Setting Up Appointment-based Services

Overview: What are we talking about?

By the end of this article, you should have an understanding of how to set up appointment-based services by configuring service settings and specialist availabilities. Appointment-based services are services which are scheduled at a specific date and time and are also schedule with a specific person — known in Gingr as a specialist. This article will cover how to configure a service's settings in order to be an appointment and how to assign a specialist to a specific service and manage their availability.

This article includes:

• Setting Up Services
• Field Guide
• Setting Up Specialists Overview
• Setting Up Time-based Specialists
• Setting Up Slot-based Specialists
• FAQ

Helpful Hints: Before you begin.

• When dealing with appointment-based services, you have two categories of settings to consider: service settings and specialist settings. Service settings will determine things specific to that service and will apply to all specialists assigned to that service. Specialist settings will determine certain aspects for a specific user, for a specific service.
  
  
• Time-Based Specialists have specified appointment start times with a capacity for how many appointments can be taken at each specified time.

• Slot-Based Specialists have appointments that start on specific dates but at no specific time. Slot-based appointments are great if you have a drop off time in the morning or if a specialist does not necessarily process services in the order that they arrive.

   

Video Tutorial: A helpful tour.

Set it Up: Let's get started.

Step 1: Set Up the Service

You will want to begin by setting up a service. If you have not done so, you can create a service by navigating to the Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Reservation Types and Services Configuration. You can create a new Additional Service under a Reservation Type via the "Create a new additional service" button.

When you create a new additional service, you will be presented with a series of service settings to configure. Appointment-based services will need to have the "is scheduled" setting set to "Yes/On". Please refer to the field guide below for a description of each service setting:

Field Guide: 

Important! For services that have variable prices such as Baths, you do not need to set a rate on the Location Default Rates page. Instead, you can leave the rate set to $0.00 and simply turn on the setting to Auto-Charge Last Time when setting up the service. This will allow you to set a rate for each animal who receives this service the first time they check out. Because the system can remember service rates per animal, it is not necessary to set up different services for each weight range unless scheduling needs to be controlled differently for each size variation. 
 
To turn on this setting:

1. Go to Left-hand Navigation: Admin » Reservation Types and Services Configuration
   
   
2. Edit the service in question. When this setting is on, this message will pop-up when checking out an animal who has received this type of service:
   
   
   
   

Step 2: Set Up the Specialist

Specialists are employees who can be scheduled to perform specific services by appointments (e.g. groomers and trainers). Specialists can also have commission automatically attached to the services they complete. In this section, we will show you how to set up an existing user as a specialist, how to set their schedule, and how to set their commission for each service that they perform. There are two methods for setting up specialist availability. 

Time-Based Specialists have specified appointment start times with a capacity for how many appointments can be taken at each specified time. Time-based appointments are great if you have specific drop-off times for appointments or if your specialist processes appointments in the order that they arrive.

Slot-Based Specialists have appointments that start on specific dates but at no specific time. Slot-based appointments are great if you have a drop off time in the morning or if a specialist does not necessarily process services in the order that they arrive.

Setting Up a Time-based Specialist:

Once a user account has been created for an employee (and services have been set up) you may then set the employee up as a specialist; assigning availability, services, and commission for that employee.

Navigate to Left-hand Navigation: Reports and More » Specialists.

1. Select the User.
   
   
2. Select the Location where this user will be available. 
   
   
3. Select one of their services that they will take appointments for. You will need to create availability for all services that this Specialist provides. See below for how to easily copy availability. 
   
   Important! If you do not see the service here, make sure the service setting "is scheduled" is turned on with a set interval, duration, and default start time.
   
   
4. Enter a commission percentage in a decimal format.
   
   
5. If you would like customers to see and book this Specialist from the Customer Portal, tick the box "Show to Customers". 
   
   
6. Select Time-based in order to display specific start times for appointments for this user.
   
   
7. Enter the Start and End Times for each day of the week in the format below:
   
   
8. Enter the Capacity for each appointment start time. If this field is left blank, it will allow you to book infinite appointments at each appointment time. 
   
   
   
   
9. Save Schedule! 

 

 

 

Setting Up a Slot-Based Specialist:

A "Slot" represents an average amount of time for a service (for example a slot could represent 15 minutes). Services will take up an amount of these "slots". For example, a nail trim might take 1 slot (15 minutes) whereas a full groom may take 8 slots (2 hours). The Specialist will display a number of slots across all service types. These appointments will not start at specified times, but rather be done at any point throughout the day. When using slots, customers will not receive emails communicating exact appointment start times. 

You will need to determine the number of slots per day of the week. Since a slot is an amount of time, and not a capacity for this specific service, this amount of slots will apply to all services for this specialist. 

Once a user account has been created for an employee (and services have been set up) you may then set the employee up as a specialist; assigning availability, services, and commission for that employee. 

To set up a slot-based specialist:

Navigate to Left-hand Navigation: Reports and More » Specialists. 

1. Select the User.
   
   
2. Select the Location where this user will be available. 
   
   
3. Select one of the services that they will take appointments for. You will need to create availability for all services this Specialist provides. See below for how to easily copy availability. Important! If you do not see the service here, make sure the service setting "is scheduled" is turned on with a set interval, duration, and default start time. 
   
   
4. Enter a commission percentage in a decimal format
   
   
5. If you would like customers to see and book this Specialist from the Customer Portal, tick the box "Show to Customers".
   
   
6. Select Slot Based 
   
   
7. Decide what amount of time a Slot represents and enter the amount of these time slots your specialist has in a day. In the following example, we are assuming a Slot represents 15 minutes. If our Specialist is available for 8 hours, they will have 32, 15-minute slots in a day. As mentioned above, a nail trim may take 1 slot (15 minutes), whereas a full groom may take up 8 slots (2 hours). 
   
   

 

FAQ: Check this out!

• How do I copy availability to other days of the week?
• How do I add breaks?
• How do I copy availability to other services or specialists?
• How do I book time-based appointments?
• How do I book slot based appointments? 

   

How do I copy availability to other days of the week?

You can copy the times for a day of the week to other days by simply clicking on the duplicate icon: 

 

 

How do I add breaks?

You can create breaks in a Specialist's availability by clicking on the + icon 

 

  

 

How do I copy Availability to other services or specialists?

 To save setup time, you can copy the availability you just created to a Users other Services or to other Users who have the same availability by doing the following. 

 

1. Click on the Pencil icon to the left of the Specialist's name that you would like to copy. 
   
   
   
   
2. Scroll down 
   
   
3. Change the Service or User and Save again. This will copy the availability to the new user or the new service. Repeat until all users are available for all of their services. 
   
   

 

 

How do I book time-based appointments?

When booking a time-based appointment, you will see specific appointment start times. 

In the following example, we have a service Interval of 60 minutes (which is displaying the appointment start times), and a service Duration of 60 minutes (which will take up a 60-minute time block when an appointment is booked). The Specialist is will be taking appointments from 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM (we see the last appointment start time of 3:00 PM because her appointments are set to 60 minutes so this will allow her to be done by 4:00 PM). 

 

When selecting the animal, you can increase the duration in order to block out future appointment times. In this example, we have increased the duration from 60 minutes to 90 minutes. This cannot be set by customers. 

 

A time-based appointment will appear on the Specialist's section of the Facility calendar at the select start time and will take up the duration that was set when booking the appointment. 

 

 

How do I book slot-based appointments?

Because slots don't start at a specified time, you will not see appointment times, but rather a single block allowing you to book an appointment for that date.

 

When selecting this appointment type for a dog, you will be able to select how many slots this specific service requires for this specific dog. The system will remember this # of Slots for this dog, for this service, when they request a future appointment. 

 

Unlike time-based appointments which appear at specified start times, and display for a specified duration, the facility calendar will display Slots in their own section at the top of the Specialist's calendar for that date. In the following example, this dog will take up 8 slots (2 hours) for their full-service grooming appointment.