What do these terms mean?

An appointment is made up of a Service provided to a Customer by a Personnel in a Location at a specific date and time, for a given duration.

During the time of the appointment, the Personnel and Location cannot be used by another appointment.

The calendar shows Appointments and Events in a grid layout, and provides quick access to view, create and modify these appointments and events.

A customer is a person who comes for Appointments.

Customer records include details such as name, contact information, and other customer specifics.

An event takes place at a date and time, for a given duration, and involves a Personnel and/or a Location.

Events can be used for meal breaks, meetings, out-of-office events, etc. They play an important role by blocking off time in the Calendar for Personnel and Locations.

By creating an event for a specific Personnel will prevent that person from being booked into an apointment during that period.  Likewise the use of a room (Location) can also be blocked off.

For most clients, a location will be a room. A single location can only have one Appointment or Event at any given time.

Each location has a range of times that it is available, and a set of Services which can be provided in that location.

NOTE: Because BizDiary has such diverse uses we use the generic term "Location", as it may apply to a clinic room, a studio, a vehicle, an exterior location, etc.

Personnel are the people who provide Services to Customers during Appointments.

Each Personnel has availability in specific Locations for given days/times, and can provide specific Services.

Care should be taken not to confuse Personnel with Users. Administrative staff, such as reception staff can be a User but do not need a Personnel record.

BizDiary includes a very simple receipting system. For most clients we recommend using your own book-keeping system where possible.

You can find more information in the Setting Up and Using Receipts article.

A service is provided to a Customer as part of their Appointment.

Services have a predefined duration, to assist in booking appointments, however the duration can be manually changed for any given appointment.

Services are colour-coded to aid in visual-tracking in the Calendar. They also have a cost that can be used for receipts.

A task is something that needs to be done, but does not take up time in the Calendar.  Tasks may be assigned to a specific user or can be general. They can include a due date, and may relate to a specific Customer.

A user is someone who can access the BizDiary account via the login screen with their username and password.

A user can be linked to a Personnel. This then allows the system to show summary details for that Personnel on the Home screen. It also automatically uses that Personnel as the default in the Calendar and for making Appointments.

There is no limit to the number of users that can be created. For security and accountability it is important that each person who uses BizDiary should have their own account.

We strongly recommend that you do not share users.