Scheduling System
Overview
Aurora Inbox's Scheduling System transforms your calendar into a complete booking and appointment engine. Designed for clinics, salons, learning centers, gyms, and any service-based business, it allows you to manage locations, services, providers, and bookings from a single place.
The system answers questions like: "For this specific service, at this location, with which available providers, what time slots exist — considering duration, buffer time, capacity, and individual provider schedules?"
How to access
- Navigate to Sidebar > Scheduling
- The Scheduling menu only appears if the feature is activated for your account (see Activation section)
- Required roles: Bookings Administrator or Bookings Manager for full access. Providers can only see their own services.
Activating Scheduling
The scheduling system is an optional feature that must be activated per account.
Steps:
- Navigate to Tools in the sidebar.
- Find the Scheduling card.
- Click the toggle to activate scheduling.
- The Scheduling menu will immediately appear in the sidebar.
Important notes:
- Only administrators can activate/deactivate scheduling.
- Once activated, access to all 4 configuration sections is available: Locations, Services, Providers, and Bookings.
Interface overview
The Scheduling page has a sidebar navigation with 4 tabs:
- Locations — Manage branches or places where services are offered.
- Services — Configure bookable services.
- Providers — Assign team members as service providers.
- Bookings — Calendar view with all appointments and new booking creation.
Key concepts
Locations
Physical or virtual places where services are offered. Each location has its own operating hours.
Services
Bookable offerings with defined duration, capacity, pricing, and scheduling rules. A service can be available at one or more locations.
Providers
Team members assigned to perform a service. Each provider can have their own working hours and exceptions (vacations, days off).
Bookings
Scheduled appointments that link a customer to a specific service, location, provider, and time slot.
Availability Engine
The system automatically calculates available time slots considering:
- Location operating hours
- Provider working hours (with optional override)
- Provider exceptions (blocked days or custom schedules)
- Existing bookings and events (prevents double-booking)
- Buffer times before and after appointments
- Maximum capacity per slot (for group services)
- Daily booking limits per provider
- Minimum advance booking time
Typical workflow
- Set up locations — Create your branches and set operating hours.
- Create services — Define the services you offer with duration, price, and rules.
- Assign providers — Link team members to the services they can perform.
- Receive bookings — Create appointments manually, through the AI agent, or via the API.
Calendar integration
When a booking is confirmed, an Event is automatically created on the assigned provider's calendar. If the booking is cancelled, the event is automatically deleted. This keeps the personal calendar in sync with scheduling appointments.
AI Agent integration
Aurora's AI agent can automatically create and manage bookings during customer conversations. See Agent Tools to configure the scheduling tool on your agent.
Access control (roles)
| Role | Permissions |
|---|---|
| Global Administrator | Full access to all sections |
| Bookings Administrator | Full access to bookings, availability, and settings |
| Bookings Manager | Full access to bookings and availability |
| Provider | Can only see their own services and bookings |
FAQs
Q: Can I use the regular calendar and the scheduling system at the same time? A: Yes, they are complementary. The existing calendar continues to work as always. Confirmed bookings appear as events on the provider's calendar.
Q: Can customers book appointments on their own? A: In the current version (V1), bookings are created by the team (manually or via AI agent). Customer self-booking is planned for a future version.
Q: Are bookings synced with Google Calendar? A: Yes, indirectly. Confirmed bookings create events in Aurora's calendar, which sync with Google Calendar if the provider has their account connected.