Schedules: shifts, days off and vacations for your team

Schedules in the sidebar is where you set each employee's own working hours - separate from the clinic's overall opening hours.

Open an employee's schedule

Switch between Week and Month view (Month is the default) and page through with the navigation arrows or This week / This month. Month view shows each employee's own mini-calendar with their hours (or "off") per day; Week view lists everyone in a table, a day per column. Click a person - or a specific day on their card - to open their schedule editor, which has three tabs: Calendar, Fixed schedule and Time off.

The Staff button above the schedule shows the Whole team by default, so people who don't take bookings - an administrator, for example - are listed too and you can give them working hours and days off; they are marked not bookable. Switch to Bookable staff only to hide them; the device remembers your choice. Their hours never appear in online booking and they don't count as a paid specialist seat. You can also tick just the people you want to see; teams of more than ten people get a search field.

Set a weekly working pattern

On the Fixed schedule tab, choose one of two modes:

Fixed days - tick each weekday they work, set a start and end time, and optionally + Add lunch break.
Rotating shift - instead of fixed weekdays, set a cycle of Work days on and Days off, one shared start/end time, and the Cycle start date it counts from (e.g. 2 on / 2 off).

Only one mode applies at a time - saving one clears the other. Press Save schedule when done. Online booking follows the mode that is set: with a Rotating shift it offers the person on the cycle's work days, counted from the Cycle start date, and on its days off only if hours are set for that date in the Calendar tab.

With several locations, each working weekday under Fixed days also has a Location, and a Rotating shift has one Location for all its working days. Only the locations the person works at are offered; if they work at only one, there is nothing to choose. Online booking offers them on that weekday, or on each work day of the rotating shift, only at its location.

Set hours for a specific date

The Calendar tab sets working hours for any single date - different hours from the weekly pattern, a working day where the pattern says "off", or a day off.

Open Calendar and page to the month you need. Each day shows the hours that apply to it; a dot marks days you have changed.
Click the date. Its editor opens with a start and end time already filled in, and shows the weekly pattern for that weekday as a hint (Fixed schedule: ...).
Set Start time and End time - for example 14:00 to 16:00 - and optionally + Add lunch break.
If the clinic has several locations, choose the Location for that day. Online booking then offers them on that date only at that location. A person works at one location a day, so the field always shows one: a day with no location set starts on the location of its weekday or rotating shift, else on their default location (see below), and saving keeps the day there.
Press Save this day. The hours apply to that date only and the month view shows them straight away. Online booking offers slots in those hours from then on.

To make the date a day off instead, switch on Day off in the same editor before saving. Once a date has been changed, a Reset to schedule option appears that drops the change and returns the date to the weekly pattern. Copy from last month carries last month's one-off calendar changes into the month you're viewing, matched by day of month.

The same calendar is also on an employee's own page, on the Schedule & time-off tab.

If your hours change from week to week

A common case: you work alone (or a specialist works on demand) and only know your hours two or three days ahead. You do not need a weekly pattern for that.

Leave the Fixed schedule empty, or set only the days that really never change. A specialist with no hours on a date cannot be booked online that day.
As soon as you know your next working days, open Calendar, click each date, enter that day's hours and press Save this day.
Clients can book only those hours. Repeat whenever you know the next few days.

Online booking then never shows times you have not confirmed. If something changes, click the date again to edit the hours, switch on Day off, or use Reset to schedule. Appointments already booked on that date stay in the calendar either way.

The Rotating shift mode on the Fixed schedule tab is something else: a repeating cycle such as 2 on / 2 off. It fits shifts that alternate by a rule; if your hours are different every time, use the Calendar tab.

Record a vacation or longer absence

On the Time off tab, set From and To dates, a Type (Vacation, Sick, Unpaid, Training, Block or Other) and an optional Reason, then Add - it saves immediately and appears in the list below with a delete icon to remove it.

Good to know

Online booking offers a specialist's times only inside their own hours for that date (weekly pattern, rotating shift or Calendar hours). The clinic's Opening hours (under Settings) don't limit this: a specialist's own hours count on open and closed clinic days alike, and a booking can run past the clinic's closing time.
For a single date, the Calendar tab sets any hours or a day off. For an absence that needs a reason or spans several days, use the Time off tab.
Editing schedules needs permission - without it, the page or editor opens read-only. With permission for their own schedule only, an employee edits their own hours and adds or deletes their own time off (no approval step), while colleagues' schedules and time off stay read-only.
To give a date, a weekday or a rotating shift a location, the person must be ticked at that location under Works at (under Team, open Employee and edit them). If they work at only one location, the day editor says so instead of offering a choice, and the Fixed schedule tab shows no location choice.
Copy from last month carries each day's location too, matched by day of month.
With several locations, every working day shows the name of the one location it is at, each location in its own colour: the location set for that date, else the one set for its weekday or rotating shift, else the person's default location. The default location is the only location they work at; with several, the location they were ticked at first (ticked at the same time: the primary location); with none ticked, the primary location. Ticking one more location later does not move their days. A new employee is ticked at the primary location automatically, so ticking another location for a new hire keeps the primary as the default unless you remove the primary's tick; and removing a tick and ticking it again makes it the later one, so their days without a location then go to the other location. Location above the schedule, separate from the location switcher, shows only the people working there and fades days at other locations.
A weekday or a rotating shift with no location chosen is at the person's default location. A date set in the Calendar wins over both for that date: to have one day at another location, set that date.
If a person is no longer ticked at a location, the days, weekdays and rotating shift already planned there stay, but online booking skips them on those days. The day editor and the Fixed schedule tab show that location as (not available) so you can choose another.
Appointments staff book are filed at the location the person works at that day: the location set for that date - or, on a date not set in the Calendar, for that weekday or rotating shift. That holds for a start outside their hours too, as long as the whole day is at one location; otherwise such a start goes to their default location. A booking in a room takes that room's location.
Moving a booking to another day keeps its location.
Choosing a room at another location moves the booking to that location. When a new booking has no room, a device that belongs to a location decides the same way. Completed, cancelled, no-show and invoiced visits never move, and changing only the device on an existing booking does not move it.