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Managing a scheduling interval

Setting the frequency of your appointment times

Matt Tucker avatar
Written by Matt Tucker
Updated over a year ago

Schedulista provides flexibility to offer start times for your appointments that will work best for your services. Using a frequency interval, setting specific start times, or using classes gives you control and lots of options.

The scheduling interval setting determines the frequency that available appointment times will appear on your scheduler.

Interval examples

  • If your interval is every 30 minutes and your work hours are 9:00 am - 5:00 pm, clients would see appointment times at 9:00, 9:30, 10:00, 10:30, etc.

  • If your interval is every 1 hour 15 minutes and your work hours are 1:00 pm - 10:00 pm, clients would see appointment times at 1:00, 2:15, 3:30, 4:45, etc.

The scheduling interval applies any day that you have availability set on your calendar. The frequency begins from the start time of your work hours on a day.

Contents:

Changing your scheduling interval

The default setting is "Every 30 minutes". To change this:

(1) On the mobile app (version 7.3 or above): On the Settings tab, tap on Scheduling Policies under the Configure section; or

On the web app: Go to Settings > Scheduling Policies

(2) Scroll down to the Available Appointment Times section

(3) Select your interval from the drop-down menu

(4) On the mobile app: Tap Save at the bottom of the page, then tap Done at the top of the page to return to the Settings tab; or

On the web app: Click Save at the bottom of the page to make your changes active

Things that may affect the scheduling interval

Service duration

Different service durations will block out time on your schedule when appointments are booked, possibly removing appointment times so that clients can't doublebook during another appointment.

For example, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm work hours with a 30 minute interval; if a client books a service with 1-hour duration at 10:00 am, 10:00-11:00 is blocked on your schedule. The 10:00 am and 10:30 am appointment times are removed. The next client would see 9:00, 9:30, 11:00, 11:30, 12:00, etc. as the available appointment times on that day.

Service duration will also impact the last appointment time shown during your work hours. If work hours are 9:00 am - 5:00 pm and a client is booking a 1-hour service, 4:00 pm would be the last appointment time that would offer 1 hour of availability.

Setup and cleanup time

Setup time on a service adds time to the beginning of appointments, adjusting the appointment start time in the scheduler accordingly.

For example, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm work hours with a 30 minute interval and 5 minutes of setup time would show appointment times at 9:05, 9:35, 10:05, 10:35, etc.

Cleanup time on a service adds time to the end of appointments to create a buffer between appointments. This can also block appointment times from appearing.

Reduce gap setting

The reduce gap setting will add appointment times at the end of previous appointments to help reduce gaps in your schedule.

For example, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm work hours with a 30 minute interval would typically show appointment times at 9:00, 9:30, 10:00, 10:30, 11:00, etc. If a client books a 45-minute service at 10:00 am, the next client would see appointment times at 9:00, 9:30, 10:45, 11:00, etc.

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