Calendar blocks reserve time that should not be offered for appointments. Use them for lunch, meetings, training, admin, maintenance, room closures and other diary constraints that should be visible on the calendar.

💡 In short: Create a Calendar Block from the Calendar Create menu, assign employees or a room, set the date and time, choose whether it should show as busy, and save it to protect capacity.

Calendar Blocks vs Appointments vs Rota

⚠️ Block time, do not create dummy appointments. Calendar blocks are designed for unavailable time. Dummy appointments can confuse patient records, reporting and invoices.

Use	When to use it	What it affects
Calendar block	Lunch, meetings, admin, training, room maintenance, protected theatre time.	Calendar visibility and, when shown as busy, booking availability.
Appointment	Work for a specific pet and client.	Patient record, appointment status, invoice and communications.
Rota	Planned working hours, availability, holidays and recurring staff schedules.	Availability overlays and online booking availability.

Create a Calendar Block

Step 1: Open the Block Form

Open Calendar.
Click the arrow beside Create.
Choose Calendar Block. The form opens in a dialog.

Step 2: Add the Block Details

Fill in:

Field	What to enter	Required
Title	A clear label, such as Lunch, Team meeting or Theatre cleaning.	Yes
Colour	The colour used on the calendar.	Yes
Show as Busy	Whether the block protects the selected employee or room from booking availability.	No
Employees	The team members the block applies to.	Required if no room is selected
Room	The room the block applies to.	Required if no employee is selected
Date	The block date.	Yes
Start and End	The time range to reserve.	Yes

Step 3: Make It Recurring If Needed

For a repeating block, turn on the recurring option while creating the block. Choose the repeat frequency, days and end date. Recurring blocks are useful for daily lunch, weekly meetings and repeated room maintenance.

Step 4: Save

Click Save. The block appears on the calendar for the selected employees or room.

How Blocks Affect Capacity

A block must be assigned to at least one employee or one room. When Show as Busy is enabled, it is treated as unavailable time for the selected resources.

Scenario	Recommended setup	Result
Vet lunch	Assign the employee and leave Show as Busy on.	The employee is visibly blocked and protected from online booking availability.
Room maintenance	Assign the room and leave Show as Busy on.	The room cannot be selected as available for that time.
Team meeting	Assign all attending employees.	Everyone's calendar shows the same protected block.
Reminder note only	Create the block and turn Show as Busy off.	The block is visible, but does not protect capacity.

💡 Online booking availability also depends on rota, appointment type duration, staff qualifications, rooms and existing appointments. Calendar blocks are one part of the capacity picture.

Edit or Delete a Block

Click the block on the calendar to reopen it. You can update the title, colour, resources, date, time, busy setting and recurrence details. For recurring blocks, choose whether the change applies to only this occurrence, every occurrence, or the series from a selected date where the dialog offers those options.

⚠️ Deleting a recurring series can remove future protected time. Check the edit mode before confirming deletion.

Managing Diary Capacity

Use Rota for Normal Availability

Use rota to define when staff and rooms are generally available. Use calendar blocks for exceptions or protected time within that availability.

Use Appointment Types for Service-Specific Availability

Appointment type duration and staff qualifications affect which slots can be offered. If a nurse can only perform nurse clinics, configure that through appointment types and team qualifications rather than blocking every other type manually.

Use Rooms for Physical Constraints

If a procedure needs a room, assign rooms properly. Blocking the room protects physical capacity even if staff still appear available.

Review Cross-Location Commitments

For multi-site teams, use View Company Shifts in the calendar settings to see when shared staff are already booked or working elsewhere.

Tips

✅

Use short block titles that make sense at a glance.
Assign the exact employees or rooms affected. Avoid broad blocks unless the whole team is genuinely unavailable.
Use recurring blocks for predictable patterns, and rota for standard working hours.
Leave Show as Busy on for real unavailability.
Review blocks before opening online booking for a new week.

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
The form will not save	Choose at least one employee or one room, then check title, date, start and end time.
Clients can still book during the block	Check Show as Busy, resource assignment and whether the online booking availability is using employees or rooms.
The block is on the wrong calendar	Edit the block and update the employees or room.
A recurring block changed more dates than expected	When editing a recurring block, check whether you selected this occurrence, all occurrences, or the series from a date.
A block overlaps an appointment	Move the appointment or adjust the block. Blocks are visible context, but you should still review conflicts before saving operational changes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can one block apply to multiple employees?

Yes. Select all affected employees in the Employees field.

Can a block apply to a room instead of a person?

Yes. Select a room when the physical space is unavailable.

Should I use a block for holiday?

Use rota or staff scheduling for planned absence. Use calendar blocks for shorter operational exceptions inside the diary.

Can I colour-code block types?

Yes. Choose a colour when creating or editing the block.

Blocking Time and Managing Diary Capacity