Who does it, and where

Connecting services, staff and branches so the right times appear.

Booked never books "a service at a branch". An in-person appointment is a named person, at a named place, for a named service. Three links decide which combinations are possible, and hours then decide when. Get one link wrong and the branch or the service quietly vanishes from your booking form, with no error anywhere in the admin.

Three links, or nothing appears

For an in-person appointment, Booked offers a member of staff for a service at a branch only when all four of these are true at once.

Miss one and nothing complains: the branch or the service is absent from the customer's form while the admin still looks correct.

• 1Locations — the Works at card. Someone not linked to the branch is never offered there, whatever else is set.
• 2Services — the Can perform card, shown here. No link, and this person is never offered for that service anywhere.
• 3The chips — highlighted means on; click one to toggle it.
• 4Save employee — all five tabs are written in this one click; Cancel throws the lot away.

Assigning from either side

Each link has two screens that edit it, and they are the same piece of data seen from opposite ends.

• Service ↔ branch — Available at on the service, or Services offered here on the location.
• Person ↔ branch — Works at on the employee, or Employees at this location on the location.
• Person ↔ service — Can perform on the employee, or Delivered by on the service.

A new branch is quickest to wire from the branch itself: tick every service and every colleague, then save once.

Links decide who, hours decide when

A link only says a pairing is allowed. The times come from the overlap between the branch's Opening hours and that person's Working hours, both on the Times tab. Booked cuts one down by the other rather than merging them, and if the two never overlap that person produces nothing at that branch even though both records look open.

• 1Branch opening hours — the outer boundary. A brand-new branch has none at all, which means closed every day.
• 2The person's working hours — one weekly pattern, used at every branch they work at.
• 3A recurring break — kept separately, under Breaks (lunch, etc.) on the same Times tab. A break blocks its time exactly like a booking would.
• 4The overlap — the only genuinely bookable time. Priya's early start is wasted because the branch is shut until 09:00.
• 5What the customer sees — lunch is gone, and nothing after 15:30, because a 30-minute appointment has to finish by 16:00. Start times step by the Time slot interval under Settings › Booking rules — 15 minutes by default, 30 in this example.

Working hours are one weekly pattern, not a rota per branch. If someone does Mondays at Bramhall and Tuesdays at the Retail Park, both days look open at both branches and only each branch's own hours narrow it — keep two staff records when you need a real split.

Video consultations have no branch

A service marked as a video consultation ignores its Locations tab. Any Active member of staff linked to it can take one, on their own working hours — and the customer never sees a location step.

When the customer does not choose a person

The team member step always leads with Any available, described as "Book the earliest free slot". It shows the union of every qualified person's free times and assigns someone behind the scenes.

It takes the first free person it finds, searching alphabetically by first name, so your alphabetically-first colleague fills up before the others. Watch the split under Analytics in the Staff panel, or let customers pick.

The choice is worked out again on the server when the booking is submitted, so it can land on someone else. If nobody free can be found by then, the customer sees "Sorry, that time was just taken. Please pick another slot. (ref: GB-SLOT)"

What the customer sees, and what you can switch off

Both steps live under Customisation › Booking Form › Layout, in Steps & order. Service is marked Always on and cannot be switched off; the other two have a toggle each, and all three can be moved with the Move up and Move down arrows.

• 1The step itself — turn it off with Let customers choose staff and every booking is placed as Any available.
• 2Any available — always the first card, and always offered, even when customers can pick a person.
• 3A person's card — initials (there is no photo field), the name, and the Bio from their General tab as the small grey line. Keep Bio to a short role such as "Pharmacist".

Only Active branches reach that step, and only ones that offer the chosen service and have qualified staff there. If none do, the customer sees "This service is not currently available at any location."

When a branch or service will not show up

Nothing warns you that a combination produces zero times, so work through it in this order.

1. Check both tabs on the serviceAvailable at and Delivered by show you both halves in seconds. An empty list on either explains it.
2. Check the Employees listIts Locations column names every branch a person is assigned to, or shows an em dash if they have none.
3. Check Status on all three recordsAn Inactive branch, service or person is hidden from customers but looks entirely normal in the admin.
4. Check that hours existNew branches and new staff start with none, which means closed every day and no times at all.
5. Filter the CalendarPick the branch in All locations; All employees then lists only staff assigned there. Anyone missing has no Works at link.

If you started with the setup assistant, check its work: every member of staff it creates is assigned to every branch it knows about, and given the first branch's opening hours. Correct each person's Works at and Times tabs afterwards.