Business Box

Availability and working hours

A schedule is a set of weekly hours plus its own exceptions. One schedule can be shared by several event types, so changing your hours once changes them everywhere they are used.

In short

Go to Booking → Availability. Set the hours for each weekday, tick Block Japanese public holidays if you want 祝日 closed automatically, add Date overrides for one-off exceptions, and press Save.

Weekly hours#

Each day has a row. A day with no hours reads Unavailable and nothing is offered on it. A new account starts with Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00.

  1. Go to Booking → Availability.
  2. On the day you want to change, press Add hours and set the start and end times.
  3. Remove a range with the × beside it.
  4. Press Save.

Lunch breaks and split shifts#

Add two ranges to the same day. For a break between 12:00 and 13:00, set 09:00–12:00 and 13:00–18:00. Up to ten ranges per day, and they may not overlap — you will see These time ranges overlap if they do.

Hours are the outer limit, not the answer

Your hours say when bookings are possible. What is actually offered is narrowed further by anything already in your connected calendar, by existing bookings, and by the buffers, notice and daily cap on each event type.

The schedule's time zone#

Each schedule carries its own time zone, and the hours mean wall-clock time in it. 09:00–17:00 in Asia/Tokyo is 09:00–17:00 in Tokyo whatever time zone you are personally in and whatever time zone your customer is in. A customer in London sees your 09:00 converted to their own time.

Do not change it to travel

The time zone belongs to where the work happens, not to where you happen to be sitting. Change it and every existing opening moves. If you are away for a fortnight, use date overrides for those dates instead.

Japanese public holidays#

Tick Block Japanese public holidays (国民の祝日) and every 祝日 is closed all day, automatically, with no maintenance. If your time zone is Asia/Tokyo this is already on.

With it ticked, the next few months of holidays are listed underneath so you can see what will close. Holidays you have deliberately opened appear struck through and marked opened by override.

Opening one particular holiday#

A holiday you do want to work is a date override with hours on it:

  1. Under Date overrides press Add a date.
  2. Set the date to the holiday.
  3. Press Add hours and enter the hours you will work.
  4. Press Save. The holiday list above now shows it struck through.
Why not just use your calendar?

Because an all-day event in Google Calendar is created as Free by default, and free time is not busy time — Business Box would go on offering the day. Closing a day belongs here, in a date override, where it is unambiguous.

Date overrides: one-off exceptions#

An override replaces the weekly hours for one specific date. It does two jobs:

Close a day completely
Add the date and leave it with no hours. Nothing is offered that day.
Work different hours that day
Add the date and give it hours. A Saturday you are open, an early finish, a late start after a delivery.

Up to 200 overrides per schedule. Remove one with its Delete button. Past dates do no harm, but tidying them up occasionally keeps the list readable.

Overrides do not cancel bookings

Closing a day stops new bookings. Anything already booked on that date stays booked. Check Booking → Bookings for the dates you are closing and cancel them yourself, so your customers are told.

More than one schedule#

Press New schedule for a second set of hours — evening appointments, a different location, phone consultations only on Fridays. Give it a name you will recognise, then point an event type at it from its Scheduling tab.

  • Make default sets which schedule new event types start with.
  • Delete works only on a schedule nothing uses. In use, you will see This schedule is used by an event type and can't be deleted. Point the event type elsewhere first.
  • The default schedule cannot be deleted at all. Make another one the default first.

The Save button is only active when something has changed, so an untouched schedule cannot be saved by accident.

Common questions

How do I block a single day in my booking calendar?

Go to Booking → Availability, press Add a date under Date overrides, set the date, and leave it with no hours. Save. Existing bookings on that day are not cancelled — do that yourself from the Bookings list.

How do I close automatically on Japanese public holidays?

Tick Block Japanese public holidays (国民の祝日) in the availability schedule. Every 祝日 is then closed all day, and the upcoming ones are listed so you can see what will close. It is already on for accounts in the Asia/Tokyo time zone.

How do I take a lunch break?

Give the day two ranges of hours instead of one — for example 09:00–12:00 and 13:00–18:00. Press Add hours a second time on the same day.

Why is an all-day event in Google Calendar not blocking my day?

Because Google creates all-day events as Free by default, and Business Box only treats busy time as busy. Either mark that event Busy in Google, or — better — close the day with a date override in Availability.

Can different appointments have different hours?

Yes. Create a second schedule with New schedule and choose it in the event type’s Scheduling tab under Availability schedule.

Last reviewed 28 September 2026.