Example: How Salesforce Scheduler Determines Available Time Slots

Settings That Affect Time Slots

Here are the sample values of fields and settings that affect the time slots:

• Availability Start Time: 8:30 AM (for Monday)

• Availability End Time: 6:00 PM (for Monday)

• Appointment Start Time Interval: 60 minutes

  

• Block Time Before Appointment: 45 minutes

• Block Time After Appointment: 15 minutes

• Estimated Duration: 120 minutes

  

Time Slots Available by Default

Based on the settings, these time slots are generated.

Here’s how Salesforce Scheduler determines the start time of the first time slot when a value isn’t set for the Block Time Before Appointment field:

1. Salesforce Scheduler identifies Minutes Past the Hour of Availability Start Time. In this example, the Availability Start Time is 8:30 AM, so Minutes Past the Hour of Availability Start Time is 30.
2. Salesforce Scheduler checks the value of Minutes Past the Hour of Availability Start Time modulo Appointment Start Time Interval (Minutes Past the Hour of Availability Start Time % Appointment Start Time Interval). In this example, it’s 30%60 = 30.
3. As the modulo value isn’t 0, Salesforce uses this formula to calculate the Start Time of the first time slot:

   Start Time = Availability Start Time + (Appointment Start Time Interval - (Minutes Past the Hour of Availability Start Time % Appointment Start Time Interval))

   Start Time = 8:30 AM + (60 - (30%60)) = 8:30 AM + 30 Minutes = 9:00 AM.

Start Time = Start Time of Previous Slot + Appointment Start Time Interval

So, the next time slots start at 10:00 AM, 11:00 AM, 12:00 PM, and so on.

Time Slot Start Time < Availability Start Time + Block Time Before Appointment

Time Slot Start Time < 8:30 AM + 45 Minutes (9:15 AM)

So, Salesforce Scheduler doesn’t show any time slots that start before 9:15 AM.

End Time = Start Time + Duration

In this example, as the Duration is 120 minutes, the time slots end 120 minutes after their start time.

Also, the sum of Last Time Slot End Time and Block Time After Appointment (5:00 PM + 15 Minutes = 5:15 PM) is less than Operating Hours End Time.

Time Slots Available When There’s a Scheduled Appointment

When concurrent scheduling is disabled and an appointment is scheduled from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM, here’s the list of available time slots.

The other time slots that meet either of these criteria are no longer available:

• Time Slot End Time > 12:00 PM - 45 Minutes - 15 Minutes (11:00 AM)
• Time Slot Start Time < 2:00 PM + 45 Minutes + 15 Minutes (3:00 PM)

Note In this case, the scheduled appointment and the appointment that’s being scheduled belong to the same work type. So, Block Time Before Appointment and Block Time After Appointment are same for both the appointments.

When concurrent scheduling is enabled with the Maximum Appointments value set as 3 and an appointment is scheduled from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM, here’s the list of available time slots.

As only one appointment is scheduled for the 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM time slot, the time slot is still available for two more appointments.