Booking and moving appointments

An appointment is a time you and a customer have agreed. CLEO's job is to make sure the time you offer is one you can actually keep, and to remember what was agreed if it changes.

Starting a booking

Book an appointment appears wherever an appointment would naturally come up: on Bookings, on the calendar, on a customer's record, and on a piece of work. Starting from a record fills in what it already knows — the customer, the day you clicked, or the work it belongs to.

What the form asks

• Client or lead — noted Clients and leads both. Booking a lead does not convert them.
• Purpose — what the appointment is for.
• How long, then the Day and when it Starts.
• Where — and an Address or link if it helps.
• Appointment type (optional) — one of the kinds you offer, or Something else with your own words.
• Related work (optional) — a piece of work this appointment belongs to.
• Notes (optional).

Then Book appointment. CLEO confirms with Booked.

How CLEO offers times

When your scheduling is set up, CLEO offers only times it can see are free, and says so: CLEO is only showing times it can see are free for the length you chose, going by your booking hours, your dates that are different, and what is already booked.

Until that setup is complete, CLEO says what it still needs and lets you type the time yourself, with a plain warning: You're choosing this time yourself — CLEO isn't checking whether it's free.

When your own rules get in the way

Some times are free but break a rule you set — too soon, or too far ahead. CLEO names which, as Inside your usual notice window or Outside your usual booking window, and offers a checkbox: Book it anyway.

That is all it is: your rule, set aside deliberately, by you, this once.

When the time isn't free at all

If the time is genuinely taken, closed or full, CLEO doesn't save it. It says why, lists what is Free that day: instead, and offers a different checkbox: Book it anyway — CLEO will record that it was booked without free time showing.

The wording is the difference. The first checkbox sets aside your own preference; this one records that you booked over something CLEO could see. The appointment's history then says so permanently: Booked although CLEO showed no free time.

Moving an appointment

Open the appointment and choose Change the time or details. The same form opens, headed Change this appointment.

• Changing the time gives Moved. The appointment kept its history.
• Changing anything else gives Updated.

It stays the same appointment throughout: same record, same history, with Moved added to it. Its history also records how it was made — Booked, Confirmed in Ask CLEO, or Booked online by the customer when the customer took the time themselves.

Overlaps

CLEO tells you when an appointment overlaps another, and names them. It doesn't stop you. Two things at once may be exactly right for your business, and CLEO doesn't pretend to know.

Asking CLEO to book or move one

Ask CLEO can prepare a booking or a reschedule, and it happens when you press Confirm. It works to a stricter standard than the form:

• It books only a time it can verify is free. If it can't verify, it doesn't book.
• It won't set aside your notice or booking-window rules, and it has no "book it anyway".
• If the time goes while you're deciding, it tells you rather than booking anyway.