Documentation

4. Bundling Consumables & Supplies with Resource Bookings

Streamline Checkout by Combining Gear, Machinery, and Consumable Add-Ons

The Scenario

Booking equipment often requires supplies—whether it's reagents and assay kits for lab instruments, spools of 3D printer filament for fabrication shops, or gaffer tape and memory cards for camera gear checkout. Forgetting to log these items leads to missing inventory and unbilled costs. This setup simplifies checkout by bundling related consumable supplies directly into the booking workflow. Users can select and attach required or optional add-ons in a single step, ensuring accurate billing and inventory tracking.

🔬 Research Labs & Core Facilities (Primary Example)

  • Example: Automatically prompt researchers to add specific reagents, assay kits, specialized multi-well plates, or pipettes when booking an instrument like a Flow Cytometer or Sequencer.

🛠️ Makerspaces & Fabrication Shops

  • Example: Bundle material options—such as 3D printing filaments (PLA/ABS), sheet metal, acrylic plates, or specialized drill bits—directly with machine reservations (3D printers, CNC mills, laser cutters).

🎙️ Media & Production Studios

  • Example: Offer essential expendables during studio bookings, such as backdrop seamless paper rolls, specialty lighting gels, gaffer tape, or audio recording storage media.

📹 Equipment Libraries & AV Gear Checkout

  • Example: Include check-out add-ons for camera and audio kit loans, such as gaffer tape rolls, AA/AAA battery packs, disposable lens cleaning wipes, or gaff tape.

QReserve Subscription: Core
Implementation Difficulty: Beginner

Implementation Steps

    1. Create the Consumable: Navigate to Resources → Add Resource and set the resource type to Consumable / Item. Be sure to enter your starting inventory quantity.
    2. Link to Primary Resource: On the consumable resource, navigate to Reservations → Profile → Related Resources to link it to the equipment it is used with.
    3. Restrict Usage: To ensure it is only booked with its related equipment, go to Reservations → General → Can Only Be Used With Related Resources and select Only Related. Set this same parameter for the parent resource by going to Reservations → General → Can Only Be Used With Related Resources and select Only Related. 
    4. Add User Reminders: Navigate to Profile → General → Disclaimer on the primary resource and add a note reminding users to add any necessary consumables to their booking.

⚡Pro Tip: If you want this process to be automated—so consumables add themselves to the booking automatically—you can create a Reservation Preset. Watch the video below for instructions on how to set up reservation presets.

📖 Learn more about Inventory Tracking

📖 Learn more about Related Resources

📖 Learn more about Reservation Presets

🎬 [ ▶ Watch: How to Bundle Consumables with Equipment Bookings]

In this video guide, we demonstrate bundling reagents and supply kits with lab instrument reservations. However, the exact same workflow applies to adding filament spools or metal sheets to 3D printer bookings in a makerspace, or attaching batteries, tape, and seamless backdrop paper to AV kit loans and studio reservations.