New visits can be added to the system by client request (see Client Service Requests) and by management from the Scheduling > Master Schedule page. These are the steps for Master and Manager accounts to add visits:
- Click on the
button - The Type determines whether the visit is a regular visit or a Training Visit (see below)
- The Status is the stage in which services will start in. This will determine how the system, as well as your sitters and clients can interact with each visit
- Requested: this is the status of visits that your clients request. While still set as "Requested" clients can edit and delete visits, allowing them to fix mistakes (once you assign visits they can no longer perform those actions)
- Unavailable: the business is not able to perform the visit. Read more about Unavailable here
- Assigned: when you use the "Assign" action to add a visit to a sitter's schedule this is the status that it will be. The actions a sitter can perform on "Assigned" visits will be based on your Assigned Visits setting at Site Options > Sitters & Journals
- Accepted: the sitter has performed the "Accept" action, agreeing to perform the visit. This may be hidden based on your Assigned Visits setting at Site Options > Sitters & Journals
- Declined:the sitter has performed the "Decline" action, turning down the visit. This may be hidden based on your Assigned Visits setting at Site Options > Sitters & Journals
- Confirmed: the sitter has performed the "Confirm" action, acknowledging that they are aware of the upcoming visit. This may be hidden based on your Sitter Assignment Confirming setting at Site Options > Time & Scheduling
- In Progress: the sitter has performed the "Arrived" action and is currently performing the visit
- Canceled: the visit won't be performed. Using the "Cancel" action to cancel visits will let you adjust the client charge and sitter pay
- Completed: the sitter has performed the "Complete" action
- Note: Clients only see 5 different statuses, Requested, Confirmed (which to you would be Assigned, Accepted, Declined or Confirmed), In Progress, Canceled and Completed
- Under Services & Times, choose a "SERVICE" and "TIME BLOCK" from the menus*. You can specify a sitter and add notes to that sitter (notes can be added later as well). Click the
button to add more visits that will occur for that client on the same day(s) - Under Schedule Type, choose whether this request is for a "Single Day" (one day only), "Multiple Days" (weekly on set days for a set period of time), "Ongoing" (weekly on set days with no end date), or "Custom" (choose any combination of days)
- For Multiple or Ongoing you will need to choose the Pattern of which days of the week the visits will occur on
- For Ongoing you will need to choose the Frequency, which determines how often the visits are added
- If there are multiple Services & Times added and the Schedule Type is setup as "Multiple Days" you will be able to use the Skip First Day and Skip Last Day fields. Checking any of those services/times will make it so that service/time will be skipped on the Start Date or on the End Date.
- Manager Notes can be entered as well as Notes to Client. These will be added to each visit that is generated and can be seen on the calendar. More notes can be added to each individual visit after it has been created.
- Client Email Confirmations are processed daily and will send your clients a single "Service Confirmation" email listing which visits have been "confirmed" (the visits that sitters have accepted) in the past 24 hours.
- Click the "Save" button to create the visits.
* If you have changed Visit Times for Sitters to "Set Specific Times" at Site Options > Time & Scheduling you will be able to set a time here as well
Training Visits
You can add visits to the schedule which are hidden from clients for training purposes. When you add a new visit from the Master Schedule select "Training Visit" as the Type. Here is how Training Visits work:
- Training visits are completely hidden from clients (on their schedule, invoices and anywhere else)
- Client Confirmations will not and cannot be sent for Training Visits
- Journals can be added for Training Visits, but the Journals and journal comments are sent to Management instead of the client
- Training Visits have a $0 price, cannot include Surcharges and cannot be invoiced
- You and the sitter will see a "Training" label for the visit on the Schedule
- Other than the rules above, Training Visits are treated like any other visit (sitters can be paid for them, although they cannot include tips from clients)
Auto-marking First/Last Visits
It can be very helpful to know when a series of visits is starting and when it is ending. Instead of needing to create a custom Tag and mark the first/last visits manually the system will mark them for you.
- When a client has 2 or more consecutive days with visits the system will add a checkered pattern on the left (first visit) or right (last visit) side of visits
- Canceled and Unavailable visits are ignored when determining first/last visits
- The marking can be seen on the Master Schedule and by sitters on their My Schedule page (it isn't visible to clients)
- This is only visible in Calendar view