Booked Appointment Buffers - different settings for before and after possible?

[stefan-franz]

Hello, can i somehow set different appointement buffers - both sliders shows the same if i pull one of them. I'd like to have at one appointment before 10min and after 30min.

[mgiee]

That would be a very important improvement! The current configuration is unsuitable, especially if no buffer is required after an appointment but beforehand for preparation (or vice versa).

[stefan-franz]

It would be great, if that issue could be updated in the near future. I use your tool daily. I need 5min before and 30min behind a date

[SergeyMosin]

Having different before/after buffers will lead to an unexpected behavior for most people, see the diagram...

[stefan-franz]

hmm....the only error is on day 5, that the appoint have to calculate between the booked #2 and booked #1 the after buffer time and not the before buffer time. So only appointments have to be possible, where the after time buffer is possible.

[stefan-franz]

Because of the Appointment Buffers: If your app would add the time right to before/after it would work.

The date is only available, if the 2 buffer times would work. If not, no appointment allowed. I would like 15min pre and 30min after buffer.

e.g: If i have a date from 02:00-02:30 the first next free apointment would possible at 03:15 Or the date before has to end at 01:15 (becaouse of 30min after buffer+15min pre buffer to the 02:00 date)

[SergeyMosin]

If i have a date from 02:00-02:30 the first next free apointment would possible at 03:15 Or the date before has to end at 01:15 (becaouse of 30min after buffer+15min pre buffer to the 02:00 date)

But isn't this exactly the same as having 45min Before and After buffers. When someone books 02:00-02:30 spot, the next free spot is at 3:15 = (2:30 + 45min[After]), and the spot before that is at 01:15 = (2:00 - 45min[Before]) ?

[stefan-franz]

Maybe in this case. But i have different type of dates. Telefphone support dates need less/other pre/after times then selling dates via Zoom calls, where i would take 15min pre and 45min after buffer. Always depending what type of dates. I use 6 different type of dates at the moment.

And different time for pre and after buffer would be nice and more flexible. "only" a mathematical issue. And maybe you make an option how the pre and after buffer behavior: Date#1 30min after + 15min before of Date#2 is 45min summary buffer - or only 30min (to take the longest buffer time). If you make this option for every date type it would be phantasic and you would have this solved with maximum flexibilty.

And i want to say: I love your app! It's great and makes independent from the big techs.....

[SergeyMosin]

I think the Buffers flow needs to be refactored to work between multiple pages and even other calendars apps. Currently the buffers are calculated internally and the final event in the Organizer's calendar only includes the actual appointment time-slot (not the buffers).

The new flow should work some thing like this...

• 10 min appointment + 10 before buffer + 20 after buffer is just a 40 min busy block from organizer's point of view
• When an attendee books 3:00:
  • Organizer will have 2:50 - 3:30 time-slot/event in the calendar
  • Attended will receive just the 3:00 - 3:10 time-slot in email (and the .ics event attachment, if enabled)

This should also allow for strict or soft/overlapping buffers option, For example a soft buffer would allow the next appointment to be at 10:30 allowing the 10 min before buffer to overlap the 30 min after buffer of the previous appointment.

Additionally, I guess organizer's event Description would need to have some reminder info like:

Before buffer: 10min
Appointment: 10min
After buffer: 20min  

---

Some unexpected behavior might occur when the organizer changes the duration(bigger or smaller) of the 40min time-slot:

• Is the appointment's duration being changed or buffers' ?
• When(or if) should the attendee be notified of the change ? I guess if the time-slot shrinks below 10 min( in this case) the attendee should be notified.

Or we can create 3 events (before, appointment, after) in the organizer's calendar, that would look some thing like this... and could get messy for some people.