Efficient scheduling helps reduce drive time, minimize downtime between appointments, and maximize the number of jobs that can fit into a day.
Spiro provides several tools that allow you to control how appointments are offered, how schedules are built, and how travel is managed. The right combination of settings can help create a more efficient workday while still providing clients with reasonable appointment availability.
Keep in mind that every restriction added to your schedule reduces the number of appointment options available to clients. The goal is to find the balance that works best for your business.
Settings That Improve Schedule Efficiency
1. Control How New Days Are Filled
New Day Booking Rules
When a day has no appointments scheduled, you can choose how Spiro presents availability to clients.
Open Scheduling (Default)
Shows all available appointment times.
Start of Day Only
Only the earliest available appointment is offered until a booking exists.
End of Day Only
Only the latest available appointment is offered until a booking exists.
Start or End of Day Only
Offers the earliest available appointment and the latest available appointment.
Example: If a photographer is available from 9:00 AM–5:00 PM and no appointments are scheduled, selecting Start of Day Only will show only the earliest appointment Spiro can offer based on the photographer’s launch location, drive time, appointment duration, interval setting, and other scheduling rules. For Start or End of Day Only, Spiro will show the earliest available appointment and the latest available appointment based on those same rules.
Why use this?
These options help reduce isolated appointments in the middle of the day and encourage schedules to build more efficiently.
Important Notes
These rules apply only to days that do not currently contain a scheduled Spiro appointment. Calendar events do not anchor a day for these rules.
Once a day has an appointment scheduled, availability is displayed normally.
Existing scheduling restrictions such as drive time, appointment duration, and other scheduling rules are still respected.
2. Control Appointment Time Intervals
Appointment Time Slots
Appointment Time Slots determine the interval between available appointment times.
Available options:
15 Minutes (Default)
30 Minutes
60 Minutes
90 Minutes
2 Hours
Custom
For example:
Interval | Example Available Times |
15 Minutes | 9:00, 9:15, 9:30 |
30 Minutes | 9:00, 9:30, 10:00 |
60 Minutes | 9:00, 10:00, 11:00 |
Custom intervals must be entered in 15-minute increments (15, 30, 45, 60, etc.).
Why use this?
Larger intervals can reduce scheduling complexity and help create more predictable daily schedules.
3. Prevent Gaps Between Appointments
Disallow Gaps – this will require an agent to book a back to back time slot. If you have a 9am appointment that will be done at 10am and your drive time to the next jobs is 25 minutes the ONLY time slot on this day the agent will have is 10:30am (10am + 25 drive rounded up to the nearest 15 minutes)
You can find this setting under the photographer record under Scheduling and Restrictions
4. Limit Drive Time Between Appointments
Max Miles Between Appointments - this setting will allow you to limit the number of miles you drive between jobs. This can help prevent backtracking and the smaller the distance between jobs the more concentrated your schedule will be
You can find this setting under the photographer record under Scheduling and Restrictions - Max Miles Between Appointments
5. Limit Total Daily Travel
Max Miles Per Day - Max Miles Per Day - similar to Max Miles Between Appointments, this setting limits the total number of miles a photographer can drive in a single day.
You can find this setting under the photographer record under Scheduling and Restrictions - Max Miles Per Day
6. Schedule Different Service Areas on Different Days
Consider your Service Areas - if you are working out of 1 large service area you might want to create 2 or 3 smaller service areas. On your photographer account you can restrict jobs to a particular day(s) of the week. With this option you could have a north and south service area and split your time weekly between these 2 service areas
You can find this setting under the photographer record inside Service Areas - click the Advanced button on the right to select the day(s) of week you will travel to this service area
7. Exclude Specific Regions From Service Areas
Disallow Zones - a disallow zones is a location you will not travel in a Service Area. This method works similar to option 4 above (Days of Week per Service Area). A disallow zone is a location on your service area you will not travel to. You can use a disallow zone when you are working in 2 service areas and need to further define your travel range
Similar to Disallow zones you can create an allowed zone. This is a location you are allowed to travel in a zone.
Example above of a disallow zone
You can find this setting under the photographer record inside Service Areas - click the Advanced button on the right to select the day(s) of week you will travel to this service area
8. Review Service Durations
Review your Onsite Duration - Onsite Duration is the time needed to perform that service at the listing. If your onsite time is too high this will create wasted downtime at each appointment and can lead to fewer appointments per day
Onsite Duration can be adjusted on both your Bundles and your Services (Under the Shopping Cart Menu item)
9. Customize Appointment Durations by Photographer
Customize Onsite Duration per Photographer
If you have more than 1 photographer the onsite time needed for each team member can vary. A more experienced photographer may need less time than a new photographer. On each photographer account you can tell Spiro to give this user more of less time
Find this setting on each photographer account inside Scheduling & Restrictions in the dropdown "Appointment Duration Modification"
Additional Notes
Changes Save Automatically
Scheduling settings save immediately when selected. There is no Save button for these options.
Existing Booking Sessions
Changes apply to newly generated booking sessions. Existing booking pages that are already open may continue using the previously loaded settings until refreshed.
If a client or agent already has an order page open when a setting is changed, they may continue seeing the previous scheduling configuration until they refresh or begin a new booking session.