How to fix overlapping appointments

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

Real-world 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. Then drag the booking to a free slot or edit its time; moving a booking checks the provider’s availability and overlaps. If you created the booking, you must send the client the management link yourself.

Look for the cause. Did you add a day off or a block over bookings that already existed? Was a calendar subscribed through ICS refreshed late, since busy blocks update about every 15 minutes? Was the pause between bookings left at zero for a service that needs preparation time? The pause is added after bookings made through the public page, but not for those created by staff.

Prevent repeats. Enter every phone or in-person booking in the Bookings section, where availability is checked for you, and share the public link with clients who ask for a time. Subscribe to the ICS link of any other calendar you use so that its busy blocks close those times.

Key points

  • ✓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 did clashes happen when I 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.

Can I be alerted when a clash 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.

More guides to read

Say goodbye to double bookings

Let clients choose only from open times and enter every other booking in the panel, so your diary stays free of clashes.

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