Bookings · How-to
Plan the staff rota and publish it
Set who works when at each place, a week or a month at a time, and publish it. Only published shifts can be booked, online or at the desk.
Open the rota for a place
Open Bookings › Schedule, choose the place and “Week” or “Month”, and use the arrows to move. The rows are the people who work at this place and anyone with a shift here; while nobody is assigned to the place, everyone is listed. Turn on “Show everyone” to add every member.
Set shifts in the week
Click a day in someone's row, set “From” and “To”, and press “Set shift”. “Time off” marks a day off, and “Clear” empties the day. Each row adds up that person's hours for the week.
Save and publish the week
Press “Save draft”, then “Publish”; “Publish” stays greyed out while you have changes that are not saved. In the week view, saving replaces the whole week and takes it off booking until you publish. The badge by the dates says “Published” or “Draft”. “Copy last week” replaces this week with last week's shifts at once, as a draft, and drops changes you have not saved.
Plan a month
In “Month”, click a day, then Shift-click another to select every day between them, across people too. Set “From” and “To” and press “Set shift”, “Time off” or “Clear”. Here “Save draft” keeps unchanged days bookable; only changed days wait for “Publish month”.
Repeat a week
In “Month”, save your changes first, then press “Repeat a week…”. Choose the “Week to repeat” and press “Repeat”: it is copied onto the other weeks shown, as drafts. Tick “Also replace days that already have a shift” to write over those too. Then press “Publish month”.
Keep the schedule running
Shifts are published up to six weeks ahead. Seven days before a place’s last published shift, owners and admins are told in the bell, on their phone and by email, and the “Bookings revenue” tile on Dashboard says when it ends. Either one opens the month with “Repeat six more weeks”: your last published week is copied over the next six weeks, and “Repeat and publish” publishes them. Days that already have a shift are kept.
Leave stays as it is
Days marked “On leave” come from approved time off on Time off. They cannot hold working hours and are never copied or written over; cancel the leave to change one.
Watch for open days with nobody on
A warning lists the days the place is open but nobody has a shift, using the open days set on Bookings › Places.
Plan on a phone
On a narrow screen the month is a list of days for one person; choose them under “Person”.
Common questions
- Why can clients not book a week I planned?
It is still a draft. Press “Publish”, or “Publish month” in the month view.
- Can a place manager plan only their own place?
Yes. Give their role the “Own place” scope for Bookings on Settings › Roles & permissions. They then see and plan only the places they are ticked at under “Who works here” on Bookings › Places.
- Why did my booking page stop showing times?
Its published shifts ran out: clients see times only on published shifts. Press “Repeat six more weeks” from the tile on Dashboard, or open Bookings › Schedule, choose “Month”, repeat a week and press “Publish month”.
- How do I plan the week on the phone?
In Setvos Business, open More → Bookings → Rota, or press “Open the rota” in the diary on a day with no shifts. Week or Month and the place are at the top, and the card for the period says Published, Draft or “Unsaved changes”. On a phone the week shows one day at a time, with everyone as a row: their hours for the week and a shift, or a locked chip naming the leave, such as Sick leave. Tap a cell for From, To, “Set shift”, “Time off” and Clear; approved leave cannot be changed here. The bar has “Copy last week”, which skips leave days, “Save draft”, shown once you have changes, and Publish. Publish is refused while changes are unsaved: save the draft first, because publishing sends what is saved. Publishing records the rota; it does not notify the team.
- How do I plan a month on the phone?
Choose Month. On a phone it is one person’s month in weeks from Monday to Sunday, each with its hours and Published or Draft. Press “Select days”, tap the days and apply a shift to them; “Repeat a week…” copies one week onto the others shown, and “Keep days already filled” leaves the filled ones alone. Then “Save draft” or “Publish month”; weeks you did not touch keep their Published state.
- How does the rota work on an iPad, and who can change it?
On an iPad the week and the month are a grid of people by days: drag across cells to select them, then apply a shift to them. Leaving the rota with changes asks “Discard your changes?”. People who cannot change bookings can read the rota, with the line “You can see the rota. Only owners and managers change it.”
Read next
Add and manage your places
Add each branch you take bookings at, set its hours and chairs, say who works there, and know what happens when a place closes at renewal or is deleted.
Find your way around the appointments diary
Switch between the day, week, month and list views, filter by place, person or service, move visits by dragging, and block time for breaks.
See approved leave on the rota
Approved leave takes a person off the bookings rota by itself, and the rota will not let anyone put working hours back on those days.
Publish the rota before you share your booking link
Clients can only book times on published shifts. A saved draft stays invisible to them until you publish it.
Set up roles and permissions
Use the four ready-made roles or build your own: choose what each role may do in every module and whose records it sees.
More in Bookings
- Bookings: your diary, staff rota and online booking page
- Book an appointment for a client
- Check in, finish, move or cancel an appointment
- Take payment for a visit at the till
- Set up your services, prices and categories
- Visits at the client’s address, and prices by size
- Offer group classes, packages and services that need more
- Cut no-shows with deposits and cards on file
- Keep a waitlist and offer freed slots
- Book standing appointments and recalls
- Run classes: a timetable, enrolment and the register
- Read and answer client reviews
Open in Setvos
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