Create, reschedule, cancel, and manage appointments

The Calendar page in the sidebar is where staff schedule and manage appointments. Every block on it is one of three event types: an appointment (a customer visit, with a customer and usually a vehicle attached), an internal event (a staff block like a team meeting or a vendor pickup), or a shop closure. This page covers creating and managing appointments and internal events by hand. For closures, see Shop identity, contact information, hours, and closures; for appointments that customers book themselves, see Manage online bookings, walk-ins, and no-shows.

Reading the Calendar

The Calendar has month, week, and day views. Your last view, date, and filter choices are remembered per shop in your browser, and every time shown is in the shop's timezone regardless of where you are sitting.

Above the grid you can search by customer, event, or vehicle, and filter by appointment status, visit type, or employee. The employee filter works on the assigned service advisor or default technician and has Only me, All employees, and Select none shortcuts. The eye icon holds the Only business hours option, which trims the visible hours to the shop's posted schedule. Business hours shade the grid but never block anything: you can create or move an appointment to any time, open or closed. Hours and the default appointment length are set on the shop's Calendar settings tab; see Configure scheduling availability.

Create an appointment

The fastest way is to click (or drag across) an open slot on the calendar grid: a new appointment opens with that date and time already filled in. Use the event-type selector in the New appointment heading to change the draft to an internal event or shop closure without losing that time. You can also use the Add event button on the Calendar, the plus button in the command menu from anywhere in the app (see Navigation, search, and basic concepts), or the Schedule appointment button on a customer's page, which pre-selects that customer.

1. Choose the customer. An appointment always needs one; if the person isn't in the system yet, use New customer right in the picker.
2. Choose the vehicle, or leave it empty and add it later. A vehicle is optional at booking time but required before the appointment can become a repair order.
3. Set the date and start and end times (15-minute steps), or switch on All day. The time lists cover that day's business hours plus an hour on either side; pick Show all times at the bottom of the list for an early drop-off or a late pickup. Days the shop is closed offer every time. New appointments default to the shop's default appointment duration.
4. Pick the visit type (Drop off, Waiter, or Tow in; Drop off is the default) and, if you're already committing to one, a promise time.
5. Add reasons for visit and any internal notes.
6. Choose a service advisor and default technician if needed. When you hold the active Service advisor role at the Shop, the advisor defaults to you; either assignment can still be changed or left unassigned.
7. Select Create appointment.

Reasons for visit carry forward onto an estimate or repair order later, so it's worth capturing what the customer actually said. Visit type, odometer, and Promise Time have their own page: Set the Reason For Visit, Visit Type, odometer, and Promise Time.

Appointments don't get a typed title. The calendar labels them with the customer's name and vehicle automatically, so renaming the customer or switching the vehicle updates the label everywhere.

When you hold the active Service advisor role at the Shop, the appointment's service advisor defaults to you. The advisor and technician fields remain editable, and either can be left unassigned. Both assignments show in the event details and drive the employee filter.

BayEngine does not text or email the customer when you create, move, or cancel an appointment from the Calendar. If the customer needs to know, send them a message.

Appointment statuses

An appointment is always in exactly one of five statuses:

• Scheduled: the default for every new appointment
• Confirmed: the customer has confirmed they're coming
• Arrived: the vehicle is here
• No show: the customer never came
• Cancelled: the visit was called off

To change the status, click the appointment on the calendar and pick a new one from the Status dropdown in the details card. It saves as soon as you pick it — there is nothing else to confirm. The same dropdown is on the edit page, and on both surfaces it appears only for an existing appointment, not on the create form. Two statuses also move on their own: creating a repair order for an appointment marks it Arrived, whether you use the appointment's Create repair order button or convert its estimate. That is the Auto-Arrival setting, on by default; a shop that marks arrival by hand at the counter can turn it off under Configurations > General > Hours and calendar. Creating an estimate still leaves the appointment's status alone, and a cancelled or no-show appointment stays that way even if a repair order is created later. Marking one No show can start an Automation (the Appointment No-Show trigger on the Automations page). No-show handling and follow-up are covered in Manage online bookings, walk-ins, and no-shows.

Reschedule an appointment

Drag the block to a new time or day directly on the calendar, or drag its top or bottom edge to change the duration (all-day events can be moved but not resized). The change saves immediately. Visit type works like status: click the appointment and pick Drop off, Waiter, or Tow in from the details card. For anything beyond that — a different vehicle, promise time, or notes — open the appointment and edit it, then select Save changes. If you start editing and leave the page, BayEngine prompts you before abandoning unsaved changes.

Cancel or delete an appointment

These are different actions. Cancelling is a status change: set the status to Cancelled. The block stays on the calendar, so the shop keeps a record that the visit was booked and called off, and a cancelled appointment can no longer be converted to a repair order.

Deleting removes the event from the calendar entirely. Click the event, select the trash icon (or the Delete button on the edit page), and confirm. The confirmation dialog means it: a deleted event cannot be restored. Prefer cancelling for appointments a customer actually made; delete is for mistakes and duplicates.

From appointment to estimate or repair order

Click an appointment to choose the document that should start the visit:

• Create estimate starts a draft quote immediately and opens it. The customer, optional vehicle, service advisor, and reasons for visit carry over. The appointment keeps its current status. Use this path when the shop needs to quote before check-in; a vehicle can be added to the estimate later.
• Create repair order is the check-in path. It needs a vehicle first; the button tells you if one is missing. The repair order starts on the workflow board with the appointment's customer, vehicle, visit type, service advisor, default technician, promise time, and reasons for visit. The appointment is linked, and marked Arrived unless the shop has turned Auto-Arrival off.

After an estimate exists, the appointment shows Go to estimate and direct repair-order creation is no longer available. Add a vehicle if needed, then use the estimate's Convert to Repair Order action. Conversion links that repair order back to the appointment, carries its visit type, default technician, and promise time, and marks the appointment Arrived on the same Auto-Arrival setting as the direct path. The appointment then shows Go to repair order. Cancelled and no-show appointments cannot create either document, and an appointment cannot create parallel estimate and repair order lineages.

This conversion is the heart of check-in. For the full arrival routine, including recording the odometer, see Check in a vehicle and record visit details.

Add an appointment from an existing document

An active Estimate or operational Repair Order can also be the starting point. Open its Overview page and find Appointment under Visit Details. The same condensed row is available in the document-details panel.

Select Not scheduled in Visit Details or in the document-details panel. BayEngine first checks for eligible Appointments for the same Shop and Customer. If none are found, the scheduling dialog opens automatically. If matches exist, choose one or select Schedule new appointment. Each existing Appointment previews which blank values will be filled and which document values will win before you confirm.

When scheduling a new Appointment, the document supplies its Customer and Vehicle. Choose the time, status, Visit Type, Promise Time, advisor, technician, and notes. The dialog shows that day's Calendar and warns about business hours, closures, holidays, overlapping visits, and assignee conflicts without preventing an authorized staff override.

A linked Appointment and document represent one visit. The Estimate shares its Service Advisor with the Appointment. A Repair Order also shares default Technician, Visit Type, and Promise Time. Customer and Vehicle are managed from the document once linked, while Appointment time/status and document status stay independent. Creating copies the document's current Reasons For Visit; linking an existing Appointment does not merge or remove reasons.

Scheduling a new Appointment from a document runs the Shop's normal staff-created Appointment confirmation and reminder Automations. Linking or unlinking an existing Appointment never sends a Customer message.

Use Manage appointment to reschedule or edit it, reactivate a Cancelled or No-show Appointment, unlink it, or open its date and details on the Calendar. Unlinking leaves the Appointment and reminders active. Terminal documents show the linked summary without management controls. If an Estimate converts, the Appointment follows it to the Repair Order and management continues there.

Internal events

Internal events are for time that isn't a customer visit: meetings, training, a tech's dentist appointment. Create one from Add event on the Calendar or from the command menu. The form is just a title, a date/time range or all-day switch, and internal notes. There are no customer, status, or visit fields. Internal events move, resize, and delete the same way appointments do, but they have no cancel status; when one is off, delete it.