> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.ontimebookings.com.au/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# The calendar

> Find your way around: views, filters, colours, and what green, amber, and red mean while you drag.

The calendar shows your staff as columns and the day down the side. Everything that takes up a provider's time appears on it.

Open it from **Booking Management** in the left-hand menu.

## Booking mode and unavailability mode

There's a switch at the top of the calendar with two settings. It decides what happens when you drag an empty slot:

* **Booking mode** — dragging opens a new booking form. This is where you'll be most of the time.
* **Unavailability mode** — dragging blocks that time out instead. See [Block out time](/take-bookings/unavailability).

The whole calendar changes tint in unavailability mode so you can tell at a glance which one you're in. Your choice is remembered next time you open the screen.

<Tip>
  Blocking out someone's afternoon while you're in booking mode is the most common slip. Check the switch before you drag.
</Tip>

## Views

The calendar picks a view the first time you open it, based on how many staff you have:

| Your setup            | What you get                                                 |
| --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Up to 4 providers     | **Week** — the full week, everyone side by side              |
| More than 4 providers | **2-Day** — two days at a time, so the columns stay readable |
| On a phone            | **Day** — one provider, one day                              |

After that, whatever view you switch to is remembered. Same for the date, the location, which providers you've ticked, and any suburb you've searched — the screen comes back the way you left it.

<Note>
  One exception: if the date you left on has passed, the calendar opens on today instead.
</Note>

## Moving around

* **Today**, **‹**, and **›** at the top move you through dates.
* The **left and right arrow keys** do the same thing without reaching for the mouse. They work whenever you're not typing in a field.
* Click the date to jump to any day.

## Filters and display

Across the top:

| Control            | What it does                                                                                                           |
| ------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Location**       | Which branch you're looking at. Changing it resets the provider list.                                                  |
| **Providers**      | Tick the staff you want to see. Untick people who aren't relevant today to widen the remaining columns.                |
| **Suburb search**  | Type a suburb to see who covers it — see below.                                                                        |
| **Hide cancelled** | On by default. Turn it off to see cancelled bookings in place.                                                         |
| **Slot size**      | Switches the rows between 15 and 30 minutes. Wider rows are easier to drop into; narrower rows fit more day on screen. |
| **Day width**      | Widens the day columns when things are cramped.                                                                        |
| **Refresh**        | Reloads everything. Worth a click if a colleague is booking at the same time.                                          |

There are also two buttons for starting something directly: **Add new booking** and **Add unavailability**.

## Searching by suburb

If your staff travel to customers, the suburb search answers "who can actually get there?".

Type a suburb and the calendar:

* **Dims providers** who don't cover it, so the ones who do stand out.
* **Dims the working hours** that come from a schedule not covering that suburb. Those hours are still there and you can still book into them — they're marked as not the obvious choice.
* **Switches location automatically** if the suburb belongs to a different branch.

A legend appears under the controls explaining the dimming while a suburb is active.

<Note>
  Dimmed doesn't mean blocked. Click any slot and book it. You'll get a soft warning if it doesn't match, which you can accept — see [Warnings and overrides](/take-bookings/warnings).
</Note>

## Reading the calendar

**Colours** come from the service. The colour you set on a service in [its settings](/set-up/services/create-a-service) is the colour its bookings appear in, which is what makes a busy week readable at a glance. A coloured border down the side of a booking shows its status.

**Blocked-out time** is shaded and labelled with its reason.

**Appointments from Google or Outlook** appear in grey if a provider has connected their calendar. They're read-only — they're there so you don't double-book someone, not to be managed here.

## Green, amber, and red

As you drag out a new slot, the calendar tints to tell you whether there's enough room:

| Colour    | What it means                                                                                                                                         |
| --------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Green** | Plenty of room — more than 2 hours 45 minutes free before the next thing in the diary or the end of the working day. Any of your services will fit.   |
| **Amber** | Some room — between 1 hour 15 minutes and 2 hours 45 minutes. Shorter services fit; longer ones won't.                                                |
| **Red**   | Not workable — it overlaps something, it's outside the provider's working hours, or there's less than 1 hour 15 minutes before the next thing starts. |

It's a guide to what you could fit in the gap, not a verdict on the booking you're making. A red tint on a 30-minute booking into a 1-hour gap is telling you the gap is tight, not that the booking is wrong.

<Warning>
  You can't drag out a slot at all in a time the provider isn't rostered to work. The calendar refuses the selection.

  If you genuinely need to book someone outside their hours, open the booking form and set the time there — the form allows it with a warning. See [Create a booking](/take-bookings/create-a-booking).
</Warning>

## Sharing a booking

Open a booking and the web address in your browser gains a reference to it. Copy that address and send it to a colleague — it opens the same booking on their screen.