Locations represent the centers or sites where appointments happen. Location hours are the outer boundary for bookable time at that site.
Open Scheduler > Scheduler Settings and use:
• Locations to create or edit a site.
• Location hours to manage its weekly schedule.
You can also open Settings > Schedule > Locations or Settings > Schedule > Availability.
For each active location:
1. Enter the name and contact details staff and clients should use.
2. Enter directions to the location, and a Spanish translation if your organization supports Spanish. See "Directions to the location" below.
3. Open the location's Schedule tab.
4. Assign or create a schedule.
5. Set the correct time zone from the selector at the top of the schedule editor.
6. Enter the normal weekly hours on the Weekly template tab.
7. Add date-specific exceptions for holidays, closures, or special hours on the Exceptions & holidays tab.
8. Open Appointment Types and confirm which services are offered there.
A location must have a schedule before weekly hours and exceptions can be edited. When CoolFocus creates a new schedule in place, review the default weekday hours and time zone before using it.
The Location hours list shows a status next to each schedule so you can tell at a glance which ones still need attention:
• Needs setup means the schedule has no weekly hours entered yet. Open the schedule, go to the Weekly template tab, enter hours for each day it is open, and save. Once a complete weekly schedule is saved, the status clears.
• Review means the schedule already has weekly hours, but CoolFocus is flagging it for you to confirm they are still correct, for example after a change elsewhere. Open the schedule and check that the days, start times, and end times on the Weekly template tab match how the location actually operates.
Neither status blocks appointments from being booked on its own. A location still needs complete, correct weekly hours for Scheduler to offer times there, so treat both statuses as a prompt to open the schedule and confirm the hours before clients rely on them.
Each location has a "Directions to Location" text field, separate from the street address. Use it for the details an address alone does not convey, such as "park behind the building and use the blue door" or "enter through the side door marked Suite B."
This text fills the {Directions} merge field in appointment reminders and confirmation messages. If your organization supports Spanish, add the Spanish translation in the matching field so Spanish-speaking clients see translated directions instead of the English text. See Appointment Reminders — Settings & Sending for how to add {Directions} to your message templates.
Location details include a Time Zone field. This field used to be called UTC Offset and required typing a plain number, such as -5 for Eastern or -6 for Central. It is now a searchable Time Zone picker where you choose a named time zone, such as America/New_York or America/Chicago, instead of a number.
Existing locations were automatically converted to the closest matching named time zone when this change rolled out, so no action is required. If a location's time zone looks wrong, open the location and re-select the correct value from the picker.
The schedule editor also has its own time zone setting. Scheduler uses the schedule's time zone first. If a schedule does not specify one, CoolFocus uses the location's time zone for calendar feeds and reminders.
The schedule editor separates recurring hours from one-time changes into two tabs:
• Weekly template is the recurring pattern. For each day, choose one or more start and end times, or mark the day unavailable. Changes here apply to every future week unless a specific date is overridden on the Exceptions tab.
• Exceptions & holidays is a calendar for one-time, date-only changes such as a holiday closure or a single day with special hours. Days that still follow the weekly template show with a repeat icon; overridden dates appear in red. Clicking a date only offers Edit this date; recurring weekday edits are made on the Weekly template tab instead.
Use the Weekly template tab any time the change should repeat every week. Use the Exceptions tab only for changes that apply to a single date.
Next to each day's hours on the Weekly template tab, a slots field controls how many appointments can be booked into the same time on that day. Increase it for a day that should allow more than one appointment at once, or set it to 0 to keep that day closed. This setting lives on the schedule itself, separate from a shared Resource such as a room or piece of equipment.
A single day on the Weekly template can hold more than one open window, not just one start time and one end time. Use this to:
• Build in a recurring lunch break. Instead of one 9:00 AM-5:00 PM window, enter two windows for the day, such as 9:00 AM-12:00 PM and 1:00 PM-5:00 PM. The gap between them stays closed every week, so clients and staff cannot book over lunch.
• Add a recurring evening session, such as a class or group that meets after the location's normal daytime hours close. Add a second window for that time, for example 6:00 PM-8:00 PM, alongside the normal daytime window on the same day.
Select Add another time (or the equivalent option in the day's row) on the Weekly template tab to add each extra window. Every window you save is treated as open time; the space between windows is treated as closed.
A one-time change to a single date works the same way: an Exceptions & holidays entry can also hold more than one open window on that date. Use the Weekly template when the pattern should repeat every week, and the Exceptions tab when it only applies to one date.
Location hours answer: When is this site open?
Other rules can narrow those hours:
• An appointment type can be offered only on selected days or times.
• Required staff must be working.
• Rooms, equipment, or shared capacity must be available.
• Closures and blocks remove time.
• Lead time, booking windows, and daily or weekly limits can remove otherwise open slots.
These other settings do not extend a location beyond its open hours.
For a one-time closure, such as a single afternoon meeting or an unplanned closing, use an Availability Block instead of editing the weekly hours. See Availability, Closures, and Scheduler Blocks. To stop clients from booking on very short notice, set a booking lead time on the appointment type's Rules tab. See Appointment Types and Booking Rules.
An availability schedule can be assigned to more than one location. Changing a shared schedule affects every location using it. Review the schedule's location list before changing weekly hours or limits.
An appointment type can also use the same schedule as its location, instead of a separate custom schedule (see Scheduling on the appointment type's settings page in Appointment Types and Booking Rules). When a location and one of its appointment types point at the same schedule, CoolFocus applies that schedule's weekly hours and date exceptions once and intersects it with any other rules, so an exception you add on the Exceptions & holidays tab opens or closes the day for both the location and the type together. You do not need a second, duplicate schedule just because a location and its appointment type share hours.
Open a schedule from Location hours to see the list of locations currently using it. Each location in that list has two actions:
• Change (the swap icon) reassigns the location to a different existing schedule.
• Remove (the trash icon) takes the location off this schedule without assigning a replacement.
Removing a location asks you to confirm first, since the location will have no default Location Hours schedule until you assign one. Until a new schedule is assigned, that location has no normal weekly hours and Scheduler cannot offer appointments there.
The list of locations you can add to a schedule only shows active locations. An inactive location does not appear as an option to add, since it has no need for bookable hours. If an inactive location was already assigned to a schedule before it was deactivated, it still appears in that schedule's assigned list so you can see it and remove it if needed.
The list of locations available to add to a schedule only includes active locations. An inactive location still shows in the schedule's list if it is already assigned to that schedule, so you can reassign it to another schedule or remove it; it just will not appear as an option to newly add. If you need to assign a schedule to a location, confirm the location is active first.
The list of locations available to add to a schedule only shows active locations. If a location was deactivated after being assigned to a schedule, it stays visible in that schedule's assigned list (with a remove option) so you can see it and take it off, but it no longer appears as a choice when assigning locations to a schedule. Reactivate the location if it needs to be assignable again.
Each location assigned to a schedule shows two actions on the Locations tab of the schedule editor:
• A swap icon that reassigns the location to a different schedule.
• A trash icon that removes the location from this schedule entirely.
Click the trash icon next to a location to remove it. A confirmation dialog names the location and the schedule, and warns that the location will have no default Location Hours schedule until you assign another one. Confirm by clicking Remove location.
Removing a location does not delete the location record or the schedule. It only clears that location's default availability assignment, so the location no longer blocks or inherits hours from a schedule you no longer want it tied to. Assign a new schedule to the location afterward if it still needs bookable hours.
Before moving on, confirm:
• The location is active.
• The location time zone and the schedule time zone are correct.
• Directions to the location are entered (and translated, if applicable).
• Normal weekly hours are present on the Weekly template tab, with no "Needs setup" or unresolved "Review" status remaining.
• Planned closures and exceptions are entered on the Exceptions & holidays tab.
• Each appointment type is assigned to the correct location.
If a location is missing hours, the Scheduler cannot offer appointments there.
