The Appointment scheduler consists of four separate modules or databases. There are:
- Appointments- Each appointment slot is a record stored in this database. The records are created using the Calendar and Days modules when you first "build" your schedule. Filled and purged appointment are stored in the Appts Archive database.
- Appts Archive- When you purge old appointments from the Appointments module, on your preset schedule, all filled appointment are stored here for future reference.
- Calendar- This has the current years’ dates for use when you build your appointment schedule. All memos associated with dates are also stored here.
- Days- Each provider’s schedule, or "template", is added to the master schedule which is then used to create the appointment records stored in Appointments. Changing a daily template days not alter what is already in the Appointments module itself.
At the main screen in 1.Office Startup click on Calendar. Alternatively, select or enter Calendar in any navigation list and click Go. You will be taken to the Main Menu of the Calendar module, which is below. This module is used as the final step in creating your schedule. Before you create a schedule, your daily templates are first set up in the Days Module. On this screen you can do the following:
Change the current year
In the middle of the screen is a pop-up menu of years. If you will be building an appointment schedule for next year, change the year in the box to that year. If the year you need is not listed, select Edit and enter the four-digit year. You can also use this feature to remove previous years from this list.
Memos tabs
In the Appointments module, there is a block near the bottom of each list where you can add memos that pertain to that particular day. To enter a memo, select the day you want and enter the memo in the memo field.
To view memos already entered, click the Memos button on the front screen of the Calendar module. If there are multiple memos, you will see them listed in chronological order. You can edit or delete any memos here.
List tab Clicking List brings up the list of all days in the year. You can scroll the dates and add comments.
- Day # is the number of the day from 1 to 365 (366).
- Dates is the date in MM/DD/YYYY format
- Day name, Mo, and Year are self-explanatory
- Day Memo is different from the memo described above. This is information associated with a particular date, like a holiday that happens on the same date every year (New Year’s Day, Boxing Day, etc.). These notes do not appear in the memo field of the Appointments module.
- To change to a different year just change the year on the main calendar screen.
This is one of the most important functions of the Calendar module. After you have set up the daily templates for each provider in the Days module (office hours, appointment interval, etc. – covered in detail later in Days chapter), you would click Build to begin building your appointment schedule. In a nutshell:
- Make sure the year at the front of the Calendar module is set for the year in which you will be building appointments.
- Click Build to bring up the Month Selection Dialog
- Select the Start month and the End month. They may be the same month. If you need to build appointments from November of one year to February of the next, you would have to build it as Start November, End December, change the year and then build January and February.
- Select the group whose appointments you will be building. If you select none all will be used.
- Select the days you want to build. If you do not select any, you will not be able to build.
- Click Start Build and go get a cup of coffee (it takes a few minutes, depending on the detail and the speed of your computer).