In this document:
Introduction
The basic Appointment Type Settings can take care of the majority of scheduling needs. However, there are lots of special situations where you want to use the Advanced Scheduling Options for your Booking Calendar.
Advanced Scheduling Options is useful when you want to limit:
- When time slots are bookable using Availability Window
- When visitors can access your calendar using Booking Window
- How far into the future visitors can book time slots using Advance
Potential Use Cases
- Take interview appointments during a three-day job fair using Availability Window
- Offer a limited-time offer of a free consultation session using Booking Window
- Schedule only seven days into the future to avoid making long term-commitments
Enable Advanced Scheduling Options
Simply Schedule Appointments turns these settings off by default. If you want to use them, you’ll just need to toggle them on.
In your WordPress admin, go to Appointments > Settings and toggle on Advanced Scheduling Options.
After enabling, you’ll see new settings options when you edit your Appointment Types.
Quick Edit for All the Appointment Types
Another way to edit the Advanced Scheduling Options for each or all the Appointment Type is to click on Edit.
Inside, select Edit Appointment Types. From here you could edit individual Appointment Types by clicking on each drop-down arrow.
Or, toggle the Edit Selected Appointment Types Individually Option to edit all the Appointment Types at the same time.
Availability Window
Under the Availability tab in the Appointment Type Settings, you’ll see a start and end date setting for the Availability Window.
This will let you choose a date range for when to show time slots. A customer looking at your Booking Calendar can only see time slots within these chosen dates.
You could also just use one of the fields.
Only use the Start Date to show time slots starting at a certain date and time.
Only use the End Date to show time slots up until a certain date and time.
Advance
In the Scheduling Options tab in the Appointment Type Settings, you’ll see a setting called Advance.
This limits how far into the future customers can book appointments. A customer looking at your Booking Calendar can’t see time slots beyond this chosen time.
For example, this setting will prevent customers from booking appointments more than 90 days in the future:
Booking Window
Finally, in the Scheduling Options tab, you’ll see a start and end date setting for a Booking Window.
This limits when customers can access your calendar to book any time slots.
A customer visiting your Booking Calendar outside of this date range can’t book any time slots at all. A message says, “This appointment type cannot be booked at this time”.
You could also just use one of the fields.
Only use the Start Date to give access to all the time slots starting at a certain date and time.
Only use the End Date to give access to all the time slots up until a certain date and time.
Booking Window vs Availability Window
The Booking Window limits when customers can access the Booking Calendar to book any time slot. The Availability Window limits when the time slots take place.
Let’s look at an example:
You want to make 20 minute photography sessions during a company holiday party.
The holiday party is happening Saturday, December 14, 2019 from 4pm to 8pm.
Employees of the company can start booking at noon on Wednesday, December 4.
Here’s how you’d set that up:
- Define a new Appointment Type and name it Company Photo Sessions
- Then setup the following settings on your Appointment Type:
- Duration to 20 minutes
- Availability to 4pm-8pm on Saturdays
- Availability Window for the appointment type to start on December 14, 2019 at midnight and to end at midnight on December 15, 2019.
- Booking Window for the appointment type to start on December 4, 2019 at noon.
