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Slot Free Service

The Slot-Free Service feature gives businesses flexibility to handle quick, standalone services—like nail trims or brush-outs—without blocking an entire booking slot.

Marina avatar
Written by Marina
Updated this week

Traditionally, under Book by Slot mode, every appointment (regardless of duration) occupies a full slot. This caused inefficiency for short services that take only a few minutes but still consume full capacity.

With Slot-Free Service, you can now specify which services do not consume capacity, helping you:

  • Increase overall slot utilization

  • Improve revenue potential

  • Support overlapping appointments when appropriate

How It Works

Definition

A Slot-Free Service is a service type that doesn’t count toward a staff’s total capacity. It’s ideal for short or quick tasks that can be done alongside another appointment. For example:

  • A groomer can accept a 10-minute nail trim while working on a 3.5-hour full groom.

  • A bath-only service during daycare can be set to not consume additional slots, depending on how the business operates.

💡 You can set different rules for different groomers to fit your business flow.

Use case

Scenario

Example

How Slot-Free Service Helps

Quick standalone service

Nail clipping, brush-out, ear cleaning

Doesn’t take up an entire slot, allowing for more efficient scheduling

Overlapping appointment

Small bath overlaps with a full groom

Groomers can handle both within the same time frame

Capacity rules

Scenario

Does it use slot capacity?

Counted in pet total?

Notes

Slot-Free Service only

❌ No

❌ No

Good for short services like nail trims or brush-outs.

Regular Service only

✅ Yes

✅ Yes

Standard slot usage.

Same pet + Multi-service — Slot-Free + Regular Service

✅ Yes

✅ Yes

Still consumes capacity because of the regular service.

Multiple pets — one with Slot-Free only, others with Regular

✅ Yes (for pets with regular service)

✅ Yes (except the slot-free one)

A Slot-free pet doesn’t affect capacity.

Multiple pets — all Slot-Free only

❌ No

❌ No

Appointment won’t block staff slots.

Multiple pets + Multi-service — Slot-Free + Regular Service

✅ Yes (for pets with regular service)

✅ Yes (except the slot-free one)

A Slot-free pet doesn’t affect capacity.

How To Set Up

Staff Schedule

  1. Go to Shift Management → Staff Schedule → Slot-Free Service.

  2. Select the staff member you want to configure.

  3. Choose which services should be treated as Slot-Free.

  4. (Optional) Adjust the schedule if certain times shouldn’t accept those services.

  5. Click Copy widget to apply the same configuration to other staff members.

Online Booking

  1. Navigate to Online Booking → Settings → Availability → Slot-Free Service.

  2. Enable Slot-Free Services and select which ones apply.

  3. Save your settings to sync them with the staff schedule.

Calendar Indicator

When a Slot-Free Service appointment appears on the Calendar:

  • It will display like a regular appointment.

  • However, it won’t block additional bookings for that same time slot.

  • You can hover over the staff's name or click to view details.

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