Admins: Set-Up Appointments Mode

Pre-Work

Before you can set up appointments, you need to set up an appointment format and enable the appointment mode. You will know if the appointment mode is enabled if you see the "Session" heading on the admin panel. See the below screenshots. The appointments mode is disabled in the left image and enabled in the right.

           

To add an appointment format, navigate to settings > sessions > Appointment Formats > add new format. This is further described in the help center article, Admins: Appointments Settings, under the heading, "Appointment Formats (Admin Panel)". 

To use appointments, you'll work through the below steps to upload courses, upload providers, set provider hours, and set up session locations. 

Step 1: Courses

How to set up your course list can be found in the article, Admins: Courses (or Topics) Setup. These courses will be used across all modes of Penji (appointments, sections, and Drop-In).

Step 2: Providers

How to set up your Providers can be found in the article, Admins: Providers Setup (Tutors, Advisors, Coaches, etc.). These will be the eligible Providers across all modes of Penji (appointments, sections, and Drop-In).

Step 3: Locations

You’ll upload a list of locations where Sessions can be held. Each location requires a name, hours when the location is open/available, and a capacity for concurrent sessions. Once capacity is reached for a time slot, no more appointments can be booked. When scheduling an appointment, students will see a list of location options for a given time they've selected. This list is limited by location hours and tutor location hours.

Step by Step

A snapshot from the Session Locations template CSV, showing various location possibilities.

1. 1. Navigate to “Locations” on the side menu under the “Sessions” heading
   2. Click the “Manage” header
   3. Click “Download Template CSV”
   4. Edit this CSV and add courses in exactly the same format as the sample row
      • Room/Building: Whenever you reference a location in other Penji imports (eg. Sections) you will have to use the format of “Building - Room”. For example: Building "Student Success Center" and Room "100" becomes “Student Success Center - 100”. Building "Zoom Meeting" and Room "Online" becomes "Zoom Meeting - Online".
      • Kind: Supported kinds are listed in the Template CSV.
        • Physical: These are for in-person locations. 
        • Online Locations: Zoom, GoBoard, Webex, Teams, Provider Link, and Link are described below. 
          • Zoom/GoBoard/Webex/Teams: Penji will automatically generate links based on the providers’ settings configured within Penji. 
            • For GoBoard, you are required to have a GoBoard account/domain for your school, which you must send over to Penji, email [e-mail], to get set up. 
            • How Providers input their Zoom information is explained here: Providers: Setting up Zoom in Penji. 
            • There can only be one Zoom/GoBoard/Webex/Teams location kind per community. 
            • Teams Locations are specific to sessions and are not included within the Drop-In mode. Zoom, GoBoard, and Webex can be used in both sessions and Drop-In mode. 
          • Provider Link: Providers will be asked to input a specific link or phone number (tel:) within their settings. This location is specific to the provider, like in Zoom/GoBoard/Webex/Teams.
            • Google Meet links are supported here.
            • There can only be one Provider Link location kind per community. 
            • Provider Link locations can be used in both sessions and Drop-In mode. 
            • To enter a phone number, providers will go to their settings and input their phone number with the prefix "tel:". For example, "tel:[phone]", be sure to include the country code! If students/providers are using the app, they can directly call a phone number by selecting "open". See the below image as an example. 
              
              
          • Link: Admin can input a link into the URL column, which will be a singular link for every session at that location, regardless of provider.
            
            • There can be as many links as you would like.
            • Link locations are specific to sessions and are not included within the Drop-In mode.
      • Capacity: Choose the capacity for concurrent sessions or groups at each location. If online, the capacity should be set to 999999. If in-person, your room may only be able to hold 3 sessions at any time, for example. If that’s the case, enter 3, and after 3 sessions are booked at that location, we will no longer show that location as an option for that time slot. Please note, a provider and one or more students are considered a single session regardless of group size. Capacity is the number of groups (even if a group is only a student and tutor). 
        • Example: If you have a Section scheduled in a location with 5 students, and 3 more 1-on-1 sessions scheduled there as well, this would be counted as 4 towards your capacity limit (not the 4 providers and 8 students). 
      • Available hours: Enter the scheduled times for each location in HH:MM 24-hour format. For Session Locations, choose all the 1-hour increments where that location is available, and enter it with a | between each hour. For example, a center open from 9-4 would be 09:00|10:00|11:00|12:00|13:00|14:00|15:00.
   5. Upload by clicking “Choose File”, selecting the edited CSV, and clicking “Import CSV”
   6. To make changes, you can download your most recent version under “Recent Imports” on the Manage tab and edit the document before re-uploading.

Step 4: Adding Provider Hours

Provider availability can be location-specific, allowing for certain hours as in-person, certain hours as online-only, or certain hours as a hybrid of all locations. For appointments, there are two ways to add provider hours: admin added or provider added hours. Some centers "assign" their providers hours, paying them regardless of if a session is booked. Other centers give providers control over their availability, "flexible" hours, typically paying providers for any session that ends up getting booked and worked. 

An optional notification may be sent to program admins when providers adjust their calendars (Penji-controlled setting). Admins can also "lock" provider hours by updating the setting "Allow providers editing appointment availability" to "not allowed". More information on appointment settings can be found in the help center article, Admins: Appointments Settings.

Provider Added Hours

How providers add their hours is explained in the following Help Center article: Providers: Setting Up & Editing Hours.

Admin Added Hours (for Providers)

Appointment calendars are edited in the Providers tab. Click on a specific provider then click Edit > Edit Appointment Availability. You have the ability to add, remove, change or update the location for the provider's hours.  

Step 5: Format Appointments

You will want to review the following settings, Admins: Appointments Settings, to make sure the Appointment mode is set up how you would like.

Note, you can quickly review the appointment formats you have set up, and edit them as needed by navigating to Settings > "Appointment formats" > add, edit, or rearrange current formats.