Appointments

Services with their own length, price and staff, and the hours each person takes appointments.

Each service sets how long an appointment lasts, what it costs, where it happens and who provides it. Each staff member has their own weekly hours. Magpie puts these together with Calendar, earlier appointments and any room or equipment a service needs to work out the times customers can book.

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Starting from a business type

Setting up Appointments starts with a business type: Salon or barber, Massage or wellness, Consultant, Tutor or music teacher, Photographer, Cleaning service, Home services, Pet grooming, General appointments, or Start from scratch with one simple service. Magpie adds that type's suggested services, makes you a staff member, and sets hours of 9 AM to 5 PM, Monday to Friday.

Until the booking page is published, the Overview lists the services, the staff, the weekly hours and the booking page as one list to check and change in place.

A service's details

Each service is a section on the Services page; click a value to change it. Add service asks for a name only, and the new service is offered by everyone accepting appointments until you choose otherwise.

Duration
Typed as you would say it, such as 45 min or 1 hour. The row shows it back as Magpie read it.
Price
Shown to customers on the booking page, in the team's currency. Appointments does not take online payment or create an invoice.
Description and location
The description appears under the service's name on the booking page. The location is shown once the customer chooses the service, and in their confirmation.
Buffers
Time kept free before and after each appointment, such as for cleaning up between clients. The appointment and its buffers have to fit inside the staff member's hours.
Staff
Who customers can book for this service. Availability uses those people's weekly hours and Calendar.
Available to book
Switched off, the service is not shown to customers and its existing appointments are kept.

Staff and their weekly hours

The Staff page lists every team member who can use Appointments, with a switch for whether they accept appointments. A member who is limited to some areas needs Appointments among them.

Weekly hours
One open range for each day of the week, typed as hours such as 8:30am to 6pm, or Closed. Someone switched on with no hours yet starts at 9 AM to 5 PM, Monday to Friday.
Name on the booking page
Each person's section title is the name customers see. Clear it to use their account name again.
Services
A person can be booked for a service only once they are chosen on that service.
Switching someone off
Switching someone off also takes them off their services. Someone with future appointments stays on until those are completed or cancelled, and at least one person always stays on.

How available times are worked out

For each staff member who provides the chosen service, Magpie checks each start time in their hours for the day and offers it only when all of these allow it.

  1. Hours and start times

    Start times follow the Start times setting from the beginning of the day's hours. The appointment, with its buffers, has to end within those hours.

  2. Notice and range

    The time is after the Minimum notice and within the Maximum range.

  3. Calendar

    The time does not overlap a Calendar event the person created or answered Going to, in Personal or any of their teams. Private event details are never shown on the booking page.

  4. Other appointments

    The time, with its buffers, does not overlap the person's other confirmed appointments and their buffers.

  5. A required resource

    When the service needs a room or equipment, it is free too.

Rooms and equipment from Resource Booking

A service can require one resource from Resource Booking, such as a treatment room. Magpie shows a time only when the resource is open and free for the appointment and its buffers, including its open hours and any unavailable times, and reserves it with each appointment. Rescheduling moves the reservation, and cancelling frees it.

The resource has to use the same time zone as the booking page, and its bookings have to be confirmed automatically: a resource that needs an admin's approval cannot be chosen. With no resources yet, the row links to Resource Booking to add one.

Add your services and staff.

Create a Magpie account, open Appointments and choose your business type to start with its suggested services.

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