What is scheduling software? Three kinds, and which you need.

The three kinds get sold under one label, so sort them by who reads the schedule. A booking link is for customers, and it's also called appointment scheduling or online booking. You offer the hours you can work, and the customer picks a time without a phone call. Google calls its own version an appointment schedule. (Google Calendar Help: creating an appointment schedule)

A crew schedule is for your people. It's also called shift, staff or employee scheduling: you plan who works when, and each person checks their own week. (Zoho People: employee shift scheduling)

Job dates are for the work, and the formal name is project scheduling. Each job carries its own tasks, people and due dates, so a late delivery shows up where the work is planned. (ProjectManager: making a project schedule)

One more meaning to set aside. In IT, “job scheduling software” is a program that runs computer jobs at set times, with no customer or crew involved. (TechTarget: job scheduler definition (2023))

Picture a hypothetical two-chair barbershop with a Bizzy Bookings link on its website. A customer opens the link and sees a four-week calendar with the open days marked. The times show in the customer's own time zone, picked up from the browser, with a dropdown to change it.

They pick a time and fill in a short form: name, e-mail and up to ten questions of your own, plus phone and address when the visit is at their place. One sentence above the button says their details go to your business and links the privacy policy. There's no tick box and no account to create.

The confirmation offers four buttons: Add to calendar, Add to Google Calendar, Add to Outlook and Manage booking. The Manage link lets them pick another time or cancel, up to the cutoff you set. After that, a change means contacting you.

For an online meeting, Bizzy Bookings creates a Google Meet link or sends a meeting link you paste. It doesn't create Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Webex links.

The rules come first. Before Bizzy Bookings offers a time, it checks that time against every decision below, so make them before you share the link.

• Set the weekdays and hours you'll take bookings, up to four ranges a day.
• Let it check your busy time: your BizzyBot calendar, any Google calendars you've imported and the bookings already taken.
• Leave a buffer before and after each booking for the drive or the setup.
• Choose a minimum notice; the default is two hours.
• Pick how far ahead people can book; the default is 60 days.
• Cap the bookings in a day; the default is eight.

Hours are weekly, with no holiday list. Put a day off on your BizzyBot calendar, or a Google calendar you've imported, and the link treats it as busy.

A crew schedule answers who works when and where. The customer never sees it. Take a hypothetical four-person moving crew: by Sunday night each mover needs Monday's start time and the job they're on, without a round of phone calls.

In BizzyBot that's Shifts, where you plan the week and the crew checks it. Light users can view their schedule and assigned jobs for $0. Planning or changing the week is for the owner or a teammate who edits.

Shifts doesn't run payroll or keep time-clock records. Those need their own tools.

Sometimes the schedule is the job itself: order, deliver, start, inspect, finish. Each date waits on the one before it.

Imagine a hypothetical deck builder. The job can't start until the lumber arrives, and the inspection waits for the frame. When the delivery slips a week, the start and every step after it need new dates, so keep those dates on the job where everyone working it can see them.

In BizzyBot that's Projects. Each job keeps its tasks, dates and people together, and each task can have an owner and a due date.

Three questions sort it out: who reads the schedule, what breaks when it's wrong and who needs to sign in. Answer them before you compare prices.

A business that books visits and sends out a crew will meet all three kinds. In BizzyBot they share one workspace, and the sign-in question sets the price: $12 a month for the owner, $6 for each teammate who edits and $0 for light users who only read their week.

Bizzy Bookings, Shifts and Projects are all included. The one-hour trial needs no card, and Bookings is a preview there until you're on a paid plan.

Scheduling software knows the clock, not the traffic. Bizzy Bookings lets you set a buffer before and after each booking for the drive. It doesn't check a service area, so how far you'll travel stays your decision.

No tool makes a customer show up. Bizzy Bookings sends a confirmation and reminder e-mails at the times you choose, and the Manage link gives people a way to move a time instead of missing it. It sends e-mail only, never text messages.

Money at booking varies by tool. Some take a card or a deposit when the customer books. Bookings takes no payments and no deposits, so keep your current way of getting paid.