Managing Your Availability
Hey there, PocketSuite Pro! Ready to set up your availability? In PocketSuite, you can break your daily schedule into multiple time windows, set special hours for specific dates, and manage availability for your entire team—all from one place. Whether you need a midday break, seasonal hours, or shift scheduling for a growing team, PocketSuite has you covered.
This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about managing your availability, from splitting your daily hours into multiple windows to creating spot schedules and viewing it all on your calendar.
How availability works in PocketSuite
In PocketSuite, you have complete flexibility in how you set up your availability. You can set a single block of working hours for each day—say, 9 AM to 5 PM—or you can split your day into multiple windows if you work mornings, take a long lunch, and then come back for an evening shift.
With PocketSuite’s availability features, you can:
- Split your day into multiple availability windows – Set up to 10 separate time windows per day (for example, 8 AM–11 AM and 1 PM–5 PM)
- Create spot schedules – Open up extra availability for a specific date or date range without changing your regular business hours
- Manage team member availability – Set different schedules for each team member, assign shifts, and apply spot availability in bulk
- View everything on a calendar – See a day-by-day view of who’s working and when, color-coded by team member
How to split your daily availability
Splitting your availability within a given day lets you create separate working windows with breaks in between. Here’s how:
- Go to Settings > Scheduling > Business hours.
- Tap the day of the week you want to edit (for example, Monday).
- You’ll see your current availability window. To add another window, tap the + Add window button.
- Set the start and end times for each window. You can add up to 10 availability windows per day.
- Make sure none of your windows overlap. If they do, the overlapping times will appear in red and you won’t be able to save until you fix the conflict.
- Tap Done to save your updated availability.
Important Note: Each availability window must be at least 30 minutes long, and windows cannot overlap. If PocketSuite detects a conflict, the Done button will be inactive until you resolve it.
Setting up Spot Availability
Sometimes you need to open up additional hours beyond your regular schedule—maybe for a busy season, a special event, or just an extra day here and there. Spot Availability lets you do exactly that without changing your default business hours.
Creating a spot schedule
- Go to Settings > Scheduling > Business hours, then tap the Spot availability tab.
- Tap the + button to create a new spot schedule.
- Select your start date and end date for the schedule. Both default to today’s date.
- Choose a Schedule type:
- Fixed – Your availability windows apply to every date in the selected range. This is the default option.
- Weekly – Set different availability for each day of the week within the date range. For example, you could have different hours on Mondays versus Wednesdays.
- Set up to 10 availability windows for each day (or for the entire range if using Fixed).
- Tap Done to save. You’ll see a confirmation and your new spot schedule will appear in the list.
Remember: Spot schedules always take priority over your default business hours. If you create a spot schedule for a date, it will override your regular availability for that date. You can only have one spot schedule per date—if you create a new one for a date that already has one, it will replace the existing schedule.
Managing your spot schedules
After you’ve created spot schedules, you can view them all in a list from the Spot availability tab. Only schedules with future end dates will appear in this list. You can tap any schedule to edit or delete it.
Keep in mind that you cannot edit a spot schedule that is entirely in the past. If a schedule is partially in the past and you edit it, your changes will only apply to today and future dates—past dates remain unchanged.
Managing team member availability
If you have team members, Split Availability makes it easy to manage everyone’s schedule from one central place.
Setting default hours for team members
- Go to Settings > Scheduling > Business hours. You’ll see your Business hours at the top, followed by a list of your team members.
- Tap a team member’s name to set their schedule.
- Choose one of three options:
- Same as business – The team member uses the business’s default hours.
- Custom schedule – Set unique hours for each day of the week for this team member.
- No availability – The team member is not available for bookings.
- If you choose Custom schedule, the days of the week will expand below and you can set unique availability windows, including split availability, for each day.
Important Note: When a team member has a custom schedule, the business hours do not apply to them at all. New team members default to “Same as business” when they’re first added.
Creating spot schedules for team members
You can also create spot schedules for individual team members or in bulk:
- Individual: Tap a team member under Business hours, then switch to the Spot availability tab to create a schedule just for them.
- Bulk create: From Settings > Scheduling > Business hours, tap the + button in the upper right. Select the team members you want to apply the schedule to, then set the availability. This creates a separate spot schedule for each selected team member that can be individually edited later.
Keep in mind: Even team members with “No availability” as their default can have spot schedules assigned to them. This is great for team members who only work occasionally or on specific dates.
Example: Using spot availability for ongoing shift scheduling
Spot availability isn’t just for one-time schedule changes—it’s also perfect for managing ongoing shift schedules when you need to staff your business seven days a week or maintain consistent weekend coverage.
How it works for ongoing scheduling:
- Set default weekday schedules. Use the Custom schedule option under each team member’s Business hours to assign their regular weekly schedule (for example, Monday through Friday).
- Create weekly spot schedules for additional coverage. Use bulk create to assign weekend shifts or extended hours to specific team members. For example, create spot schedules for Saturday and Sunday coverage that repeat each week by creating a new spot schedule for each upcoming week.
- View and manage shifts in the calendar. Use the Business Hours calendar view to see who’s scheduled each day at a glance. Each team member’s shifts appear as color-coded bars, making it easy to spot coverage gaps or scheduling conflicts.
- Make adjustments as needed. Tap any schedule bar in the calendar to edit a single day or modify the entire spot schedule. You can also delete a team member’s spot schedule entirely from their Spot availability tab.
This approach gives you the flexibility to maintain consistent shift coverage while keeping each team member’s regular schedule as their foundation. Since spot schedules always override default hours, you can layer in weekend shifts, holiday coverage, or extended hours without disrupting anyone’s standard weekly availability.
How Flex time works with split availability
Great news! With Split Availability, Flex time is calculated within each availability window independently. This means the “No Flex” option will start at the beginning of each window, not the beginning of the day.
For example, if your availability is 8 AM–11 AM and 1:30 PM–4:30 PM and you offer a one-hour service, your clients would see available time slots at 8 AM, 9 AM, and 10 AM in the morning and 1:30 PM, 2:30 PM, and 3:30 PM in the afternoon.
How Buffer time works with split availability
Buffer time continues to work the same way and applies across all your windows. For example, if you have availability from 8 AM–9 AM and 10 AM–11 AM with a two-hour buffer, a booking at 8 AM–9 AM would make the 10 AM–11 AM window unavailable due to the buffer.
Using the Business Hours calendar view
PocketSuite includes a dedicated Business Hours calendar view so you can see at a glance who’s working and when on any given day.
How the calendar view works
- From the Calendar, switch to the Business Hours view. This shows a single day at a time.
- Each team member gets their own row, with their working hours displayed as color-coded bars matching their assigned color.
- The Business row always appears at the top and shows the default business hours.
- Any blocks or synced calendar events that overlap with working hours will also appear.
- You can filter by team member using the same filter options as the month view.
Editing availability from the calendar
You can make quick schedule adjustments right from the calendar:
- Tap a team member’s schedule bar on any date to see options. If the schedule is part of a longer spot schedule, you can choose to Edit this date (change only that specific day) or Edit this schedule (change the entire spot schedule).
- You can also add new spot availability from the calendar’s + button by selecting Add availability.
Note: The Business Hours calendar view is only available to Super Admins.
Understanding how availability is determined
When a client tries to book, PocketSuite uses the following priority order to determine availability:
- Blocks always come first. If a block is set, the time is unavailable regardless of any other settings.
- Spot availability takes priority over default business hours. If you’ve created a spot schedule for a date, it replaces your regular hours for that date.
- Service or reservation availability (when set to something other than “Same as business”) must also be within the booking window.
- Resource availability must be confirmed if a resource is attached to the service.
- Default business hours apply when none of the above overrides are in effect.
Important Note: Blocks remain the best way to mark yourself or a team member as unavailable for a specific time—like a day off or vacation. You can’t create spot availability with zero hours to replace this. Blocks are always respected above spot availability.
Tips and best practices
- Start simple. Set your regular business hours first, then add spot schedules as needed for special occasions.
- Use blocks for time off. Spot availability is for opening up extra hours. Use blocks when you need to close off time.
- Check the calendar regularly. The Business Hours view makes it easy to spot scheduling gaps or conflicts at a glance.
- Use bulk create for teams. When multiple team members need the same shift schedule, use the bulk create option to save time.
You’re all set!
With Split Availability, you now have the tools to manage even the most complex schedules with ease. Whether you’re a solo pro who needs a lunch break or a team leader managing shifts across multiple locations, PocketSuite has you covered.
If you have any questions, remember to check the PocketSuite Suite Center or reach out to our support team. Happy scheduling!