Contents

• Introduction
  • About this guide
• Prerequisites
  • Creating Booking Statuses
  • Creating Booking Transitions
  • Product Category and Sub-Category
  • Creating the Product Status 
  • Creating the Appointment Product
  • Creating Appointment Group
• Appointment Booking Item
  • Creating the Booking Item
  • Facility menu
  • Adding the Appointment Product
  • Adding the Appointment Group
• Adding a Template and Schedule
  • Creating a Template 
  • Creating a Schedule 
• Form Configuration

Introduction

About this guide

This guide has been written to explain how to create an appointment booking system on MCS. This allows users and customers to create and pay for a booking that requires a time slot against an appointment product.

Prerequisites

Before an Appointment Booking can be set up, some prerequisites must first be configured. 

Creating Booking Statuses

Firstly, booking statuses need to be configured. Go into Administration > Bookings and Appointments > Status 

The following screen will appear. Click ‘Add’ to create a new Booking Status. 

Now, you will need to create the following four Statuses that indicate different stages in a Booking Transition: 

Status Type AVAILABLE - This is the Status that shows a Booking slot is available. When setting up a Transition, this Status should be held under "Initial status". 

Status Type CANCEL - This is the Status that informs the system that a Booking has been cancelled. The system will free up the previously reserved Booking Slot. When setting up a Transition, this Status should be held under "Cancel status". 

Status Type CONFIRMED - This is the Status that informs the system that a Booking is being made. The system will lock the user's chosen Booking Slot for up to 15 minutes before submission. When setting up a Transition, this Status should be held under "Reserved status". 

Status Type BOOKED - This is the Status that shows a Booking Slot has officially been booked. The system will not allow the Slot to be booked by anyone else, unless the Booking is cancelled. When setting up a Transition, this Status should be held under "Confirmed status". 

Click on ‘Add’ once you're done: 

Creating Booking Transitions

Once you have the four Statuses mentioned above, go into Administration > Bookings and Appointments > Transitions 

Click on ‘Add’ to create a transition 

Here, you will need to create the Transition before you can configure it. Give the Transition an appropriate Name and then add the four Statuses as you have configured above. 

Click on ‘Add’ once you're done. 

The screen will refresh, and you will now have access to further configurations. Scroll to the bottom of the page, where you can add the possible transitions. It's recommended that you set up the following to ensure a smooth Booking Transition process: 

1) Initial status > Reserved status 

2) Reserved status > Confirmed status 

3) Reserved status > Cancel status 

4) Cancel status > Initial status 

5) Confirmed status > Cancel status 

Once you have added these rows, click the ‘Save’ button on the transition region, then scroll up to click the ‘Save’ button in the top right corner. 

Product Category and Sub-Category

To do this, go into Administration > Products > Category

Then, click ‘add’ on the top right to add a new product category. Add a name to the category, and then click ‘add’:

If you want to add a sub-category, edit the category that you have just created, click ‘add row’ and type a name and code for the sub-category. Ensure that the ‘enabled’ option is set to ’Yes’ and then click on ‘save’ next to ‘add row’.

Creating the Product Status 

To create a status for the product you are about to configure, go to Administration > Product > Status.

Then, click ‘add’ in the top right to add a status. Set a name and click ‘add’ once done.

Transitions are not needed for products for this functionality; the status can be changed freely to each configured product status.

Creating the Appointment Product

After this, go to the ‘Products’ module found on the left-hand side menu:

Click on ‘add’ to add a Product:

The following pop-up will appear. Set the type as ‘product’, and configure the Category / Sub-Category (if applicable) to the product.

Then, type a name for the product and set a status.

Lastly, set the Price Type as ‘Simple’ and select the price of the product (if applicable).

Creating Appointment Group

Now, an Appointment Group is needed for Appointment Booking requests to be received against.

To create one, go to Community > Groups

Then, click on ‘add’ in the top right.

Set the Group Type as ‘Internal’ and select the members of the group (the users who will be assigned to the Appointment Booking Requests.

Then, click ‘add’.

Appointment Booking Item

Creating the Booking Item

Now, you can create an Appointment Booking Item. Go to Administration > Bookings and Appointments > Items

Click on ‘add’ and name the Appointment Booking Item. Set the type to ‘Appointment’ and select the Booking Transition that you configured previously.

After this, click on ‘Continue’ to configure the Appointment Booking Item further.

Facility menu

There are a few important settings to configure in the facility menu:

Advance Booking Start – This setting dictates how early a booking can be made. If set to 14 days, a date can be booked 2 weeks in advance.

Advance Booking End – This setting decides how late a slot can be booked. If set to 2 days, a slot can be booked 2 days in advance.

Appointment Time – This is how long the appointment will last (in minutes)

Allow Cancellation – It is recommended to allow appointment bookings to be cancelled. Once set to ‘yes’, select a period of time before which the booking can be cancelled. For example, if set to 2 days, the booking can be cancelled up to 2 days before the appointment.

Access – This will determine whether customers and users can book this appointment booking item, or just users.

Enable Rooms – This is not required for Appointments. Keep this disabled.

Variety – Keep this as ‘General’

Adding the Appointment Product

To add the Appointment Product that you configured earlier onto the Appointment Booking Item click on ‘Add > Type’:

The following will appear. Enter the name of the Appointment – this will show to the submitters when using an Appointment Booking Form. Then, select the product you created previously in the select list on the bottom right.

Select the number of booking spaces. This will determine how many booking slots a single appointment will use. 

For example, if the ‘Appointment Time’ is set to 30 minutes, and the ‘number of booking spaces’ is set to 4, each appointment booking will claim four 30-minute slots. If less than 4 slots are left, the appointment will not be able to be booked.

After selecting the number of booking spaces, click ‘add’.

Adding the Appointment Group

To add the Appointment Group to the Appointment Booking Item, go to Add > Person on the right-side menu:

Then, select the Appointment Group that you selected earlier, and enter how many users are in the group in the ‘capacity’ setting. After this, click ‘Save’

Adding a Template and Schedule

Creating a Template 

Go to ‘Add Template’ in the top right. Here, you can name the schedule and select the days in which slots will be generated for this Appointment Booking Item.

Select the From and To Dates that you want the slots to generate between. Add a break Start and Break End, then click ‘add’.  

Please note that, once a template has been created, you will not be able to delete it.  

If changes to the template are required, the template must be deleted and re-made. It is recommended to block every generated slot using the ‘Block Slots’ feature before the template is deleted. 

Creating a Schedule 

Now that a template has been configured, you are able to add a schedule.  

Firstly, select the template in the ‘details’ area: 

Next, go to Add > Schedule on the right-side menu. Add a title, and the Start and End Times that you want the schedule to run from. 

Ensure that the Time between the Start and End Time is compatible with the Appointment Time.

For example, the Start and End date for the schedule above is 8am until 6pm (10 hours).

This allows 9 60-minute slots to be created per day as the appointment time is 60 minutes (this is not 10 due to the break on the template).

Once you have done this, click ‘Add’. 

Slots are generated immediately after the schedule is created, up to 6 months in the future, though slots can only be booked according to the Advance Start Date configured on the booking item. 

When deleting templates or schedules, any pending bookings using the deleted template or schedules are deleted.

Form Configuration

To configure an Appointment Booking form, go to Administration > Service Request and Case > Forms Builder

From here, select a catalogue and form that you will use as an Appointment Booking form. If you need any guidance on creating a form, please see our Forms Builder User Guide.

Create a page for the Booking Appointment Component to go, then create a new item.

Name the item, and ensure that the code is set to the following:

P_BOOKING_APPOINTMENT_PLUGIN

Then, assign the Item Type as ‘Component’ and select the ‘Booking Appointment’ component.

Scroll down to the Advanced settings. Configure the button text (what the submitter will see on the form) and select the Appointment Booking Item:

Save the item, and ensure that the item code is set to the following:

P_BOOKING_APPOINTMENT_PLUGIN