How do you stop appointments from overlapping?

Only free times are offered, and a request holds its time from the moment it’s sent.

Running your business

Double-booking is among the most common headaches when a diary is managed by hand. 4appointments reduces it by offering clients only free times and by holding a time as soon as a request arrives.

The public booking page works out free times from each provider’s weekly schedule, exceptions and blocks, and from the bookings that already exist. A time that’s taken with the same provider isn’t offered, though different providers can of course be booked at the same time. A request holds its time even while it’s pending, so a second client can’t take the same slot while you’re still deciding. If two people try for the same time together, only one succeeds and the other sees a message that the slot was just taken.

In the service settings you can set a pause, labelled “Interval (min)”, which is added after bookings, for example for tidying up or preparation. It’s taken from the service being booked and applies to the public page, not to bookings entered by your team.

When your team creates a booking in the panel, the system checks the provider’s availability and any overlaps, and also the busy blocks imported from external calendars. Those blocks come from calendar links in ICS format that you subscribe to, refreshed about every 15 minutes. There’s no two-way synchronisation.

To take yourself out of the diary, add a block or an exception under “Availability”. A pending request that nobody confirms or rejects is cancelled automatically about an hour after the end of the requested time, which frees the slot again, so it pays to check your pending list regularly.

The essentials

  • ✓Only free times are shown to clients on the public page
  • ✓A pending request holds its time until it’s confirmed, rejected or expires
  • ✓Busy blocks can be imported from an external calendar by ICS link

Common questions

What if two clients try to book at the exact same moment?+

Only one request gets the slot. The other client sees a message that the slot was just taken and can choose another time.

Can I block off a time myself, and can I run group sessions?+

Yes to the first: under “Availability” you can mark a provider as blocked for a period (a break, a holiday, an internal meeting) and clients will no longer be offered it. No to the second: each booking takes one slot with one provider for one service, and group classes with a capacity aren’t supported.

More guides you may find useful

Are overlaps showing up in your diary?

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