You can set padding time to reserve a certain amount of time before and/or after an appointment for things like preparation, clean up, administrative tasks, or other purposes.
Unlike processing time, padding time doesn’t affect the duration of an appointment. It's set aside for staff members and isn’t visible to clients when booking.
Key tips before you begin
Ensure padding time is taken into consideration when scheduling and booking appointments. Staff members will be unavailable for other services during padding time.
Canceling an appointment will also cancel any allotted padding time.
Any assets that are associated with an appointment will be reserved by that appointment’s padding time and therefore can’t be booked elsewhere.
If a staff member is booked for an appointment that includes padding time, the padding time is only displayed on the schedule in the Staff Back Office and won’t be displayed on that staff member’s synced Google Calendar.
Changes made to the padding time won’t apply to booked appointments. The appointment must be canceled and booked again for the changes to apply.
Set padding time for an appointment type
To set padding time for an appointment type:
Open the App Drawer then click View All > Setup > Services > Appointments.
Select the appointment you want to modify.
Under Duration, click Add Padding.
In the Before field, select the number of hours and minutes of padding time that should occur before the appointment.
In the After field, select the number of hours and minutes of padding time that should occur after the appointment.
Click Save.