How provider scheduling works
Set each provider's working hours, locations and time off once, and the calendar stops offering slots nobody can actually work. This is the full walkthrough of the time grid, provider configuration and the recurrence patterns behind it.
Reading the schedule at a glance
The grid encodes availability and confirmation status in colour, so staff can see the state of the day without opening anything.
- White or light: the slot is open, click to create an appointment
- Coloured block: a booked appointment, the colour is the appointment type
- Diagonal lines: the provider is unavailable, so nothing can be scheduled
- Yellow: a break or lunch, also unschedulable
- Green left border: the patient confirmed
- Grey left border: no response yet
- Blue left border: the patient asked to reschedule
Setting up a provider
Three steps, done once per provider.
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Assign locations
Pick the provider from the list and add the locations they work from. A provider who splits time between two offices gets both, and the grid then only offers each location on the right days.
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Create weekly schedules
Add the working hours for each day. Different hours on different days is normal: create one schedule entry per day rather than trying to force a single pattern.
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Assign appointment types (optional)
Restrict a provider to the appointment types they actually handle, so the wrong kind of visit cannot be booked into their column.
Provider configuration
Locations, schedules, appointment types and time off all live in one panel, per provider.
- Providers list with active and inactive filters
- Badges show how many locations, schedules and appointment types each provider has
- Without any schedule configured, a provider is treated as available Monday to Friday during the calendar's visible hours
- Adding schedules is what restricts availability to specific days, times and locations
Providers who do not work a simple week
Recurrence patterns cover the awkward cases without manual entry every month.
- Alternating providers: set one to Odd Weeks and the other to Even Weeks and they swap automatically
- A specialist who visits monthly: use 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th Week of Month Only
- Different hours per day: one schedule entry per day, each with its own times
- Half days: a Custom Hours override rather than a full closure
Time off, and the part people get wrong
Overrides cover one provider. Holidays close the whole office. Neither touches appointments that are already booked.
- Use an override for one person: vacation, a conference, a half day
- Use a holiday for office-wide closures: Christmas, Thanksgiving, a staff training day
- Adding time off stops NEW bookings in that window, it does not cancel existing appointments
- Anything already on the schedule has to be reviewed and rescheduled by hand
- Enter approved time off immediately, so patients are never booked into it in the first place
Questions we get about scheduling
Can a provider have different hours on different days?
Yes. Create a separate schedule entry per day. A provider working 8am to 5pm Monday and 9am to 6pm Tuesday gets two entries with different times.
How do two providers alternate weeks?
Set one provider's schedule to Odd Weeks and the other to Even Weeks. They then alternate automatically with no monthly maintenance.
What happens to existing appointments when time off is added?
Nothing automatic, and this is the most common surprise. Time off blocks new bookings in that window; appointments already scheduled stay where they are and must be reviewed and moved by hand.
Why do some slots show diagonal lines?
Diagonal lines mean the provider is unavailable: they do not work that day, it is outside their hours, they have an override such as vacation, or it is an office holiday.
How do I add a provider who comes once a month?
Use a week-of-month recurrence. A specialist who visits the first Monday of each month gets a Monday schedule with 1st Week of Month Only.
Can an appointment be moved to a different provider?
Yes. Appointments drag horizontally into another provider's column, which is the quick fix when a patient needs to switch providers.
How do I see one provider on their own?
Click the provider's name in the time grid header to switch to single provider view, where they take the full width. The back arrow returns to the multi-provider view.
Can the schedule be printed?
Yes. Print from the browser while viewing the time grid. The page has print styles so it formats properly on paper.
See it with your own provider mix
We will set up a couple of your real schedules, including the awkward ones, and show you how the grid behaves.
Talk to our team