📝 Overview

If you use the Appointments feature, you'll need to create availability schedules for your instructors so you can link them to the relevant Appointment Types. An availability schedule defines the times an instructor is available for appointments, and each instructor can have one or several. For example, separate morning and afternoon schedules, or venue-based schedules.

This guide covers how to add and edit schedules, set regular hours, create overrides, block time across all of an instructor's schedules, delete a schedule, and how instructors can manage their own availability.

💡 Schedules also handle clashes for you. If an instructor teaches other events, appointments can't be booked while they're instructing something else.

🎥 Video Tutorial

You can watch a video tutorial about managing your instructor's availability schedules here.

📍 Where to manage instructor availability

There are three places to manage your instructors' availability for Appointments. This guide focuses on the second option below, where you open a specific instructor's schedules directly.

Staff ➜ Instructor Availability - An overview of all instructors with availability schedules, showing which schedules are linked to which Appointment Types. Use this to assign or reassign schedules across multiple instructors and Appointment Types from one page. See how to use the Instructor Availability tool here.
Staff ➜ Staff Management ➜ next to a staff member's name, click Options - Manage Availability- Opens a specific instructor's schedules directly. This is the entry point covered throughout this guide.
Classes/Appointments ➜ Appointment Types - You can also link instructor schedules to an Appointment Type as you create or edit it. See how to set up an Appointment Type here.

📅 Adding & editing availability schedules

Once you're in the tool, you can add schedules and set their regular hours. A new instructor starts with a default availability schedule where every day is set to unavailable - you can rename it, build on it, or delete it and start fresh. The full process is below.

Click the arrow to learn how to add a schedule and set regular hours

🟢 Adding a schedule

To add a new schedule, click + Add Schedule and enter a name. Instructors who already have schedules also have the + Add Schedule option.

Once created, the schedule is split into Regular Hours and Override Hours, and you'll see options to block time and edit the schedule's name.

🟠 Adding, editing & removing regular hours

This is where you set the days and times the instructor is available on this schedule. By default every day is set to Unavailable.

🔶 Add

Click a day of the week and, in the popup, select any other days you want to include. Then enter one or more time intervals and click Apply. The Regular Hours timetable will then show the details you entered.

🧠 Using the example above, if you linked this weekend schedule to an Appointment Type, clients could book sessions on Saturdays and Sundays from 7:00 am–10:00 am and 11:00 am–1:30 pm.

🔶 Edit

Click the day of the week and add or remove times as needed.

❎ Creating & managing overrides

Overrides let you change an instructor's hours on specific dates, or mark them unavailable, without altering their regular weekly schedule. The regular schedule applies unless a day has an override. Overrides apply to the schedule you're editing.

Click the arrow to learn how to create, edit, and remove overrides

➕ Create an override

Head to the Override Schedule section and click a date. To override several dates at once, select them in the popup, then adjust the availability.

From there you can:

Set days as unavailable.
Add different hours if the schedule on those days differs from the regular schedule.

💡 Days with overrides are highlighted in yellow on the timetable.

✏️ Edit an override

Click the dates you want to change and adjust the availability as needed.

🗑️ Remove an override

Select the dates and click Restore default schedule to remove the override entirely and return those days to the regular schedule.

🚫 Blocking time across all schedules

Blocking time makes an instructor unavailable across every one of their schedules at once - useful for holidays, sick leave, or any time off. Use the Block Time button to set this up.

⚠️ Blocks apply to all of the instructor's schedules, not just the one you're viewing. To change availability on a single schedule only, use an override instead.

Click the arrow to learn how to create, edit, and delete blocked time

➕ Create a block

Click Block Time and, in the popup, select the dates you want the block to apply to. Then you can either block the entire day for those dates, or set unavailability intervals for them.

💡 Blocked times are highlighted in purple on the timetable.

✏️ Edit a block

Head to the Override Hours schedule, click the blocked interval on a day, and select other days in the popup if needed. Adjust the hours and click Apply.

🗑️ Delete a block

Head to the Override Hours schedule, click the blocked interval on a day, and select other days in the popup if needed. Then click Remove Block Time.

✏️ Editing a schedule's name

To rename a schedule, click Edit Schedule, change the name, and click Save.

🗑️ Deleting a schedule

To remove a schedule entirely, click Delete Schedule, then click Save.

⚠️ Deleting a schedule automatically removes it from all Appointment Types it's associated with.

🧑‍💻 Can an instructor manage their own availability?

Yes. Instructor availability can be managed by account Admins and Owners, or by the instructors themselves. Instructors don't need any additional permissions to manage their own availability, they just need to be set up as a staff member with instructor status.

Instructors can manage their own availability by heading to My Account ➜ Manage Appointment Availability, where they can manage all their schedules in exactly the same way described in this guide.

💡 Haven't set up a staff account for an instructor yet? See creating instructors and adding them to Classes, Appointments and Courses here.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Find answers to common questions or additional details that may not be covered in the main instructions.