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Zenith · Workplace & Space Reservations

The floor plan that can say it was empty.

A booking system tells you what was taken. What decides whether you still need the floor is what was never used — the desk held at nine and empty at ten, the room booked every Tuesday by a meeting that stopped happening in March. In Zenith the drawing, the booking and the utilisation report read the same space record, and the percentage is counted from the bookings at the moment the screen draws. Two things are stored, because nothing else in the building knows them: what the space is, and what the house rules allow.

Book a demo Where this build stops
Five space states · Check-in & automatic release · House rules per space type · Derived utilisation · Bilingual EN / FR
One record
The plan, the booking and the report read the same space. Change a room’s capacity once and the search that filters on it, the rule that caps attendees and the divisor under the utilisation figure all change with it
Five states
Free, Reserved, In use, Assigned, Not bookable. Green and grey cannot tell a desk nobody wants from a desk somebody is sitting at from a desk booked by a person who never came in
Fifteen minutes
How long a booking is held without a check-in before the space goes back on the plan by itself. No request, no facilities ticket, nobody chasing
Nine of twelve
Floors drawn in the demo estate. The three that are not are named and excluded from every figure, rather than averaged in as zero and quietly flattering the floor
The model

A booking is a window over a space, not a copy of it

The failure that ruins most workplace tools is a second copy of the building: a reservation engine sitting on a spreadsheet of desks, which disagrees with the floor within a quarter. Zenith stores the register and the rule, and counts everything else off the bookings when you ask.

Stored once

What a person has to assert, and nothing more

A space exists, it is of a type, it sits somewhere, it holds a number of people and it has amenities. A house rule says what may be done with it. Neither of those can be counted from anything, so both are stored. Everything else on this page is arithmetic.

  • The register comes before the booking engine. Site, building, floor, space — one hierarchy, and a booking that cannot name a space cannot exist.
  • A drawing is a layer over the register, not a second inventory. Each shape links to a space record, so colour on the plan is state rather than a legend somebody maintains.
  • Bookings reference spaces and people. Nothing is copied in, so a space renamed at four o’clock is renamed on every booking, past and future.
  • An undrawn floor is a known unknown. It is named and excluded from every figure rather than counted as an empty floor.
The estate

What a register can say without being told

Four cards and a location tree. Every figure below is a question about the spaces and the bookings, answered on read. Nothing on this screen is a number somebody remembered to update.

Counted, not estimated

The four decisions behind the numbers

  • Utilisation divides by bookable space-days, not by every space you own. 22 working days × 16 bookable spaces is 352 space-days; 165 bookings against that is 47%. Dividing by 248 would make every floor look busy and no floor look cuttable.
  • An assigned desk is not a booking and not free. It is somebody’s seat, reported on separately, and excluded from the count so it cannot inflate the figure in either direction.
  • A floor that has not been drawn is named, not zeroed. Nine of twelve floors carry spaces; the other three would each read as a completely empty floor, which is the most damaging kind of wrong number in a right-sizing conversation.
  • A figure with no basis is refused, not approximated. Cost per desk needs floor area and a lease cost. Neither is in the product, so the card says it is not computed instead of quietly dividing by something.
The column that justifies the screen

Five states, because “available” would be a lie

Most plans colour a desk green or grey. Green and grey cannot separate a desk nobody wants, a desk somebody is sitting at, and a desk booked this morning by a person who never came in. Those three need three different decisions, so they get three different words.

01

Free

Nothing holds it, and no house rule blocks it for the time you are asking about. The only state that means “take it”.

bookable & unheld
02

Reserved

Held for a window that has not started, or started without a check-in yet. Held is not occupied, and the plan says which.

grace period running
03

In use

Somebody confirmed they are there. This is the only state on the plan that means a person is in the building.

checked in
04

Assigned

A long-term occupancy with a start date. Not free, not a booking — a person’s seat, and reported on as its own question.

44 of 248 spaces
05

Not bookable

Drawn because it exists, excluded because nobody should take it. Plant rooms, corridors, the space being refitted.

18 of 248 spaces

248 = 186 bookable + 44 assigned + 18 not bookable. Those three numbers are the reason the utilisation figure on the next screen can be argued with rather than believed.

House rules

A refusal that names itself

“This booking could not be created” is not an answer anybody can act on. It sends the person to the facilities inbox and teaches everyone that the system is arbitrary. A refusal in Zenith carries the rule, the number and the date that failed — and the earliest thing you could do instead.

Policy as configuration

Set per space type, per site

A board room and a hot desk are not the same promise, and a rule that treats them alike gets switched off within a month. Every rule below is configured against the space type at a site, so a desk can run all day while the room upstairs caps at four hours.

  • Maximum duration — how long one booking may run, per space type.
  • Advance window — how far ahead anyone may book, which is what stops the desk taken for next March.
  • Approval — required only where you actually want it, and only for the space types where it earns the friction.
  • Buffers — time between bookings, so the room is not handed over while it is still occupied.
  • Capacity — a booking cannot exceed the seats in the space, because capacity is the record’s and not a copy.
  • Check-in and grace — the rule that releases a no-show, covered on its own below.
The part most systems get wrong

An empty desk is not a free desk

Ten o’clock on a Tuesday: the floor is visibly half empty and the booking screen says there is nothing left. People stop trusting the screen, then they stop booking, and within two months the floor is being run out of a group chat. Check-in is the fix, and it only works if the release is automatic.

Booked against occupied

Two measures, and the gap between them

A booking that is not confirmed inside its grace period is released, and the space goes back on the plan by itself. The release is recorded, so the no-show rate stops being a complaint in a meeting and becomes a figure with jobs behind it.

  • Released, not cancelled. The booking keeps its history and its owner; the space simply becomes takeable again.
  • The grace period is a house rule, so a room that needs setting up can hold longer than a hot desk.
  • A released space is offered to whoever is standing there — on the plan, in the day view, in the search. It does not require anyone to be told.
  • The no-show rate is per floor and per space type, because the desks and the rooms usually behave differently and the average hides it.
Three things we did not build

Replaced by the true thing standing closest to it

Workplace analytics is full of instruments that need somebody to keep them alive — a sensor estate, a seating chart, an annual survey. Each would have meant a second source of truth to maintain, which is the exact failure this module was built to avoid. So each was replaced by something the work already keeps current.

Desk sensors · hardware to own and calibrate

Check-in and release

The question a sensor answers is “did anyone actually use it”. Check-in answers it from the person rather than the furniture, costs nothing to install, and produces the one thing a sensor cannot: a freed space that somebody else can take immediately.

9% released · 15 of 165 bookings
A seating chart · a spreadsheet that goes stale

Occupancy records

Who holds a desk, and since when. It is a dated fact on the space rather than a tab in a workbook, so a move is reportable two years later instead of reconstructed from memory by whoever was there.

44 assigned · each with a start date
An occupancy survey · a week somebody walks the floor

Booking history

A survey is a sample taken in the week people knew they were being counted. The booking history is every day, already written, by the people using the building — and it can be re-cut by floor, by team or by space type without anybody walking anywhere.

165 bookings · 22 working days

These are not placeholders — they are better than the things they replace, for one reason: nobody has to remember to update them. But they are also not sensors, and if your case rests on measuring people who never booked at all, see where this build stops.

The workplace record

One estate, read twelve ways

The plan answers “where can I sit”. Every tab below is the same register and the same bookings asked a different question.

Floor plan

Your own PDF, image or CAD drawing with the spaces drawn on it in the browser, each linked to its record. Colour is state, not a legend.

List

The same spaces as rows, filtered by type, zone, capacity or amenity — for the people who would rather search than look.

Day & week

Time rather than geography. Draw a range on the grid and the booking form fills itself from what you drew.

House rules

Duration, advance window, approval, buffers, capacity and grace, per space type and per site, each with the sentence it refuses in.

Occupancy

Who holds an assigned desk and since when. Moves are dated, so the seating history survives the person who arranged it.

Visitors

A host books for a guest and the visit is captured against the booking, rather than on a clipboard at reception.

Utilisation

Bookings over bookable space-days, by site, floor, team and space type, with the divisor printed beside the percentage.

Peak & quiet

The busiest weekday and the one that pays for the floor. An average of 47% hides a Tuesday at 69% and a Friday at 19%.

No-shows

Every booking released by the grace period, with the space, the day and the rule that released it. Nine per cent, not an impression.

Exports

Excel from any view, and scheduled reports to an inbox on the day the estate meeting happens.

Terminology

Desk, workstation or poste de travail — rename what people read without touching what the register holds. English and French both first-class.

Access & audit

Per-site groups and scope down to menu, tab, button and field, single sign-on through SAML or Microsoft Entra ID, and a full history of every booking and change.

Published, not discovered

Where this build stops

Everything above is in the product and demonstrable today. Everything below is not, and we would rather lose the deal on this section than in month four of an implementation.

The honest headline

This measures bookings, not bodies

Zenith Workplace knows what was booked and what was checked into. It does not know that four people sat in a six-seat room, or that somebody worked at a desk they never booked. If your business case rests on measuring the people who never touched the system, that is a sensor project and this is not it.

  • No desk or room sensors, and no badge-line or Wi-Fi counting. Check-in is the occupancy signal, and it is a person confirming rather than a device observing.
  • No cost per desk, per seat or per square foot. Floor area and lease cost are not held in the product, so the figure would have nothing behind it. The screen says “not computed” rather than showing a dash.
  • No room panels and no wayfinding displays. Booking from a tablet outside a room is a browser page today, not a dedicated panel application.
  • Undrawn floors are excluded, never estimated. Nine of twelve floors in the demo carry spaces; the other three appear as names on a list of what the figure does not cover.
Who this is right for

Two to five sites, one system, bilingual

The fit is an organisation running a handful of buildings that wants desks and rooms booked from the drawing, every space held in one register, and a utilisation figure it can defend at budget — from a Canadian company, hosted in Canada, priced by administrator seats rather than by desk or by employee.

  • Good fit — a hybrid head office where nobody can say whether the third floor is still needed.
  • Good fit — a public-sector or broader-public-sector body that needs data residency, bilingual screens and a pricing model that does not count employees.
  • Poor fit — a campus that needs sensor-measured occupancy and cost-per-seat modelling as the primary output. We will say so on the call.
Designed around PIPEDA-aligned privacy posture Canadian data residency WCAG 2.2 AA en-CA / fr-CA parity BPS Procurement Directive & Buy Ontario expectations
Platform foundations

One fact, one place, every screen

Workplace is the thirteenth module on the same platform as work orders, assets and preventive maintenance. That is not a cross-sell — it is why a broken desk becomes a work order against the same space record, and why a room you cannot book on Thursday can tell you it is out of service for a repair.

Referenced, never retyped

A booking points at a space and a person; a drawing points at the register. Nothing is copied, so nothing can go stale inside a copy.

Canadian, and hosted here

Microsoft Azure in Canada, with on-premises deployment where it is required. Encrypted in transit and at rest, single sign-on through your identity provider, and a full audit history.

Refusals in sentences

Every gate returns a typed reason, and every reason has a sentence in English and in French. A blocked booking names the rule, the number and the earliest alternative.

Accessible to everyone

WCAG 2.2 AA as a build rule: the floor plan has a list view carrying the same information, states are announced in words rather than colour alone, and focus lands where an error refers.

Commercial principles Priced by administrator seats Reservation users included Sites and desks never counted Implementation quoted as one fixed fee Canadian dollars, Canadian contract
Questions people actually ask

Straight answers, including the unflattering ones

Can staff book a desk straight from the floor plan?
Yes — the plan is the primary booking surface. Click a space, see what it is, what it holds and what it has, and take it. The day view and the calendar do the same job for people who think in time rather than in geography, and all three write the same record.
What happens if someone books a desk and does not turn up?
The booking asks for a check-in. If it is not confirmed inside the grace period you set, it is released automatically and the space goes back on the plan for anyone else to take. The release is recorded, so the no-show rate becomes a number you can report on rather than a complaint in a meeting — in the demo estate it is 15 of 165 bookings, or 9%.
Can we set different rules for a meeting room and a desk?
Yes. House rules are configured per space type and per site: maximum duration, advance window, approval, buffers between bookings, capacity and the check-in grace period. A board room can cap at four hours and require approval while a hot desk runs all day and needs none.
Can we run assigned seating and hot desking at the same time?
Yes, on the same floor and the same plan. Level 2 in the demo is 12 hot desks, 6 long-term desks and 4 rooms — 22 spaces, of which 16 can be booked. The assigned desks are drawn, coloured as assigned, carry a dated occupancy record, and are excluded from the bookable count so they cannot inflate the utilisation figure in either direction.
Do you charge per desk, per site or per employee?
None of those. The subscription is priced by administrator seats. Every reservation-only user is included at no cost, and adding a site, a floor or a hundred desks does not change the pricing model. Implementation, drawings and training are quoted as a single fixed fee, in Canadian dollars, on a Canadian contract.
Do we have to send you our floor plans to be drawn for us?
No. You upload the PDF, image or CAD plan you already have and draw the spaces on it in the browser, linking each one to its record. We do the first drawings with you during implementation, but you are never dependent on us for the next fit-out — which is the difference between a drawing you own and a drawing you rent.
Does it use desk sensors to measure occupancy?
No, and we would rather say so now. Zenith measures what was booked and what was checked into. It cannot tell you that four people sat in a six-seat room, or that someone worked at a desk they never booked. Check-in gets most of the value without the hardware — and unlike a sensor it produces a freed space somebody else can take immediately — but if your case rests on counting people who never touched the system, that is a sensor project and this is not it.
Can it tell us the cost per desk?
Not in this build. Cost per desk needs floor area and a lease cost, and neither is held in the product, so the figure would have nothing behind it. The card says “not computed” and names what is missing rather than showing a dash or dividing by something convenient. What it will give you is utilisation with its divisor printed, a peak day, a quiet day and a no-show rate — which is what the finance conversation actually turns on.
What can it tell us about whether we still need a floor?
Utilisation per floor and per space type, with the bookable count it divided by shown beside it; the peak day and the quiet day; the check-in and no-show rates; and the least-used spaces ranked against the hours they were available. In the demo, Level 2 averages 47% — but that is a Tuesday at 69% and a Friday at 19%, and only one of those is an estate problem. Floors that have not been drawn are named and left out rather than counted as empty.
Is it bilingual, and can we use our own words?
Yes to both. English and French are first-class: labels, notifications and exports follow the user rather than the installation. Terminology is configuration, so if your people say workstation rather than desk — or poste de travail — that is what every screen, every notification and the floor plan legend say, without touching what the register holds.
Where is the data hosted, and what is in scope?
Canadian data centres on Microsoft Azure, with on-premises deployment available where it is required. Only the employee and booking details needed to run the service are in scope — no client, patient or health-record data. Single sign-on runs through SAML or Microsoft Entra ID, and there is a full audit history of every booking, change and administrative action.
Where do we start?
With one floor. Bring the plan you have and a week of real bookings, and we will draw it, set your house rules against it and show you the utilisation figure it produces — with the arithmetic still attached — before you commit to the rest of the estate. Typical go-live across a small estate is about three weeks: discovery and data, then drawings and configuration, then validation, training and switch-on.
See it on your own floor

Bring the floor nobody can account for.

One plan, one week of real bookings and your actual house rules. We will draw the floor in front of you, load the rules, and show you the utilisation percentage with its divisor still attached — then try to book a room for six hours where the rule caps it at four, so you can read the refusal for yourself.

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Zenith · Workplace & Space Reservations Part of the Zenith maintenance & asset operations platform Space & room scheduling guide Space scheduling Move management Location finder All modules