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Feature Overview

The Multiple Periods Per Day feature (introduced 2025-11-21) allows you to configure multiple non-contiguous time periods for the same weekday.
This feature enables realistic scheduling for split shifts, lunch breaks, and different work periods without manual slot blocking.

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When to Use Multiple Periods

Split Shifts

Example: Hair Salon
  • Morning: 09:00-13:00
  • Afternoon: 15:00-19:00
  • Lunch: 13:00-15:00 (closed)

Extended Breaks

Example: Medical Clinic
  • Morning: 08:00-12:00
  • Afternoon: 16:00-20:00
  • Break: 12:00-16:00 (closed)

Two-Shift Operations

Example: Gym
  • Early shift: 06:00-10:00
  • Evening shift: 18:00-22:00
  • Off-peak: Closed

Provider-Specific Patterns

Example: Multi-Provider Clinic
  • Provider A: Mornings only
  • Provider B: Afternoons only
  • Provider C: Full day (split)

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Step-by-Step: Creating Multiple Periods

Configuración de múltiples períodos horarios para el mismo día con gaps
1

Create First Period

Configure the first time period for the day.Example (Monday Morning):
  • Weekday: 1 (Monday)
  • Opening: 09:00
  • Closing: 13:00
  • Click Guardar (Save)
Monday (1): 09:00 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 13:00
2

Create Second Period

For the same weekday, create a second period.Example (Monday Afternoon):
  • Weekday: 1 (Monday) ← Same day
  • Opening: 15:00
  • Closing: 19:00
  • Click Guardar (Save)
Monday (1): 09:00 ━━━━━━ 13:00   15:00 ━━━━━━ 19:00
                         ↑
                      Gap: 13:00-15:00 (lunch)
3

Validation

The system automatically validates that the new period does not overlap with existing periods.Overlap Formula: A_start < B_end AND B_start < A_end✅ Valid: 09:00-13:00 + 15:00-19:00 (gap)❌ Invalid: 09:00-14:00 + 13:00-17:00 (overlap 13:00-14:00)
4

Result

You now have a split-shift schedule with a gap.Available Slots (30-minute service):
  • Morning: 09:00, 09:30, 10:00, …, 12:30
  • Afternoon: 15:00, 15:30, 16:00, …, 18:30
  • NO slots in gap: 13:00-15:00 ✅ Correct

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Overlap Validation Explained

The system prevents overlapping time periods using this formula: 
Two periods overlap if:
  A_start < B_end  AND  B_start < A_end

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Examples

Configuration:
  • Period A: 09:00-13:00
  • Period B: 15:00-19:00
Check:
  • 09:00 < 19:00 ✅
  • 15:00 < 13:00 ❌ False
Result: Valid (no overlap, gap 13:00-15:00)
09:00 ━━━━━━ 13:00   15:00 ━━━━━━ 19:00
               ↑
            Gap: 13:00-15:00 ✅
Configuration:
  • Period A: 09:00-13:00
  • Period B: 13:00-17:00
Check:
  • 09:00 < 17:00 ✅
  • 13:00 < 13:00 ❌ False
Result: Valid (contiguous, A_end == B_start)
09:00 ━━━━━━━━━━━━ 13:00━━━━━━━━━━━━ 17:00
                      ↑
                Contiguous ✅
Contiguous periods are allowed when A_end == B_start. No gap, but no overlap either.
Configuration:
  • Period A: 09:00-14:00
  • Period B: 13:00-17:00
Check:
  • 09:00 < 17:00 ✅
  • 13:00 < 14:00 ✅ Both true
Result: Invalid (overlap 13:00-14:00)
09:00 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 14:00
               13:00 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 17:00
                  ↑
              Overlap: 13:00-14:00 ❌
Error: "Overlap detected: Period 13:00-17:00 overlaps with existing period 09:00-14:00"
Configuration:
  • Period A: 08:00-18:00 (full day)
  • Period B: 12:00-14:00 (lunch break)
Check:
  • 08:00 < 14:00 ✅
  • 12:00 < 18:00 ✅ Both true
Result: Invalid (B is nested inside A)
08:00 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 18:00
          12:00 ━━━━ 14:00
             ↑
          Nested ❌
You cannot create a nested period. To configure lunch breaks, use two separate periods before and after the break.

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How Availability Works with Multiple Periods

The availability system generates slots only within configured periods, not in gaps.

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Example: Split Shift Availability

Configuration: 
Monday (1):
  Clinic Hours: 09:00-13:00 + 15:00-19:00
  Service Duration: 30 minutes
Slot Generation: 
Morning Period (09:00-13:00):
  09:00, 09:30, 10:00, 10:30, 11:00, 11:30, 12:00, 12:30 ✅

Gap (13:00-15:00):
  NO SLOTS GENERATED ✅ (clinic closed)

Afternoon Period (15:00-19:00):
  15:00, 15:30, 16:00, 16:30, 17:00, 17:30, 18:00, 18:30 ✅
The system automatically skips gaps when generating slots. You don’t need to manually block time.

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Real-World Examples

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Example 1: Hair Salon with Lunch Break

Business Hours:
  • Morning shift: 09:00-13:00
  • Lunch break: 13:00-15:00 (closed)
  • Afternoon shift: 15:00-19:00
Configuration:
DayPeriod 1Period 2
Monday (1)09:00-13:0015:00-19:00
Tuesday (2)09:00-13:0015:00-19:00
Wednesday (3)09:00-13:00Not configured
Thursday (4)09:00-13:0015:00-19:00
Friday (5)09:00-13:0015:00-19:00
Saturday (6)10:00-14:00Not configured
Sunday (7)ClosedClosed
Result:
  • Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri: Full split-shift (morning + afternoon)
  • Wednesday: Morning only (half day)
  • Saturday: Weekend hours (no split)
  • Sunday: Closed

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Example 2: Medical Clinic with Different Providers

Clinic Hours (Monday):
  • 08:00-20:00 (operational window)
Provider Hours (Monday):
ProviderPeriod 1Period 2Result
Dr. Smith09:00-13:00Not configuredMornings only
Dr. JonesNot configured15:00-19:00Afternoons only
Dr. Brown09:00-13:0015:00-19:00Full day (split)
Availability by Provider:
  • Dr. Smith: 09:00, 09:30, …, 12:30 (morning slots only)
  • Dr. Jones: 15:00, 15:30, …, 18:30 (afternoon slots only)
  • Dr. Brown: 09:00, …, 12:30 + 15:00, …, 18:30 (both periods)

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Example 3: Gym with Two Shifts

Business Model: Peak hours only (early morning + evening) Configuration (Monday):
PeriodTimeTarget Audience
106:00-10:00Early birds (before work)
218:00-22:00After work crowd
Gap: 10:00-18:00 (closed during off-peak hours)

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Common Questions

There is no hard limit, but practical usage is 2-3 periods per day.Recommended:
  • 2 periods: Split shift (morning + afternoon)
  • 3 periods: Complex schedules (early + mid + late)
Not recommended:
  • 5+ periods: Makes scheduling confusing for users
Yes. When editing a period, the system uses self-exclusion validation:
  • The period being edited is excluded from overlap checks
  • Only validates against OTHER periods
See Edit & Delete Hours for details.
Yes. You can delete individual periods:
  • Deleting Period 1 keeps Period 2 intact
  • Deleting the only period for a day closes the clinic that day
Warning: Deleting a period invalidates availability cache.
Existing appointments are not affected by work hour changes.Scenario:
  1. You have an appointment at 14:00 (no gap configured)
  2. You create periods: 09:00-13:00 + 15:00-19:00 (gap 13:00-15:00)
  3. Existing 14:00 appointment remains valid ✅
  4. New appointments cannot be booked in gap ✅
Yes. Providers can have multiple periods just like clinics.Example:
  • Clinic: 08:00-20:00 (full day)
  • Provider: 09:00-13:00 + 15:00-19:00 (split shift)
  • Result: Provider works split shift within clinic hours

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Best Practices

Use multiple periods instead of manual blocking: Instead of blocking slots manually, configure work hours to reflect actual availability.
Keep gaps realistic: A 2-hour lunch break (13:00-15:00) is typical. Very short gaps (<30 min) may confuse customers.
Don’t use multiple periods for one-time changes: For holidays or exceptional days, use the Closures feature. Multiple periods are for recurring weekly schedules.
Cache invalidation is automatic: When you create, update, or delete periods, availability caches are cleared automatically.

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Next Steps

Provider Hours

Configure split shifts for individual providers

Edit Work Hours

Learn how to edit periods with self-exclusion

Closures

Configure one-time closures for holidays

Availability API

Understand how slots are generated