Appointment rules
The six settings that decide what can be booked, by whom, and how far ahead.
These are enforced on the server, not in the interface. Whatever a form allows, a booking that breaks one of these is refused — which is what makes them safe to relax and tighten as you learn your own rhythm.
| Rule | Default | What it stops |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum notice | 60 minutes | A patient booking a slot you are already walking into. |
| How far ahead | 60 days | A calendar filling up further out than you have planned staffing for. |
| Default visit length | 30 minutes | Slots being generated at a length that does not match how you work. |
| In person | On | Nothing — turn off if you are online-only. |
| Online | On | Nothing — turn off if you never do video visits. |
| Reminders | 2 | No-shows, mostly. See reminders. |
Choosing a minimum notice
An hour suits a clinic with a front desk watching the calendar. If nobody sees new bookings until the morning, a longer notice is kinder to your own staff than a short one is to patients.
Example
The same clinic, two policies
- 60 minutes — a patient at 14:00 can take the 15:00 slot. Good if someone is at the desk.
- 12 hours — today is effectively closed to new online bookings. Good if the calendar is checked each morning.
- Neither is more correct. The wrong one is the one nobody chose.
Choosing a booking horizon
Sixty days is generous for most clinics and too generous for any clinic whose staffing is not planned that far out. If you roster monthly, a horizon longer than your roster is a promise made by the calendar that the rota has not agreed to.
Visit length
This is the fallback. A service can carry its own typical duration, and when a booking names a service, the service wins. Set this to your most common visit, not your longest.
The assistant respects every rule on this page when it books. It cannot offer a slot the rules would refuse, so you do not have to teach it your policy twice.
Common questions
- Can a rule be different per doctor?
- Working hours can be. The rules on this page are clinic-wide — deliberately, because a patient cannot be expected to know that one clinician takes bookings on different terms.
- Can the front desk override a rule?
- Staff booking from the calendar are not held to the minimum-notice rule — it exists to stop a patient surprising you, not to stop you fitting someone in.