Schedule Guides: Understanding Multi-Booking Rules

Multi-booking settings help you maximize your schedule by allowing appointments to partially or fully overlap. This applies whether patients book online or you use Archy's appointment finder at your practice.

However, things can get complex if multiple Schedule Guides exist for the same time and have different multi-booking rules. Think of it like a puzzle—this guide will help you understand how it all fits together!

Multi-Booking Settings Options

• Overlap (e.g., 15 minutes) → Appointments can overlap by the set time at the beginning or end.
• Stagger (e.g., 15 minutes) → A new appointment can start after the set time has passed from an existing one.
• Complete Overlap (Stagger = 0) → To allow appointments to be fully overlapped (e.g., appointments scheduled at 10:00 AM in both Room 1 and Room 2), set the stagger time to 0.

How Multi-Booking Works

Multi-booking rules apply within a guide’s scheduled time frame (e.g., 9 AM–12 PM) and affect all available rooms for a provider. These rules work across different appointment types, as long as there are no conflicting settings.

Example 1 

Imagine Dr. Jones has the following Schedule Guides every Monday from 9 AM–12 PM:

• Op 1: 60-minute New Patient Appointments with a 15-minute overlap allowed.
• Op 2: 45-minute Emergency Appointments with a 15-minute overlap allowed.
• Op 3: 90-minute Crown Appointments with no overlap allowed.

How this works in practice: 

1. You book a New Patient appointment from 9:00–10:00 AM in Op 1.
2. You then use the appointment finder to search for an Emergency appointment and see availability in Op 2 starting at 9:45 AM (because both guides allow a 15-minute overlap). You book 9:45–10:30 AM.
3. You then search for a Crown appointment. Since the Crown guide doesn’t allow multi-booking, the first available slot is 10:30 AM in Op 3—after all other overlapping appointments are complete.

Key takeaway: Multi-booking only applies when both appointment guides allow it.

Example 2

Imagine Dr. Jones has the following Monday schedule from 9 AM - 12 PM:

• Op 1: 40-minute New Patient Appointments with a 10-minute overlap.
• Op 2: 30-minute Emergency Appointments with a 15-minute overlap.

Here's how it plays out:

1. You book a New Patient appointment in Op 1 from 9:00–9:40 AM.
2. You then use the appointment finder to search for an Emergency appointment. Even though Emergency allows a 15-minute overlap, the already-booked New Patient appointment only allows 10 minutes. So, the first available Emergency slot is 9:30–10:00 AM in Op 2.
3. You search for another New Patient appointment. You see availability in Op 1 at 9:45 AM, even though Dr. Jones is in Op 2 at the same time. This works because Emergency appointments allow 15-minute overlaps. You book 9:45–10:25 AM in Op 1.
4. The next available Emergency appointment that could be scheduled is at 10:15 AM in Op 2 (since the New Patient appointment from 9:45–10:25 AM allows a 10-minute overlap).

To learn more about how to set up Schedule Guides, see Setting Up Your Perfect Schedule with Schedule Guides.