In Acuity, calendars are your "limiting resource", which means that they hold the hours of availability, as well as other limits and restrictions that allow (or block) certain appointment types to be scheduled on them. They can be used for separate staff members, multiple business locations, or some other limiting resource.
Multiple calendars are available on the Growing and Powerhouse plans.
NOTE: Every calendar has a location field. If your business has multiple locations, and you want to create one calendar for each location, the solution below is for you. If you want to learn how to set the location of your calendar, read this article.
Set up a Calendar for each Staff Member/Provider or Location
If you have multiple locations with different opening times, or staff members with varied availability, you can create separate calendars to accommodate each schedule. To create a new calendar you will:
- Head to Business Settings > Availability > Calendars.
- Click the Add New Calendar button.
- Fill in the calendar's name. You can also add a location, an image or contact information, if you like.
- Click Next: Add Appointment Types & Hours.
- Select the appointment types you want to be offered on this calendar.
- Click Save Appointment Types.
- Enter your hours. (Read more on setting availability in this article.)
Here are some other cool things you’re able to do:
- Edit which email addresses will receive notifications when someone books an appointment on the calendar. Just separate multiple addresses with commas in the "Email" field in your calendar’s Settings.
- Create users with access to calendars in the Manage Users section. You can control how much access to settings the users have. You'll also need to decide which calendars they can see. Our article on adding account users has more details.
Note: If you have several staff members sharing rooms or another limited resource, check out using Rooms/Resources to create additional restrictions on your availability.
Setting the Email/Phone Number on Individual Calendars
To change the email and phone number associated with each of your account's individual calendars:
- Go to Business Settings > Availability > Calendars.
- Find the calendar you want to edit and click on Calendar Settings.
- Add the email address and mobile phone numbers you want to be notified. To enter multiple numbers or addresses, separate each entry with a comma.
- Click Save Changes.
If you're on the Growing or Powerhouse plans and have text notifications enabled, each mobile phone number entered here will get text notifications about appointments on this calendar. Read more about this here!
Scheduling Appointments
Want to see what it’s like for clients when they schedule their own appointments? Check out What do clients see for a walk-through. After clients choose their appointment type, they're presented with a list of calendars that the appointment can be scheduled on for them to select from. You can also have a calendar automatically chosen by choosing the "any available" option in the Scheduling Page Options section, which pools together their availability and randomly picks an available calendar. It’s pretty much a way safer version of going to the hair salon and telling them to surprise you.
Each calendar also has a separate direct link that clients can use to book. To find this link, go to Business Settings > Availability & Calendars, and click on the Direct Scheduling Link button for the calendar you're interested in.
Delete Calendars
If an employee leaves, you can delete their user account under Manage Users and also delete their calendar from within the calendar's settings. See Deleting a Calendar for more info.