Specialist online booking hours

A specialist's working schedule answers "when do they work". Online booking hours answer a different question: "when can a client book them on their own". For example, a specialist works 09:00–18:00, but you keep the mornings for regular clients and book them by phone, so online booking is open only 10:00–16:00.

The feature works the same in every country and in both clouds (cenaly.com and cenaly.ru). Times use the location's time zone.

What you need#

The Appointments section and the right to save the specialist list (the account owner always has it; if saving fails for a staff member, check their role).
The specialist in the journal's list. A separate working schedule is optional: without one, working time is the location's booking hours.

How to turn it on#

Open Appointments and select 👤 Specialists above the journal (on a phone, under More).
In the specialist's row, click Schedule.
Turn on Separate online booking hours. The window is pre-filled with the specialist's working schedule (or the location's booking hours if there is no schedule).
For each weekday, set the time when clients can book by themselves. Clear a day's checkbox to close online booking with this specialist on that day — it then shows "No online booking".
Click Save.

To go back to the previous behaviour, turn the switch off and save the list: online booking is open during all working hours again.

How it works#

A client is offered only slots that fall within all of the following:

the specialist's working time (weekly schedule or a one-off day);
the location's booking hours;
the specialist's online booking hours.

A break, leave, a one-off day off and a weekly day off always win over the online window: the window only narrows working time and never extends it. If the online window is open on Saturday but the specialist does not work on Saturdays, there is no online booking on Saturday.

The same rule applies to the location's booking page, the Online booking widget on your website, pop-ups with the nearest free slots, guest chat and the Telegram bot. The booking server checks the same rule: a client's request for a time outside the window is rejected even if it bypasses the page.

Staff booking outside the online window#

Staff can book any of the specialist's working time. If the time chosen in the new appointment or reschedule form is within working hours but outside the online window, a yellow warning appears under the time field: a client could not have booked this time by themselves. The appointment is saved as usual.

Time outside the working schedule (day off, break, leave) is still not accepted by the journal — that is a separate check.

How to check the result#

Example: the specialist works 09:00–18:00, online booking is open 10:00–16:00, lunch break 13:00–14:00.

On the location's booking page this specialist has no 09:00 slot; the first slot of the day is 10:00, the last one-hour slot is 15:00, and there are no slots during lunch.
In the journal, an administrator books a client at 09:00 and sees the "outside online booking hours" warning.
On the specialist's leave day there are no slots online or in the journal.

Limitations#

One online window per weekday. There are no online windows for a specific date: special hours for a particular day are set as a one-off day in the working schedule, and that weekday's online window narrows them.
The Cenaly Team app does not edit online booking hours and does not show the outside-window warning. Set them up in the web journal.
The morning digest and appointment reports count workload by the working schedule, not by the online window.

FAQ#

The online window is set, but clients still see earlier slots#

Make sure the specialists list was saved: the window reaches the booking page after saving. If a client opened the booking page earlier, they need to reload it. In any case, the server will not accept a booking outside the window.

A client sees no slots at all for the specialist#

Compare the online window with the working schedule: if they do not overlap (for example, work 14:00–20:00, online 09:00–13:00), there are no online slots. A cleared day in the online window also closes online booking for the whole day.

Do all specialists need an online window#

No. A specialist without an online window can be booked online during all working hours, as before.

Appointments — the grid, specialists list, schedule, breaks and leave.