Booking and moving appointments in the Scheduler

In the Scheduler you can book appointments for any employee, and move appointments to a new time, employee or room. You need the Manage Scheduler Appointments permission, see Calendar and Scheduler permissions.

Appointments are booked with the same three-step wizard as My Calendar: Select Client → Configure Appointment → Add Costs. The only difference is that the first step also has a Selected Employee drop-down. Fields marked with a red asterisk (*) are required. Move between steps with < Back and Next >, or click Cancel at any time to close the wizard without saving.

Starting a booking

  • Double-click an empty slot. The date and time are filled in. If the slot is in an employee's row (Horizontal layout) or column (Day view, Vertical layout), that employee is already selected too.
  • Click + New Appointment. No employee is selected, so you choose one in the first step. Use this to book across offices.

Select Client

  1. If no employee is selected, choose one in the Selected Employee drop-down. This is the employee the appointment is assigned to.
  2. Click the Client drop-down. Type in the search box to filter the list. Each client is shown with their location to help you pick the right one.
  3. Select the client and click Next >.

The Select Client step, with Demo User already chosen in the Selected Employee drop-down

Configure Appointment: type, time and place

The client is shown at the top and can't be changed here.

  1. Appointment Type (required): choose the kind of appointment, such as Initial assessment or Work site visit. The wizard title changes to show the type. The type decides which costs, invoice options and notifications apply, see Appointment types.
  2. Appointment Status: set to Booked by default. Change it if needed.
  3. Assigned to: the employee the appointment is for. When you book from My Calendar or the Scheduler, this is set before this step and can't be changed here.
  4. Attendees: to invite people, expand Attendees and choose from the case's contacts (for example, the client or the employer) or the employees allocated to the case. Allocated employees are the Assigned to employee and Other Staff in the case's Allocation section. The client isn't added as an attendee automatically.
  5. Start date and End date: set the date and time. Tick All day for an all-day appointment, or tick Recurrent and click Recurrence Details for a repeating appointment.
  6. Time Zone: defaults to your organisation's time zone, which an administrator sets under Tools → Options → General. Change it only if the appointment is in a different time zone. See Time Zones.
  7. Location and Room:
    • For an appointment at one of your offices, choose the office as the Location, then choose a Room. A room is required for office appointments. Only rooms belonging to that office are listed.
    • For an appointment away from your offices, such as at the client's primary address, choose the Location only. No room is needed.
  8. Details: add any notes about the appointment.
  9. Click Next >.

If Microsoft 365 calendar sync is set up, each attendee with a valid email address receives an Outlook meeting invitation. The invitation includes the client's name, so check that it's appropriate to share it with every attendee you add, and add the client only if they should receive one. If sync isn't set up, attendees are recorded on the appointment but no invitation is sent.

Add Costs: service and travel costs

Adding costs is optional. Which costs you can add depends on the appointment type: if the type doesn't allow service costs or travel costs, you won't be able to add them. This step is still shown, so just click Save or Save & Close.

Costs are calculated from activities. Each activity has a rate, and the subtotal is the time multiplied by that rate. Activities are set up under Lists → Activities, see Activity List. For more about costs, see Add cost.

Adding a service cost

  1. Click Add Service Cost.
  2. Click + in Select Service Cost. The Add a Cost Description window lists the available activities with their charge codes and rates.
  3. Select an activity and click Select. The Subtotal is calculated from the appointment length. For example, a 30-minute appointment at $110.00 per hour is $55.00.
  4. Optionally, type a note in Case Cost Notes (up to 255 characters).
  5. Repeat for more service costs. To remove one, click its bin icon.

Adding travel

  1. Click + in Travel Time. The Travel Time panel shows the Destination, which is the address of the Location you chose in the previous step.
  2. Choose a Starting Location: one of your offices, or Previous Appointment to start from where your previous appointment that day was held.
  3. Choose the travel duration:
    • Use auto-calculated duration: Case Manager works out the driving time and distance with Google Maps (for example, 13 min, 6 kms). Click the map pin to see the route in Google Maps. This option appears only if Google travel time is set up.
    • A preset duration: 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 1 hour, 1 hour 30 minutes or 2 hours.
  4. Click Save to return to the Add Costs step.
  5. Click + in Select Travel Cost, choose your travel activity and click Select. For example, 13 minutes at $220.00 per hour is $47.67.
  6. Optionally, add Case Cost Notes for the travel.

If the destination or starting location has no address, travel time can't be calculated automatically. Check whether the address is missing from the client or office record. Some appointments, such as telehealth, have no travel at all.

If the travel time doesn't meet the appointment type's rule

You can't save the appointment until you choose a duration that meets the travel rule for its appointment type:

  • For a minimum rule, Case Manager shows "The duration is below the allowed minimum value of n minutes for the associated Appointment Type." Click OK and choose a longer duration.
  • For a maximum rule, the Travel Time panel shows "The maximum allowable duration for this appointment type is n minutes." Choose a shorter duration.

Message: The duration is below the allowed minimum value of 20 minutes for the associated Appointment Type

Travel time can only be the auto-calculated duration or one of the presets; it can't be typed in. If the auto-calculated time doesn't meet the rule, choose the nearest preset that does. For example, with a 20-minute minimum choose 30 minutes, and with a 20-minute maximum choose 15 minutes.

Saving the appointment

Total Cost adds up all the service and travel subtotals. If you don't have permission to see cost amounts, the amounts are hidden.

Click Save to save the appointment and keep it open, or Save & Close to save it and close the wizard.

After saving

The saved appointment opens in the appointment editor. The client's name becomes a link to their case, and the record shows who created it and when. Click Edit Costs to change the costs, or Delete to remove the appointment.

Moving appointments

To move an appointment, drag it:

  • along the same row or column to change the time, or
  • to another employee or room to reassign it. You can do this in the Horizontal layout, or in Day view with the Vertical layout, where employees and rooms have their own rows or columns.

The Scheduler doesn't warn you about clashes when you drag an appointment, so check the new time is free. If the employee has auto-decline turned on, you can't drag an appointment into their unavailable time, see Employee availability and colour.

To change an appointment's details, click it to open the editor, make your changes and click Save.

The Scheduler can't be printed in release 8.0.