Business Hours and Artist Availability Guide

Studio business hours and per-artist availability are configured once and ripple through the calendar, the appointment editor, and the public booking form. The calendar dims off-hours, the editor warns when you book outside them, and the request form hides days you’re closed.

Available on both web and mobile as of v4.2.0. The mobile app exposes the same editors under Settings > Studio Profile (studio hours) and the Hours tab on each artist’s staff profile (per-artist hours), and the mobile calendar honors the same off-hours overlay, closed-day badge, and soft-warn confirmation described below.

Studio Business Hours

Studio hours are managed in Settings > Studio Profile.

Setting Open and Close Times

Each weekday has its own time pickers and a Closed switch.

Toggle Closed for any day the shop is shut. The day’s open and close pickers grey out.
For open days, set the start and end of your booking window. These are the hours your calendar treats as “in business” and the hours the public booking form will offer.
Times are entered in HH:mm format. Open must be before close.

Timezone

A searchable timezone dropdown sits below the day grid.

Pick the timezone the studio actually operates in. The list is sourced from your browser’s IANA timezone catalog.
Saving hours never auto-fills the timezone with your browser’s zone. If a manager opens the editor from a hotel browser in a different city, the studio’s stored timezone is left alone. Helper text shows you what the studio is currently using and prompts you to lock it in deliberately.

Saving the page validates every field: per-day HH:mm format, open before close on non-closed days, all seven days present, and the timezone resolvable as a real IANA zone.

Per-Artist Working Hours

Each artist can override the studio’s hours. Per-artist hours live in Settings > Staff > [artist name] > Hours (the per-artist hours editor sits in its own tab on the staff profile).

”Use Studio Hours” Toggle

The hours editor opens with Use studio hours turned on. While it’s on, the day grid is read-only and shows the inherited studio hours so you can see what the artist will actually work.

Turn Use studio hours off to unlock the per-day fields. They pre-fill from the current studio hours so you start from a sensible baseline.
Toggling back on preserves the prior per-artist customizations. Turning the toggle off again restores them.
An artist working a partial schedule (for example, noon to 6 PM) only needs the days they work different hours. Days they’re off can be marked Closed.

When to Override

A part-time artist with a fixed weekly schedule
An apprentice working different hours than the senior staff
An artist taking a recurring day off the rest of the studio is open
An artist working a late shift the rest of the studio doesn’t

The hours editor is for the recurring weekly pattern. For specific dates an artist is away (vacation, a long weekend, a one-off day off), use Artist Time Off below instead of editing the weekly hours and remembering to undo them later.

The Schedule Page (Manage Everyone at Once)

The Schedule page (in the main navigation, managers only) shows every artist’s recurring weekly hours in a single grid: artists down the side, the days of the week across the top. It’s the fastest way to see who works when without opening each profile.

This all-in-one grid is a web feature. On mobile you set the same things (recurring hours, public-booking visibility, and time off) from each artist’s individual staff profile instead.

Each cell shows that artist’s hours for the day, Off when they don’t work it, or the hours with a small studio tag when the artist follows the studio’s business hours.
Click any cell to change that artist’s recurring hours for that weekday (working or off, with start and end times). If the artist was following studio hours, editing here gives them their own schedule, seeded from the studio’s hours so the other days aren’t lost.
Click an artist’s name to open their full profile, where time off, services, and the detailed hours editor live.
The Public booking switch on each row controls whether that artist appears in the public booking request form. Turn it off to hide someone from online requests without affecting internal scheduling or checkout.
An Away or Time off badge next to an artist’s name means they have time off coming up (or happening now). Click it to see the dates and reasons, with a link to the artist’s profile to manage them.

The Schedule page edits the recurring weekly pattern. For a specific date an artist is away, use Artist Time Off (below) on their profile.

Artist Time Off (Vacation and Blocked Days)

Working hours cover the recurring weekly pattern. Time off covers specific dates an artist is away: a vacation, a long weekend, a single day off. It’s a per-artist setting, separate from the weekly hours, so an artist who follows studio hours can still take time off without touching their schedule.

Available on web and mobile (mobile as of v4.3.0). The Time Off editor and the internal booking soft-warn work the same on both. The public booking form hard block (below) is web only, since the mobile app doesn’t host the public request form.

Adding Time Off

Time off lives in Settings > Staff > [artist name] > Hours, in the Time Off card below the working-hours grid.

On mobile: open the artist’s profile from the Team page and expand the Time Off section (just below Working Hours). The From/To dates, optional reason, Add, and Save Time Off work the same.

Pick a From date.
Pick a To date for a range, or leave it blank for a single day.
Add an optional reason (for example, “Vacation”). The reason is an internal note only.
Click Add, then Save Time Off.

Each block is a full-day range. To remove one, click the trash icon next to it and save. Existing appointments already on the calendar for those dates are left alone; time off only governs new bookings.

What Time Off Does

Internal booking soft-warn (web and mobile). When you book an artist on a day they’re marked off, a confirmation fires first: “Sarah is on time off (Jun 10 to Jun 17). Book anyway?” You can still book over it deliberately, the same way off-hours bookings work. On mobile this fires in the appointment editor and when converting a booking request.
Public booking form hard block (web only). On the customer-facing request form, days an artist is away are disabled in the date picker when that specific artist is requested. A client can’t request a tattoo on a day the artist is on vacation. A helper line notes that away dates are hidden. The reason you entered is never shown publicly, only the dates.

The “Any artist” option falls back to studio hours, so one artist’s vacation doesn’t close the date for the whole shop.

How Hours Show Up on the Calendar

The calendar visually reflects your studio’s hours so you can see the shape of the day at a glance. Per-artist hours do not currently render their own visual band on the calendar. They still apply through the soft-warn confirmation and the public booking form filter (covered below), but the artist’s column shows the studio’s off-hours overlay, not the artist’s.

Day and Week Views

Studio off-hours overlay: The hours your studio is closed render as a dimmed band across each artist column. Bookings still display normally; the band sits underneath them.
Closed days: A single full-grid dim band with a centered “Closed” label.

Month View

Closed days show a small “Closed” badge next to the day number so you can scan the month for days the shop is shut.

The off-hours overlay is visual only, not blocking. You can click and book inside an off-hours band, you’ll just get a soft confirmation first (see below).

Soft-Warn on Bookings

If a booking falls outside open hours, lands on a closed day, or sits outside the assigned artist’s working hours, a confirmation modal fires before the appointment saves.

The modal explains every rule the booking violates in one combined message rather than chaining separate prompts. For example:

Studio is normally closed Sundays. Sarah’s hours are 12-6 PM. This runs 6-7 PM. Book anyway?

Click Book anyway to save the appointment. Cancel to go back and adjust.

Where the Soft-Warn Fires

The calendar quick-create modal (Day, Week, Month views)
The legacy /appointments/editor page
The Convert Request modal in the appointment requests inbox

Cross-Midnight Detection

A same-date booking that runs past midnight (for example, 22:00 to 06:00) also triggers a confirmation. This catches both legitimate late-night sessions and accidental typos (entering 06:00 when you meant 18:00) before they slip into the calendar.

Why Soft, Not Hard

These warnings are deliberately advisory. Off-hours bookings happen for real reasons: a client flying in next week, a private session after public hours, a piercing emergency on a closed day. The system flags the unusual case and lets staff override deliberately.

Public Booking Form Respect

The customer-facing request form at /request/{studioId} respects studio hours and per-artist hours so clients can’t request times you’re not actually open.

Closed days are disabled in the date picker. A helper line below the picker tells the visitor what days you’re closed (for example: “We’re closed on Sunday and Monday”).
Time-of-day buckets (Morning, Afternoon, Evening) are hidden when you’re not open during that window. An artist working noon to 6 PM disables the Morning bucket entirely on their bookings.
“Any artist” option sits at the top of the artist selector. It falls back to studio hours only and submits the request without an artist preference. The studio assigns one when the request is converted to a confirmed appointment.

Per-artist availability is only exposed publicly when an artist has actually opted out of studio hours. Dormant overrides aren’t surfaced to anonymous callers, so a partly-configured artist profile can’t accidentally show stale hours to clients.

Common Workflows

Setting Up Studio Hours for the First Time

Go to Settings > Studio Profile
Scroll to the Business Hours card
Set open and close times for each day you’re open
Toggle Closed for days the shop is shut
Pick your timezone
Save

The calendar overlay and the public request form pick up the change immediately.

Configuring a Part-Time Artist

Go to Settings > Staff
Click the artist
Open the Hours tab
Turn off Use studio hours
Adjust open and close per day (or mark days as Closed)
Save

The artist’s column on the calendar reflects the new hours, and the public request form filters their availability accordingly.

Marking an Artist as Away (Vacation or a Day Off)

Go to Settings > Staff
Click the artist
Open the Hours tab
In the Time Off card, pick a From date (and a To date for a range)
Add an optional reason
Click Add, then Save Time Off

Those dates immediately soft-warn on internal booking and disappear from the public request form for that artist. This is the right tool for vacations and one-off days off, not the weekly hours grid.

Troubleshooting

Calendar shows the wrong hours after I saved

Confirm the timezone field is set correctly. A mismatched timezone shifts the off-hours overlay by hours.
Refresh the page. The overlay reads from studioProfile.businessHours and a stale tab won’t reflect a save from another window.

Public booking form still shows a closed day

Verify the day is toggled Closed in Settings > Studio Profile (not just zeroed-out hours).
Hard-refresh the public form. The form caches the studio’s hours payload briefly.

Artist’s hours overlay isn’t appearing on the calendar

Check the artist’s hours tab. Use studio hours must be off for the artist’s overlay to render. With it on, the artist inherits studio hours and shows the same dim bands as everyone else.

Public booking form still shows a day an artist is away

Time off only blocks the date when that specific artist is selected. The “Any artist” option falls back to studio hours, so away dates stay open for the shop to assign someone else.
Confirm the time off was saved (the entry shows in the Time Off card on the artist’s Hours tab). Hard-refresh the public form, which caches the artist payload briefly.

The booking confirmation modal lists the wrong reason

Open the appointment editor and check the assigned artist. The artist filter in the soft-warn fires against the artist on the booking, not the currently-selected calendar filter.

Appointments: the calendar that displays the off-hours overlay and fires the soft-warn
Settings: full settings reference
Staff Management: inviting and managing artists, including the per-artist hours tab
Booking Requests: the public request form that filters by studio and artist hours