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An alternative to appointment slots in Google Calendar, the Appointment Schedules feature allows you to create schedules that allow clients and colleagues to schedule appointments with you. What’s great about this feature is that it offers the flexibility to fully customize your availability.
Along with basic features like an editable booking form and email reminders, you can add multiple time slots per day, choose how far in advance people can book, and include a buffer between appointments.
Let’s take a look at how to customize your availability and more in Appointment Schedules.
Edit an existing appointment schedule
If you’ve already set up an appointment time that you’d like to change using the options below, select it in Google Calendar and click the pencil icon to edit it.
You can also customize these options if you are setting up your first appointment or an additional one.
general availability
When you set up an appointment schedule, you select the days and hours that it is open for appointments. These are then displayed on your booking page where others can click to select a time.
Depending on your business or service, you may want to add another time period of one or two days. For example, you may be available from 9 am to 11 am and then again from 3 pm to 5 pm on the same day. On the other hand, it may not be fully available on certain days, such as weekends.
Go to the General Availability section in the Bookable Appointment Scheduling sidebar. To add a time period for a day, click the plus sign and enter the time period. You can add multiple time ranges for the same day.
To remove a time period, click the circle with the line through it. You can do this to remove a specific time period for a day or make the day unavailable for appointments.
Programming window
The Scheduling Window section allows you to limit the time range for appointment bookings. You can choose “Available Now” or enter start and end dates for all appointments. The latter is useful if you only want to allow reservations for a certain period of time.
You can then adjust the minimum time in advance that someone can book an appointment and the minimum time before an appointment’s start time that someone can book. Check the box for one or both functions, and then enter the time in the drop-down box or use the arrows to move up and down in small increments.
tight availability
You may have a particular day that you would normally allow reservations but prefer not to. For example, it could be a holiday, a special occasion, or a day when you will be out of town. At the same time, you may have additional time available on a specific date that you want to add.
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Click “Change the availability of a date” and choose the date from the pop-up calendar. Then enter the time period you are available for that date.
If you will not be available for the entire day, click on the circle with the line through it.
Booked Appointment Settings
Maybe you need a little time between appointments or you can only accommodate a specific number of appointments per day. The “Booked Appointment Settings” section allows you to add these types of items, so expand that section.
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Check the box to add a buffer between appointments, and then enter the number of minutes or hours. Your booking page is then updated to reflect this change in available appointment times.
Check the box below if you want to limit your appointments per day, and then enter the number.
If you decide to take advantage of appointment times in Google Calendar, keep these customizations in mind. You can have the exact schedule you want!
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