Letting the AI Book Appointments
When it answers a call, the Answer Agent (Beta) can offer the caller times you are free and book an appointment. You set the rules, your hours and your services, and bookings appear in its calendar.
Last reviewed: October 2026
Before you start
Set up the Answer Agent first, so it answers your calls. See Setting Up the AI Answer Agent.
Turn on booking
- Go to AI → Answer Agent (Beta).
- At Settings for, choose Account defaults, or one number if only that number should take bookings.
- Open the Appointments tab and tick Enable appointment scheduling.
- Set the options below, then click Save changes.
Booking settings
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Appointment mode | Optional takes messages as normal and books only when the caller asks. Required books an appointment with every message. |
| Default duration | How long an appointment lasts, in minutes. The default is 60. |
| Minimum notice | How far ahead a booking must be, in minutes. 1,440 minutes is 24 hours. |
| Slot interval | The spacing between start times: 15, 30 or 60 minutes. |
| Options to offer | How many times the AI suggests. The default is one. |
| Email reminder | How many minutes before the appointment a reminder is set. 0 means no reminder. |
Set your hours and time zone
Under Availability:
- Timezone starts on Pacific/Auckland. Change it to your own, for example Australia/Sydney, Australia/Brisbane or Australia/Perth, or appointments will be offered at the wrong times.
- Working days & hours start at Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
- Regular breaks & busy hours start with a 12:30 to 1:30pm lunch break. Click + Add break for more.
- Treat NZ public holidays as unavailable uses New Zealand holidays only. In Australia, leave it off and add your public holidays yourself (see below).
Australian public holidays
Add them as custom holiday dates: open the number in Voice → Line Manager, choose Other Settings → Time Schedules, and click Click here to add your own custom holiday dates. You can also block a single day in the calendar with Add blocked time.
Services with different lengths
If your services take different amounts of time, tick Use service-specific appointment durations under Services. The AI asks the caller which service they want and books the right length.
- Click Add service and enter a category, the service name, a short description the AI can say, and its length in minutes. Untick Active to hide a service.
- Or click Import CSV to load a list. The columns are
category,service_name,descriptionandduration_minutes.
The calendar
Click Open calendar to see bookings by week or as an agenda.
- Add appointment to book one yourself, with the caller’s name and number, notes, and a status: Confirmed, Tentative, Busy or Cancelled.
- Add blocked time to stop the AI booking a period, such as a public holiday or a day off.
The calendar shows your available hours, appointments, breaks and blocked time, busy times from an external calendar, and holidays in different colours.
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Still need help?
Our Australian support team is available to assist you.