Set up a workspace

1. On conductcommons.com, choose Start free trial and sign in with your ConductScience account. You can create an account on the sign-in page.
2. On the Create a workspace page, answer What are you setting up? with Core facility or Research lab.
3. Type the name under Core facility name or Lab name. The address of the workspace appears under the name. Institution is optional.
4. Choose Create core facility or Create lab.

The address is https://app.conductcommons.com/ followed by the name in lowercase, with hyphens between the words. If a ConductCommons page or another workspace already uses that address, the app asks you to change the name.

You are the owner of the workspace you create. Every new workspace includes the Core plan for 30 days.

To change the type later, a manager opens Settings and, under Workspace type, chooses Switch to research lab or Switch to core facility. Switching changes the menu and home page for everyone in the workspace. Nothing is deleted.

An instrument is anything people book: a microscope, a testing room, a maze, a workstation. Only managers can add, edit, or retire instruments. There are three ways to add them.

Pick from the starter list

A workspace with no instruments shows the starter list on Schedule. Later, open it from Schedule, then Equipment & access, then + Add instruments. The list has more than 100 instruments, rooms, and apparatus in six groups.

1. Tick each instrument your core has. Open a group to see its instruments, or type in Find an instrument. Under each name you see the rules it starts with, such as Training or Protocol number.
2. If you have more than one of an instrument, set How many, up to 20. Three operant chambers are added as Operant chamber 1, Operant chamber 2, and Operant chamber 3.
3. Type anything that is not on the list under Anything else? One per line.
4. Choose the button at the bottom. It shows your count, for example Add 3 instruments and open for booking. You can add up to 60 at a time.

Each instrument opens for booking at once, with rates of $0. A name you typed takes the rules of the listed instrument it matches; any other name opens with no extra rules. A name that is already in the workspace is skipped. If an instrument requires training, you are recorded as trained on it, so you can book it yourself.

Import from a spreadsheet

Use this when you already keep an instrument list in Excel or Google Sheets. Open it with Import your list on the starter list, or from Schedule, then Equipment & access, then Import a list.

1. Copy the rows from your sheet, with the header row, and paste them into Paste your list. A pasted table is checked as soon as you paste it. For typed rows, choose Check list.
2. Or choose Upload a file for a CSV or Excel (.xlsx) file under 5 MB. Download a sample gives you a file to start from.
3. Read the preview. Each row is marked New, Update, or Skipped, with what will happen. You can change a name, a room, or the listed instrument a row takes its rules from, and untick any row you do not want.
4. Choose the import button, for example Import 12 instruments.

Columns are matched by their names, so your sheet needs no fixed layout. These columns are read: Name, Room, Type, Internal rate, External rate, Minimum and maximum length, Notice, Days ahead, Training, Approval, Protocol, Charge for, Open for booking, Manufacturer, Model, Serial number, Asset tag, and Notes. Other columns are listed as not imported. A list with no header row is read as instrument names only.

• A new row takes the booking rules of the listed instrument that its name or Type matches. Values in your sheet override those rules.
• A row with the same name as an instrument you already have updates that instrument. Only the values your sheet fills in change.
• Rooms named in the list are created for you.
• One import takes up to 300 rows.
• New instruments open for booking at once, unless the Open for booking column says no. You are recorded as trained on the ones that need training.
• Only hourly rates can be imported, and rates are part of the Core plan. Without it, instruments import at $0 per hour.

To change many instruments at once, choose Export under Equipment & access, edit the file, and import it again. The export has an ID column. Keep it if you rename an instrument, so the row updates the instrument and does not add a new one.

Add one at a time

1. Open Equipment and choose Add equipment. Enter the name and the details you keep for it, then save.
2. Open Schedule, then Equipment & access. The new instrument is listed as Scheduling not enabled. Choose Set up next to it.
3. Set its rules, described in the next section, and choose Save equipment rules. Open for reservations is already ticked.

Each instrument has its own rules. A manager opens Schedule, then Equipment & access, chooses Edit rules next to the instrument, changes the form, and chooses Save equipment rules.

Instruments from the starter list or an import can start with other values, such as a longer minimum session or training turned on.

• Bookable hours. A session must fit inside the hours of one day, and Closes must be later than Opens. The hours are read in the workspace time zone. Until you set one, they are read in each person's own time zone.
• Setup and cleanup. A change applies to new reservations. Reservations already made keep the times they were booked with.
• Limits per person. Open Limits per person to set Hours a week, Hours a month, and Upcoming reservations at a time. Leave a field blank for no limit. Reserved time counts, by calendar week (from Monday) and month. A repeat series is checked as a whole. Core managers can still book past a limit.
• Missed check-ins and forgotten check-outs. Two fields release a reservation nobody checked in to and close a session nobody checked out of. Both start at 0, which turns them off. See No-shows and Sessions left open.

The length, days-ahead, notice, and hours rules apply to research sessions. Maintenance blocks and training sessions that a manager schedules are not held to them. No reservation can be longer than seven days.

Hourly rates, service options, and pricing rules are on the same form. They are part of the Core plan. A new instrument bills by the minute, rounded up; Bill for use and services explains the billing rules and the workspace currency.

1. Open Schedule, then Equipment & access.
2. Under Rules for the whole core, choose a zone in Time zone of this workspace. It saves when you choose it.

The starting value is Not set (each person's own time zone). Billing months, prime time, weekly and monthly limits, expiry dates, and bookable hours follow the workspace time zone. The calendar still shows each person their own local time.

The same panel has one more rule for the whole core: A person can hold only one reservation at a time, across all instruments. Core managers can still book overlapping time for someone.

Managers add people on the People page. Everyone signs in with a ConductScience account.

Invite by email

1. Under Invite people, paste addresses into Email addresses or a table, one per line or separated by commas.
2. Choose a Role and a Pricing group for the people on the list.
3. Choose Send invites.

Each invite is tied to its email address and expires in 14 days. The person accepts by signing in with a ConductScience account that uses that address. You can send up to 100 invites at a time. Each result line has Copy link, so you can send the link yourself if the email did not go out. Open invites are listed under Pending invites, with Send again and Revoke.

Invite from a table

Paste a table copied from a spreadsheet, with its header row, into the same box. The columns Email, Role, Pricing group, and Trained on are read. Trained on holds instrument names separated by commas or semicolons. Someone already in the workspace is trained at once. Someone you invite is trained when they accept. Rows with no role or pricing group use the choices under the box.

Share a join link

1. Choose Turn on join link, then Copy link, and share the link on your core's website or mailing list.
2. People who open the link sign in and ask for access.
3. Under Access requests, choose a role and pricing group for each person, then Approve or Decline.

Make a new link replaces the link, and the old one stops working. Turn off closes it.

Roles

To change a role, pick a new one in the Role column under Members. To remove someone, choose Remove… and confirm with Remove. Their upcoming reservations are cancelled. You cannot change or remove yourself; another manager does that.

The pricing group sets which rate a person pays. Changing a member's pricing group needs the Core plan.

When an instrument has Require training approval for this instrument turned on, only people with training access can book it, and the session must end before their training expires. People are emailed two weeks before their training expires.

Grant it to one person

1. Open Schedule, then Equipment & access, and find Training & pricing groups.
2. Choose the Equipment and the Researcher.
3. If your core requires retraining, add a date and time under Approval expiry (optional).
4. Choose Grant training access.

Revoke access takes it away. Granting it again with a new expiry renews it.

Turn training checks off

Training is something you choose to require. To open one instrument to everyone, clear Require training approval for this instrument in its rules. To open every instrument at once, for example in a teaching lab where every student and volunteer uses the equipment, a manager clears Check training before booking and check-in under Rules for the whole core.

With checks off, nobody is asked for training when booking, moving, approving, or checking in, at the kiosk or a connected lock too. Each instrument keeps its own setting and the access you granted, so turning checks back on restores them at once. Expiry reminders pause while checks are off.

Grant it to many people

Use the Trained on column when you invite people from a table. It also works for people who are already members.

Run a training session

1. Choose + Book equipment and set Reservation type to Training session.
2. Pick the instrument and the time, set Seats, and name the session under Session title. Choose Schedule training session.
3. People sign up under Schedule, then My reservations, in Training sessions. A manager can also add them there.
4. After the session starts, choose Record attendance, tick who came, and choose Save attendance.

Everyone you tick is trained on the instrument for the number of days in Training from a training session lasts (days), or with no expiry when that field is blank. The session holds the instrument for its time, like any reservation.

A core facility workspace has Facilities and Labs in its menu. It starts with one facility named after the workspace, holding all its instruments and services. Workspace owners, admins, and managers add facilities and lab records.

Facilities

1. Open Facilities. To run another group of instruments with its own people, choose Add a facility.
2. Under Who may book, keep Open: any member of the workspace may book, or choose Linked labs only: a booking must be for a linked lab.
3. Under Labs it serves, choose Link lab. Each link has the price group that lab's bookings get.
4. Under Managers, staff, finance, and auditors, choose Assign role to give someone a role in this facility.

A role is granted only by someone with more authority, and nobody can raise their own. Every grant and removal is in the activity log.

Labs

A lab record is the research group a person books for. Open Labs, choose Add a lab, and use Add person to add its members. Facilities it may book lists its links.

When someone is in more than one lab, the booking form asks which lab the booking is for, and the booking records it. A booking charged to a project is for the project's lab when the person is in that lab or was added to the project by name.