Appointment Finder

Overview

Appointment Finder helps schedulers quickly identify the best available appointment options for a customer across a date range.

Use it when you need to:

• Find open slots that match event type and resource constraints
• Compare options by distance
• Book directly from search results
• Tune search behavior (days, hours, slot duration, max distance)

Key capabilities:

• Weekly timeline of available options
• Summary mode for fast scanning of slot volume
• Detail mode for resource-level slot choices
• Side-panel drilldown for open slots
• One-click assignment workflow from results

Tip

Appointment Finder is best for “find me the best slot now” workflows. For broader schedule editing, use Event Scheduler or Availability Calendar.

Accessing Appointment Finder

1. Open the Scheduling workspace.
2. Select Appointment Finder.
3. Confirm you have required context selected (customer, location, event type, and resource group).
4. Set date range and filters if needed.

Preconditions

• You must have access to the Appointment Finder module.
• Your workflow should include:
  • A selected customer and customer location
  • A selected event type
  • At least one eligible resource group

Caution

If required values are missing, the calendar can load with no results.

Primary Views & Navigation

Header and Controls

• Date range controls for the calendar week view
• Saved views (when configured)
• Actions menu (for workflow shortcuts)

Main Calendar Grid

• Timeline-style weekly calendar
• Rows represent configured timeslots
• Columns represent days
• Cards in each cell represent available opportunities

Summary Slot Drawer

• Clicking a summary slot opens a right-side sheet
• Shows all matching resources for that slot/day
• Sorted by distance to prioritize closest options

Working With Appointment Slots

Slot card types

1. Summary cards (Summary View Mode ON)
   • Show count of open slots (for example, “5 Open Slots”)
   • Show best (minimum) distance in that group
2. Resource cards (Summary View Mode OFF)
   • Show individual resource name
   • Show distance for that resource

Distance color cues (summary mode)

• Green: under 5 miles
• Yellow: 5 to under 10 miles
• Orange: 10+ miles

Important displayed values

Field	Meaning	Notes
Open Slots	Number of matching resources in a slot/day	Summary mode only
Distance	Travel distance estimate	N/A possible when distance is unavailable
Start/End Time	Slot window used for assignment	Comes from slot configuration
Resource Name	Assigned staff/resource candidate	Detail mode or summary drawer

Creating a New Appointment Assignment

You do not create a separate “Appointment Finder item.” Instead, you create an assignment from a result.

1. Find a matching slot in the calendar.
2. Click either:
   • a summary card (then select a resource in the drawer), or
   • a resource card directly.
3. In the assignment sheet, confirm customer and event details.
4. Save the assignment.

Assignment context used by default

Field	Required	Description
Customer	Yes	The selected customer for this search
Location	Yes	Customer location used for proximity matching
Event Type	Yes	Determines duration and resource eligibility
Resource Group	Yes	Limits candidates to eligible resource pools
Date/Time Slot	Yes	The chosen slot from calendar results

Editing & Updating Search Behavior

Use Settings to update how results are generated.

Settings fields

Field	Required	Description
Summary View Mode	No	Toggle grouped slot cards vs individual resource cards
Days of Week	Yes	Which days are eligible for matching
Start Time	Yes	Earliest time considered for matching
End Time	Yes	Latest time considered for matching
Slot Duration	Yes	15, 30, 45, or 60 minutes
Max Distance	Yes	1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 30, or 45 miles

Save behavior and side effects

• Saving updates active search behavior.
• Results refresh to reflect the new constraints.
• When default company settings are configured, they are used for initial page load.

Note

Narrower distance and tighter time windows reduce result volume but usually improve quality.

Relationships & Dependencies

Appointment Finder relies on data from scheduling and maintenance modules.

[Patients/Customers] --->
                        \
[Locations] -----------> [Appointment Finder] ---> [Assignment Sheet] ---> [Scheduled Event]
                        /
[Event Types] --------->
                       \
[Resource Groups] -----> [Eligible Resources]

Related features:

• Availability Calendar
• Event Scheduler
• Patients
• Locations
• Event Types
• Resource Groups

Best Practices

1. Start broad, then tighten filters (distance/time) after you confirm availability patterns.
2. Keep Summary View Mode ON for triage; switch OFF for final assignment decisions.
3. Use realistic Max Distance by service area to avoid noisy results.
4. Validate customer location before searching to avoid misleading proximity output.
5. Use saved views for recurring scheduling patterns.

Troubleshooting

No results appear

• Likely causes: missing customer/location/event type/resource group, too-narrow time window, too-small max distance.
• Fix: confirm required context and widen distance or hours.

Too many low-quality options

• Likely causes: wide distance and long hour range.
• Fix: reduce max distance and shorten the time window.

Distances show as N/A

• Likely causes: incomplete or unresolved location data.
• Fix: verify address/location quality for customer and resources.

Results look grouped when you need individual options

• Likely cause: Summary View Mode is enabled.
• Fix: open Settings and disable Summary View Mode.

Settings changed but results still seem stale

• Likely causes: outdated query state or unchanged date range context.
• Fix: adjust date range, re-open settings, save again, and refresh the page if needed.