Contents

• Introduction
• Configure Appointment Types
  • General
  • Schedule
    • Add Working Hours
    • Add a Schedule for a Specific Day.
    • Edit or Delete Working Hours
  • Settings
• Wrap-Up
• Share an Appointment Link or QR Code

 

Introduction

Appointments are a way for your church to connect with members, and you can schedule them using ChMeetings. Church teams can create appointment types such as calls, 1-to-1 meetings, or any other, per your requirements. Members can book appointments with your team for themselves or their family members, from their ChMeetings account, from the main menu, while guests can use a public link.

To use appointments, you must have full permission to access the feature. The feature is available by default for Owners and Admins. See Managing users, roles, and permissions for details. You can find the Appointments module by clicking on Appointments in your ChMeetings main menu. 

Configure Appointment Types

To create your first Appointment Type, go to Appointments and click on Set Up Appointment Types.

 

Next, you will be asked to provide information about the type of appointment you are setting up. Please provide some general information, configure your working hours, and add needed limitations in the Settings. Let’s look at this in more detail.

 

General

In the General tab, please provide the following information:

• Name: The name of the appointment type, such as Call, 1-to-1, etc.
• Calendar: Select the Calendar you want to use for this type of appointment. The selected calendar will display the associated appointments, and you can see them within the Calendar module.
• Description: Enter a short description of the appointment type.
• Assigned Users: Select the users handling the booked appointments of this type. When booking, people can choose one of the assigned users. You can select more than one person in this field. Assigned users will receive a notification when someone makes an appointment under this Appointment Type.
• Visibility: Select one of the following:
  • Members: The appointment type is only available to members within their ChMeetings account. 
  • Users: The appointment type is accessible to both Admins and Users to book.
  • Public: The appointment type is available to members within their ChMeetings account and the public, who can use a link to book. 

When you are done providing the needed information, please click Save & Next.

 

Schedule

In the Schedule tab, you can configure your working hours for each day of the week and specific dates. The steps below apply to every weekday you want to configure.

First, enable a working day using the toggle on the right to configure your working hours.

 

Add Working Hours

To add your working hours for the day of the week you enabled, click Add Working Hours.

 

Use the clock icon to select the desired time frame - e,g From 09:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Click ✔ to save your changes or the X icon to discard them. You can add multiple time frames, as needed.

 

Add a Schedule for a Specific Day.

This option lets you configure working hours for a specific date when your schedule differs from your usual one. To add a schedule for a certain day, click Specific Day Schedule.

Next, select a date when you want to configure a specific schedule. Please remember that the calendar tool accounts for the day of the week you’re working with. So, for example, if you are configuring a Monday, then the calendar will only let you select Mondays.

Once your date is selected, you can update your working hours. If you have already set up a recurring schedule for that weekday, this schedule will be displayed. You can edit or delete the working hours that are already configured if you like, and add hours that are specific to that date. 

You can add additional time slots by clicking Add Working Hours. You can add multiple time frames, as needed. Use the clock icon to select the desired time frame - e,g From 09:00 AM to 12:00 PM. Click ✔ to save your changes or the X icon to discard them.

The days you have a specific schedule will be marked with the appropriate date. All other days are marked as “Every Monday” > Every Sunday”.

 

Edit or Delete Working Hours

You can edit or delete working hours using the pencil (✐) or bin icon. These icons are found to the right of the working hours list.

When you delete a schedule, pre-booked appointments are not canceled. You must cancel them manually, as needed.

If you have set up a specific day schedule, and you decide to delete it completely, leaving no time slots configured, this specific day will become a day off, in which you are not set as available for appointments.  If you then delete the day off, it will revert to the recurring schedule you have set up for that weekday. In the example below, 14/01/2024 would revert to the working hours configured for every Sunday.

 

Settings

The Settings tab lets you configure additional parameters for your appointment type. 

• Session Duration lets you set how many minutes each appointment lasts. This applies to all bookings made via this appointment type and cannot be changed for individual sessions. 
• Prevent Booking lets you set up how many days in advance to prevent booking appointments. For example, if you set “1”, members will not be able to book appointments for the next day. They must book at least two days in advance. Please enable this setting to activate it.
• Prevent Cancellations lets you set up how many days in advance to prevent canceling appointments. For example, if you set “1”, members will not be able to cancel appointments booked for the next day. They must cancel at least two days in advance. Please enable this setting to activate it.
• Prevent Rebooking within a specific number of days before and after a previous appointment. This helps you prevent duplicate appointments or overbooking when needed.
• Schedule End Date lets you add a date until which you are made available for this appointment type. The appointment type will become unavailable to members after this date. Please enable this setting to activate it.

You can edit these settings at any time after creating the appointment type. 

Click Save when done.

Wrap-Up

When your Appointment Type is configured, you can see it listed under your Appointment Types section. Every appointment type is listed with the following details:

• Name,
• Assigned User,
• Description,
• Session Duration,
• Visibility,
• Available weekdays.

Every appointment type comes with an Edit (✐) option. Public Appointment Types also let you share a link or QR code. This option is not available for other appointment types since members can book from their ChMeetings accounts.

You can add new appointment types using Add Appointment Type at the bottom right.

 

Share an Appointment Link or QR Code

If the appointment type Visibility is set to Public, you can copy a web link or QR code to share with everyone. Anyone can book appointments using the link or code, regardless of whether they are a member or not. People are not required to have a ChMeetings account to book a session using a public appointment type.