Staff
Staff members represent the people who deliver your services. The scheduling system uses their hours, service assignments, and calendar data to decide which time slots to offer.
Staff members are the people you schedule. They do not get access to the Reception.ai dashboard.
How staff affect availability
When a customer wants to book a service, the system:
- Identifies which staff members can perform that service.
- Checks who is working at the requested time and location.
- Excludes anyone with a conflicting appointment, time off, or a busy Google Calendar event.
- Offers the remaining open slots.
If no qualified staff member is available, the slot is not offered, even if the location is open.
Staff settings
Open Staff in the sidebar and select a staff member. Settings are grouped into:
Additional options:
- Active (available for bookings): turn off to stop booking this person without deleting them.
- Display on public booking page: turn off to make this person bookable by phone only.
- Opted in to receive SMS booking notifications: allows SMS notifications to this person. This is turned off automatically if they reply STOP.
Working hours
Each staff member belongs to one location, or to all locations. Their working hours are either:
- Follow location hours: the staff member works whenever their location is open. Changes to location hours apply automatically.
- Custom schedule: per-day time blocks, for part-time employees or staggered shifts.
Service assignments
Services use Any staff can do it by default, so every active staff member can be booked for them. To restrict a service to certain people, turn this off on the service and assign staff individually. Assignments update both the staff profile and the service.
Booking notifications
Staff can be notified by email or SMS when a booking assigned to them is created, updated, or cancelled. See Notifications and SMS.
Google Calendar sync
Connect a staff member’s Google Calendar from the Calendars section:
- Check availability from: calendars whose busy times block Reception.ai availability. You can select several.
- Sync new bookings to: the calendar where Reception.ai adds new bookings, or Do not sync bookings.
See Google Calendar for setup.
If a staff member’s Google Calendar connection needs reconnecting, their availability won’t reflect external events. This may lead to double-bookings until the connection is restored.
Staff on the booking page
On your booking page, customers can choose a specific person when Show staff member selection is on in the booking page setup. Staff with Display on public booking page turned off are hidden. Customers can also select Any staff to see all available times.