Staff hours, availability and time off

Most of this lives on Sidebar → Team & Payroll → Time Management. Owners and managers can change it. Staff with the "manage schedules" permission can open the page too.

Four things control when someone can be booked. Set them in this order.

1. Working hours

Each team member has a weekly pattern: which days they work and the hours on each. The calendar uses this to decide who gets a column, and online booking only offers times when someone is working.

1. Go to Time Management and open the Team Schedules tab.
2. Find the person and press the Edit schedule (pencil) button.
3. In Work Schedule, set the hours for each day. Mark the days they don't work as Day off.
4. Save.

Get this right first. Most "the calendar shows the wrong people" questions are someone with no hours set, or old hours from a rota they no longer work.

The Booking Times tab lets you set exact start times per groomer per day, like 8:00, 10:30 and 1:00. When set, the Available Times list in the booking form and your online booking page offer only those times.

2. Time off

1. Staff ask for time off from Sidebar → Calendar → My Time Off and press Request Time Off. They pick the dates, a type (PTO or Sick Time) and an optional reason.
2. An owner or manager opens Time Management → Time Off Requests and presses the check to approve or the X to deny.

Requests are pending until someone acts on them. A pending request blocks nothing.

Approved time off blocks new bookings. Once approved:

• The person shows "(time off)" in the booking form, and a warning appears if you pick them.
• Saving a booking for them on that day is refused. An owner, manager or anyone with Override scheduling conflicts can still use Book anyway and give a reason.
• Their calendar column is hidden that day, unless they already have appointments.
• Online booking won't offer them.

Approving time off does not move appointments already booked. Their column stays, marked "Off", so you can see the clash. Move those appointments yourself.

Blocking lunch, breaks and other time

To mark a lunch, break or meeting on someone's calendar, use Block Time. There is no toolbar button for it. It is in the right-click menu.

1. Go to Calendar and switch to Day or Week view.
2. Right-click an empty slot in the person's column. On a touchscreen, press and hold. In Week view, all staff share one column per day, so pick the person in the next step.
3. Choose Block Time.
4. Check the Staff member, Date and Start time.
5. Pick a Duration (15 minutes to 2 hours) and a Type: Break, Lunch, Meeting, Prep / Setup, Cleanup, Personal or Other.
6. To repeat it, pick Weekly for 2 weeks up to Weekly for 12 weeks under Repeat. Does not repeat is the default.
7. Add a Note if you like, then click Block Time.

The block shows as a shaded box in that person's column. Anyone on your team who can use the calendar can add one.

To remove a block, click it and choose Remove Block. For a repeating block, Remove Entire Series removes every week of it.

Blocked time can't be booked. Once a block is on the calendar:

• Online booking won't offer that person during the block.
• The booking form won't suggest times inside it.
• Saving a booking for them that overlaps the block is refused. An owner, manager or anyone with Override scheduling conflicts can still use Book anyway and give a reason.

Adding a block does not move appointments already booked inside it. Move those yourself.

3. Booking limits

In Sidebar → Team & Payroll → Team Members, open a person and choose Edit Profile. Under Booking limits:

• Dogs at once — how many different families' dogs they can work on at the same time (1 to 6). Dogs from one household booked together count as one.
• Buffer between appointments — minutes kept clear before and after each appointment.
• Online dogs per day — the most dogs clients can book with this person online in a day. See Online booking.

These are checked on every booking: the form, the calendar and online.

4. Appointment capacity (optional)

On the Professional plan and up, Sidebar → Team & Payroll → Staff Capacity adds skills on top of hours:

• Skills — what each person can do.
• Service Mappings — which skills each service needs. If nobody has the skills, clients see "No one here can take this service yet".
• Utilization — how full each person is.

Most single-groomer businesses don't need this.

Who shows on the calendar's day view

The day view shows:

• everyone with an appointment that day, plus
• everyone scheduled to work that day, even with an empty book.

People who aren't scheduled and have nothing booked are hidden. So is anyone on approved time off, unless they have appointments.

To show everyone, press Display options (the sliders button, top right of the calendar) and turn on Show idle staff (day view).

Groomers only. Go to Sidebar → Business Settings → Business Profile → Calendar and turn on Show only groomers working that day under Day View Columns. Only staff with the Groomer role who are scheduled that day get a column. Bathers and others are hidden unless they have an appointment, so booked work never disappears. The setting is off unless you turn it on.

Why someone shows as available when they aren't

Work down this list:

1. No working hours set for that day, or old hours left over.
2. Time off requested but not approved. Pending requests don't block anything.
3. Time off approved after the appointment was booked. Existing bookings stay put.
4. Dogs at once is set higher than they can really handle. Lower it in Edit Profile.

Who can change what

Owners and managers set working hours, booking limits and approve time off. Staff can see their own week under Sidebar → Calendar → My Schedule and request their own time off, but they can't change their hours.