Scheduling & Availability

Scheduling & Availability is the source of truth for every appointment offered through Online Booking or the AI Voice Assistant. Configure the schedule once instead of maintaining separate Online Booking and AI hours. Open Settings → Scheduling & Availability.

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Check readiness first

The top of the page shows separate readiness results for Online Booking and AI booking. A result can need attention when, for example, every Business Hours day is closed or AI booking has no enabled service. Older workspaces may see Choose one shared schedule because their previous Online Booking and AI hours were different. Choose the hours you want to keep, review the resulting schedule, and click Save. Nothing is replaced until you save.

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Choose a scheduling model

Choose the simplest model that matches how the business accepts work.

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Simple capacity

Set Concurrent appointments to the number of jobs the whole business can handle at once.

• Use 1 when only one appointment can run at a time.
• Use 2 when any two appointments can run at the same time.
• Set it to 0 to pause new booking availability intentionally.
• You do not need staff shifts or resource assignments in this model.

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Team

Team mode uses active staff resources. Each available staff member can handle one appointment at a time.

• A staff member can inherit Business Hours when no dated shift exists.
• Shifts are optional. Add them only when a person’s schedule differs from the shared hours.
• You can limit a service to specific qualified staff members.
• A Google Calendar event blocks only the connected staff member’s availability.

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Advanced resources

Advanced mode can require people and physical resources for the same appointment. Click Add resource, choose a type, name the resource, set its capacity, and select the services it can support. Common resources include:

• a detailing bay;
• a mobile crew;
• a shared equipment or capacity pool;
• a staff member.

Adding a Bay does not make it mandatory for every service. Assign a service to that Bay when the service should require an available Bay.

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Understand service qualifications

Qualifications are evaluated separately for each service. In Team mode:

• if a service is not selected for any staff member, every active staff member is eligible for it;
• once you select that service for one or more staff members, only those selected staff members are eligible.

For example, if three employees are active and Ceramic Coating is selected only for Alex, only Alex can receive that booking. A second Ceramic Coating request for the same time is unavailable while Alex is occupied. Select the service for Alex and Sam if both can perform it. In Advanced resources mode, qualifications also determine which resource types an appointment requires. For Ceramic Coating:

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Set Business Hours and booking rules

Business Hours create the weekly service window shared by Online Booking and AI booking. Then use booking rules to control how times are offered. Service duration and slot increment are different. A 90-minute service with a 30-minute slot increment can start at 9:00, 9:30, or 10:00 if the complete 90-minute period and its buffers are available.

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Set service durations

The duration on each service controls how long the appointment occupies the schedule.

• Explicit durations such as 15, 30, or 45 minutes are preserved.
• A bookable or AI-sellable service with no duration uses 60 minutes.
• When a customer selects multiple services, their durations are added together.
• Buffers are added outside the combined service duration.

Set accurate durations under Settings → Services & Pricing. The 60-minute value is a safe fallback, not a replacement for accurate service times.

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Add date exceptions

Use Date exceptions for a holiday, closure, special opening hours, or a one-day resource change. You can apply an exception to the whole business or to one resource. A whole-business exception changes or closes the shared service window for that date. Within that window, each resource follows this order:

1. A resource-specific date exception
2. An explicit dated shift
3. Recurring resource hours
4. Inherited Business Hours
5. Unavailable when none of the above applies

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How a slot becomes available

A time is offered only when all applicable checks pass:

• the time falls within Business Hours and any resource schedule;
• the minimum lead time and advance window allow it;
• the entire service duration and buffers fit;
• the business or every required resource has remaining capacity;
• no existing order, temporary selection hold, date exception, or blocking Google Calendar event conflicts with it.

Online Booking and AI booking use the same result. The AI cannot invent or override an unavailable time.

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Choose what a submission creates

Online Booking can use either outcome. Both show the customer that the request is Pending review, but they reserve time differently. The AI Voice Assistant follows the same availability rules when an allowed action checks a time or creates a booking.

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What the AI prompt controls

The AI prompt remains important for tone, questions, explanations, and escalation instructions. It does not define service hours, capacity, qualifications, or valid appointment times. Put those hard rules in Scheduling & Availability.

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