Booking Rules & Buffers

Booking Rules Overview

Booking rules (booking_rules) enforce business policies on when and how appointments can be booked, rescheduled, or cancelled.

Configured under Settings > Booking Rules (/settings), these rules prevent last-minute surprises and unreasonable forward bookings.

Rule Parameters

• Minimum Notice Hours (e.g., 2 hours): Customers cannot book a slot starting in less than 2 hours from now.
• Max Forward Booking Horizon (e.g., 30 or 60 days): Customers cannot book slots months into the unfinalized future.
• Slot Granularity (e.g., 15, 30, or 60 minutes): Interval at which candidate appointment slots begin.
• Cancellation Cut-Off Window (e.g., 24 hours): Threshold before an appointment where self-service cancellation is disabled and requires direct staff contact.

Conflict Resolution

The booking service (src/server/services/booking.ts) executes transactional checks prior to writing any appointment: 1. Verifies that the requested slot falls within the staff member's working schedule. 2. Checks that no existing confirmed or pending appointment overlaps the requested window. 3. Checks external calendar busy blocks (if connected via Calendly). 4. Verifies that buffer times are respected on both sides of the appointment.