs time wasters
- Involving owners of internal systems that needed to interact with Attekus Bookable
- Designing the external portal to match council branding and accessibility needs
- Setting up single sign-on for staff to simplify internal access
They also emphasised the importance of planning and preparing core data (venues, attributes, fees, terms) early to shorten implementation time and reduce rework.
Tangible Outcomes
Whittlesea reported a number of concrete benefits to both council and community:
For customers (community self-service):
- Customers can manage bookings online: create, modify, cancel and pay 24/7
- Real-time availability updated instantly
- Online payments via credit/debit card, with same-day refunds back to the card (when processed through Bookable)
- Customers can upload documents (e.g. not-for-profit proof, compliance forms) and view booking/payment status
- Search venues by suburb, availability, capacity and attributes (e.g. Wi-Fi, air conditioning)
For council (internal efficiency and control):
- Single sign-on for staff access (internal and external portal use)
- Automated invoicing removed a monthly manual invoicing task that previously took 14 staff 1–2 days per month
- Refund approvals can take minutes (when the payment is through Attekus Bookable)
- Bulk email capability to targeted groups (e.g. seniors clubs, specific venue users)
- Instant closure notifications to affected customers (for last-minute facility issues)
- Clear review workflow for booking confirmation: dashboards show what’s waiting, approvals trigger automated emails
- Council-admin autonomy: photos, terms and fees can be updated by the team without waiting on IT tickets
- Standardised email templates improve consistency
- Overdue notices can be issued automatically (supporting aged debt management)
Key Learnings (Whittlesea’s
Advice to Other
Organisations)
Whittlesea’s practical learnings included:
- Plan early and prepare your data (venues, attributes, rules, fees, communications)
- Know your business rules and review whether they’re still fit-for-purpose
- Map both the customer journey and staff workflows before configuration
- Engage internal system owners early and keep them involved
- Build a cross-council working group (IT, finance, marketing/comms, procurement, business systems, community-facing teams)
- Consider the impact of offering payment methods outside Bookable:
- Manual payment entry adds complexity
- Refund timelines can extend to weeks due to internal processes
- Don’t underestimate comms and promotion – including ensuring the council website makes the Attekus Bookable link easy to find
- Include cyber security and governance in the project from the start
- Consider branding and accessibility (fonts, colours, screen reader compatibility) to support community usage
What’s Next
Whittlesea is expanding its use of Attekus Bookable beyond community facilities, including:
- Sporting facilities (in progress)
- Community bus bookings
- Busking permits
- Staff RSVPs (internal events)
- Community event applications
- Gift vouchers and memberships (for theatre spaces)
- Display screen integrations in venues
Talk to the people who care about the experience you deliver.
If you’re looking to modernise facility bookings, reduce manual invoicing effort, and improve self-service for your community:
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Hornsby Shire Council
Read how Hornsby Shire Council delivered a broad range of services to residents, including payment processing, bookings and customer service operations.
