> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.sable.salon/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Services, schedules, and availability

> How working hours, booking policies, and your service menu decide which times clients can book.

When a client opens your booking page, the times they see aren't magic.
They're the result of three things you control: your service menu, each
stylist's working hours, and your booking policies. This guide walks all
three, then shows how they combine.

## The service menu

**Services** holds the menu: each service has a category, a duration, a
price, a type (*Primary* books on its own, *Add-on* rides along), and a
visibility (*Public* shows on the booking page). Durations matter more here
than anywhere else, because the duration is how much calendar a booking
consumes. A 45-minute blowout that actually takes an hour will quietly wreck
your afternoons.

## Working hours, per stylist

Go to **Settings** → **Scheduling**. The **Working Hours** tab lists each
stylist, and for each one, every day of the week: available with a time
range, or **Unavailable**. Use **Add break** to carve out lunch or a
standing gap, and **Save changes** when the week looks right.

The **Time Off** tab handles the exceptions: vacations, appointments of your
own, the Tuesday you're just not coming in. Time off wins over working
hours, so you don't need to rewrite the week to leave town.

## Booking policies

The **Booking Policies** tab is the fine print your booking page enforces
for you:

* **Require booking approval**: new online bookings arrive as *Requested*
  and wait for your yes instead of landing straight on the calendar.
* **Allow client cancellations** and the **Cancellation window**: whether
  clients can cancel online, and how close to the appointment they're
  allowed to.
* **Buffer before appointment** and **Buffer after appointment**: breathing
  room the calendar protects around every booking. Cleanup, consult
  overruns, honesty about turnaround.
* **Slot interval**: how often start times are offered. Every 15 minutes
  feels flexible; every hour keeps the day tidy.
* **Minimum lead time** and **Maximum lead time**: how soon is too soon
  (no more 6 AM bookings for 9 AM) and how far out clients can plan.

## How a bookable time is born

For each time your booking page offers, all of this had to be true:

1. The stylist is inside working hours, not on a break, and not on time off.
2. Nothing else is there: no appointment, no time block.
3. The service fits, including your buffers.
4. The time lands on your slot interval, inside the lead-time window.

## When "no times are showing"

Work the list in order; it's almost always one of these:

1. The service isn't **Public**, so the page won't offer it.
2. The stylist's working hours say **Unavailable** for the days in question.
3. Time off is covering the whole window.
4. The lead-time settings are stricter than you remember. A two-week maximum
   lead time with a fully booked fortnight offers nothing at all.

## Related

* [Publish your online booking page](/getting-started/publish-online-booking)
* [Create and manage appointments](/guides/calendar/create-and-manage-appointments)
* [Deposits, policies, and waitlist](/guides/calendar/deposits-policies-and-waitlist)

**Still stuck?** Visit the [Help Center](/help) to submit a support ticket.