How can I customize my availability with availability groups?

Who is this article for?

By default, clients can book any of your appointment types whenever you are open. Availability groups let you decide, for each appointment type, on which days and at which times it can be booked online. For example: online sessions only on Tuesdays, in-person visits the rest of the week.

This article explains how to turn availability groups on, create a group, link it to your appointment types, and how groups work together with your opening hours.

Before you start: availability groups are managed in Settings > Availability (www.colib.io/settings?show=availability). You need access to the practice settings to manage the groups of the whole practice. Each practitioner can also manage their own groups (see Step 4).

1Turn on availability groups

1. Go to www.colib.io/settings?show=availability. You can also click the Settings icon (gear) in the top bar, then Availability in the Admin menu on the left.
2. In the Availability Groups section, turn on Enable Availability Groups.
3. Choose whether to turn on Ignore the opening hours of the clinic and of the practitioners (see the table below). We recommend turning it on.
4. Click Save at the bottom of the section.

Important: as soon as availability groups are enabled, an appointment type that does not belong to any group can no longer be booked online. Create your groups and link every bookable appointment type before you rely on your booking page.

2Create a group

1. Click Add group under the options.
2. Enter a Name that your team will recognize (for example, Online appointments - Tuesdays). Clients do not see it.
3. For each day, switch it to Open or Closed, and choose the start and end times of the open days.
4. In Applicable appointment types, tick the appointment types that follow this schedule.
5. Optionally, turn on Is temporary ? and choose a start date and an end date (both included): the group then only applies during that period, which is handy for a summer schedule or a temporary clinic.
6. Optionally, choose a Practitioner (Optional): the group then only applies to that practitioner. If you leave it empty, the group applies to all the practitioners of the clinic.
7. Click Save. The group is saved right away and appears in the list.

In the list, an icon shows the type of each group: a building for a group that applies to the whole clinic, a person for a group reserved to one practitioner, and a clock for a temporary group.

The result is immediate on your booking page: with a group like the one in our example (online appointment types, open on Tuesdays only), your clients are only offered time slots on Tuesdays for these appointment types.

3Check the groups of an appointment type

The link also works the other way: each appointment type shows the groups it belongs to.

1. Go to Settings > Appointments (www.colib.io/settings?show=appointments) and click the appointment type.
2. Open the Direct booking section: the Availability Groups field lists the groups of this type. Add or remove groups, then save the appointment type.
3. Make sure Available for client booking and waitlist is turned on, otherwise the type is never offered online.

4Let each practitioner manage their own groups (optional)

When availability groups are enabled, each practitioner finds an Availability Groups section in Settings > Personal > Availability (www.colib.io/settings?show=personalscheduler). The groups they create there only apply to themselves, and they can edit, duplicate or delete them.

Good to know

• Several groups for one type — an appointment type can belong to several groups. It can then be booked during all the time slots of those groups combined. Example: add your online types to a Mondays group as well, and they can be booked on Mondays and Tuesdays.
• Duplicate, edit or delete — use the icons at the end of each row. Duplicating is the fastest way to create a similar schedule.
• Only online booking is affected — groups decide what your clients can book online. You can still create any appointment yourself from your scheduler.
• Other limits still apply — pauses and absences, statutory holidays, the booking window of each appointment type and your existing appointments still remove time slots. See how to control how far in advance clients can book and how to configure pauses and absences.
• Irregular hours? — if your hours change from one week to the next, see how to manage your shifts.

Still have a question?

Write to us at support@colib.io, we will be happy to help.