thread Re: How to restrict Square Appointments scheduling to only certain dates? in Archived Discussions (Read Only)

How do I fix issues with availability in Appointments?

bwolfe1121 — Sat, 24 Jun 2017 00:34:08 GMT

I am having a problem with appointments. I have had a few people email me to tell me that we are all booked for the day and time that they are requesting services, however, we aren't. I don't know if it is a parameter I set by accident or if something is wrong. Also, I thought people could schedule multiple servcies with Square?

Re: How do I remove the "all booked" from my appointments

Russell — Sat, 24 Jun 2017 00:54:15 GMT

Hey there 👋

Here are some things to check for to ensure that your Appointments availability is set as intended.

1. If you have staff, review your Staff Availability and Hours

Make sure you and your staff's hours are enabled for the days and times you are receiving an error.
Check if your staff members have Custom Availability set up. Custom Availability will override business and staff hours for one-off changes to schedules. This setting can be found in the Calendar tab of your your Appointments dashboard.

2. Review your Staff Calendar for Appointments or Personal Events

Check if the staff member has an existing appointment or personal event blocking that time slot. (Events being imported from a synced Google Calendar can also block availability and must be removed from the Google Calendar to make the slot available again).
If a personal event was created from the Appointments calendar, unchecking the Block Time box within the event details will make this slot available for online booking.

3. Check Service Settings for Blocked Time

Check if the appointment prior to the time slot in question has had extra block time added to it. Block time is enabled in the service settings, and can be disabled on a per-appointment basis from the appointment details.

Any block time enabled for a service is added to the service duration. For example, a 1 hour service with 10 minutes of block time creates a 70 minute slot.

4. Check Your Online Scheduling Preferences and Scheduling Policy

Online scheduling settings determine which time slots are displayed as available and when they can be selected. Head to the Settings tab of your Appointments dashboard to check:

Appointments are scheduled:
- According to service duration: splits your availability into time slots that match the duration of the service. For example, 20 minute services will split your available time into 20-minute slots.
- On the quarter hour: displays available slots on the quarter hour. For example: 3:00, 3:15, 3:30, 3:45.
- On the half hour: displays available slots on the half hour. For example: 3:00, 3:30, 4:00.
- On the hour: displays available slots at the top of the hour. For example: 3:00, 4:00, 5:00.
Appointments must be made in advance: This setting asks that clients book a minimum amount of time in advance, from one hour to one week. If appointments must be made 1 day in advance, the client must book at least 24 hours before the start of the appointment.
Appointments can’t be scheduled farther out than: This setting prevents customers from booking too far in advance, which comes in handy if you don’t know what your schedule will look like a few weeks/months out. For example, clients can only request an appointment within a week of the service date and time.
Fake-It filter: The Fake-It filter arbitrarily removes a percentage of available slots from the online booking site. If this filter is enabled, see if turning the filter off opens up the time slot in question.
Held Time Slots: When an available time slot in your online booking calendar is selected, Square holds that slot for 15 minutes to ensure the client has time to complete the booking. If the person who selected the time slot doesn’t finish booking in 15 minutes, the slot is once again made available to others.

It is definitely possible for a client to book multiple services. You can enable your online booking site to support this from your dashboard’s Business Settings.

Clients will only be able to select a combination of services that a single staff member can provide.

Hopefully this gets everything resolved and back to normal. Definitely post here to share any tips that especially worked for you -or- if you have any additional questions.

PS) If this answer solved your problem, would you mind marking it as "Best Answer"? That'll help the rest of the community find what they're looking for. If not, just post again here, and we'll continue to help. Thanks!

Re: How do I remove the "all booked" from my appointments

bwolfe1121 — Sat, 24 Jun 2017 02:03:24 GMT

Thank you for your reply. I checked into everything you mentioned and it doesn't seem to matter. For example, we have nothing schedule for June 29th yet, our afternoon and evening times are "All Booked." My time and my Staff time are open from 8AM to 6PM and it is still saying "All Booked" for the afternoon and evening. I don't understand why. If I don't have anything scheduled at all for that day, shouldn't the entire schedule be open? I also don't have anything on our personal calendar for that time. Any other suggestions?

Re: How do I remove the "all booked" from my appointments

Chad — Sat, 24 Jun 2017 18:32:27 GMT

Hello @bwolfe1121. If this is still giving you trouble I recomend reaching out to our Support Team. It sounds like there might be a possible glitch in the calendar then. The Support Team can dig deeper than we can here. Give them a call Monday - Friday 6:00am to 6:00pm PST.

Dates "unavailable" in Appointments for no reason?

HaikuInk — Sun, 03 Jun 2018 11:06:11 GMT

I have this entire upcoming week unavailable in Appointments for some reason. I have the setting that a client can make an appointment with only 1 day's notice, so this week and next week should be visible. I have the settings for "fake it" filter set to Off. I have zero appointments in the calendar for the week and so I cannot figure out why it is blocked out and unavailable to clients. Please help!

~Michelle Heffner

Re: Dates "unavailable" in Appointments for no reason?

Helen — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 21:45:27 GMT

I'm so sorry for the delay! Your availability can be affected by a few different settings, so I've moved your post here so you can see Russell's Best Answer to check our availability.

If you've been through each of these steps already, and the calendar is still blocked for appointments that should be available please call our Appointments CS team. They'll be able to review your account and settings to make sure you can accept appointments.

Re: How do I remove the "all booked" from my appointments

Rjohnson5400 — Fri, 15 Mar 2019 04:02:29 GMT

Is the only way you can block times, edit service duration, etc to be done on a desktop? I need asap info on how to manage this app solely from my phone...

Re: How do I remove the "all booked" from my appointments

Tom — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 00:57:31 GMT

Welcome to the Seller Community, @Rjohnson5400!

Yes—we've developed an Appointments app for both iOS and Android devices. For more details on what you can do, have a look here:

Please don't hesitate to let us know if any questions remain. Happy to take a deeper dive!

How to change my availability

Eyesbyposh — Sun, 28 Apr 2019 00:06:45 GMT

The app chose my availabilities and I need to change them because my schedule does not match my schedule on that app. Help! Please

Re: How to change my availability

nika — Tue, 30 Apr 2019 15:43:30 GMT

Hey @Eyesbyposh!

Check out the "Best Answer" on this thread. It should help!

Let us know if you have any remaining questions.

This reply was created from merging an existing thread: A...

EZStayandPlay — Mon, 06 May 2019 00:36:11 GMT

This reply was created from merging an existing thread: Appointment Calendar Not Updating Correctly

I update my calendar with custom availibility and then when I go to Test it and book an appointment it's showing my first available day isn't until weeks out which isn't the case. I'm available the 7th for example, but it's greyed out to where nobody can book there. Why is this? I have 7am-10am available the 7th, but my booking calendar when someone goes to book is not reflecting this information.

Thank you.

Re: Appointment Calendar Not Updating Correctly

Helen — Mon, 06 May 2019 00:35:19 GMT

That sounds odd @EZStayandPlay. If you haven't already I would start by going through the steps shared by Russell here: How do I fix issues with availability in my Appointments? There are several factors that determine your availability and he goes through each one step by step!

Square availability not showing

Llisap14 — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 14:52:49 GMT

This reply was created from merging an existing thread: Square availability not showing

I’m fairly new to square appointments. I have availability ongoing but it’s showing up that I am booked until August so I’m missing out on appointments now.

i do not have the ‘fake it’ button on and up until late last night everything was working well

Re: Square availability not showing

Helen — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 14:49:40 GMT

Hey @Llisap14, I'm sorry to hear this happened all of a sudden. A few different things can impact your availability — can you follow the steps to check your settings in this thread: How do I fix issues with availability in Appointments?

It's usually one of these factors but if you've been through everything please call Customer Success team. We have Appointments specialists on hand who can investigate!

Fake it filter won’t turn off

lawmoore519 — Sat, 23 Nov 2019 18:09:32 GMT

square is blocking off almost all of my available online appointments even though the fake it filter is turned off. How do I contact square directly?

Re: Fake it filter won’t turn off

nika — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 14:22:40 GMT

Hey @lawmoore519 -

I moved your question to this thread so you can take a look at this best answer and go through Russell's checklist. Any of those reasons could be why you're availability isn't looking right.

However, if that checklist doesn't do the trick, you can always contact our Appointments team.

Good luck!

Re: How to restrict Square Appointments scheduling to only certain dates?

Jmckittrick93 — Fri, 13 Dec 2019 18:43:32 GMT

Was this feature ever made available? I am also looking to restrict certain services to event dates. Thanks!

Re: How to restrict Square Appointments scheduling to only certain dates?

Kassi_ — Sun, 15 Dec 2019 16:40:02 GMT

Hi @Jmckittrick93 -

Thank you for checking in on this Appointments feature! You do have the option to set your availability now.

Check out the "Best Answer" on this thread to see the options for setting the availability for your Appointments.

Book certain appointment types on certain days

THarry — Sat, 28 Mar 2020 22:26:52 GMT

I would like to only allow certain types of appointments to be booked on certain days. For example - appointment type #1 is a 30 minute appointment and I offer that service on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Appointment type #2 is a 10 minute appointment and I offer that service on Wednesdays and Fridays. Can I customize booking to deny a service being scheduled on the wrong day?

Re: Book certain appointment types on certain days

Kassi_ — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 15:18:49 GMT

Welcome back, @THarry -

I moved your post to a board with some helpful tips and tricks with setting specifics on your appointments.

Check out the Best Answer by our wonderful Russell on how to get it set up.