Studio Manager’s Booking & Scheduling was designed to help you get your time slots ready as quickly as possible. All you need to do is set up your session type’s availability, and you’re good to go! If you want to fine-tune how your time slots appear though, you can check out the options listed in this article.
On this page:
Start Time Increment
This setting is located at the bottom of your Availability section. This setting determines how your time slots will appear to clients when they book a session.
Here are some examples of how different increments will affect the way time slots are displayed:
- 30 Minutes: 9:00, 9:30, 10:00, 10:30, 11:00, etc.
- 45 Minutes: 9:00, 9:45, 10:30, 11:15, 12:00, etc.
- 5 Minutes: 9:00, 9:05, 9:10, 9:15, 9:20, etc.
Since this setting affects how time slots appear to clients, we always recommend reviewing your availability’s Client View if you make any changes to ensure the updated time slots are appearing as you intended.
Maximum and Minimum Notice
These settings are located in your session’s booking rules, and they allow you to determine how far in advance a client can book a session.
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How far into the future can clients book: Determine up to how many days away a client can book a session.
- Example: If set to 180 days, your client will only see available time slots up to 180 days away from their current date.
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What is the minimum notice you need: Prevent clients from booking without enough notice.
- Example: If set to 1 hour, your client will only see available slots that are more than 1 hour away.
If you choose to make adjustments, it is important to avoid making these settings too restrictive, as this could prevent you from securing bookings. For example, if you set your minimum notice to 30 days, that means none of your clients will be able to book a slot within the current month!
Buffer Time
This setting is located in your session’s booking rules, and allows you to set an amount of additional time to block off before and/or after a client’s confirmed session. It is handy if you need time to prepare between sessions, and would like to avoid back-to-back sessions.
If set up, it is important to keep in mind that the buffer time will only come into play after a session is confirmed. As an example:
- For your 30 minute photography session, you set a 15 minute buffer time for after the session.
- A client pays and confirms your 3:00 time slot (i.e. 3:00 - 3:30 PM).
- Your buffer time will kick in and block off 15 minutes after the confirmed session. When other clients try to book a session afterwards, they won’t be able to see or select any time slots that fall between 3:00 - 3:45 PM.
Availability Request
This setting appears at the bottom of your session’s Availability settings. With it, you can determine whether clients can request for a specific slot outside of your available options.
By default, your session type is set to Allow availability request. With this specific setting, your client can select a session based on the available slots they see, or they can submit an alternative date and time for your approval.
If you’d like to change this default setting, you have two alternative options: Do not allow availability request and Session by request only.
- Do not allow availability request: A client can only select a session from the available time slots. The option to request an alternative date and time will be removed.
- Session by request only: If this option is selected, your time slots will be removed. Instead, your client will be asked to provide their preferred date and time (in addition to their basic client information like name and email address). From there, you will receive their submission as an inquiry and will be able to approve/decline it.