When it comes to your calendar, there’s no room for uncertainty—it’s a crucial part of keeping your business running smoothly, your meetings attended, and your to-do’s checked off!
Once you’ve set up some sessions using the HoneyBook Scheduler tool, it’s important to know which projects and meetings will impact your scheduling availability, and the control you have over this. Read on for some best practices and definitions to make sure you’re using your HoneyBook Calendar and the Scheduler to their full potential.
In this article, we’ll cover:
Project dates
One of the first steps to managing your calendar is setting project dates. You’ll be prompted to whenever you create a new project, but remember to set these—your project dates are what pull your projects onto your calendar and impact your session availability!
To set or edit a project date:
1. Find or create the project.
2. Once in the project's workspace, click the Details tab.
3. Set the project date and time.
If you’d like, add an end date and/or time by clicking + Add end date. The project will appear on your calendar as spanning from the start date and time to the end date and time.
Add an additional date and time to the project by clicking + Add date. You can add an end date and/or time for this additional date, too.
PLEASE NOTE: Only the primary project date or date range will appear in your HoneyBook Calendar. If you add additional dates and times by clicking + Add date, these will appear only in the project itself—not in your calendar—and won’t affect your availability.
4. Once you’ve added or edited your project date(s), be sure to set your session scheduling availability!
Booked projects, tentative projects, and HoneyBook meetings
On your HoneyBook Calendar, you’ll notice that there are filters for booked projects (dark blue), tentative projects (light blue lines), and HoneyBook meetings (orange).
PLEASE NOTE: Archived and deleted projects will not appear on your HoneyBook Calendar.
Booked projects: Projects that are just that—booked (contract signed and/or payment made).
Clients will not be able to schedule sessions with you during the date(s) of booked projects, unless you mark these projects as free under the Project Details tabs.
PLEASE NOTE: At this time, the logic for tentative vs. booked projects cannot be changed.
Tentative projects: Projects that are not booked (no contract signed and no payments made).
Clients will be able to schedule sessions with you during the date(s) of all tentative projects.
PLEASE NOTE: Even if a project is marked as busy, clients will still be able to schedule sessions during the project date while the project is tentative. Once the contract is signed and/or payment is made, the busy status will take effect and clients will no longer be able to schedule sessions during the project date.
Meetings: Meetings scheduled through HoneyBook.
Clients will not be able to schedule sessions with you during any meetings.
Setting project availability
Under each project’s Project Details, you’ll be able to select whether the project will affect your availability for session scheduling once booked. This is a great tool to use if you’re using a large range for a project date and still want the option to meet with other clients during that time.
HoneyBook Tip: As a default setting, all projects are set to busy. You can always adjust availability on a project-by-project basis!
To adjust a project's availability, simply follow the steps outlined here!
If you set a project as free, clients will always be able to schedule sessions with you during the project date
If you set a project as busy, you will not show availability during the project date once the project is booked (contract signed and/or payment made)
Blocking an entire date or date range
Going on vacation, or need to set an entire date or date range as unavailable for some other reason? Just go to your Calendar and create a meeting that spans those dates. Doing so will block off the time and ensure that clients cannot schedule any meetings with you.
HoneyBook Tip: If you need to set up an OOO reply for any incoming inquiries, here's how.
Want to learn more?
Still have questions? Feel free to send us a message by clicking the Question Mark icon on any HoneyBook page. Our team is always happy to help!