Where a Diary User needs to block out a section of their diary for a particular reason you can use Blocked Slots to act as an indicator that this user is not available for additional bookings at that time.
Blocked Slots are a way of demonstrating that a Diary User may be present at the clinic, but is not free for client bookings. If you wish to mark a Diary User as completely unavailable for a period of time then you may wish to alter the diary availability.
It's possible to report on both blocked out time and diary availability using the Diary Statistics report found via Reports > Reports & Mail Merge > Appointments.
Section 1 - Non-Availability Reasons
a. Each time you create a Block in the diary you can choose to allocate a particular reason for the user not being available at that time. Examples of these could be meetings, training, or admin time. Specifying reasons allows you to see, at a glance why the user is not available at that time. It also allows you to report on how much time each reason takes up in the diary.
b. To begin adding or modifying your Non-Availability reasons head to Tools > Look-Up Tables and double click Non-Availability Reasons.
c. Here you will find a list of any existing Reasons on your system. Make changes to an existing entry by highlighting and choosing Modify, or add a new reason by pressing Add.
d. When adding or modifying a Reason you'll see the following screen. Here you can give the Reason a name that will appear on the diary in order to identify the purpose of the block. You can also set a default duration should one be required. This can always be modified at the time of adding the block to the diary if required.
You can also choose to assign a colour to this particular reason in order to make identification of blocked slots easier when looking at the Appointments Diary.
Section 2 - Blocking out an Appointment Slot
a. You can add in a blocked slot much in the same way you'd book in a client appointment. Select any slot in the diary and choose Block.
b. In this screen ensure the correct Diary User is selected. You can also assign the Block to a Location and a Room. If you assign the block to a Room then you will also see the block when viewing the diary by Room.
Choose the date and duration of the block, using All day if the block should run for the duration of the clinic's diary running time for that user on that day. (This is the duration set via Tools > Options > Appointments Diary Options > Diary)
c. You can then choose your Reason for Non-Availability. If you set a default duration for this Reason then you will be prompted to adjust the duration of the block to that amount of time.
d. Enter any relevant notes in the Notes field.
e. Should you wish to Repeat this diary block for this diary user then you can use the Repeat function. This can also be done at a later date by double clicking the Blocked Slot in the diary and choosing Repeat.
f. Choose OK to save the Block into the diary. You can modify existing blocked slots at any time by double clicking. Delete them from the diary by selecting them and choosing Delete from the top menu.
