Availability & Scheduling
Use Smart Scheduling to keep your days compact
Turn on Smart Scheduling so your booking page steers clients toward times next to the sessions you already have — and learn the three conditions a day has to meet before recommended times appear.
A booking page with nothing steering it scatters your week: one client at 9:00 AM Tuesday, one at 3:30 PM Wednesday, one at 11:00 AM Friday, and no usable stretch left in between. Smart Scheduling nudges clients toward the times sitting next to the sessions you already have, so your work clumps together and the rest of the day stays whole.
It lives on the same page as the rest of your scheduling setup. Open Availability in the sidebar, under the Configure group, and look at the panel on the right. Below the Scheduling Defaults card is a card headed Smart Scheduling, with a single toggle. It is off until you turn it on.
What a client sees when it is on
On a day where Smart Scheduling has something to say, the list of times splits in two. A green group headed Recommended times comes first, holding the times that sit tight against your existing work. Everything else collapses behind a button reading + Show 6 more times — with the real number in place of 6 — and one click opens them under the heading More available times, with a Hide link to fold them away again.
Nothing has been removed. Both groups are fully bookable, so a client who opens the second group gets exactly the day they would have seen with Smart Scheduling off. All that changed is which times they read first.
A time counts as recommended when it sits within 45 minutes of a session already on that day, measured from that session's edges and counting the buffer you keep around it. Sessions you have cancelled or moved don't count. One still waiting on your approval does.
The three conditions a day has to meet
Smart Scheduling is deliberately quiet: it activates only where the grouping actually tells a client something. A day has to clear all three of these:
| Condition | Why it exists |
|---|---|
| At least one session already booked that day | There is nothing to sit next to on an empty day, so there is nothing to recommend. |
| At least four times still open that day | Splitting three times into two groups helps nobody. |
| Recommended times are no more than 60% of what's open | If almost everything qualifies, highlighting it says nothing. |
The first one is the one that surprises people. A brand-new week with no bookings in it will never show Recommended times — the effect starts with the second person to book a given day. If you want to see it working before you rely on it, put a booking on a test day and reload your booking page.
The open times being counted are the ones a client is actually looking at, after your weekly hours, buffers, notice, and calendar conflicts have had their say. The sessions being clustered around are every booking in your workspace on that day, whichever event type they came from.
Turn Smart Scheduling on
- Open the Availability page
Click Availability in the sidebar, in the Configure group, and find the Smart Scheduling card in the panel on the right, below Scheduling Defaults.
- Flip the toggle
Switch the toggle at the top right of the card. A short panel appears underneath it with the one further choice you have to make.
- Decide whether to hold the other times back
Leave Only show recommended times off and clients see the green group with the rest one click away — the right setting for most practices. Switch it on and clients see only the recommended times until the release window arrives.
- Choose when the rest opens
If you turned that switch on, pick a value in Open remaining times: 24 hours before, 48 hours before, 72 hours before, or 1 week before. This is how long before the day itself the held-back times become bookable.
- Save
Press Save at the bottom of the Smart Scheduling card. It reads "Saving..." while it works, then a green Saved! appears beside it. This is a different button from Save Defaults higher up the panel, which only saves your buffer, notice, and advance values.
Holding the other times back
Only show recommended times changes the client's experience more than it looks. On an active day that is still further away than your Open remaining times value, the booking page shows only the recommended times, as a plain grid — no green heading, no show-more button, nothing hinting that a longer list exists. To the client it reads as a day with fewer openings.
Once the day comes inside that window, every withheld time opens on its own and the page goes back to the green Recommended times group with the rest behind the show-more button. You don't have to release anything, and Calso emails you when it happens — the subject begins "Additional times opened for" — naming the day and how many times just became bookable. That email is the Slots released checkbox in the Smart Scheduling section of Settings → Notifications, a section that only appears once Smart Scheduling is on; see choose which emails you and your clients receive if you would rather not get it.
Days that never activated Smart Scheduling are untouched by all of this — an empty Thursday shows its full list of times however strict your setting.
- A quiet calendar, so most days have no booking to anchor to and nothing changes
- The days that do activate offer a client two or three times, months out
- A client who can't find anything that suits them leaves rather than waiting for the release
- Enough regular bookings that most weekdays already have an anchor
- Sessions you'd rather not spread out — short ones, or ones that need travel
- A release window long enough that anyone who needs a different time still has days to book it
Getting more out of it
Smart Scheduling can only cluster around what it knows about, so its suggestions are only as good as your availability setup. Keep your weekly hours honest rather than aspirational, and set a buffer that matches how long you really need between clients — the buffer is counted into the 45-minute reach, so a realistic one produces realistic recommendations.
If clustering isn't enough and you want a hard ceiling on how much lands in one day, that is a different control: give one event type its own hours and scheduling rules covers Daily limit and Weekly limit, which cap the number of bookings outright.
Frequently asked questions
Why don't I see Recommended times on my own booking page?
Smart Scheduling stays quiet on any day that doesn't already have a booking, so an empty week never shows recommended times. The day also needs at least four times still open, and the recommended ones have to be no more than 60% of what's open — if nearly everything qualifies, grouping them would tell a client nothing. Book something into a test day and reload the page to see it working.
Does Smart Scheduling stop clients booking the times I'd rather not give away?
Not on its own. In its normal mode every time stays bookable; the recommended ones are simply shown first, in a green group, with the rest one click away behind a Show more times button. If you want the other times genuinely held back, turn on Only show recommended times and pick how long before the day they should open.
What plan do I need for Smart Scheduling?
The Practice plan or above. Below that the toggle on the Availability page is greyed out and the card reads Upgrade to Practice to enable Smart Scheduling. Your weekly hours and the Scheduling Defaults on the same page are not affected — those work on every plan.
Will a client know that times are being held back?
No. In Only show recommended times mode the booking page shows the shorter list as an ordinary grid of times, with no green heading and no Show more times button, so it reads exactly like a day with fewer openings. When the release window arrives the remaining times appear on their own and Calso emails you to say so.