Skip to content
OutSmart Guide

Advanced Hours of Operation

A basic Hours of Operation event tells OutSmart that you’re available during a given window for any event type that can be booked online. Advanced Hours of Operation let you narrow that down — restricting a window to specific event types, or requiring a specific room or piece of equipment to be available.

Both restrictions only apply to online bookings. Staff can still book any event type at any time from inside the calendar.

Restricting an Hours of Operation Block to Specific Event Types

When creating an Hours of Operation event, you can specify exactly which event types are allowed during that window.

  • No event types selected — all online booking event types are allowed during that window. This is the default.
  • One or more event types selected — only those event types can be booked online during that window.

For example, to set Mondays from 9 am to 12 pm as Acupuncture and IV sessions only:

  1. Create a new Hours of Operation event for Monday 9 am – 12 pm.
  2. In the event type selector, choose Hours of Operation AND select Acupuncture and IV as the allowed event types.
  3. Save.

Patients booking online during that Monday morning window will only see Acupuncture and IV as options. Other event types will only be available outside that block.

Restricting an Hours of Operation Block by Room or Resource

You can also tie an Hours of Operation event to a specific room or resource — a treatment room, an IV chair, a piece of equipment, etc.

  • No resources selected — only the practitioner’s availability is checked when a patient tries to book.
  • One or more resources selected — both the practitioner AND the resource(s) must be available for the booking to succeed.

For example, if you select “Room 1” on an Hours of Operation event, then during those hours patients can only book online if Room 1 is also free for the requested time.

Telling Event Types Which Resources They Can Use

For resource restrictions to work end-to-end, you also need to tell each event type which resources it’s allowed to use. Otherwise an event type that’s resource-blind can’t be matched against a resource-restricted Hours of Operation window.

To configure resources on an event type:

  1. Open the Event Manager (gear icon at the top right of the calendar → Event Manager).
  2. Find the event type you want to configure and click Edit.
  3. In the editor, add the allowable resources in the Location Details section.
  4. Arrange them in priority order if you want one resource to be preferred over another.

Resources can be rooms, IV chairs, equipment, or even people — anything that’s required or reserved during the appointment.

See Creating Event Types for the full event type editor.

How the Rules Combine

OutSmart applies the rules in this order when a patient tries to book online:

  1. Time — is the requested time inside an Hours of Operation block for the practitioner?
  2. Event type — does that Hours of Operation block allow the requested event type? (Either no event-type restriction is set, or the requested type is in the list.)
  3. Resource — does that Hours of Operation block require a specific resource? If so, is the resource free at that time, and does the event type include that resource in its allowable list?

If any of the three says no, the slot isn’t offered.

Troubleshooting

Slots aren’t appearing when they should

  • Check that the Hours of Operation block actually includes the event type the patient is trying to book.
  • If you’re using resource restrictions, check that the event type is configured with the resources it needs.

Slots are appearing when they shouldn’t

  • If you wanted to restrict an Hours of Operation block to certain event types but everything is still showing, make sure you actually selected those event types on the Hours of Operation event itself — not just on the event types you wanted to allow.

Bookings work for one event type but not another

  • The event type may not be configured for the resource your Hours of Operation block requires. Open the event type in the Event Manager and check the Location Details section.