Best Practices For Client Time Display
Clients always select from Schedule Blocks when making service requests regardless of whether you have exact times hidden or not. (You can configure your settings for Schedule Blocks, hiding exact times from clients, and Auto Client Time Display in Client Settings > Schedule Blocks.) When you approve those requests, and you don't have exact times hidden, clients will then be able to see the exact time the visits are scheduled for on their confirmation, schedule, and invoice. For example, if the client selects the "Midday" schedule Block for their request, and you approve their request and put it on the schedule at 12 pm, the client will see 12 pm as the time of the visit on their confirmation, schedule, and invoice.
If you do have exact times hidden, this adds an additional field to the Edit Event screen labeled "Client Time Display". Whatever is in this field is what the client will see for the time of the event on their confirmation, schedule, and invoice. You can always manually edit this field, but by default, when you approve a service request from a client, this field will be the schedule block they requested.
When you schedule services for a client directly on the Scheduler rather than by approving a client request, you don't choose a Schedule Block, you just add the services at exact times, so the "Client Time Display" field would be blank unless you manually entered something in that field. To save you from having to always manually enter the Client Time Display when scheduling services for a client, you can set up "Auto Client Time Display" time frames which will automatically populate the "Client Time Display" field based on the time you schedule a visit. So if you had an Auto Client Time Display time frame called "Midday" from 11 am - 1 pm, and you schedule a visit at 12 pm, the "Client Time Display" would automatically be "Midday" for that event.
Auto Client Time Display also automatically updates the Client Time Display anytime you move an event to another time. For example, if you had an "Afternoon" time frame from 1 pm - 3 pm, and you moved that 12 pm event to 2:30 pm, the Client Time Display would automatically be changed from "Midday" to "Afternoon".
If your Schedule Blocks do not overlap, you can simply set up your Auto Client Time Display time frames to be identical to your Schedule Blocks. But if your Schedule Blocks overlap, you'll need to consider how best to set up Auto Client Time Display for your company or whether to use it at all.
Note: When enabling "hide exact times" and creating custom client time displays, only newly scheduled events will include the new time displays. Template services and pre-existing events that were manually scheduled must be manually updated to include a client time display. However, events that clients request will automatically include the name of the Schedule Block they were requested in, even if they were scheduled before hiding exact times.
Auto Client Time Display For Companies With Overlapping Schedule Blocks
Since Auto Client Time Display automatically populates the "Client Time Display" field, the Auto Client Time Display time frames you set up can't overlap because if, for example, you had a "Morning" time frame from 7 am - 10 am and a "Late Morning" time frame from 9 am - 12 pm, and you schedule a visit at 9:30 am, the system has no way of knowing whether to set the Client Time Display as "Morning" or "Late Morning" for that visit.
This can make Auto Client Time Display problematic for companies with overlapping Schedule Blocks since they can't set up Auto Client Time Display to match their Schedule Blocks. When they schedule services directly on the Scheduler at a time when their schedule blocks overlap, they will have to manually change the Client Time Display if the Auto Client Time Display is not the time frame they want showing to the client. And they cannot move these events or events that were approved from a client request without Auto Client Time Display overriding the existing entry in the Client Time Display field.
It is not a requirement to use Auto Client Time Display when Hide Exact Times From Clients is enabled. For companies that have overlapping Schedule Blocks, it can sometimes make more sense to not use Auto Client Time Display, especially if they frequently move events within their Schedule Blocks.
Disabling Auto Client Time Display
If you are currently using Auto Client Time Display and want to disable it, you can do that by clicking "Remove" next to each of your time frames and then clicking "Save Changes".
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why is my client's time display showing a time that is wrong and/or does not match what is in my settings?
There are three main scenarios where this can occur:
- When you first start scheduling an event, the event will be placed at 12:00 PM by default, and the client time display will be populated with the time display you have configured for that time of day. When you change the time of the event to a time that doesn't have an automatic time display configured, the event's client time display will remain at the last one selected.
- An event is scheduled for a time that has a configured time display, but the event time is later updated to a time frame that does not have a time display configured. Much like with the prior scenario, the time display will remain with the last one that was selected.
- When the client requests a service, their time display will be populated with the name of the Schedule Block they requested the service in. If you or another admin scheduled the event, your custom Automatic Client Time Displays will be used. Because of this, there can be potential discrepancies in the time shown to the client.
Q: How does this feature work when there are overlapping schedule blocks or time displays?
Refer to Auto Client Time Display For Companies With Overlapping Schedule Blocks for more information on this.
Q: What happens when a service is scheduled at a time frame where I don’t have a Schedule Block or Auto Time Display configured?
When the start time for the services occurs where there is no schedule block or time display for that time, it stays as the last time display that was chosen. The solution for events that are scheduled outside of the configured Schedule Blocks or Auto Client Time Displays would be to create a time display that includes those time frames, and this display will populate the client time display field when scheduling.
Q: I used Bulk Edit to change the time of some events. Why did the client time display not update?
When using Bulk Edit, only the specific details that are checked off when editing the events will be changed. If the "When" field on the bulk edit form was updated, only the time was updated. To update the time display, the "Client Time Display" field would need to be checked, and details would need to be entered in the field.
Q: Is there a way for the Auto Time Display to be linked to the requested schedule block for the event?
If you'd like your client time displays to mirror the schedule blocks you have configured, you'd create automatic time displays with details similar to those of your schedule blocks. The automatic time displays can be configured within your Schedule Block Settings and under the "Show Exact Time to Clients?" section. For example, you have a schedule block titled "Evening" for 5:00-7:00 PM, and you'd create an Auto Time Display titled "Evening" and the time frame set for 5:00-7:00 PM.
Q: Does removing or editing an Auto Time Display affect the Schedule Blocks?
The Schedule Blocks and the Auto Time Display are related in some ways but do operate independently from each other. For example, changing a time frame or name of an Auto Time Display does not change the details for any corresponding Schedule Blocks.
Q: How do I change or update the time shown for the "Description" column of the invoice?
The invoice description is actually populated by either your custom client time displays (if you schedule the service manually) or the name of the schedule block it is requested in (if the client requested the services). We share more information about this here: Client Time Displays And Invoice Descriptions. However, you can always edit the client time display for any event or multiple events in bulk by editing the event.