📌 Note: To create flex schedule templates, you must have the Templates: Schedules permission. See Modifying a user's permissions.
Flexible working hours, or flex schedules, are used when a provider's schedule is not consistent. If the same schedule applies to more than one provider and/or more than one date, you can create a flex schedule template.
For example, the providers in your clinic work standard 9-5 office hours Monday to Friday but, every third Tuesday, the providers take turns staffing an evening addiction clinic. Because the providers do not normally work Tuesday evenings, you would add the addiction clinic as flex hours to each provider’s schedule on the dates they are scheduled to cover the addiction clinic. However, you can create a template to easily apply the addiction clinic schedule to the appropriate provider on their scheduled dates instead of doing them one-by-one.
You first create the flex schedule template and then choose the provider(s) and date(s) to apply the template to.
Steps
1. From the main menu, click Settings > Scheduling > Templates.
2. The Flexible Schedule Templates window appears, listing any existing templates.
3. Click Add Template.
4. In the Template Name field, type a descriptive name for your flex template e.g. Addiction clinic.
5. On the calendar, click on a time to add working hours. The Add Work Hour window appears.
💡 Tip: You can change the zoom level on the calendar by clicking the magnifying glass in the top right corner.
6. Configure the specific working hours as follows:
Field | Description |
Location | If your clinic has multiple locations, select the clinic location that applies to the working hours selected.
💡 Tip: The default is your primary location. |
Visit Type | Select Physical for in-person visits and Virtual for virtual visits. 💡 Tip: To have both Physical and Virtual hours scheduled at the same time, create two templates. |
Start | Select the time that providers begin to see patients for the specified services. |
Until | Select the time that provider(s) finish seeing patients for the specified services.
📌 Note: The time you select is the last appointment for the day. For example, if the appointment interval is 30minutes and your day ends at 5pm, select 4:30PM. |
Colour on Schedules | Select a colour for the working hours. |
Slot | Select the number of patients (1-10) you can book in one time slot. |
Intervals | Select the default length of each appointment ( e.g. 5, 10, 15 mins etc.)
Patients that self-book will also see the selected interval. For example, for 30 minute time intervals, patients can book appointments at 8:00, 8:30, 9:00, 9:30, etc. |
Show on Scheduler | By selecting this option, a thicker line is displayed at each time interval, making it easier to see the appointment time slots on the schedule. |
Stacking | This applies to online booking. Select On if you want patients to only see and book the next available appointment. This prevents gaps in your schedule. |
Services | Select the appointment types you offer during these working hours.
Click All to select all appointments your clinic offers. |
📌 Notes:
To indicate lunch or administrative time, do not add working hours. Leave them blank or fill them by creating lunch or admin time templates. See Creating vacation and off-time templates.
You can have more than one Flexible Schedule Template applied on the same work hours.
7. When you are finished adding the working hours, click Save.
8. Once you’ve added all working hour blocks, click Save to save the template.
The template now appears in the list of your flex templates and can be applied to provider schedules. See Applying flexible working hour templates to provider schedules.
Updated August 25, 2023