Calendar · Setup & configuration · 8 min read

Set up appointment types

Define what customers can book: length, opening hours, notice, buffers, staff and room, and publish a booking page.

Before you begin

• You need calendar.appointment (Receptionist and Calendar administrator roles).
• Know who takes the appointments. Staff must be people of this company. A type cannot be published without staff.
• If the type uses a room, register it first. See Rooms and equipment.

Steps

1. Open Calendar > Configuration > Appointment types (or the types card on Calendar > Appointments) and press New type.
2. Enter the Code (up to 30 characters, made upper case, unique, cannot change later), Name (shown on the public page) and optionally the Arabic name and a description of up to 1,000 characters.
3. Set Minutes (5 to 480) for the length, and A slot every (min) (5 to 480) for the gap between slot starts.
4. Set Buffer before (min) and Buffer after (min) (0 to 240). A slot plus its buffers must miss busy time.
5. Set Book at least (hours ahead) (0 to 720, default 2) and Book up to (days ahead) (1 to 365, default 30). The public page shows at most 21 days.
6. Set Customer may cancel until (hours before) (0 to 720, default 24). It applies to the customer's manage link only.
7. In Who takes these choose the staff. Each booking goes to the free person with the fewest bookings of this type that day.
8. Optionally choose a Room or equipment, a Location, and tick Online if there is no physical place.
9. Choose Confirmation: Booked = confirmed or Staff confirm. Under Staff confirm a public booking is only requested and its event is tentative. A booking made by staff is always confirmed.
10. Tick Closed on public holidays to remove full-day holidays from HR working calendars. Half days stay open.
11. Fill Opening hours for each weekday, such as 09:00-13:00, 14:00-17:00. An empty day is closed. A new type opens Monday to Friday 09:00 to 17:00.
12. Tick Public booking page to publish, and keep Active ticked.
13. Press Save. The card shows Booking page and Copy link.

What happens next

• Staff can book through Book appointment; customers can book through the public page. See Book and manage appointments.
• Switching off Active hides the type from Book appointment; its public link answers that the page is not found.

Worked example

Type CONSULT, 30 minutes, slots every 30, buffer after 15, window 09:00 to 12:00. Staff B has a meeting from 10:00 to 10:30. Free times are 09:00, 10:30, 11:00 and 11:30. The 09:30 slot is gone because its buffer runs into the 10:00 meeting, and 10:00 is the meeting.

With notice of 2 hours, if it is 10:05, the first slot today is 12:30 (10:05 plus 2 hours is 12:05, then the next 30-minute step).

Good to know

• 'Name who takes these appointments before publishing.'
• 'Another appointment type has this code.' 'Enter a whole number between 5 and 480.'
• Opening hours errors: 'A window ends before it starts.', 'Two windows of one day overlap.', 'Use a time as HH:MM.'
• The buffer after a booking does not protect the next booking; it only guards the new slot's own end. Leave a slot step longer than the length plus the buffer if you need breathing room.
• Changing a type does not alter bookings already made.
• Free events and cancelled events do not block slots; Busy events of the staff member do.