The specialist's schedule and online booking - shifts, absences, buffer and horizon

The client sees "10:00, 10:30, 14:00" on the booking page. Where exactly these slots come from, and how to change them.

The weekly schedule

A specialist has a weekly schedule: days and hours. There can be two shifts a day: 10:00 to 14:00 and 16:00 to 20:00. Lunch is not a separate thing but the gap between shifts. No booking lands in that gap, nor a visit that does not fit before it.

The location's schedule limits the specialist's: if the specialist is scheduled from 8:00 but the salon opens at 10:00, there are no slots before 10:00.

Absences on a date

Vacation, sick leave, a day off, training are exceptions on specific dates. An all-day exception removes the whole day. A timed exception cuts out a piece: "leaving at 15:00" keeps the morning working, and "at the doctor 13:00 to 14:00" splits the shift in two.

Closing the whole salon for a period is done separately, in the company settings; there is a separate article about it.

Duration and buffer

A service has a duration, and a particular specialist can have their own: a haircut takes an experienced one 40 minutes and a new one 60. Online booking shows only slots where the whole procedure fits.

A buffer after a service is time to clean up and prepare the place, up to 60 minutes. It is set in the service and saved into each booking at creation: changing the buffer in settings does not shift bookings already made.

A service can stay active but be closed for online booking: complex colouring, for instance, which you book only after a consultation. The administrator books it by hand, and the client does not see it on the page.

The booking policy

One per company:

• minimum lead time: how many minutes before the start booking is still possible; 0 by default;
• horizon: how many days ahead booking is open; 180 by default, 365 at most;
• a daily booking limit per specialist and per location; bookings are counted, not hours, and cancellations and no-shows are excluded;
• a cancellation window and a no-show fee;
• the rules text for the client, up to 5000 characters.

The slot grid step is 30 minutes by default.

Two administrators and one time

Two administrators book two clients with the same specialist at 14:00 at the same moment. Both see the time as free. To avoid two bookings, saving a booking with a specialist goes through a lock: the second waits for the first to finish and then sees the time is taken. The same lock applies to online booking and dragging in the calendar, so the booking page and the CRM cannot seat two clients at one time. There is a separate note about it.