How to configure pauses/absences ?

Who is this article for?

If your clients book online, you sometimes need to stop bookings for a few days: a vacation, a conference, a training day, a clinic closure. You may also want to stop only some appointment types on specific days, or only for some practitioners of your clinic.

An appointment pause does exactly that: during the pause, clients can no longer book the selected appointment types with the selected practitioners. This article explains how to create, edit and delete a pause, and how to check that it works.

Before you start: pauses are managed in Settings > Availability (www.colib.io/settings?show=availability), in the Admin part of the settings. You need access to the practice settings to manage them.

1Open the appointment pauses

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. Scroll down to the Appointment Pauses section. It lists the pauses already created, with their name, start date and end date.

2Create a pause

1. Click Add pause.
2. Enter a Name (for example, Annual conference). It is shown in your list of pauses and on your scheduler.
3. Click the Start Date field and choose the first day of the pause in the calendar, then do the same for the End Date. Both dates are included in the pause: a pause from November 26 to November 27 blocks both days entirely.
4. Choose who is affected: 
   • leave Pause all clinic practitioners on to pause the whole clinic;
   • or turn it off, then select one or more practitioners in Applicable practitioners (for example, yourself only).
5. Choose what is paused: 
   • leave Pause all appointments types on to stop every booking;
   • or turn it off, then select the types to stop in Applicable appointment types. The other types stay bookable.
6. Click Save. The pause appears in the list.

In the example above, the pause applies on November 26 and November 27, 2026, to one practitioner only, and to every appointment type. To pause only some appointment types, turn off Pause all appointments types and pick them in the list:

3Check the result

Once your pause is saved, check your online booking page: no appointment can be booked during this period for the paused practitioners and appointment types. The paused days show None instead of time slots.

On your Scheduler (www.colib.io/scheduler), an icon (a calendar with a cross) appears next to the date when a pause is configured that day for at least one of the selected practitioners. Hover over the icon to see the name of the pause.

4Edit or delete a pause

• Edit — click the pencil icon on the row of the pause, change the dates, practitioners or appointment types, then click Save.
• Delete — click the trash icon, then Confirm. The days become bookable again right away (if they are inside your availability).

Good to know

• Online booking only — a pause stops the bookings made by your clients (booking page, changes made by clients, waitlist offers). It does not cancel or move the appointments already on your scheduler, and your team can still add appointments manually during a pause.
• Whole days — a pause always covers full days. To block only a few hours, add a Busy event on your scheduler instead: see How can I block time on my scheduler?
• Shifts — a shift never opens availability on a paused day: see How to manage your shifts (extra availability).
• Regular days off — for days you never work (for example every Friday), change your weekly availability instead: see How can I update the days and hours that I work?

Still have a question?

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