Find appointment options

A customer rings: "When can you come round?" Until now you looked for a gap in the calendar. But a gap is not the same as a good time: that free hour on Thursday may cost your colleague forty minutes of driving from the job before it, while on Tuesday there is a slot where they are already round the corner.

The planner turns the question around. You fill in what needs doing and where, and Schedulinq shows the times that fit best around what is already planned — with, for each one, who does it, how well it fits and how much driving it causes. It is the same arithmetic your booking page does for customers; the difference is that you now see why a time is good.

In short

1. On the Calendar, click Find options.
2. Pick the customer and the service. The address comes from the customer record.
3. Read the options on the right: time, who, score and driving.
4. Click a row — the appointment form opens with everything filled in.

Where to find the planner

The Find options button sits in the calendar toolbar, next to Create appointment. The same button is at the top of Appointments → Overview, on the customer record under the Appointments tab, and on the page of a customer's object. From the customer record the customer is already filled in; from an object, that object too, and it goes along to the appointment. The planner needs the same right as creating an appointment; without it, the page does not open.

To go round the planner, Plan manually at the top right of the page opens the ordinary appointment form, without a time.

The question: what and where

The question reads from top to bottom: who, where, what, by whom, from when and how strict.

Customer

Optional

Search by name, email address or phone number. As soon as you pick someone, Schedulinq takes the address from the customer record and starts searching.

Why

A customer is not required, because the person calling is not always a customer yet. Leave the field empty and type the address yourself. Pick a customer later and they go along to the appointment form.

Address

Required at the customerConfirm it

The address where the work happens. For a customer with an address it is there at once, as a single line. Change address opens the fields again, and Use this address confirms what you typed.

Why

Nothing is searched until the address is confirmed — not while you are still typing. Schedulinq looks the address up on the map and stores it, and you do not want that for every half-typed street name along the way. While the fields are open, the right-hand side says exactly that: confirm the address to search for options.

If the typed address differs from the one on the customer record, Use the customer's address appears beside it to jump back. Pick one of your locations for the first service and there are no address fields left to fill in: this is then the name and address of that location, and that is what the planner measures from. Choose a Video call or Phone call and there is no address at all: it says Video call — no address needed or Phone call — no address needed.

Services

RequiredUp to ten services

Every service is a numbered row of its own: its name, and under it in grey the duration and the add-ons — 75 min · Extra filter set. Click the row or its pen to open it; there you change the service, the duration and the add-ons, and the arrow folds it again. One row is open at a time: open another and the previous one folds. On an empty page, row 1 is already open, on Choose a service.

Why

The service decides who may carry it out, how long it takes and which add-ons can go with it. A folded row says at a glance what is being searched for, also when there are several services.

In an open row:

• Appointment type — the same three-step choice as on an ordinary appointment: for the first service, first where — at the customer or at one of your locations — then the category, then the service.
• Duration — the service's duration plus the chosen add-ons. Adjust duration lets you type a number of minutes; Automatic puts it back.
• Add-ons — a compact picker with the same list as on the appointment form. Tick what needs adding; on an add-on with Multiple units you set the count on its row.

Why

The planner looks for a gap of exactly this duration, and passes it on to the appointment form. If you know this visit will run long — an old installation, awkward access — adjust it here rather than on the form: otherwise the appointment no longer fits the slot the planner offered you. An add-on makes the appointment longer — that many times over, with multiple units — and narrows who can do it to the colleagues who carry out that add-on too. The planner searches again after every change.

If the service has no fixed duration — an appointment type whose length you set per appointment — the duration opens on 30 minutes, with This service has no fixed duration. Enter how long this appointment takes. underneath. There is no Automatic to go back to then. The planner does not search for less than 5 minutes or more than 24 hours. A folded row with such a duration turns red, with Check this service; if it is what holds the search back, it opens by itself.

Add another service

Optional

If several services need doing for this customer one after the other — a maintenance service and straight after it a breakdown call-out — click Add another service under the rows. A new numbered row appears and opens by itself, so you choose its service straight away; the row that was open folds. The bin on a row removes that service again. Remove service 1 and service 2 becomes the first.

Why

The planner then looks for one visit of the whole length in a row, and the line under the rows says how long that is. Only colleagues who carry out every service and every chosen add-on qualify — in the example, only Mark. The visit happens at one place, so a further service can only be one offered there.

If nobody can do all the chosen services, the planner does not search and says No staff member can perform every selected service. Pick services they share. If you chose someone under Staff member who cannot do them all, it names them: pick someone else, or Anyone. At ten services the button goes away; no more fit in one booking.

About the appointment

Only with skillsOptional

The first service's questions that decide who can do the job — the kind of unit, the make of the boiler. They are only there if you use skills. Each question opens on its default answer; Clear leaves it unanswered.

Why

The answers decide whose calendars the planner searches. Pick a Staff member yourself and they are always searched, whatever the answers say. If nobody who does the service fits the answers, the planner says Nobody who does this service fits the answers — choose a staff member to search anyway. The answers go along to the appointment form.

Job

Only with jobsDefault: All jobs

Narrows the Staff member list to a job, such as Engineer. Pick nobody further and the planner searches only the colleagues with that job. Only there when you have jobs and may see the whole team's appointments.

Staff member

Default: Anyone

Leave it on Anyone and the planner searches across your whole team, naming the person on every option. Pick one colleague and you see only their times.

A colleague of whom Schedulinq reads no calendar carries the note calendar not connected in the list. Pick them and the line under the field says it again: appointments in their own calendar are not taken into account in this search.

Why

Anyone is almost always the better answer: the best slot often sits in someone else's route than the person you had in mind. Narrow it to one person only when the customer specifically asks for them. You see this field only if you may see the whole team's appointments; otherwise the planner searches your own calendar. If you yourself do not fit the answers, a line says so; your calendar is searched anyway.

If the colleague you pick has a certificate that has expired, expires soon or has not been filled in, the field says so underneath. A row among the options looks at the day of that appointment itself; see the table below.

Preparation time

From the appointment type

The minimum number of days ahead an appointment has to be, taken from the appointment type. With several services it says The longest of the chosen services underneath: the planner then works with the longest preparation time of all the rows. Adjust overrides it for this search.

Why

An emergency visit may be tomorrow even if the type normally needs three days' notice: set it to None. It works the other way too: if the preparation time falls beyond the four weeks the planner searches, it says so and offers a button to search from the first possible date.

How strict?

Default: Strict

The bar a time has to clear to be shown. Under the buttons, one line says what the chosen setting means.

Why

Strict shows only times that fit tightly around what is already there — little driving, but little choice. Medium drops the times with too much driving. Lenient shows more times, including ones with more driving. The planner starts on Strict, whatever you set for your booking page: you see the score and the driving beside each option, so you can decide for yourself whether a middling time is worth it. If Strict finds nothing, go one step looser before changing anything else. The choice here counts for every colleague in the search, also for those whose service area has a strictness of its own.

For a video or phone call this choice is not there. A call costs no drive, so the bar measures nothing: every setting would give the same rows.

The answer: options

The times are grouped by day, in order of time: the earliest at the top. Every time in the list already clears the chosen bar; the score beside it says by how much. Each row reads from left to right:

• The time the appointment would start and end.
• Who does it.
• The score, as a percentage. The higher, the better the time fits the existing route. The colour says how far the row sits above the chosen bar: green is comfortably, yellow is only just. If one row has the highest score, it gets a green frame.
• The drives this time causes, one line each: 14 min · 7.1 km from the previous appointment in Amstelveen (12:50) and 11 min · 5.2 km to the next appointment in Amsterdam (14:45). You see the town and the time of the neighbouring appointment, never that customer's name.

A few more things a row can say:

The chevron on the right of a row opens the rest: the drives from and back to the start point, and the day's total.

Finding a time for a call

When you look for a time for a video or phone call, the rows look different. There is no score: a call costs no drive, so every time would score 100%. Instead of drives, the row says where the call falls in the colleague's day:

• after the previous appointment (until 11:00) — straight after what is already there. That can be a visit, another call or an event in the connected calendar, such as a Teams meeting.
• before the next appointment (at 14:00) — straight before it.
• nothing else planned that day.

If the call falls between two visits, the planner still checks that the drive between them fits. Whether the call may fall during that drive is set in Booking rules.

Looking further

The planner searches four weeks and shows the times that clear the bar six at a time, in order of time. Next options shows the six after that; once the times in those four weeks are used up, it moves on to the four weeks after. Previous options goes back.

It skips empty weeks by itself. If the planner finds nothing above the bar in four weeks, it looks four weeks further on its own — up to three times, sixteen weeks in all. Above the rows it then says which weeks were empty: Nothing from … to … — these are the first options after that. It does not do this when a setting or the preparation time is the cause (see When nothing comes out): four weeks later would say the same. Previous options never skips — going back to an empty stretch is something you do on purpose.

A new question starts from the front again. Change anything in the question — a service, a duration, the staff member, the strictness — and the planner searches from today again, not from the later weeks the previous question had jumped to. Only a period you chose yourself, with Next options, Previous options or Search from …, is kept.

From option to appointment

Click a row. The ordinary appointment form opens with everything the planner knew already filled in: the customer, the service, the date and time, the staff member from that row, the add-ons with their counts, the address and the duration — and the object, if you opened the planner from one.

If you searched for several services, a click on a row opens the Book several appointments page instead, with the customer, the place, every service with its add-ons and duration, the colleague from that row and the start time filled in. See Schedule several appointments in a row. Plan manually goes there too with several services, without a start time.

Nothing is booked at that point. You check, change what you like, and click Create — exactly as when you schedule an appointment. Schedulinq then asks, as always, whether the customer should get a confirmation.

Opened from your CRM

If your organisation links its CRM to Schedulinq through the API, a Plan button in the CRM opens the planner for the lead you are working on. You click it, and the planner opens with the customer, the service, the colleague and the address already filled in — or, when the CRM names no colleague, on everyone who does the service. When the CRM names a service that can take place in more than one place without saying where, the planner asks Where first and only then searches. When the CRM names no service but a name and a duration, see A link without a service. If you were not signed in, Schedulinq asks you to sign in first and then opens the planner.

A banner above the planner says Opened from a planning link., followed by Appointments you book here get this metadata: and the CRM's references — a deal number, for example. The customer is already filled in, in the Customer field. Pick a time as usual; you may also pick another colleague. The appointment you save carries those references, so the CRM knows which lead it belongs to. Several appointments from one click are fine, also on the Book several appointments page.

After saving, Back to the CRM at the top of the appointment's page takes you back to the CRM — when the CRM gave a return URL and an admin has allowed it. The same link sits in the planner's banner.

A link from the CRM opens the planner once, within 15 minutes, for the person who clicked. When it does not, you see why:

A link without a service

A CRM can also have you plan something that is not a service in your catalogue: a name and a duration, such as Discuss the quote, 45 minutes. The planner then opens with that appointment as the first row under Services: the name, with 45 min · no service under it. Open the row and it says where it came from.

• Where is chosen in the row itself, when there is more than one place: at the customer's, one of your locations or a call. There is no service to decide it for you.
• Duration follows the link; Adjust duration searches another length.
• If you do pick an Appointment type, you plan that service instead of the appointment from the link. There is no way back to the link's name after that, other than clicking Plan in the CRM again.
• Without a service there is one row: Add another service is not there, and there is no preparation time unless you set one.

Pick a time, or Plan manually, and the appointment form opens with the name, the duration and the place filled in, without an appointment type.

If the banner says The link with the CRM is no longer available, an appointment you make now does not carry the CRM's references: click Plan in the CRM again.

Several colleagues from your CRM

A CRM can have one lead planned with several colleagues — a lead sold to three buyers, for example. You do not have to click Plan three times: the planner opens with one block per colleague under Options, in the CRM's order. Each block names the colleague with the CRM's references that belong to them — a campaign number, for example — and shows the options for that colleague alone, with its own Next options. There is no colleague picker then. If the service has questions about the appointment, your answers apply to every block; a colleague who does not fit them is marked Does not fit the answers.

1. Click a time in a colleague's block. Under the row the time is repeated, with Book and Cancel.
2. Book saves the appointment straight away; you stay in the planner. The block now shows Booked with the time and an Open appointment link, and the other blocks are searched again.
3. Repeat for the next colleague. An appointment right after the previous one is fine: the planner never offers a time at which the customer already has an appointment.

Once everyone is booked, the planner says All booked, with Back to the CRM and — when the CRM opened the planner in a new window — Close window.

• If a time was taken in the meantime, the block says so and shows the options as they are now.
• If the appointment has required fields only the appointment form asks, picking a time opens that form; after saving you come back to the planner.
• Reload the page and you see who is already booked, up to 24 hours after you opened the link.
• Outside service area is per colleague: the tag says the lead is outside that colleague's area.
• These appointments follow your normal communication flow: the customer gets what your steps send, and the messages to your team go out as for any other appointment. No compose window opens per colleague.

When nothing comes out

No options above the bar. There were times, but none of them cleared the chosen strictness — and because the planner skips empty weeks by itself, that usually covers sixteen weeks, not four. Three ways out: one step looser under How strict? shows the times that were just under the bar; Next options looks further ahead still; Plan manually opens the form and leaves the choice to you.

Nobody is assigned to this service, no single staff member can do all the chosen add-ons, nobody works at this location according to the roster — these are not search results but settings. The planner cannot find anything then, whatever you do to the strictness. Look at the appointment type, the add-on or the schedule.

The preparation time falls outside this period. The first possible date is more than four weeks away. The Search from button for that date jumps straight there; or set the preparation time to None for this one search.

No staff member can perform every selected service. Only with several services: nobody does them all. Remove a service or pick another, or assign someone to those appointment types. If the message names a colleague, it is they who cannot do them all; pick someone else or Anyone.

Nobody who does this service fits the answers. Under About the appointment there is an answer nobody with this service has. Change the answer, click Clear, or pick a Staff member: they are then searched anyway.

The duration must be between 5 minutes and 24 hours. Outside that the planner does not search. The service with that duration turns red and opens by itself; adjust the duration there.

This address was not found. Check the street, house number and town, and confirm again.

Slow down. You have searched a great deal in a short time — every change is a search. Wait a moment and try again.

Frequently asked questions

Why do I see a time tagged outside service area? Because the planner searches for you, not for the customer. On the booking page a customer outside your service area gets no times; you may decide for yourself that this customer is worth it. The tag says for which colleague the address is outside the area for this service — with several service areas that can differ from row to row.

Some gaps are never offered, whatever the strictness. Then a maximum drive between appointments is probably set, for your organisation or for the colleague's service area. The planner keeps to it, and has no button to lift it for one search; Plan manually still lets you book the time yourself.

Why do I have to confirm the address? I did not have to for the customer. The address on the customer record is already known, so it is confirmed at once. An address you type yourself is only looked up and stored once you say it is right.

The planner shows different times from what my customer sees on the booking page. Correct. The planner starts on Strict while your booking page follows its own setting, it searches across all your staff, and it shows everything above the bar over four weeks rather than a few times per day.

Can I pick a time that is not in the list? Yes. Plan manually opens the form without a time; you fill in a moment yourself, as always.

The customer field is greyed out and says I cannot search customers. Then your role may not search all customers. The planner still works: enter the address and confirm it.