Appointments are for selling (an estimate visit, a call), not the work itself. Types are Phone call, Video call and In person (which needs an address).
- Press New appointment on the Schedule or the Appointments page.
- Pick the client, the type, the time and who's going.
- Afterwards, press Complete appointment. WorkBench offers Create quote right away.
Purpose is optional. Your client sees it in their reminder texts and emails and on their client portal. Leave it blank and it says "Estimate". WorkBench remembers what you type: the next appointment starts with your last purpose, and tapping the box lists your recent ones. Job titles work the same way.
Other buttons: Reschedule, Mark no-show, Cancel appointment and Reopen.
The Appointments list
The Appointments page has a search box (client, purpose, address) and a filter: Upcoming (the default, soonest first), Past, Cancelled and All. Owners and admins also get Mine to see only the appointments they're on. The list shows 100 at a time, with pages below it. Right-click a row (press and hold on your phone) for Open, Open in new tab, Copy link, Complete appointment, Mark no-show, Cancel appointment, Reopen, Create quote and Delete.
Several people on one appointment
An appointment can have more than one person on it: an estimate where the owner brings a tech along, or a sales call two people sit in on. Owners, admins and Sales + Tech users pick them under Team members when booking or editing; a Sales user books appointments on themselves. The first person picked is the lead, and all of them get the heads-up push about an hour ahead. The appointment shows on each person's day in the Schedule and in their synced calendar, and dragging it in the Team view moves it for everyone on it.
Overlaps and drive time
While you pick a time, a line under the time fields warns when someone on the appointment already has a job, appointment or blocked-off time then, and, for in-person appointments, when they could not drive there from their previous stop in time or would be late to the next one ("Sam drives about 25 min from Job #41, which ends at 2:00 PM, so they'd be 10 min late here"). It is a heads-up, not a block: you can still save. The overlap lines also show after a save and when you drag an appointment on the Schedule; the drive-time line is only there while you pick a time. Drive times use the appointment's address (or the client's), so pick the client first.
Client reminders go out by themselves: about a day ahead (only for appointments booked at least a day ahead) and about an hour ahead, by email and — once texting is on — by text. The wording follows the type: a phone call says you will call them at their number, a video call includes the join link, and an in-person visit gives the arrival window. Untick Remind client on an appointment to keep it quiet. Whoever it is assigned to gets a push about an hour ahead either way. The appointment page shows what was sent and when.
Confirmations. When you book an appointment yourself, leave Send the client a confirmation now ticked and they get a "you're booked" text and email with the details and a calendar file the moment you save. Untick it for internal meetings or a client who already knows.
Quiet hours. Automatic reminder texts never go out between 9 PM and 8 AM in your time zone; a reminder that lands then goes by email instead. This only applies to the automatic reminders. Anything you send yourself — an invoice, a quote, a text from a client's thread, a confirmation — goes out right away, whatever the hour.