Create or modify an appointment booking service configuration

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 5 minutes to read

    • Create or modify an appointment booking configuration for a service within an application that is provided to customers.

    Before you begin

    Role required: appointment_booking_admin, admin

    About this task

    To use the appointment booking feature, administrators must create a configuration for each service that is available to customers. Service configurations are created within an application configuration, such as the Field Service Order Configuration and Field Service Task Configuration, which are provided with the appointment booking feature.

    In the service configuration, administrators can select a schedule from the Schedules list and set it as Excluded to exclude it from appointment availability.

    Procedure

    1. Navigate to All > Appointment Booking > Appointment Booking Configuration.
    2. Select the desired configuration.
      • To configure appointment booking service for work orders, select Field Service Order Configuration
      • To configure appointment booking service for work order tasks, select Field Service Task Configuration
    3. In the Appointment Booking Service Configuration related list, click New.
    4. On the form, fill in the following fields as needed.
      Table 1. Appointment booking service configuration fields
      Field Description
      Enable advanced configuration Option to configure different schedule on a day level when booking appointments.
      Active Activates appointment booking for the service.
      Note:
      If deactivated, customers cannot schedule appointments for the service but can still create work orders.
      Ignore Default Notifications Sends notifications to customers.
      • FALSE (default): Notifications are sent to the customer whenever an appointment is scheduled, rescheduled, or canceled.
      • TRUE: No notifications are sent.
      General Information
      Name The name of the service configuration.
      Configuration The name of the appointment booking application configuration to which this service belongs.
      Availability table The table that is used to calculate appointment availability. The default is the Work Order Task [wm_task] table.
      Holiday Schedule The holiday schedule to use when determining availability. Appointment booking evaluates the holiday schedule when determining the number of available appointments and excludes any day in the schedule that is set to Exclude. Click the lookup icon and select a schedule from the Schedules list.
      Note:
      Holiday schedules are useful when the assignment method for tasks is set to manually, which does not consider agent schedules.
      Catalog Information
      Catalog Item The appointment booking configuration is created for the service specified in the service catalog. Click the lookup icon and select a service from the Record Producers list.
      Note:
      The catalog item must exist in the service catalog.

      Before configuring appointment booking with work orders, ensure you create a work order template. Similarly, if you are using appointment booking with work order tasks, create a work order task template first.
      Location The field on the record producer that determines the appointment location.

      Ensure that this field not left blank and is filled with the appropriate location to avoid issues when rescheduling an appointment.
      Appointment is mandatory Enable this check box if it is mandatory that a customer create an appointment when requesting this service.
      • If enabled, the Appointment field appears on the record producer and the user must select an available appointment on the Select Appointment window before submitting the service request.
      • If disabled, the user can submit the service request without selecting an appointment.
      User contact The field on the record provider that determines the individual for whom the appointment is being created. This is a reference field that looks for a sys_user variable and sets variable on the record producer, for example, Contact.

      Ensure that this field not left blank and is filled with the appropriate value to avoid issues when rescheduling an appointment.
      Timezone The appointment window based on the Timezone field specified in the user contact record or the location where the appointment for the task is scheduled.
      Booking
      Appointments per window The number of available appointments for each configured appointment time slot. This number determines the number of available appointments that are displayed on the Select Appointment window. Enter a number in this field if the assignment method for tasks is set to manually. If set to either using auto-assignment or using dynamic scheduling, this setting does not apply, unless a location is not provided. Then the configuration defaults to the number of appointments per window.
      Lead time The number of hours or days from the current time after which an appointment can be booked for this service. Define the lead time in hours or days. The default is 4 hours.
      Future bookable max days The number of days in advance of the current day for which an appointment can be booked for this service. The default is 14 days.
      Reschedule / Cancel by time The number of hours or days prior to an appointment start time that are required for an appointment to be canceled or rescheduled. If a user attempts to cancel or reschedule an appointment within this number of hours, the Cancel button is not available. Define the time in hours or days. The default is 4 hours.
      Ignore lead time on reschedule This option skips the calculation of lead time mentioned beforehand when rescheduling an appointment.
      Consider holidays for lead time calculation This option honors holidays by calculating the lead time based only on working days when displaying available appointment booking slots. For example, if a holiday occurs during the lead time calculation period, the system skips the holiday and calculates the lead time using the next available working day.
      Appointments
      Appointment window The length or duration of the appointment window.
      Note:
      Allow enough time for the work to be started and completed within this window.
      Use slot end time as Use one of two methods to determine whether the agent should arrive by or complete the job before the window end time.
      Work duration The amount of time required to complete all tasks created by the record producer. This duration is set for a task when it is created. Used to determine availability.
      Travel duration (round trip) An estimated value of the average travel time required (round trip) for the agent performing the task. Used to determine availability.
      Daily Schedule
      Bookable days The days of the week for which appointments can be booked. The default is Monday through Friday.
      Daily start time The start of the work day and the earliest start time for an appointment window.
      Daily end time The end of the work day and the latest end time for an appointment window.
      Include daily break Enable this check box to schedule a break for each bookable day, then select the break start and end times. Can define one break which applies to all days.
      Appointment booking preview Provides a preview of the appointment windows and times based on the selected start and end times, break time, and appointment window.
    5. Click Submit.

    Result

    An appointment booking service configuration is created or modified.

    What to do next

    Create service configuration rules to customize service configuration as per your requirement. Each service configuration can have multiple service configuration rules. For more information, see Create appointment booking service configuration rules.