Hello All!  We’ve got great news that all Pencil’em “Mobile” users should know about.  We’ve added a “Settings” screen that will enable you to customize how “your” Pencil’em Mobile works.  On this new “Settings” screen (which you can find in the main navigation bar), look for the “Start Page” setting.  This new feature will enable you to select which page Pencil’em Mobile loads whenever you  login.  In the past, the “Schedule” screen was loaded by default when you logged in and if you wanted to then see your daily schedule or Week-at-a-glance you would have to click into those screens.  Now, you can set the “Start Page” to which ever screen you use most often, saving yourself many clicks a day!  This new feature simply lets you have immediate access to the information you use most!   See the image below for more details about how to access the settings page:

The new settings page.

Also of note, we’ve moved the “Logout” button into the main header, opposite the logo, to make room for the Settings button.  We think these new changes make Pencil’em Mobile even more flexible and efficient.  As always, we appreciate your comments!

Editing Client Appointments

Editing appointments is extremely simple in Pencil’em Mobile.  Simply click on the “View Schedule” screen, where you will see a list of appointments for the current day.  You will now see a pencil icon next to the red x to the right hand side of each appointment.  Click this pencil icon and the “Edit Appointment” screen will open.  The details of the current appointment will be filled out for you, allowing you to change the neccessary details.  As you edit the current appointment, Pencil’em will always check to make sure that no conflicts have resulted with the new date, time or service.  See below for screenshots:

Pencil'em Mobile - Editing Appointments

Mobile Personal Appointments

We’ve now added the ability to create your personal appointments from the Pencil’em Mobile.  From the “Schedule” screen, simply click on the “Personal Appt.” link found in the secondary navigation bar. Fill out the form for the personal appointment and click “Schedule”.  All booking conflict rules apply, so you will see a booking conflict screen if the personal appointment conflicts with any other appointment.  Also, your personal appointments will show up in a red font on your “View Schedule” screen, as well as the “Week-at-a-glance” screen.  More details below:

Create personal appointments in Pencil'em Mobile!

Today we added the “Week-at-a-glance” feature to our Mobile Platform, Pencil’em Mobile.  This lets you see one full week of appointments on one screen.  To access this feature, simply click “View Schedule” and you will notice there is now a secondary navigation bar with the “Week-at-a-glance” button.  Click this button and the week at a glance will load, starting on today, and show you seven days out.  You can change the start day by selecting a different date from the form at the top of the week-at-a-glance and clicking “Go”.  See image below for more details:

Mobile "Week-at-a-glance"

Hello Pencil’em Pros!  I wanted to take a moment and let you know about a change that will soon be in place.  We will be adding the service name to the confirmation / reminder emails.  So, along with the Date and Time of your clients next appointment, they will see the service you’ll be performing.  The new emails will look something like this:

New reminder / confirmation email screen shot

We will be implamenting this feature on Wed. Aug. 5th.  We wanted to give you a few days notice in case you need to make any adjustments to your service names. If you have any questions regarding this new feature please leave them in the comments so we can address them publicly, or email support@pencilem.com.

EDIT: We will be delaying the implamentation of this feature by a few days to run a few more tests.  We expect to have this feature in place by mid next week.

In an effort to make Pencil’em more like a paper appointment book, we’ve added a new BETA feature that gives you the ability to book your own personal appointments in addition to client appointments.  This is a big upgrade as now you can manage your days much easier, and block out times when you don’t want to be scheduled.  You can use this feature to schedule your Dr. Appointments, unavailable time, trips to the grocery store, or picking up the dry cleaning (or anything else you can think of).  Right now, this is done on a day to day basis, but we are working on a recurring version of personal appointments.   How does it work you ask?  Let me explain…

To book a personal appointment, simply select the “<Personal Time>” option from the “Select Client” drop down menu (see below):

New Personal Time Option

When you select the “Personal Time” option, the form will change slightly to accommodate creating a personal appointment.  The new form will look like this:

New Personal Time Form

Fill out the form, taking notice of the required fields, and click “Create Personal Time”.  Your personal appointment will show up in your daily, weekly, and monthly view (using the “Personal Label” field as the focus of the appointment.).  Notice, on the daily view, your personal appointments have a grey background (to denote an unavailable time) and have the “Personal Icon”   next to the time.  You can add or view notes just as you do with normal appointments.  See full screen shot below:

Personal Appointment Detail

Deleting Personal Appointments

To delete a personal appointment simply hover your mouse over the appointment and a red “Delete” button will appear next to the appointment title. You will need to click the Delete Button twice, once to start the delete, and once to confirm that you wish to delete the appointment.  Click the Delete button once, and the button text will change to read “Are you sure?”.  Click this button again and the personal appointment will be deleted.  If you accidently click the Delete button, you can click the “or Cancel” link found next to the “Are you sure” button to cancel the delete. See below:

Delete a personal appointment