Buffer time keeps a gap around each booking. Use it for cleaning up, getting ready, or travelling to the next customer. Customers still see the normal length of the service. A 60-minute massage still shows as 60 minutes.
Set buffer time
Buffer time belongs to one service.
- On the Dashboard, open the service.
- Click the Availability tab.
- Scroll to Timeslot Settings.
- In Buffer Time, type the number of minutes in After each booking, add a buffer time of...
- Click Save in the bar at the top of the page.
Use whole minutes. Type 0 to turn buffer time off.
How buffer time changes your calendar
Buffer time only matters once someone books. Before that, your slots do not change.
Example: a 60-minute service, open 9:00–12:00, with a 15-minute buffer.
- With no bookings, customers see 9:00, 10:00, and 11:00.
- A customer books 9:00. That booking and its buffer last until 10:15.
- The 10:00 slot is now closed, because it starts inside the buffer. 11:00 is still open.
The buffer also works before a booking. A slot cannot end less than 15 minutes before another booking starts.
The buffer counts around every booking the same team member has, on any service. It uses the buffer of the service the customer is booking.
If a booking plus its buffer ends between start times, the next slot moves to the next start time. With 30-minute spacing, a booking that ends at 9:30 with a 15-minute buffer makes 10:00 the next slot.
Buffer time and Google Calendar events
Buffer time is only added around bookings made in the app. It is not added around events in your connected Google Calendar.
A busy Google Calendar event blocks its own time and nothing more. A slot can end exactly when the event starts, or start the moment it ends. Example: a 90-minute service with a 30-minute buffer, and a Google Calendar event at 7:00 PM. A 5:30–7:00 PM slot is still offered.
To keep time free around a calendar event, make the event itself longer in Google Calendar, for example 6:30–8:30 PM instead of 7:00–8:00 PM.
Buffer time or slot spacing?
Next to Buffer Time is Timeslot Spacing. It is a different setting:
- Timeslot Spacing sets how often start times appear, such as every 15, 30, or 60 minutes. It changes the calendar for everyone, all the time.
- Buffer Time adds a gap only around real bookings.
If you want appointments to always start on the hour with a 15-minute gap, set spacing to 60 and buffer to 15. If you want slots to move to fit around bookings, use a smaller spacing, such as 15.
Buffer time or lead time?
- Buffer time is a gap between two appointments.
- Lead time is how much notice a customer must give before booking. See Control when customers can book.
You can use both on the same service.