Business hours: slots, buffer and appointment availability¶
In short: the Business hours screen is where you define when you're available. The assistant will only offer appointments within these limits, respecting how long each session lasts and the break you want between one client and the next.
It's the part of the setup that deserves the most attention: if a time isn't declared here, no client will be able to book it.
Appointment lengths¶
The green panel at the top of the screen holds the general settings for your day: how long an appointment lasts and how much time you leave free between one client and the next.
- Lengths: you can set one or two. Each length has a name, chosen by you, and the minutes. The name is free text: write First visit, Follow-up, Full treatment, First session, whatever you actually say to your clients.
- Buffer between appointments: the interval you want to leave free between one appointment and the next, for example 10 minutes. There is only one and it applies to every length.
The second length is part of the Standard plan
On the Starter plan you set one length, the same for every appointment. On the Standard plan you set up to two. The full comparison is on the plans and pricing page.
The name you write here doesn't stay locked inside the dashboard: it is the word the client reads on WhatsApp. If you call a length Full treatment, the assistant will talk about a full treatment, not about a generic software label. What happens on the client's side is described in different appointment lengths.
Lengths are not prices
Here you set how long a booking lasts. What a treatment costs goes in the info and services screen, together with the price list. They are two separate things, and keeping them apart avoids the most common confusion: the price doesn't change with the length chosen.
How they combine, with a single length¶
The start time of each appointment depends on the sum of slot duration + buffer. Wably starts from the day's opening time and adds this "step" for each following slot. Understanding this mechanism is the key to organising your day well.
Example 1 - the 'on the hour' day (50 + 10)
You set Slot duration 50 min and Buffer 10 min. The step is 50 + 10 = 60 minutes. Starting at 9:00, appointments fall like this:
9:00 · 10:00 · 11:00 · 12:00 · …
Each client comes in on the hour: tidy, easy-to-remember times, with 10 minutes to breathe between sessions. It's the most convenient setup for most practices.
Example 2 - times that 'drift' (60 + 10)
You set Slot duration 60 min and Buffer 10 min. The step is 60 + 10 = 70 minutes. Starting at 14:00, appointments fall like this:
14:00 · 15:10 · 16:20 · 17:30 · …
After the first one, no appointment lands on the hour any more: each slot shifts 10 minutes from the previous one. It's perfectly valid, but the times (15:10, 16:20…) are less "clean" to communicate.
Example 3 - short slots (25 + 5)
With Slot duration 25 min and Buffer 5 min the step is 30 minutes: 9:00 · 9:30 · 10:00 · 10:30 · …, two appointments every hour, always at round times.
The golden rule
If you want appointments always at round times (on the hour or half-hour), make sure duration + buffer adds up to 60 minutes (e.g. 50+10, 45+15, 55+5) or 30 minutes (e.g. 25+5, 20+10). If the sum is different (like 60+10 = 70), the times will drift from day to day: only choose this route if you genuinely need that session length and don't mind communicating "staggered" times.
With two lengths¶
With two lengths set, the assistant builds one grid of times for each of them, using the step you have just seen: length plus buffer. On top of that it does something that wouldn't be needed with a single length: it also restarts from the end of every appointment already in the calendar, adding the buffer. That is what stops you from losing the gap that opens up after a short appointment.
The examples below all use the same shift, 09:00-13:00, with a First visit of 55 minutes and a Follow-up of 40 minutes. The names are the ones the practitioner chose: we use these here, you will put your own.
Buffer 5, empty calendar
First visit: 09:00-09:55 10:00-10:55 11:00-11:55 12:00-12:55
Follow-up: 09:00-09:40 09:45-10:25 10:30-11:10 11:15-11:55 12:00-12:40
The first visit always lands on the hour, because 55 + 5 makes 60. The follow-up advances 45 minutes at a time, because 40 + 5 makes 45: after the first appointment its times no longer land on the hour or the half hour. It works, but it is less convenient to say out loud.
Buffer 5, with a 40-minute follow-up already booked from 09:00 to 09:40
First visit: 09:45-10:40 10:45-11:40 11:45-12:40
Follow-up: 09:45-10:25 10:30-11:10 11:15-11:55 12:00-12:40
This is the case worth reading twice. The 55-minute first visit starts at 09:45 and not at 10:00, because the grid restarts from the end of the previous appointment plus the buffer. That is fifteen minutes of your room that would otherwise have stayed empty, and that become a booking instead.
Buffer 0, round times with no math
If you don't need a break between one client and the next, set the buffer to 0: the step is the same as the length. With a First visit of 60 minutes and a Follow-up of 30 minutes the times are always round, for both lengths:
First visit: 09:00-10:00 10:00-11:00 11:00-12:00 12:00-13:00
Follow-up: 09:00-09:30 09:30-10:00 10:00-10:30 10:30-11:00 11:00-11:30 …
With a First visit of 60 minutes and a Follow-up of 45 minutes, on the other hand, the first visit still always lands on the hour, while the follow-up advances 45 minutes at a time, on the quarter hours:
First visit: 09:00-10:00 10:00-11:00 11:00-12:00 12:00-13:00
Follow-up: 09:00-09:45 09:45-10:30 10:30-11:15 11:15-12:00 12:00-12:45
It is the simplest setup to reason about: an hour, half an hour or 45 minutes, appointments back to back. Bear in mind that with no buffer there is no margin at all between one session and the next.
The golden rule with two lengths
If you want round times with both lengths, each length plus the buffer has to add up to 60, 45 or 30 minutes.
Example: first visit 55 and follow-up 25, with a buffer of 5.
First visit: 09:00-09:55 10:00-10:55 11:00-11:55 12:00-12:55
Follow-up: 09:00-09:25 09:30-09:55 10:00-10:25 10:30-10:55 11:00-11:25 …
Example: first visit 55 and follow-up 40, with a buffer of 5.
First visit: 09:00-09:55 10:00-10:55 11:00-11:55 12:00-12:55
Follow-up: 09:00-09:40 09:45-10:25 10:30-11:10 11:15-11:55 12:00-12:40
With 55 and 40 and a buffer of 5, on the other hand, the sums are 60 and 45: the first visit lands on round times, but the follow-up drifts 45 minutes at a time, as in the examples above. It works perfectly well, its times are just less convenient to say out loud.
What the client sees on WhatsApp¶
The client doesn't pick from a menu. If their message already says what they need ("I'd like a first visit on Thursday"), the assistant asks nothing and goes straight to the right times for that length. If it isn't clear, it asks once which type of appointment is needed, listing the options with their length and calling them by the name you wrote. If the client asks for something that isn't on the list, the assistant doesn't refuse: it offers the available options.
When a client asks to reschedule, the assistant keeps the length of the original appointment and doesn't ask for the type again. The chosen type also appears on the event in your Google calendar and in the daily email summary.
Days and hours¶
Below, in the Days and hours panel, there's a row for each day of the week (Monday…Sunday):
- The toggle opens or closes the day: Open or Closed. If the day is closed you won't take appointments.
- When it's open, you set the Hours band with the start and end time (e.g. 09:00 - 18:00).
- Lunch break: a second toggle, with its own start and end times (e.g. 13:00 - 14:00). During that interval the assistant doesn't offer appointments.
Holidays and one-off closures
This screen sets the hours of a typical week: there's no handling of public holidays or occasional closures. For a long weekend, a holiday or an afternoon off, block the day or the hours when you're not available directly on your Google calendar by creating an event: the assistant reads it and won't offer those times.
If you change your hours when you already have bookings¶
Changes apply to the future appointments clients ask for from that moment on.
Appointments already booked stay in your calendar and are neither moved nor cancelled: they're commitments made with real people, and no system should undo them on its own.
So if you narrow your hours, you may find an appointment or two already booked outside the new band. They're easy to spot by looking at the calendar for the days involved, and they should be handled the way you'd handle any other change of plan: by contacting the person.
Saving¶
When you're done, tap Save at the bottom of the screen. Changes take effect right away.
These rules are what lets the assistant offer only times that are genuinely free, with no overlaps: the full picture is in appointment management on WhatsApp.
The next step of the setup is info and services, where you write what the assistant can tell your clients.