Offering Appointment Times to a Client

How to offer filtered appointment times, create a client scheduling link, and control locations, date ranges, notice, and buffers.

Offer times lets a practice send a client a focused set of appointment options without opening the practice’s entire self-scheduling calendar. The client receives a practice-specific scheduling link that shows only the times and locations included in the offer.

Use this when you want to suggest several workable openings, help a client rebook an existing appointment, or make a near-term opening available without changing the practice’s ordinary scheduling rules.

Open Offer times

From the calendar, choose Offer times to create a new scheduling offer. To help a client rebook an appointment, open the appointment and choose Offer times. The rebooking version is labeled Offer rebooking times.

If an appointment is still a pending prospect request, review it from Conversations first. The calendar directs you to the request so you can accept or decline it before offering replacement times.

Choose the appointment details

Select the client or case, service, provider, location, session length, and fee that should apply. Locations come from the practice’s editable location list. PracticeRunner does not assume that a location named Zoom, Phone, or Office exists.

You can include one or several locations in an offer. This is useful when the same opening can be used for an office session, video session, or phone session, while still letting you exclude a format that is not appropriate for this client.

For rebooking, PracticeRunner starts with:

the appointment’s client or case
the appointment’s provider, service, duration, and fee
the appointment’s current location
the same calendar week as the appointment

You can change the locations and availability window before sending the offer.

Set the availability window

The Window control limits the dates included in the offer.

Same week uses the full calendar week containing the original appointment. It is the default for rebooking.
This week includes the rest of the current week.
Next week only, Two weeks out only, and Three weeks out only each use one complete Sunday-through-Saturday calendar week.
Next 2 weeks and Next 3 weeks include the rest of the current week and the complete upcoming calendar weeks.
Next month uses the upcoming month-long window.
Custom dates lets you choose an inclusive start and end date from one date-range control. Select the first and last dates, or drag across the range.

The Available times preview includes every opening inside the selected window. Copied and emailed availability also includes every matching time rather than stopping after a fixed number of openings.

Narrow the available times

Use the remaining filters when you want to make the offer more specific:

Time of day: Any time, Morning, or Afternoon
Days of week: Choose the days that should be included
Locations: Include one or several practice locations or session formats
Ignore appointment buffers: Temporarily search without the practice’s before-session and after-session buffers

Ignore appointment buffers is always off when the dialog opens. Turning it on applies only to that offer. It can reveal an opening that ends at, or begins closer to, another appointment. It does not change the practice’s saved buffer settings, and it never permits an actual overlap with another appointment.

The preview updates from the practice’s availability blocks and current calendar conflicts. A time shown in the preview is not held, so it can disappear if another appointment is booked before the client chooses it.

Booking notice and near-term offers

The practice’s normal client scheduling notice still protects offers sent well in advance. For example, if the practice requires 24 hours’ notice, a time several days away closes 24 hours before the appointment even if the offer dialog shows a shorter cutoff.

Practice-issued offers can also include a time that is already inside the normal notice window. This is useful when you intentionally offer a same-day or next-day opening. A near-term time remains available for at least 15 minutes after the offer is sent, unless the appointment begins sooner.

The Booking closes control can make an offer close earlier, but it does not weaken a longer practice notice rule. Hover over the label in the dialog to see this reminder.

Copy availability or send an email

Choose whether to include:

a client scheduling link
the available times in the message
both the link and the available times

Copy availability places the formatted offer on your clipboard. The email option opens the scheduling-offer message for review before sending.

When the same time is available in several locations, PracticeRunner combines the locations instead of repeating the time. For example:

Thursday, August 13: 9:50am (Zoom), 10am (Church St/Zoom), 10:30am (Church St/Phone/Zoom)

What the client sees

The scheduling link opens the practice-specific portal page. The client sees only the dates, times, and locations included in the offer. When several locations were offered, the client chooses among those locations before selecting a time.

One notice above the times explains the required lead time. Individual time buttons do not repeat a separate closing timestamp.

When the client chooses a time, PracticeRunner checks availability again and creates a short temporary hold while the client completes the confirmation step. The same offer rules, including an approved buffer override, are used for the preview, temporary hold, and final request.

Depending on the practice’s portal settings, the new time is either accepted automatically or sent to the practice for review. A valid practice-issued rebooking offer can be completed even when the original appointment is already inside the ordinary client-initiated rescheduling notice window.

Troubleshooting

If an expected time is missing from the preview, check:

the selected provider, service, and locations
the availability window and custom dates
the Time of day and Days of week filters
whether the availability block includes existing clients
whether another appointment or shared busy time blocks the opening
whether the session duration fits inside the availability block
whether Ignore appointment buffers is needed for a near-adjacent opening

If every offered time fails in the client portal, create a fresh offer and confirm that its selected locations are still active. Contact PracticeRunner support if the problem continues.