Setting Up and Editing Rosters (Availability)
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Roster functionality is used to determine what times in each calendar is shown as available (white or custom) or unavailable (greyed out). This helps users to quickly identify availability in the calendar. Your Roster is also used to determine where and when you are available for appointments which are booked by clients on your Client Portal.
The effect for users: Roster settings serve as a visual cue. Receptionists, for example, are still able to book appointments in the "greyed out" (not available) times if needed.
When Client Appointments are created in your calendar the Roster is used to set the location of the appointment. (If you are seeing a client outside of your Rostered hours your calendar's " Default Location" will be used. This can be found in Setup → Calendars.)
The effect for your clients: If you have given your clients access to the "Client Login" feature they will only be able to book appointments during times that are marked as "available" in the roster and that have 'Client can book online' ticked. All other times will be "greyed out" and they will not be able to schedule appointments during these periods.
Setting Up and Editing Standard Weekly Rosters
- Setup → Roster.
- Select the calendar from the left-hand side menu.
- If there is an existing Weekly Roster click 'Edit', otherwise click "Add New Roster".
- Set the Period of the roster. This will require a start date of when this roster will commence in the calendar. You can either enter an end date or leave it as 'Ongoing' so that the roster is implemented for all future dates.
- Add an optional Description (this is only shown on the Roster page for your own reference).
- Set the Location for the Roster (new appointments booked during the rostered period will be linked to this location).
- Set the frequency that you would like this to recur (i.e. repeat after one week, two weeks (fortnightly) or four weeks (monthly)).
- Under Days and Times, you can go through each day and add your availability. To add a block of availability for a day click "+ Add Availability" and then use the filter to set the start and end time of the block.
- If you use the client portal and would like to allow your clients to book in during this available time tick 'Clients can book online' and this will display this time block as available for the client. If this is not ticked, this time block will show as unavailable in the client portal.
- Click 'Save'.
Important
Make sure you have set your timezone correctly in your Power Diary account. The availability times you have set in the roster will display in the clients' local time zone in the Client Portal. To set the timezone properly, go to Setup → Configuration → Business Info.
Using the 'Roster Override' feature
The Roster Override allows you to enter one-off exceptions to the main roster for situations such as Public Holidays and Annual Leave. Availability settings in the Roster Override take priority over the main roster settings
- Setup → Roster.
- Select the desired calendar.
- Select "Add New Roster Override".
- Select whether you will be Available or Unavailable.
- Enter the Period and Time.
- Select the Location.
- Enter an optional "Description" details for your reference.
- Click Save.
Important
If you select a period longer than one day, all the hours between the From and To dates will be included in the Roster Override
Hint 💡
You can edit or delete your Roster Override settings at any time.
Using Rosters with Multiple Locations
If you have more than one location you would create a Standard Weekly Roster linked to each location. This will allow you to reflect your availability at each location. Each location can have a colour attached which is reflected in the calendar to help you easily identify which location you are working in each day. To associate a colour with each location please follow these steps:
- Access the location via Setup → Configuration → Locations.
- Edit an existing location, or click "Add Location".
- Use the colour picker provided to select the desired colour for the location.
Once you have created a roster for each location, your calendar would then be displayed with the background colour indicating which location they are available in for that time slot. Here is an example: