Resource Availability Scheduling – Admin Guide

CalendarAnything’s Availability Scheduling feature makes it possible for an organization’s resources or resource combinations to be booked from a calendar interface. Resources can include personnel, locations, meeting rooms, equipment, and other assets. For each resource or resource combination, the calendar shows time slots of availability.

During the initial step, you must define what constitutes Availability for the use case and then determine the data objects required. Availability setup falls into one of two categories—simple and complex. The feature comes with a set number of CalendarAnything Support Team hours.

This article focuses on the high-level steps of Availability Scheduling setup for an organization. Keep in mind that the feature is highly configurable to accommodate various types of organizations and use cases.

In this article:

• Step 1: Data Object Evaluation and Configuration
• Step 2: Calendar and Template Creation
• Step 3: Availability Template Input

Step 1: Data Object Evaluation and Configuration

During this step, you determine whether Availability will be for one resource type or for a combination of resource types.  Setup will fall under the simple or complex category. Simple setup is for Availability consisting of one resource type stored on a standard Salesforce data object. Complex setup is for Availability consisting of a combination of resource types and requires at least one custom object.

You must identify the following objects:

• Object Name or Availability Object: Object that stores the resources that can be scheduled from the calendar. For simple availability, this is a standard Salesforce object such as the User object. For complex availability, this will be a custom object that stores resource combinations, for example, physicians and each clinic location at which the physician can be available.  A custom “Availability Rules” field of type Text Area (Long) must be added to this object.
  Note: This is the Object Name in the Availability Template Objects step in Availability Calendar setup.
• Appointment Object:  Stores booked appointment details.
• Booking Object: An alternate to the Appointment object.
• Member Object:  Type of user who will book resources from the calendar, for example, User or Contact.
• Location Object: Stores locations used in a complex availability setup. This object will populate a picklist in the Availability Template.
• Type Object:  This object is optional. It stores appointment type details such as required before and after appointment times.
• Resource Object: Type of resource that can be booked, such as a User, Contact, Account, or a resource on a custom object. Note: This can be thought of as the primary resource in complex Availability.

Note: Custom objects may require a “lookup” field that corresponds to a field on a standard object.

Step 2: Calendar and Template Creation

Technically a calendar user can create an Availability calendar. However, an admin may be better suited to create the Availability calendar, especially if the setup is complex. If an end user will create the calendar, the admin should provide the user with the list of data objects and the fields to which they correspond on calendar setup. For calendar setup instructions and field definitions, refer to Creating an Availability Calendar for Booking Resources.

Once the calendar is created and saved, the application generates a template to input resource availability.

Step 3: Availability Template Input

The Availability template must be populated with the available resources or resource combinations and time slots. Personnel resources can input their own availability, or someone designated can enter it for them. For template input instructions, refer to CalendarAnything LWC Availability Calendars User Guide.

For diagrams of example setups, refer to Resource Availability Scheduling – Data Model Admin Quick Start Guide.