Team
Staff Schedules & Availability
Set weekly working hours for each team member and your venue's operating hours so online booking only shows accurate, available time slots.
Last updated 27 July 2026
Set working hours for each team member so the calendar and online booking only show available time slots, and configure your venue's operating hours to define when you are open for business.
Where to find it. Web: Sidebar > Team > select staff member > Working hours. Mobile: More > Team > staff member > Working hours.
TL;DR
- Venue operating hours are the outer boundary; staff working hours are the inner boundary, a slot is only bookable when both are active.
- New staff default to all days off with 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM times, you must toggle on their working days.
- If you reduce hours with existing bookings, OpenChair warns you but does not cancel those bookings automatically.
- For a different full-day schedule, use a one-off roster date override; use Block Time for a partial-day block.
Overview
Staff schedules and availability let you:
- Set each team member's weekly working hours (which days and times they work)
- Set your venue's operating hours (when the venue is open to customers)
- Detect booking conflicts when you reduce hours, with the option to save anyway
- Block out specific time slots for breaks, training, or personal time
- Control who can edit schedules. Owners and managers can edit on web; the current mobile staff schedule editor is owner-editable.
Note
Working hours and operating hours are available on both FREE and PRO plans. There is no tier restriction on schedule management.
How staff hours and operating hours work together
OpenChair uses two scheduling layers to determine when bookings can be made: venue operating hours (outer boundary) and staff working hours (inner boundary).
| Layer | What it controls | Who sets it |
|---|---|---|
| Venue operating hours | When the venue is open to customers. This is the outer boundary, no bookings can be made outside these hours. | Owner |
| Staff working hours | When each team member is available within the venue's operating hours. This is the inner boundary, a staff member's hours cannot extend beyond venue hours for booking purposes. | Owner or Manager on web, Owner on mobile |
A booking time slot is only available when both the venue is open and the assigned staff member is working.
Example: If your venue is open 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM on Monday, but a stylist's hours are 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM, that stylist's bookable slots on Monday are 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM.
Setting staff working hours
On web
- Go to Team in the sidebar.
- Select the team member.
- Open the Availability tab.
- For each day of the week (Monday - Sunday):
- Toggle the switch on to mark the day as a working day, or off to mark it as not working.
- For working days, set the start time and end time using the dropdown selectors.
- Changes save automatically after a short delay.
Times are shown in 12-hour format (e.g. "9:00 AM") and are available in 30-minute increments from 12:00 AM to 11:30 PM.
When you have unsaved changes, an "Unsaved changes" indicator appears next to the save button.
Working day styling: active days are highlighted with a white background and border; inactive days are dimmed with reduced opacity.
On mobile
- Go to More → Team.
- Tap the team member.
- Open Working hours.
- For each day:
- Toggle the switch to Working or Off.
- For working days, tap the start or end time button to open a time picker.
- The time picker shows a scrollable list of 30-minute slots in 12-hour format. Tap a time to select it, then tap Done.
- Changes save automatically after a short delay.
On mobile, only the venue owner can edit the staff schedule. Non-owners see a read-only notice.
Tip
During onboarding, the staff availability editor shows a "Same as venue hours" button that copies the venue's operating hours to the new team member's schedule, saving you from setting each day manually.
Default schedule
New staff members are initialised with all days set to not working with default times of 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM. You must toggle on the days the team member works and adjust the times as needed.
Setting venue operating hours
Operating hours define when your venue is open to customers. They appear on your storefront and control the outer boundary for all booking availability.
On web
- Go to Settings → Schedule in the sidebar.
- The Operating Hours card shows all 7 days.
- For each day:
- Toggle the switch to mark the day as open or closed.
- For open days, set the open time and close time using the dropdowns.
- Optionally, toggle "Same hours every day" to apply the same open and close times to all open days.
- Click Save Schedule.
The card description reads: "Set your weekly schedule. Future bookings will be checked against these times."
On mobile
- Go to More → Settings → Schedule (or navigate to the operating hours screen).
- For each day, toggle Open or Closed and set the times.
- Optionally, toggle "Same hours every day" to apply uniform hours.
- Tap Save Hours.
Default operating hours
New venues default to:
| Day | Status | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Monday - Friday | Open | 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM |
| Saturday - Sunday | Closed | - |
Booking conflict detection
When you reduce a staff member's working hours or a venue's operating hours, by turning off a day or narrowing the time window. OpenChair checks for future bookings that fall outside the new schedule.
How conflict detection works
- You save a reduced schedule (with the initial save attempt,
forceis off). - OpenChair finds all future pending and confirmed bookings affected by the change.
- If conflicts are found, a dialog appears:
- Web: "Bookings on changed days", lists up to 20 affected bookings showing the date, time, customer name, and service name. You can click Go Back to cancel or Save Changes to save anyway.
- Mobile: an alert showing the number of conflicting bookings. You can tap Cancel or Save Anyway to force the save.
- If you force save, the schedule is updated but the existing bookings are not automatically cancelled or moved, they remain as scheduled.
Warning
Conflicting bookings are not automatically cancelled when you reduce hours. After saving, you must manually reschedule or cancel any bookings that now fall outside the new schedule.
Weekly roster grid
For multi-staff venues, the Weekly roster view (Roster in the web sidebar's Team group, or Roster in the mobile Team navigation group) shows the whole team's working hours and one-off overrides in a single seven-day grid.
- Rows = active staff
- Columns = seven days of the week
- Cells = inline-editable via a popover - toggle Working / Off, adjust hours, add an optional reason
- Override badge - a small pin icon appears on cells that override the recurring weekly schedule
Overrides apply to a single date only; the recurring schedule keeps running for every other date. Useful for one-off changes ("Sarah's leaving early Thursday", "Tom's covering Saturday").
The roster is the canonical source for date-aware availability - bookings, slot resolution, calendar render, flash-deal suggestion, and waitlist outreach all consult it so overrides are honoured everywhere.
On web, select a roster cell to open the anchored editor. On native mobile, tap a date to open the date editor. Both platforms can set Working or Off, change the hours and optional reason, and reset an override to recurring Working hours. A narrowing change warns about affected bookings before it can be forced.
On the FREE plan
FREE caps the venue at 1 bookable team member. Additional staff stay in the venue (their bookings and history preserved) but can't sign in until you upgrade. The staff list surfaces an Above plan limit badge on each capped row. Upgrade to restore everyone - see Free and Pro Plans for the full cap matrix.
Blocking out time
For partial-day unavailability, such as lunch breaks, training sessions, personal time, or meetings, use Block Time instead of changing recurring Working hours. For a whole date with different hours or Off status, use a one-off date override in Team > Roster.
Block time creates a calendar event that prevents bookings during that specific time slot on a specific date. It does not change the team member's recurring weekly schedule.
For full details, see Blocking Out Time.
Who can edit schedules
| Action | Owner | Manager | Stylist |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edit venue operating hours | Yes | No | No |
| Edit any staff member's working hours | Yes | Yes on web | No |
| Edit own working hours | Yes | Yes on web | No in the current mobile editor |
| View staff schedule | Yes | Yes | Own schedule only |
On mobile, the schedule editor is editable for the venue owner and read-only for non-owners.
Time storage format
Staff and venue schedules are stored differently in the database, but displayed the same way to users:
| Schedule type | Storage format | Display format |
|---|---|---|
| Staff working hours | Minutes from midnight (e.g. 540 = 9:00 AM) | 12-hour with AM/PM (e.g. "9:00 AM") |
| Venue operating hours | HH:MM string (e.g. "09:00") | 12-hour with AM/PM (e.g. "9:00 AM") |
Both use 30-minute increments in the picker (00:00, 00:30, 01:00, ... through to 23:30).
Platform differences
| Feature | Web | Mobile |
|---|---|---|
| Staff schedule location | Team > staff member > Working hours | Team > staff member > Working hours |
| Operating hours location | Settings → Schedule | Settings → Schedule (operating hours screen) |
| Time picker | Dropdown selector (Radix Select on desktop, native select on mobile web) | Scrollable list in a modal (FlashList with 48 slots) |
| Save behaviour (staff) | Auto-saves after edits | Owners tap "Save working hours"; non-owners are read-only |
| Save button (venue) | "Save Schedule" | "Save Hours" |
| "Same hours every day" toggle | Yes (operating hours) | Yes (operating hours) |
| Conflict dialog | Dialog listing up to 20 bookings with date, customer, and service | Alert with booking count and force-save option |
| Save status indicator | Shows saving or saved state on the card | Shows unsaved changes and save progress for owner edits |
| Non-working day label | "Not working" (desktop), "Off" (mobile) | "Off" |
| Closed day label (venue) | "Closed" | "Closed" |
Troubleshooting
| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| Staff member not showing available time slots on the booking page | Check that the staff member has working hours set for that day. Go to Team > select the staff member > Working hours and confirm the day is toggled on with the correct times. Also check that the venue is open on that day. |
| Changed working hours but existing bookings are still at the old times | Changing the schedule does not automatically move or cancel existing bookings. If you reduced hours, you need to manually reschedule or cancel any bookings that now fall outside the new schedule. |
| Cannot edit a staff member's schedule | On web, owners and managers can edit staff schedules. On mobile, only the venue owner can edit the staff schedule; non-owners see a read-only notice. |
| Operating hours saved but staff can still be booked outside venue hours | Staff working hours and venue operating hours are checked independently. If a staff member's hours extend beyond venue hours, bookings outside venue hours should still be blocked. If this is happening, verify the venue's operating hours are saved correctly in Settings → Schedule. |
| "Same hours every day" toggle is not showing | The "Same hours every day" toggle only appears on the venue operating hours editor, not on the staff working hours editor. |
| Staff member's hours reset to defaults after editing | On web, wait for the saved status. On mobile, tap Save working hours before leaving; if a change does not stick, reopen the staff detail and check whether a save error or booking conflict appeared. |
| Need to give a staff member a day off on a specific date | Do not change recurring Working hours. Set that date to Off in Team > Roster, or use Block Time when only part of the day is unavailable. |
FAQ
Why is a staff member not showing available time slots?
Check that the staff member has working hours set for that day and that the venue is open on that day in Settings → Schedule. Both layers must be active, a slot is only bookable when the venue is open and the staff member is working.
Do existing bookings move automatically when I change working hours?
No, changing the schedule does not move or cancel existing bookings. OpenChair warns you about conflicts when you save, but you must manually reschedule or cancel any bookings that fall outside the new hours.
How do I give a staff member a day off on a specific date?
Set that date to Off in Team > Roster without changing recurring Working hours. If only part of the day is unavailable, use Blocking Out Time.
Can staff edit their own working hours?
No in the current mobile Working hours editor. Owners and managers can edit staff working hours on web from Team > staff member > Working hours. Venue owners can edit schedules on mobile from More > Team > staff member > Working hours.