Admins: Appointments Settings

Some settings will be controlled by Penji and some will be controlled through the Admin Panel. If you would like to change/update a Penji-controlled setting, please email [e-mail] to update the setting. Please include what school and community you would like this to apply to.  Some settings will relate to all sessions, just appointments, and just sections. Section settings are described in the article, Admins: Sections Settings.

All Sessions

Lead Time (Penji Controlled)

How many hours in advance must a student book? This setting is often used when combining drop-in and appointment availability that overlaps. For example, if there is a 12 hour lead time, no student can book an appointment within 12 hours.

Appointment scheduled weeks ahead (Penji Controlled)

This allows you to adjust how many weeks in advance students are able to book an appointment. For example, this could be 2 weeks - from a given date, students can only book an appointment two weeks out. 

Calendar Allowed Minutes (Penji Controlled)

On what parts of the hour would you like students to be allowed to book an appointment. For example, if this is :00 and :30, students would only be able to schedule an appointment that starts on the hour or half-hour. 

Auto confirm sessions (Penji Controlled)

More information about the different session statues can be found here: Admins: Appointments Introduction. If you would like providers to be able to decline a session, this should be off. When students book an appointment, and this feature is off, the appointment will be shown as Pending until the provider accepts the appointment. Otherwise, if this is on, once a student requests a session it is immediately confirmed.

Student session usage limit (Admin Panel)

Use the student session usage limits if you would like to add restrictions on the number of minutes per week or per day students are allowed to book. See the below example: Students are not allowed to book more than 120 minutes per week and are not allowed to book more than 90 minutes per day for sessions. Session usage limit violations are shown from the student perspective within the Student FAQ.

This session usage limit includes the time spent in a session that is part of a section. Both appointments and sections are counted in this limit. 

Provider max booked hours limit (Admin Panel)

This is the maximum amount of time a provider can be booked for a session or leading a section. Both appointments and sections are counted in this limit. 

For example, if a Tutor has availability on Thursday and Friday from 12 pm to 5 pm, they would have 10 hours of availability. If you set the max booked hours to 2 hours (120 minutes) a week, once the two hours have been booked, the Tutor’s remaining times would be unavailable and not shown to students. Hours would count as "booked" when a student books an appointment or if the student is leading a section that week. 

Note, the weekly limit is set in minutes. 

Provider Session Feedback (Penji Controlled)

If you would like to add custom questions or edit them, you will need to email [e-mail]. 

The feedback prompts can be formatted as a long answer, short answer, drop-down, or a link to a URL. 

If turned on for Sections, these same provider feedback questions will be asked after each session. See more in Admins: Sections Settings, under the header, "Enable Section Provider feedback (Penji Controlled)"  

Appointments (1:1, Group, Weekly)

Appointment Formats (Admin Panel)

This setting allows you to completely edit the appointment flow. Changes made within here will directly impact the student learn screen and the appointment options available to students. Once saved, these changes will be live and available. Within this setting you can:

• Edit the appointment button copy
• Rearrange the appointment buttons 
• Duplicate appointment buttons and their settings
• Delete appointment buttons
• Add brand new appointments 
  • Determine the kind (one-on-one or group)
  • Set the reoccurrence (single or weekly)
  • Set the length of time for the appointment
  • Edit the topic screen questions shown to students 
    • Determine the text for the long answer
      • Make the long answer required or optional
    • Determine what the checkbox question is
      • Determine what the checkbox options are
      • Make the checkbox question required or optional 

Max group session size (Admin Panel)

Set the maximum amount of students that can join a group appointment (session). 

Allow providers editing appointment availability (Admin Panel)

Set whether or not providers are allowed to edit their appointment availability on their own. Your choices are allowed or not allowed. Set to not allowed if you would like to 100% control your providers' schedules for them. 

Student Session Feedback (Penji Controlled) 

You can view student session feedback within the admin panel, however, this field is not editable. If you would like to add custom prompts/questions or edit them, you will need to email [e-mail]. 

The feedback prompts can be formatted as a long answer, short answer, drop-down, or a link to a URL. 

Require Student Feedback (Penji Controlled)

There are three add-ons to require student feedback.

1. Set specific feedback questions to required (least intrusive).
2. Set it so that once a student opens Penji, they will be prompted to submit feedback from their session. However, they can exit the feedback request at any point.
3. Do not allow students to continue using Penji until they have submitted their session feedback (most intrusive to the student experience).

Require Provider Feedback (Penji Controlled)

For after the session, you can require that the provider fill out session feedback prior to being able to use other Penji functions. You can also set each custom feedback question as required or optional. There is a different setting to require provider feedback for sections, "Enable Section Provider feedback (Penji Controlled)".

Student & Provider Email Receipts - Sessions (Admin Panel)

You have the ability to send students and providers a "receipt" of their Penji 1:1 session interaction. Once the provider completes their feedback, the email receipt will be sent out to whoever the setting is enabled for. This will be sent to students (if enabled) regardless if the student was absent or present. 

Default settings are shown above. 

The receipt will contain information about the:

• Date & Time of session
• Course (Subject)
• Location
• Attendance
• Duration (based on provider submitted feedback)
• What was entered in for the “topic” from the student (the long answer text box when a student books an appointment)
• If turned on, the provider feedback and the questions asked will be included

When providers submit their feedback, if "Share provider feedback in session email receipts" is enabled, providers will be notified when completing their session feedback. It is encouraged to communicate with providers to let them know that their feedback will be shared with students if you turn this feature on. 

Student Receipt with share feedback from Provider enabled:

Provider Receipt with share feedback from Provider enabled:

Student session no-show rules (Admin Panel)

Set rules for students when missing appointments. A suspended student will not be able to request new sessions. In the example below, here is how to read the no-show policy: If a student has 3 absences (no-shows) within a 7-day period, suspend that student for 7 days. Once you set the no-show rules, you will have the option to send emails after each no-show before the rule is enforced. These emails will be set up within the admin panel and sent automatically. If you do not want to send emails, keep the fields blank. 

Here is an example of a no-show email:

• Hello,

  You are receiving this email because you recently missed a scheduled appointment with the [COMMUNITY NAME].

  While this [FIRST] instance is considered a warning, please know that, in the future, your ability to schedule appointments with [COMMUNITY NAME] may be affected. The community rules are as follows: [INSERT NO SHOW RULES HERE].

  If you need to cancel an appointment, you can do so in the Penji app before your scheduled session.

  Best,
  [COMMUNITY NAME]

Missed sessions that are part of a section are not included in this no-show policy. There is a separate no-show rule for sections. 

Resetting the no-show policy

On the admin website, you have the ability to reset the no-show policy:

When a student triggers the no-show status, upcoming weekly sessions within the session "lockout" period are canceled, which in turn cancels all future reoccurring sessions in that series. The session before the next weekly reoccurring session has to happen in order for the next one in the series to be created. Since the initial session was canceled and did not happen, none of the future sessions were created.

Resetting the no-show status will not resume weekly reoccurring sessions.