Rooms and equipment

Sometimes it is not only the staff member that limits appointments, but a room or a device too. Four therapists work, but there are three rooms. The whole team shares one device. While the colour develops, the customer sits in the chair, so a haircut in the pause needs another one. Enter such rooms and devices in Settings → Rooms and equipment, and they are given out on their own: the same room never has two appointments at the same time. Only the owner edits rooms and equipment.

If everyone works in their own room, you don't need this: the staff members' working hours are enough.

Groups

Rooms and devices are in groups of equal ones, e.g. a group "Rooms" with Room 1, 2 and 3, or a group "Laser" with one device. An appointment needs any free one of the group, not a particular one.

• New group: enter the group's name and the names of its rooms, one per line. Without names you get one, named like the group (e.g. one laser).
• Add in a group adds another room or device.
• Change the names whenever you like. They don't repeat within a group, and neither do the groups' names.
• The Up and Down buttons set the order. An appointment gets the first free one in this order, so put the one you want filled first at the top.

Services that need them

In the service's form, under Needs, tick the groups the service needs. The field shows once you have at least one group. A service usually needs no group or one, rarely two, e.g. a room and a device. An appointment then takes a free one of every ticked group.

The list of services shows the group a service needs next to its duration, and the Rooms and equipment page shows the services that need each group.

A room is taken for the whole appointment, its pause and its buffer after included: the customer with the colour sits in the chair while it develops, and the room has to be tidied after a massage. Another appointment in the pause gets another room of the group.

In an appointment with several services, the room is taken from the start to the end of the appointment, even when only one of the services needs it.

On the booking page

Customers neither see nor choose a room. A time is offered only when a staff member is free then and one room of every group the service needs is free too. When three therapists work and both rooms are taken, the third has no free time then, even with nothing to do.

When a customer doesn't choose a staff member, they are offered times with those who have a room then. The same goes for changing an appointment in My appointment and for the waiting list: a notice comes only for a time with a free room.

A service whose group has no room switched on is not offered online.

Emails, reminders and the calendar event stay the same: customers don't see which room they got.

In the admin

When you enter or change an appointment of a service that needs a room, the form shows Room and equipment, with one choice per group. The default is Automatic: the appointment gets the first free one. You can also choose a particular one, e.g. when a customer always wants the same room. If the chosen one is taken at that time, or nothing in the group is free, the form says so before you save.

Save anyway overrides working hours, but never a taken room: two appointments in the same room at the same time are not possible in the admin either.

• A moved appointment keeps its room if it is free at the new time, otherwise it gets the first free one.
• Changing only the room, at the same time, is not a move: the customer gets no email, and the appointment's history shows it as a change.
• A cancelled appointment frees its room at once, however it was cancelled.
• When a colleague takes an appointment over at the same time in Cancel a day, the room stays the same.

In the calendar, in the appointment's details and on the Today page, the room is shown next to the service, e.g. "Classic massage · Room 2".

Switching off and deleting

Switch off a room or device you don't use for a while, e.g. while the device is being serviced. Switched off, it gets no new appointments. It can't be switched off while it has upcoming appointments: you'll see which ones, so move them to another room in the appointment form and try again.

You can delete only a room or a group that never had an appointment, not even a cancelled one. Switch the others off instead, so the appointments' history stays correct. Services no longer need a deleted group.

When you add a room, switch one on again or delete a group services needed, there may be more free times, so the waiting list is checked again.

Good to know

• Rooms have no working hours or time off of their own: they are available whenever the staff member works.
• Appointments entered before the service got its group hold no room, so a new booking at that time may overlap with them. If there are such upcoming appointments, open them and choose a room for them.