So you going out of town, planning a trip, or just simply don’t want to be scheduled on a particular day.  There is now a simple way to block out an entire day so that you won’t be scheduled.  Just follow the instructions below:

Pencil’em Desktop:

1. Select “<Personal Time>” from the “Select Client” drop down menu item.
2. From the “Personal Time” drop down menu item, select “Entire Day” to signify you would like to block out the entire day.  At this point the “Select Time” menu settings will disappear since the entire day will be blocked out, there is no need to specify the start time.
3. Continue on to add your Appointment Label and any neccessary notes.
4. Click the “Create Personal Time” button and the personal appointment will be scheduled.  It will appear in your daily view as a personal appointment starting at 12:00 am and lasting 24 hours.  You can still book other appointments on this day, however you will need to confirm the booking conflict.

Pencil’em Mobile:

1. Click on “Schedule” to access the scheduling page.
2. Click on “Personal Appointment” in the secondary navigation bar.
3. Set the Date you would like to block out.
4. You can skip the “Start Time” as this will be an all day appointment, and the start time will be automatically set for you.
5. From the “Length” drop down menu select “Entire Day”.
6. Add a label and notes and click “Schedule”.

We’ve reworked the way recurring appointments work (in look and function).  In the past, the recurring appointments would automatically schedule recurring appointments for one year.  After receiving feedback from our users, we’ve found that many users book appointments in chunks, like 3 – 4 months at a time.  In this case, the system would create appointments for one year, when they really only needed recurring appointments for 3 or 4 months.

Clicking the “Recurring” button on the scheduling page now brings up a small pop up box (see the image below) and you can specify the Appt. Frequency (how often the appointment recurs IE every 2 weeks) and the Appt. Duration (this is how long the appointment should recur for, IE 4 months).  So, if you select “2″ for Appt. Frequency and “4″ for Appt. Duration the appointment would be scheduled every 2 weeks for the next 4 months.

It’s a simple change, but one that makes the recurring functions even more flexible.

New Recurring Appt. box

We’ve added a simple new feature today that gives you the ability to more easily navigate specific dates while booking appointments.  Often times, when your sitting with a client, you will want to book a follow up appointment in “x” weeks.  We’ve added a new feature that will easily let you jump 2, 4, 6, or 8 weeks as well as a “Today” and “Tomorrow” button.  Using these Quickjump links gives you an instant visual confirmation of these dates without having to count weeks on a calendar.

To access this feature, simply click on the “Quickjump” button, found on the main scheduling screen, directly underneath the “Select Date” label (and above the “Recrurring” button).  A pop up will appear that will allow you to select the date you would like to jump to.  Your “Daily View” will be updated, as well as that date selected on the “Select Date” datepicker.  See the image below for more details.

New "Quickjump" feature lets you navigate your schedule in a new way.

In a previous post on this blog, we made mention of a new feature we are going to be adding soon that will add the Service being performed to the confirmation and reminder emails.  We are still working on this feature, but as we found out during development, there is a little more to it that we initially believed.  We reached out to a number of Pencil’em users and found that not everyone wanted the service listed in the email, or only wanted specific services listed, and not others.  Not to worry, we have a plan and are working hard to make the necessary changes to get this feature launched.  We will update this blog again once it’s complete, along with the instructions on how to add the service to your reminder emails.

Lastly, we are working on a redesign of our public website (http://www.pencilem.com).  We are hoping to launch this website this week, so stay tuned for that.  As always, comments are appreciated!

We’ve added a simple but useful feature today to Pencil’em Desktop that will allow you to cancel an appointment from the main scheduling page, so you don’t have to go to the “Edit Appointments” tab.  As you hover your mouse over the appointment details of any appointment on the main scheduling page, you will notice a new “Cancel Appt.” button appears.  To cancel the appointment, click this new “Canel Appt.” button, and then confirm the cancelation by clicking “Yes, Cancel It” on the cancelation prompt.  That’s all there is to it!  See the image below for an example of this new feature.

New inline appointment Cancelation.

NOTE: This feature is not available if you are using Internet Explorer 6.  If you are still using Internet Explorer 6, we suggest you give this article a read, and upgrade to a more modern browser.

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!