Slot length and capacity

A bookable collection offers slots either by the day or by the hour, starting every hour, 30 minutes, or 15 minutes, and each booking lasts a fixed number of minutes. Capacity sets how many bookings a slot can hold; once it is used up, further bookings for that slot are refused.

Requirements

• A role that can edit the collection.
• A bookable collection; see Make a collection bookable.

Slots: by the day or by the hour

The booking profile ties the collection to one location and department and decides how time is cut up.

• Daily slots: one slot per open day, for bookings where the time of day does not matter, such as a vehicle dropped off for servicing. A booking inside the day's working hours is placed at the opening time; one outside the hours is refused.
• Hourly slots: slots start every hour, every 30 minutes, or every 15 minutes through the working hours. A tax adviser offering 45-minute consultations might start slots every 15 minutes.

Each booking lasts a fixed duration in minutes, set on the profile.

Capacity

Capacity is how many bookings one slot can hold. A clinic with two consultation rooms sets a capacity of two, so two patients can book the same 10:00 slot and the third cannot.

When you check availability, each slot shows its limit, how many places are used, and how many remain. A slot with no limit shows no remaining count. When the remaining count reaches zero, the slot is shown as unavailable.

Why a booking is refused

• The slot is full: its capacity is used.
• The slot is not offered: the time falls in a period where no slot is set up.
• Outside working hours, or the department is closed that day, including closures added as exceptions; see Add exceptions and days off.
• The setup is incomplete: no active profile, or the booking has no start date and time.

Notes and limitations

• One profile is active on a collection at a time; it belongs to one location and one department.
• Capacity is checked when a booking is saved. Two people taking the last place at the same moment: the second is refused.
• The same checks apply to bookings from your website and from agents.
• Availability can be checked up to 92 days ahead at a time.

Related

To take a booking, see Create a booking; for the whole setup, Setting up booking end to end.