How do you block out Public Holidays in appointments

[JPSLIFTS]

How do you block out entire days in Appointments so people don't try and book our services on Public Holidays?

[#2]

Hi, @JPSLIFTS, just circling back here after receiving further information from our Appointments team.

As it stands, using the personal events option to block out these days is still the best solution we can offer you at this time. However, we recognize that this is inconvenient for merchants with multiple staff. 

Based on this popular feedback, we are continuing to develop improvements to Square Appointments features and expect to have some more news to share on these updates in the coming year.

[Laurie_ · Accepted solution]

Hi, @JPSLIFTS, thanks for reaching out with your question, and welcome to the Seller Community!

I've included the instructions below for how to block out time on your calendar both from the online Square Dashboard and Square Appointments app.

To block off time from your online Appointments dashboard, follow the below steps:
 

1. Head to your Calendar.
2. Click on the day you’d like to block.
3. Click anywhere on your daily calendar or click and drag your cursor to select a block of time.
4. Select Personal Event in the top left corner of the pop-up window.
5. Add an event title (e.g. busy, meeting, available).
6. Ensure the Block Time button is toggled on to block clients from booking on your calendar during this event.
7. If you’re blocking time for one of your staff, click the arrow next to your name to see your list of staff and click the individual.
8. Customise this calendar event further by adding additional notes, specify the exact dates and times and make it an all-day or a repeating event.
9. Click Save.
 

To block off time from the Appointments app, follow these steps:
 

1. Open the app and tap Calendar from the navigation menu.
2. Tap directly on the calendar or select the + symbol > Create Personal Event.
3. Enter the event details, including the title, time and staff – make sure Block Off Time as Busy is enabled.

Let me know how you go on your end!

[JPSLIFTS]

Thanks @Laurie_ yes I had figured using the personal event can work, but this means I need to enter 4 events for each staff member in the system.  Surely it would be far better to simply block online appointments for the whole business on particular days that the business is closed, like public holidays.  In fact I'm surprised this isn't automated based on my location.

Using personal events means I need to make 4 entries for all 14 public holidays, so thats 58 entries.  Plus I will need to make another 4 entries for the normal christmas shutdown period when we normal don't service our customers.

Hope Square can add a simple feature for public holidays / business closed very soon.

A quick solution is to allow multiple staff to be selected when entering a personal event, that should be very easy.

Regards

[Laurie_]

I'm with you, @JPSLIFTS, I can certainly see how this suggestion is less than ideal when you have multiple staff calendars to manage.

Leave this with me for now and I'll reach out to our Appointments team to ask if there are any available workaround here in the meantime. I'll post an update in this thread early next week once I hear back from this team.

Either way, I'll let you know how I go and will ensure your feedback is directly seen by this team.

[Laurie_]

Hi, @JPSLIFTS, just circling back here after receiving further information from our Appointments team.

As it stands, using the personal events option to block out these days is still the best solution we can offer you at this time. However, we recognize that this is inconvenient for merchants with multiple staff. 

Based on this popular feedback, we are continuing to develop improvements to Square Appointments features and expect to have some more news to share on these updates in the coming year.