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Scheduling - Cant schedule for regular intervals.
Problem reported by Curtis Kropar www.HawaiianHope.org - 2/13/2024 at 7:25 AM
Submitted
In the new scheduling feature. It is not possible to schedule appointments every 15 minutes. Or for that fact, every 10 minutes, or every 5 minutes (some people just need to drop off paperwork and run)
The scheduling has a minimum 5 minutes between appointments - Zero should be an option.  So when you schedule 15 minute appointments, your availability is every 20 minutes, not 15 minute intervals. you can not schedule for 8:00am, 8:15am, 8:30am, 8:45am.  Instead you get this.

Likewise, appointment length needs to be more flexible. 5 minute appointments, 10 minute, 20 minute, 90 minute. as some examples.

Trying to schedule appointments for every 30 minutes get you this : 

And what is "lead time" ? Same, that needs to be a zero option too.

www.HawaiianHope.org - Providing technology services to non profit organizations, low income families, homeless shelters, clean and sober houses and prisoner reentry programs. Since 2015, We have refurbished over 11,000 Computers !

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I see today's "Scheduling" blog post.  
We are currently on 8797.  Were these items I listed above fixed and addressed in a newer version of SM ?
www.HawaiianHope.org - Providing technology services to non profit organizations, low income families, homeless shelters, clean and sober houses and prisoner reentry programs. Since 2015, We have refurbished over 11,000 Computers !
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Derek Curtis Replied
Employee Post
Hi, Curtis

Sorry I didn't see this earlier. Let me address a few things. 

"Lead Time" is the time between the current time and when the first appointment can be made. The intention is that, when you send someone your Page URL, or when someone gets to your public scheduling page, they can't set up an appointment for right then: there's some lead time before they can schedule. This is because it takes time for the appointments to be emailed out, etc. If someone schedules an appointment for right now, there's a good chance you will never know. THat's why there's time built in. 

Regarding "Lead Time for New Appointments", we purposefully didn't allow "0" as an option. This is because there is the likelihood that schedules would be all out of whack if you had, say, 5 appointments back-to-back with 0 lead time, as there's no guarantee that each appointment would last their allotted time. Sure, some may end early, but you can't count on that. When was the last time you went to the doctor or dentist and got in at your scheduled time? With Lead Time, you can plan for those instances where a 30 minute meeting goes 40 minutes without having to hope that you have one or two earlier meetings that last only 20 or 25 minutes. I certainly understand your point, however, and I'll add it to our notes for discussion.

As for Appointment Length, I'll add that as well. We defaulted to the most common times based on looking at other services out there. Some DO offer a ton of flexibility for sure, but it is kind of ungainly. Not that this is a bad thing, necessarily, but that Length dropdown is huge if you offer 5 or 10 minute increments.
Derek Curtis COO SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com

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