PBS Planning - Overview
PBS (People Booking Solution) is a multi-tenant SaaS platform for managing freelance crew bookings for broadcast production companies.
Last Updated: December 12, 2025 at 09:02 CET Schema: 27 tables, 1,300+ lines Status: ✅ Planning Phase - Ready for development
🎯 Project Principles
Our Core Values
Simplicity First
- We aim to create a simple system which will force us to prioritize features and configurability
- Every feature must justify its complexity
- When in doubt, choose the simpler solution
UX-Driven Development
- User experience drives all design decisions
- We design workflows first, then build features
- Mobile-first approach for crew portal
- Desktop-optimized for admin interface
Quality Standards
- Speed: Fast page loads, responsive interactions
- Reliability: System must be dependable for live production schedules
- Clarity: Clear interfaces, no confusion
- Accessibility: Works on all devices, simple to understand
Development Philosophy
- Build what's needed, not what's possible
- MVP first, iterate based on real usage
- Documentation-driven development
- Test with real users early and often
Technical Priorities
- Clean, maintainable code
- Well-documented database schema
- Clear API contracts
- Automated testing for critical paths
🎯 What is PBS?
PBS helps production companies like New Century Production (NCP) manage their crew booking process from initial project creation through assignment completion and financial finalization.
Key Features
- Multi-tenant architecture: Each company has isolated data with custom branding
- Multi-company crew support 🆕: Crew can work for multiple companies with one account
- Dual subdomain system:
backend.pbs.com- Admin interface for project managerscrew.pbs.com- Mobile-first portal for freelance crew
- Complete assignment lifecycle: From offer → acceptance → travel booking → hotel → road book → completion → financial finalization
- Dual booking modes:
- Standard offers (crew can accept/decline/negotiate)
- Direct booking (for employees, no negotiation)
- Equipment tracking 🆕: Company-owned equipment with availability management
- Multi-currency support 🆕: Per-booking currencies with manual exchange rates
- Communication audit log 🆕: Track all emails and requests sent
- Invite-only system: Controlled onboarding for MVP (no public registration forms)
👥 User Personas
Admin Users (backend.pbs.com)
- Susanne - Project Manager at NCP
- Ken - Finance Manager at NCP
- Jonas - Operations Manager at NCP
Crew Users (crew.pbs.com)
- Lisa - Freelance EVS Operator
- Johan - Dual role (Project Manager + Freelance Camera Operator)
🗄️ Technical Architecture
Database
- PostgreSQL with UUID primary keys
- 27 tables 🆕 (up from 18 in v3.0) covering companies, users, crew, projects, assignments, equipment, and more
- Multi-tenant isolation via
company_idforeign keys - Multi-company crew architecture 🆕 with complete data isolation
- Polymorphic attachments for documents (contracts, travel docs, hotel confirmations, etc.)
Key Entities
- Companies: NCP, other production companies
- Users: Login accounts (linked to profiles)
- Profiles: Person records (staff + crew)
- Projects: Champions League Final 2025, etc.
- Assignments: Camera Operator role for Lisa on project
- Assignment Offers: Sent to Lisa with rate, dates, message
- Documents: Contracts, travel docs, road books
📋 MVP Scope
What's Included in MVP
✅ Company setup and branding ✅ Multi-company crew support 🆕 ✅ Crew profile management with account claiming 🆕 ✅ Global functions + company custom functions 🆕 ✅ Equipment inventory & availability tracking 🆕 ✅ Project creation with roles & equipment ✅ Assignment offers (standard + direct booking) ✅ Offer negotiation ✅ Assignment lifecycle (contract → travel → hotel → road book → completion) ✅ Financial finalization (actual vs planned tracking) ✅ Multi-currency support with manual exchange rates 🆕 ✅ Communication audit log 🆕 ✅ Invite-only crew registration ✅ Report generation (crew list, meal list, budget, economic reports) 🆕 ✅ Conflict detection and resolution ✅ Mobile-first crew portal
What's NOT in MVP
❌ Automated email notifications (manual workflow for now) ❌ Contract generation (PDF creation) ❌ Invoicing system (tracking only) ❌ Public registration forms ❌ Advanced analytics/dashboards ❌ API for third-party integrations
🚀 User Case Coverage
UC-01 to UC-03: Admin Project Management
- Company Setup
- Create Staff Profile
- Create Project
UC-04 to UC-06: Admin Staffing
- Send Assignment Offers
- Review Offer Responses & Negotiate
- Complete Assignment Lifecycle
UC-07 to UC-10: Admin Operations
- Generate Reports
- Invite Staff to System
- Review Staff Registrations
- Handle Scheduling Conflicts
UC-11 to UC-16: Staff Workflows
- Staff Registration (invite-only)
- Account Setup & Login
- Update Profile
- Receive & Respond to Offers
- Negotiate Rate
- View Assignments & Documents
📊 Project Status
Phase: Planning & Specification Status: ✅ MVP specification complete Total Documentation: ~6,000+ lines Schema: 27 tables, 1,300+ lines Ready for: Development planning and UI mockup generation
What's Complete:
- ✅ Complete database schema (27 tables)
- ✅ Multi-company crew support architecture
- ✅ Equipment tracking system
- ✅ Multi-currency support
- ✅ Complete UI specifications (30 views)
- ✅ 16 user case workflows documented
- ✅ All MVP decisions documented
Next Steps:
- Create test data and seed database
- Write developer onboarding guide
- Begin development sprint planning
🎓 How to Use This Documentation
- New to the project? Start with Personas to understand who uses the system
- Need database info? Check Database Schema
- Looking for specific workflow? Browse User Cases
- Technical questions? See Q&A Decisions
Use the search bar at the top to find specific topics, features, or technical terms.
Questions or feedback? Contact the project team or open an issue in the GitHub repository.