Control how far in advance clients can book, how much time you need between appointments, and how many bookings a scheduler allows. These settings live in your scheduler template's Basic and Advanced tabs.
Booking Page settings (Basic tab)
After creating a scheduler template, you can fine-tune when and how often clients see available time slots. The two interval controls described below are in the Booking Page card on the Basic tab.
To get there, go to Events ➔ Scheduler Templates, open a template, and select the Basic tab.
How the Booking Page card works
The Booking Page card presents its settings as a single readable sentence with highlighted, clickable values — rather than a traditional form. The sentence reads:
"Invitees can book [14 days into the future] no less than [1 hour] in advance. Available times will be shown per [week] in increments of [15 minutes]."
Each bracketed value is a chip you can click to open a popover and change that setting.
Minimum notice
Minimum notice controls the shortest lead time a client must give when booking. Setting it to 1 hour, for example, removes all available time slots within 1 hour of the current time so clients cannot book at the last minute.
Click the minimum notice chip in the sentence to open the popover and set a value. You can enter a number and choose a unit: hours, days, weeks, or months.
A few things to keep in mind:
The default is 1 hour.
Dubsado stores minimum notice values in hours internally. Switching units resets the value — for example, switching from hours to days sets the field to 24 hours. "1 month" always equals 730 hours, regardless of how many days are in the calendar month.
If you set minimum notice to 24 hours, any time slot within the next 24 hours disappears from your booking page.
Time slot increment
Time slot increment controls how frequently available start times appear on the booking page. A 30-minute increment shows times like 9:00, 9:30, and 10:00. Changing it to 15 minutes adds more options: 9:00, 9:15, 9:30, 9:45, and 10:00.
Click the time slot increment chip to open the popover and set a value. You can enter a number and choose minutes or hours. The maximum is 720 minutes (12 hours).
The default is 15 minutes.
Smaller increments give clients more booking flexibility, but can spread appointments across more of your day. Choose an increment that matches your typical appointment flow.
Limits settings (Advanced tab)
The Limits card on the Advanced tab gives you control over how booked time appears on your calendar, how much breathing room sits around each appointment, and how many appointments the scheduler accepts in total.
To find these settings, open the same scheduler template and select the Advanced tab. The Limits card is at the top.
The Advanced tab also contains settings for Form, Payment, Reminders, and more. Those are covered in the advanced scheduler settings article.
Show booked events as
Show booked events as is a radio toggle with two options: Busy (the default) and Available.
Busy means appointments booked through this scheduler block the time on your calendar, preventing other schedulers from showing that slot as available.
Available means appointments do not block the time, so other schedulers can still offer overlapping slots.
For example, if you offer both consultations and quick check-ins, you might set check-ins to Available so they can overlap with other appointment types — letting clients book a check-in even when your calendar shows a consultation in that window.
Buffer time before event and Buffer time after event
Buffer time creates mandatory gaps around each appointment. A buffer before the event blocks time so nothing can be booked immediately before your appointment starts. A buffer after the event blocks time so nothing can be booked immediately after it ends.
Both fields offer a preset dropdown: 0, 5, 10, 15, 30, 60 (all in minutes), or Custom. Choosing Custom reveals a number input with a minutes/hours toggle. The maximum buffer is 720 minutes (12 hours).
For example, if you have an appointment from 1:00–1:30 and set a 15-minute buffer before and after, no one can book during the 12:45–1:45 window — giving you prep time before and wrap-up time after.
Buffer times help prevent back-to-back appointments. Add a buffer before the event for preparation time and a buffer after for wrap-up or travel.
Max bookings per day
Max bookings per day limits how many appointments of this type can be booked in a single calendar day. When the daily limit is reached, remaining time slots for that day become unavailable to clients.
Enter a number in the field. Setting the field to 0 (or leaving it empty) means no daily limit is applied.
Total max bookings
Total max bookings limits the total number of appointments this scheduler can generate across all days. Once the limit is reached, clients who try to book see an error message and cannot complete the booking. Existing appointments are not affected.
Enter a number in the field. Setting it to 0 (or leaving it empty) means no total limit is applied. You can hover the help icon next to the label to see a reminder of what the field controls.
This setting is useful for limited-time promotions — for example, offering free consultations to the first 5 clients who book by setting Total max bookings to 5.
Setting both Max bookings per day and Total max bookings to 0 (or leaving them empty) means no limits are applied.
Prevent clients from rescheduling
The Limits card also includes a Prevent clients from rescheduling toggle. That setting is covered in its own article.
FAQ
Can I set different buffer times before and after an appointment?
Yes. Buffer time before event and Buffer time after event are separate settings. You can configure each independently — for example, 15 minutes before and 30 minutes after.
What happens when a scheduler reaches its total max bookings?
Clients who try to book after the limit is reached see an error message and cannot complete the booking. Appointments that were already booked are not affected.
Does minimum notice apply when I book an appointment on behalf of a client?
Yes. Booking on behalf of a client uses the same public booking page, so the same minimum notice restrictions apply.