Locations and Attendance
Two features that turn a booking calendar into a record of what happened.
Where to find it
Architect Panel → Layout & Pages:
- Booking Calendars — the calendar, then its row actions for everything else
Locations
A calendar can have sub-locations — rooms, chairs, bays, sites. Bookings are made against one, so a single calendar can schedule several places sharing the same availability.
Locations or separate calendars
Use locations where availability is common and only the place differs — four identical treatment rooms open the same hours. Use separate calendars where each place has its own opening hours, staff or event types.
The wrong choice shows up as either a calendar that cannot express your hours, or several calendars maintained in parallel with the same edits.
Attendance options
You define the outcomes — attended, did not attend, cancelled, arrived late, whatever your service actually distinguishes — each with a colour.
Recording attendance is a calendar-level setting, so it is on or off for the whole calendar.
Define outcomes that mean something
Few, distinct, and matched to a decision. "Did not attend" and "cancelled in advance" are different because you would treat them differently; "cancelled" and "cancelled by customer" probably are not.
A long list means people pick the first plausible one and the data stops meaning anything.
Why attendance matters
- Charging — for missed appointments, or for what was delivered.
- Compliance — proving training was attended, not merely booked.
- Capacity — a slot with a persistent no-show rate is a slot to overbook or to move.
- Follow-up — somebody who missed an appointment usually still needs it.
Record it promptly
Attendance recorded at the time is accurate; attendance recorded on Friday for the week is remembered. Make it part of closing the session rather than an administrative task.
Colours are for the day view
Staff should be able to look at the schedule and see what happened without reading. Keep the palette obvious — one colour for attended, one for did not attend, and the rest muted.
Look at the pattern
No-shows cluster — a time of day, a day of week, an event type, a first appointment. That pattern is actionable in a way an overall rate is not.
Worked example
A service runs four rooms as locations on one calendar and records attendance with four outcomes. Reviewing no-shows showed they concentrated in first appointments booked more than three weeks ahead, which led to a reminder two days before and a shorter booking horizon.
Recommendations
- Locations for shared availability, calendars for different hours.
- Few, distinct attendance outcomes.
- Record at the time, not at the end of the week.
- Look for the pattern in no-shows, not the rate.