Appointment types

An appointment type is what customers can book through a public booking link, for example “Initial consultation (30 min)”. It defines who takes the appointment, how long it lasts, which buffers apply and how it takes place. Only admins can see this page.

Where to find the page

Administration › Settings › Appointments › “Appointment types”. You create a new appointment type with “New appointment type”.

The list

Each row shows the name, a badge with the language of the appointment type and the duration in minutes. For active appointment types, the booking link appears next to it in the form https://<your address>/termin/<short-name>, with a copy button (feedback: “Copied!”).

Element	Meaning
“Inactive” badge	The appointment type is deactivated. The booking link and the embedded booking return “not found”.
“Not bookable” badge	The appointment type is active, but no responsible agent has connected a Microsoft or Google calendar.
Hint “No responsible agent can offer … (Microsoft or Google calendar missing).”	At least one allowed mode (for example a Teams meeting) can’t be covered by any responsible agent.
“Create copy”	Creates an inactive copy in the same language, named “Name (EN)”. The owner, times, modes, embedding and tracking settings are copied; the embedding key is new.
“Copy & translate with AI”	Only visible if an AI key is stored. Opens a dialog with “Target language”. The AI translates the name, intro, help texts, message field label and confirmation text. The copy is inactive at first.

Note

Above the list, the hint “At least one active appointment type has no working hours stored - it is currently bookable around the clock.” appears as soon as a responsible agent has no working hours. You maintain working hours under Users (“Edit working hours”). Agents with self-service can also do this in their own profile.

Settings at a glance

Basic details

Field	Meaning	Default
“Name”	Appears on the booking page, in emails and in the calendar. The short name in the booking link is created from it.	empty, required
“Language of the appointment type”	An appointment type has exactly one language. It applies to the booking page, the embedded booking, the confirmation and all customer emails. You can choose from 20 languages.	Default language of the customer portal
“Belongs to”	“A single agent”: one fixed contact person. “Department (pool)”: all active agents in the department are available, and bookings are distributed automatically.	A single agent

Times and limits

The form fields check the limits as you type. All minute values go in steps of 5, the minimum notice in steps of 15.

Field	Meaning	Default	Limits
“Duration (min)”	Length of the appointment.	30	at least 5
“Grid (min)”	Interval between the offered start times, for example 09:00, 09:15, 09:30.	15	at least 5
“Buffer before (min)”	Free time before the appointment, which is also blocked.	0	at least 0
“Buffer after (min)”	Free time after the appointment.	0	at least 0
“Minimum notice (min)”	Earliest bookable time, counted from now. 240 minutes means: four hours from now at the earliest.	240	at least 0
“Booking horizon (days)”	How far into the future bookings can be made.	60	1 to 365
“Max. open appointments per email”	How many appointments that haven’t taken place yet one email address may have at the same time. Counts across all appointment types of the organisation. If the limit is exceeded, the visitor sees “You already have … open appointments with this email address.”	2	1 to 20

Allowed modes

At least one mode must be ticked, otherwise the appointment type can’t be saved.

Field	Requirement for the agent	Default
“Microsoft Teams”	A connected Microsoft calendar (My Profile › Calendar).	on
“Google Meet”	A connected Google calendar.	off
“Phone”	None. The 5sDesk calendar is enough.	on

For a department, it’s enough if any member has connected the right calendar. On the booking page, each time slot only offers the modes that the available agent can actually cover.

Custom texts

All texts are optional and appear in the language of the appointment type.

Field	Where the text appears
“Intro text (booking page)”	At the top of the booking page.
“Help text for the mode selection”	Below the Teams / Google Meet / Phone selection.
“Message field label”	As the label of the free-text field.
“Help text for the message field”	Below the free-text field.
“Message is required”	Booking isn’t possible without a message (“Please enter a message.”). Default: off.
“Confirmation page text”	On the page shown after a successful booking.

Activating, deactivating, deleting

At the bottom of the edit screen, you’ll find “Create copy”, “Copy & translate with AI”, “Deactivate” or “Activate”, and “Delete”.

• “Deactivate” takes the appointment type out of service immediately: the booking link and the embedded booking respond with “not found”. Existing appointments are kept.
• “Delete” asks for confirmation (“Really delete this appointment type?”) and is only possible if there are no upcoming appointments left. Otherwise you’ll see “This appointment type still has … upcoming appointment(s) - please deactivate it instead.”

Embed on your website

The “Embed on your website” section only appears after you’ve saved the appointment type for the first time. It has its own form with its own “Save embedding” button. The booking link keeps working regardless of the embedding settings.

Field	Meaning	Default
“Allow embedding”	Enables the snippet. Off means that snippets already in place no longer display anything.	off
“Allowed addresses (one per line)”	Empty: any website may use the snippet, and the key in the snippet is the only barrier. Otherwise, enter the exact addresses, for example https://www.kunde.de. An entry such as https://*.kunde.de covers exactly one subdomain level. A * on its own is rejected.	empty
“Show the 5sDesk notice”	Shows “Made with 5sDesk.com” in the bottom right of the widget and on the booking page. On the Starter plan, the option is ticked and locked (“On your plan this notice stays.” with the link “Change plan”).	on

After you save with embedding enabled, the snippet appears (two lines: a script tag and a placeholder element) with “Copy snippet”. Paste both lines into your website where the booking should appear.

Caution

“Renew key” creates a new key after a confirmation prompt. All snippets already in place stop working immediately and must be replaced. Appointments and the booking link are not affected. Use this if a snippet has been copied or placed somewhere you don’t want it.

Note

“Allowed addresses” is enforced for appointment bookings: bookings from other addresses are rejected. Cancelling and rescheduling always go through the personal link in the confirmation email, which points to your own address. The header and footer, legal text links and custom script from the customer portal settings are not carried over into the embedded booking.

Conversion tracking

This is also part of the embedding form. 5sDesk doesn’t load a tracking tool of its own and doesn’t set any cookies. Instead, it reports events to the dataLayer of the embedding page.

Field	Meaning	Default
“Enable conversion tracking”	Switches the event reporting on.	off
“Consent” › “Wait for consent (recommended)”	Events are held back until the website reports consent, then sent afterwards. Common cookie banners (IAB TCF) are detected automatically.	selected
“Consent” › “Report immediately”	Only useful if your website checks consent elsewhere.
“Event name prefix”	Empty means appointment. Lowercase letters, digits and underscores are allowed, starting with a letter.	empty

Events reported: <prefix>_view, <prefix>_start, <prefix>_slot_selected, <prefix>_submit, <prefix>_submit_error. For cookie banners without IAB TCF, the screen shows the line your website must call when the visitor consents, under “Report consent yourself”.

How to do it

1. Click “New appointment type” and enter the “Name” and “Language of the appointment type”.
2. Under “Belongs to”, choose an agent or a department.
3. Check the duration, grid, buffers, minimum notice and horizon, and choose the allowed modes.
4. Add custom texts if needed and click “Save”.
5. Copy the booking link from the list, or open the appointment type again and set up embedding.

Effects

• Customers see the appointment type under the booking link in their own time zone (“Detected timezone:” with a selector). Available times are based on the working hours, the 5sDesk calendar and the connected Microsoft or Google calendars of the responsible agents.
• For a department, the appointment goes to whoever has had the fewest appointments in the last 28 days. If there is a tie, it goes to whoever has gone longest without being assigned one.
• Each booking creates a customer in the CRM if needed and sends the confirmation, calendar invitation and reminders in the language of the appointment type.

Notes

Tip

For another language, copy the appointment type (“Create copy” or “Copy & translate with AI”), check the texts and then activate the copy. The copy’s short name is <short-name>-<language>.

Note

Without working hours, an agent counts as bookable around the clock. If there are no available times at all, the visitor sees “Online booking is currently not available for this appointment type. Please get in touch directly.”

See also

• Appointment booking: the process from the customer’s point of view, rescheduling, cancelling and reminders.
• Appointment booking: settings: time zone, reminders and deadlines for all appointment types.
• Users: working hours per agent and the self-service permission.
• Departments: members of a pool appointment type.
• AI features: required for “Copy & translate with AI”.