Fixing overlapping appointments

Find where the overlap came from, move one booking and keep every booking in a single place.

Common problems

The public booking page only offers open times, so it doesn’t create overlaps by itself. When two appointments clash, the usual cause is a booking agreed outside the tool, an imported file or a schedule change made after the booking existed. Here’s how to fix the clash and keep it from returning.

Find the clash. Open the day or week view for the provider concerned and look for two bookings sharing the same time. Check how each one was created: through the public page, by a member of the team, from an imported .ics file, or agreed by phone and entered later.

Decide which booking moves, usually the newer one or the one entered by hand. Phone the client yourself, because 4appointments sends no automatic message about changes, and offer the nearest open time. The sooner you call, the easier it is to find an alternative that suits them.

Move the booking in the calendar by dragging it to an open slot or editing its time. Moving a booking checks the provider’s availability and overlaps, so the tool won’t let you replace one clash with another.

Then look for the cause and prevent repeats. Did you add a block over bookings that already existed? Was an ICS-subscribed calendar refreshed late, since busy blocks update about every 15 minutes? Enter every phone or in-person booking in the Bookings section, where availability is checked for you.

Key takeaways

  • ✓The public page offers only open times, so most clashes come from bookings made elsewhere
  • ✓Creating or moving a booking in the panel checks availability and overlaps
  • ✓Warn the client by phone yourself, as the tool sends no change notices

Common questions

How can overlaps happen if I already use an online system?+

Most often a booking was agreed by phone or message and never entered, an .ics file was imported over existing items, or a schedule change was made after the booking already existed.

Is there a way to get an alert when an overlap is created?+

There’s no separate alert. Instead, the booking page hides taken times and creating or moving a booking in the panel checks overlaps, so look at the day and week views regularly if you suspect a clash.

Related guides

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