Could someone please explain to me the rationale behind Amelia forcing admins to set buffer times that are at least as long as the Default Time Slot Steps value that we set in the General settings?
For example, if I have a 1-hour time slot set, I can't have before/after buffer times of just half an hour - they have to start at 1 hour minimum. With a minimum of 1 hour for each buffer, that means I must have 2 hours of buffer between two adjacent appointments, when using 1-hour time slot steps.
Why is there this apparent assumption that having a longer Time Slot Step value means we want to have bigger gaps between adjacent appointments? I'm having some trouble understanding why the system doesn't like us trying to set smaller buffers than the Default Time Slot Steps value we choose.
My workaround:
I feel that I want to use shorter buffer times than the buffer menus allow me to set, so my workaround is:
1) Reduce my Default Time Slots value to 30 minutes
2) Reduce buffer times to 30 minutes,
3) Go back to the Default Time Slots settings and increase it back to 1 hour (the buffer times will stay at 30 minutes, even though the menu no longer shows 30 minutes as an option)
The above workaround allows me to use a combination of 1-hour Time Slots + 30-minute before and after buffers.
If I don't use this workaround, I must use at least one-hour buffers, which become two hours when two appointments are booked side by side. Two hours is too long!
Could someone explain the rationale of these relatively long minimum buffer times to me? Maybe I'm missing something?
The Default time slot step option in Amelia -> Settings -> General applies to all time slots in Amelia, so when creating services, work hours, buffer times, etc. If you need to create some time slot in Amelia with duration 15 min you would need to set this option to 15 or a shorter interval like 5 min in order to achieve that. You can also create longer time slots with this setting, you can't create shorter time slots when this option is set to some longer interval.
But, if you set this option to 15 min and you want the time slots for booking to be with duration of the service (1 hour) you can enable the optionUse service duration for booking a time slotin Amelia -> Settings -> General instead of taking back the default slot step option to 1 hour.
If you have any further questions or concerns feel free to ask,
Could someone please explain to me the rationale behind Amelia forcing admins to set buffer times that are at least as long as the Default Time Slot Steps value that we set in the General settings?
For example, if I have a 1-hour time slot set, I can't have before/after buffer times of just half an hour - they have to start at 1 hour minimum. With a minimum of 1 hour for each buffer, that means I must have 2 hours of buffer between two adjacent appointments, when using 1-hour time slot steps.
Why is there this apparent assumption that having a longer Time Slot Step value means we want to have bigger gaps between adjacent appointments? I'm having some trouble understanding why the system doesn't like us trying to set smaller buffers than the Default Time Slot Steps value we choose.
My workaround:
I feel that I want to use shorter buffer times than the buffer menus allow me to set, so my workaround is:
1) Reduce my Default Time Slots value to 30 minutes
2) Reduce buffer times to 30 minutes,
3) Go back to the Default Time Slots settings and increase it back to 1 hour (the buffer times will stay at 30 minutes, even though the menu no longer shows 30 minutes as an option)
The above workaround allows me to use a combination of 1-hour Time Slots + 30-minute before and after buffers.
If I don't use this workaround, I must use at least one-hour buffers, which become two hours when two appointments are booked side by side. Two hours is too long!
Could someone explain the rationale of these relatively long minimum buffer times to me? Maybe I'm missing something?
+1 - I really would like to understand the logic behind this too as Amelia only does this...
Hello Daniel, and Hasan,
The Default time slot step option in Amelia -> Settings -> General applies to all time slots in Amelia, so when creating services, work hours, buffer times, etc. If you need to create some time slot in Amelia with duration 15 min you would need to set this option to 15 or a shorter interval like 5 min in order to achieve that. You can also create longer time slots with this setting, you can't create shorter time slots when this option is set to some longer interval.
But, if you set this option to 15 min and you want the time slots for booking to be with duration of the service (1 hour) you can enable the option Use service duration for booking a time slotin Amelia -> Settings -> General instead of taking back the default slot step option to 1 hour.
If you have any further questions or concerns feel free to ask,