Use this guide to log a booking by creating a trip in Tern first. This is the right path when you're building the trip for your client and want the booking to live alongside the rest of their itinerary.
Just need to log a booking to get paid? Use Quick Submit Booking instead. Go to your dashboard. In the Create section on the right, click Booking. Fill out one form and submit. You don't need to build a trip or itinerary first, because Tern can create the trip and traveler for you as you go.
Prefer video? Watch the Submit a Booking and Get Paid, No Trip Required lesson in Tern & Learn.
If you only need to submit a booking to your agency for commission tracking and payment, use Quick Submit Booking.
If you're building the full trip in Tern for your client, follow the steps below.
If your client booked something themselves, see Adding an activity your client booked themselves at the end of this article.
Step 1: Create a New Trip
Go to Trips.
Click New trip and enter a name for your trip.
Select Trip Type as "Regular"
Change the Status to "Booked" Alternatively, customize the status to something like "Imported Booking" if you prefer to indicate that this trip is specifically for only booking information
Enter the trip dates and click Create.
Step 2: Add Traveler Information
On the trip's Overview tab, find the Travelers section and click Manage Travelers.
Search for your client. If they aren't in Tern yet, click Create new contact and enter their details.
You can skip non-essential fields like email or phone number unless needed for your records
Step 3: Add the Booking Details
Navigate to the Itinerary tab of your trip
Add a new activity, such as a Custom Cruise or any other booking type
Fill in the key details for a booking:
Start and End Dates for the activity
Proceed to the Booking & Pricing section and input the following:
Accreditation — select the correct IATA or credential for the agency you want this booking logged under. Your default agency will be pre-selected, but if you belong to multiple agencies, make sure to choose the right one here.
Total price
Booking status (mark as "Paid" if applicable, but this is optional).
Supplier Name
Expected Commission and any applicable splits
Expected Commission Date
If you have a confirmation number or other booking-specific details, you can add them in this section.
Step 4: Finalize the Booking
Once your accreditation and booking details are set, click the "Mark as Booked" button in the top right of the Booking details section to share it with your agency
You won't be able to edit the accreditation during this step, so make sure it's correct on the Booking and Pricing tab first
Review the booking details to ensure accuracy
Note: Your sale is not logged with your agency until you click Mark as Booked. Creating the trip or adding the activity doesn't submit it.
Adding an activity your client booked themselves
When a client books a flight, hotel, or other activity on their own before working with you, you can add it to their itinerary so they have a complete trip overview.
Add the activity to the itinerary as you normally would and fill in the details your client provided.
Before marking the activity as booked, go to the Booking & Pricing tab. In the Commission section, click the three-dot menu and select Mark as not commissionable. This sets the expected commission to $0, so the booking doesn't count toward your commission totals.
Note: A non-commissionable booking still counts toward your sales totals once it's marked as booked. It appears in your dashboard's gross sales and in the Your Sales and Agency Sales reports. To see sales without non-commissionable bookings, use the Commissionable filter on those reports. See Navigating & Understanding Reports.
After marking the activity as not commissionable, you can safely mark it as booked.
Since your client already paid for the activity, click the three-dot menu on the payment item and select "Exclude from credit card authorization." Your client will not be prompted to authorize payment for this activity.
To record that the activity has been paid, click "Log Payment" and add a note describing the payment. This note is visible to travelers on their itinerary.
Tip: Don't use Mark as not commissionable to keep practice or test bookings out of your reports. It doesn't remove them from your sales totals.