Discover the basic scheduling features in PantrySoft
Overview
PantrySoft allows admin staff to build a calendar of appointment availability for the pantry's various programs (Visit Types) and sites (Locations). The most simple setup would involve building a model recurring week's availability (Schedule Template), which would then be stamped onto every week into the pantry's future. This model week would be tied to a simple pantry's single Location (default is "Main") and single pantry program/ Visit Type (default is "Standard").
After setting up this Schedule Template, PantrySoft will "build" actual appointment slots on real calendar days, which you can see by visiting the pantry calendar (Pantry->Schedule Calendar). Clients can be scheduled for appointments only if there is still a slot free on the desired day.
Online Portal Orders. Finally, for your Online Portal customers, Visit Frequency Rules may affect appointment availability when Clients attempt to schedule an Online Order (choice-pantry pickup) for themselves. In the Online Portal, an Order is a combination Appointment and Visit, so choosing a time to pickup an Order is subject to Visit Frequency rules.
Basic Setup
Two Appointment Schemes: Freeform and (default) Schedule Template. Scheduling in PantrySoft is a optional feature. It comes in two basic modes: the default "Schedule Template" scheme that builds availability slots, and an optional "Freeform" scheme with little to no restrictions or features.
Building Schedule Templates (Appointment Availability Patterns). In order for a pantry to use the default scheduling scheme where appointment availability is organized under time blocks and limited appointment slots, Org Admins must first build out one or more Schedule Templates. These are model weeks that "lay down" availability on the pantry's calendar for a specific pantry program (Visit Type) and Location.
Scheduling Appointments via Dashboard
Intake Staff: Scheduling an Appointment. Once a pantry's Org Admins have built one or more Schedule Templates (appointment availability patterns), dashboard intake staff (Staff Users with an "Org-" style Core Role are confined to the Dashboard interface) can schedule an appointment for a Client.
- Click here to learn how staff can schedule a Client if your pantry uses the Schedule Template appointment scheme.
- Click here to learn how staff can schedule a Client if your pantry uses the Freeform appointment scheme.
Scheduling Appointments via Online Portal
Online Portal Self-Scheduling. Pantries using the Online Portal feature (a paid add-on sometimes called the Storefront ) can allow their online visitors to schedule appointments for themselves, choosing appointments from those generated by the pantry's Schedule Templates.
- Click here to learn about added steps to consider when building setting up a Schedule Template for Online Portal Orders.
- Click here to learn about controlling the visibility of future appointment slots to Online Portal customers.
Advanced Scheduling Features
PantrySoft allows you to tweak some key features in the appointment experience, Schedule template-by-template:
- Click here to learn about creating an exception (Closed Day) to a Schedule Template's availability on a specific calendar day.
- Click here to learn about Duplicating a Schedule Template (usually in order to create future templates with the same Visit Type + Location)
- Click here to learn about other Schedule-Template-specific settings.