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Assigning Guides

Guides are staff members who lead or assist with an experience session. Assigning guides helps you keep track of who is responsible for each trip, avoid double-booking your team, and give customers confidence that their session is staffed.

How Guide Assignment Works​

Guides are assigned at the session level, not the experience level. This means you can assign different staff members to different sessions of the same experience. For example, your Monday morning kayak tour might have one guide, while the Tuesday afternoon session has a different one.

You can assign multiple guides to a single session if the activity requires more than one person to lead it.

Prerequisites​

Before you can assign guides, you need staff members with the Guide role added to your account. The guide picker only lists staff who hold the Guide role — if it shows "No guides found", give the relevant staff member the Guide role first. See Adding Staff and Roles & Access for details.

Assigning Guides to a New Session​

When you add a one-time session from the Availability tab:

  1. Click + Add session at the top-right of the Availability tab.
  2. In the Add availability sidebar, fill in the Date, Start time, and Capacity.
  3. Click the Guide(s) (optional) search field to open the smart picker, then tick one or more staff members.
  4. Click Save.

The Add availability sidebar with the Guide(s) picker open showing Available, Partially available, and Unavailable groups

For sessions that already have a guide assigned, you'll see circular guide-initial chips on the row in the Availability table. Sessions with no guides show a + Assign call-to-action — click it to jump straight into the edit sidebar with the guide picker open.

Assigning Guides to an Existing Session​

  1. Go to the Availability tab on the experience detail page.
  2. Click the Edit icon on the session you want to update — or click the + Assign chip if no guide is assigned yet.
  3. In the Edit availability sidebar, use the Guides selector to add or remove guides.
  4. Click Save.

Guide Requirements​

You can tell an experience which certifications and languages its guides should have. EquipDash uses this to flag — but never block — guides who don't meet the requirements when you assign them.

  1. Open the experience and go to the Details tab.
  2. Find the Guide requirements card and click Edit.
  3. Choose the required certifications and languages.
  4. Your selection saves automatically.

The Guide requirements card on the experience Details tab listing required certifications and languages

The card is clearly labelled "Flag (don't block)" — these requirements are advisory. They drive the warnings in the guide picker (below) but never stop you assigning the guide you need.

Requirements draw on the data you record against each staff member — see Certifications & Languages.

Guide Qualification Matching​

When you open the guide picker (in either the Add availability or Edit availability sidebar), EquipDash groups your team into three buckets:

  • Available — rostered for the time and fully qualified.
  • Partially available — assignable, but with a heads-up. This is where a guide lands if they have a scheduling conflict or are missing a certification or language the experience requires (including a certification that has expired).
  • Unavailable — a hard conflict (for example, approved time off).

Each flagged guide shows a small chip explaining exactly why — for example Swiftwater Rescue expired or No shift scheduled covering this time. Once you select a flagged guide, the same reasons are repeated below the picker as a clear heads-up summary.

The guide picker showing a guide in the Partially available group with a Swiftwater Rescue expired warning chip

Warnings never block you

These flags are advisory only. You can always assign a guide who's missing a qualification — EquipDash just makes the gap visible so you can roster knowingly. To clear a warning, record the missing certification or language on the staff member's profile (see Certifications & Languages), or update the experience's Guide requirements.

Viewing Assigned Guides​

In the Availability Table​

The Guides column in the Availability table shows the names of all guides assigned to each session. If no guides are assigned, it shows "No guides assigned".

On the Calendar​

The Experience Calendar also shows guide names on each session, so you can see at a glance who is working each day.

Removing a Guide from a Session​

  1. Click the Edit icon on the session in the Availability table.
  2. In the Guides selector, remove the guide you want to unassign.
  3. Click Save.

Tips for Guide Management​

  • Assign guides early. This helps your team plan ahead and gives you time to find replacements if someone is unavailable.
  • Check the calendar view. The Experience Calendar gives you a visual overview of who is assigned where, making it easy to spot scheduling conflicts.
  • Use staff availability. If you have set up Staff Availability, check your team's availability before assigning them to sessions.
  • Multiple guides per session. For larger groups or activities that require extra supervision, assign more than one guide.