Blocking off unavailable time

Prevent clients from booking when you're busy.

Block off time in Acuity Scheduling to set yourself as temporarily unavailable. Times that you've blocked won't appear as options when clients book online.

How blocks work

When clients book an appointment on your scheduler, the times that you've blocked won't be available to book. This is the same experience clients would have if you were already fully booked at that time.

You can override blocked time when you book appointments for your clients through the Acuity Scheduling panel. Blocked time doesn't affect group classes, because you always choose their times through the Acuity Scheduling panel.

If you add a block on top of an existing appointment, the appointment will remain on your calendar, but no new clients can book at that time.

Note: If you sync Acuity Scheduling with a third-party calendar, blocked time will not appear on the third-party calendar.

Block off time

To add blocked time to your calendar:

1. In Acuity, click Calendar.
2. Click Block off time.
3. Enter a date and a time range, or check Block multiple days and enter start and end dates.
4. Optional: For weekly recurring blocks, enter a date and a time range, then click Repeat to choose the day of the week the block should happen and the date it should end.
5. If you have more than one calendar, choose which calendars are blocked. If you use availability and scheduling limits by appointment type, choose which availability groups are blocked.
6. Enter any notes you want to leave yourself (optional).
7. Click Block off time.

View blocked time

Blocked time appears on your calendar in the Calendar panel. You can use the filters to review appointments and blocked time for a specific day, week, or month.

You can also review a list of upcoming blocked time for each calendar or availability group. This is helpful if you have a lot of blocked time that's spread out across different days or months. 

To view blocked time for a specific calendar or availability group:

1. In Acuity, click Availability.
2. If you have more than one calendar, select a calendar to expand the calendar's settings.
3. Click Edit Availability/Limits on the calendar or availability group you're reviewing.
4. Click Blocked Time.

Edit or remove blocked time

The steps below apply if you added the blocked time through your Acuity Scheduling calendar, or used the Block off time button on the Availability panel.

To edit or remove blocked time:

1. In Acuity, click Calendar.
2. Select the blocked time you want to edit or remove.
3. Make your changes, then click Save changes. Or, click Delete, then click OK. 

To remove multiple blocked times from a calendar or availability group:

1. Follow the steps to view blocked time for a specific calendar or availability group.
2. Click the trash can icon next to the blocked time you want to remove.
3. Click OK.