The easiest way to set up scheduling is to ask one question first:
What mainly limits when clients can book?
Use this article to pick the right pattern. For a step-by-step first-time setup, see Scheduler Settings: Complete Setup Guide. To find where each setting lives in CoolFocus, see Where Scheduler Settings Live.
Use this pattern when the bottleneck is a physical space or item, such as exam rooms, ultrasound rooms, or equipment.
Set up the appointment type, link it to the right location, then add the room or equipment resource with the correct capacity. When you create or edit the resource, leave its kind set to Room or equipment (this is the default).
Use this pattern when several appointment types draw from the same limited group of people, and any booking against any of those types should count against one shared seat count — for example, one nurse covering pregnancy tests and ultrasounds at the same time.
Create a resource and set its kind to Staff pool, then link it to every appointment type that should share the pool’s capacity. Booking any linked appointment type uses one seat from the pool.
If a service also needs a room or piece of equipment in addition to the staff pool, link both resources to that appointment type. A time is only offered when the pool and the room are both free. CoolFocus shows a warning on the resource’s linked appointment types when this applies, listing which linked types also require a room.
A staff pool is about shared people capacity, not a specific person’s calendar. Use positions and work schedules (see below) when you need to know whether a specific qualified person is available.
Use this pattern when any person with the right position can serve the appointment, such as any available nurse or sonographer.
Make sure the position exists and has qualified staff assigned to it, confirm those staff have work schedules, and link the position to the appointment type. Positions are managed in Serve → Positions, and the Scheduler settings panel’s Staff tab gives you a quick link there along with the list of active positions.
Use this pattern when the client needs a specific advocate, counselor, or staff member.
Do not create one appointment type per person. Use the named staff path so the appointment type stays clean and staff availability controls the actual slots.
Use appointment-type bookable hours when one service is only offered on certain days, even if the location is open more often.
Example: the center is open Monday through Friday, but ultrasound is only bookable on Thursdays.
If two appointment types cannot overlap because they use the same person, room, or capacity, configure a shared limit or resource. Positions answer when someone is available; shared limits answer what cannot overlap.
If you add someone to a location’s schedule (for example, from the Staff Coverage board) and that person does not already have staff availability set up, CoolFocus automatically creates a starting availability record for them instead of leaving it blank.
The weekly hours and time zone it starts with are seeded in this order:
1. The hours and time zone already configured for that center, if any.
2. Otherwise, your organization’s default schedule.
This means a new person’s starting availability matches how that center actually operates, rather than a generic Monday–Friday, 9 AM–5 PM, Eastern time default. You can always open the person’s staff availability and adjust their hours or time zone afterward.
• Where Scheduler Settings Live
• Scheduler Settings: Complete Setup Guide
• Resources and Shared Capacity
• Staff Positions and Work Schedules
• Troubleshooting Scheduler Availability
• Scheduler Overview
