Terminautomatik · 29 Oct 2026

A 45-minute appointment can need a 60-minute slot

A worked scheduling example covering service time, setup, cleanup and shared resources before a calendar can confirm a booking.

Published by: Du First, Inhaber Hamid Hekmat · AI-assisted editorial guide. Worked examples use fictional data.

Three resource models beside a shared appointment block — Editorial illustration

Define the example

A fictional service lasts 45 minutes, with five minutes of preparation and ten minutes of cleanup. It needs a particular professional and a room. A customer appointment from 10:00 to 10:45 therefore occupies the required resources from 09:55 to 10:55.

Availability is an intersection

A room free from 09:30 to 11:00 is insufficient if the professional becomes available at 10:00 and must perform the preparation. Likewise, an available professional does not make an occupied room available. The workflow must check the resources required for that service together.

Preparation can be assigned differently only if the business has explicitly defined that responsibility. A tool must not guess the operating rule.

Run three counterexamples

Another appointment ends at 10:00: preparation starting at 09:55 overlaps, so the requested start is unsuitable.
The room is free only from 10:15: confirming 10:00 would be wrong even if the professional is available.
Two customers choose the same free start: the calendar must recheck at final commit and accept only a valid allocation.

Include the time zone

The connected system needs both the time and the business time zone. A string such as “Sunday 02:30” can be invalid or ambiguous during a clock change. The calendar service must resolve that clearly. The local planning tool does not perform this time-zone or live-calendar validation.

Cover changes and cancellation

Rescheduling needs an explicit rule for releasing the original allocation. If a replacement booking fails, the original appointment must not silently disappear. Repeating a cancellation must not change the same allocation multiple times.

Acceptance therefore covers availability, a confirmed booking, an identical repeated request, rescheduling and cancellation in an isolated test calendar. A downloaded schedule is a planning aid, not evidence that a real appointment has been reserved.