Understand availability rules
Understand how hours, closures, capacity, and gaps control booking screens and writes.
Availability rules determine which booking times an organization or branch can accept. The customer booking screen, administrator calendar, and write validation use the same rules. A closed time cannot appear open on another surface.
Business value
Availability does more than display business hours. It turns staff, space, and service gaps into times customers can select. Accurate rules reduce changes after confirmation. Operators can separate busy demand from unused capacity.
| Operating goal | Availability role | Measure |
|---|---|---|
| Offer serviceable times | Check business hours, blocks, capacity, and gaps together. | Changes after confirmation and booking conflicts |
| Manage resource use | Limit customers who can book at the same time. | Reservations and remaining capacity by time |
| Find conversion blockers | Explain missing times through the rule order. | No offered times and booking exits |
| Protect recovery time | Reserve required gaps before and after service. | Consecutive reservations, delays, and exceptions |
Examples
Example: A studio with three designers. Set weekday hours and concurrent capacity to three. Add a 15-minute cleanup gap after each reservation. Review bookings by time, remaining capacity, and times removed by the gap.
Example: A clinic with partial holiday hours. Block only the actual closure period. Apply lower capacity to the remaining time. Test that customer times match the administrator calendar before publication.
Rules work together
Business hours create open windows. Closures, capacity, and gaps remove unavailable times from
those windows. Resource rules must use the same scope_key to calculate against the same
equipment or staff scope.
When no business hours exist
The system does not invent booking suggestions when no hours rule exists. An administrator can still save a booking when no hours restriction exists and all other rules pass. Suggested times and direct writes can differ only in this case.
Keep branch rules separate
A customer uses the rules for the selected branch. The system does not assume that head office rules apply to a branch.