Using Your Calendar to Plan Ahead

October 01, 2021

Practice Better has a bevy of features that work hand in hand to allow you to organize your schedule all in one place. Our comprehensive calendar features allow you to outline and review your schedule months in advance to easily stay on top of anything that may come up. You can even create Out-of-Office notifications and chat autoresponders to keep clients up to date.

Practice Better’s calendars allow you to view your sessions, personal events, and availability over a daily, weekly, and monthly time period. This will help you easily forecast and outline your schedule for the coming weeks and months. If you are part of a practice that has multiple practitioners you can even get an idea of your team member’s schedules as well.

View of Calendar “Week” from the practitioner portal.

Practice Better’s calendar can also display different types of booked sessions based on the color of your services. The light green shade on the calendar displays your set availability so that you can easily determine when you have available time to book clients, override your own availability, or block time off at a glance.

You also have the ability to customize your calendar view by personalizing your Display Options. You can choose what your calendar displays to be sure you are only seeing the information that is most relevant to you.

Customizable display options located in the My Calendar section.

For example, if you have your Google calendar linked to Practice Better, you can choose to display your personal events within the Practice Better calendar by enabling the External calendar setting. External calendar events will automatically block off your availability if the events are marked as “Busy.” This calendar integration also includes the option of syncing your Practice Better sessions and events back to your Google calendar.

To learn more about integrating your Google Calendar to Practice Better, click here.

A clear and comprehensive view of your calendar will also help you make more informed decisions when it comes to taking time off. With our Out-of-Office Notifications feature, you can make sure your clients don’t request sessions for the periods you’ll be away.

Practice Better allows you to configure up to 5 Out-of-Office periods. You can also include an optional note to provide your clients with a brief courtesy message or emergency contact information. Clients will see a banner at the top of their Client portal during an Out-of-Office period so that you don’t need to message each client individually. The Out-of-Office notification will also automatically block your availability so clients will not be able to book sessions during that time period.

View of an Out-of-Office notification from the Client Portal.

You can learn more about the Out-of-Office notifications here.

If there are shorter periods of time that you will be unavailable, you can add a personal event to block off availability during that time period. Personal events grant you the ability to easily add a one-time or recurring event directly within your Practice Better calendar to block off time. This feature is useful for impromptu, one-off events or even recurring weekly meetings.

Add custom personal events to block off your availability.

To learn more about blocking time off on your calendar, click here.

When you are away from your practice, you can use our chat Autoresponder feature. Autoresponders allow you to send an automated reply to any direct messages from clients. You can add a custom autoresponder message for your clients and add up to 5 autoresponder periods. Your customized autoresponder message will display to any client that messages you during this period.

An example of an autoresponder message from the Client Portal.

To learn more about setting up an Autoresponder, click here.

With the various features that work in unison with your calendar, you can organize your schedule and time away all in one place. The Practice Better calendar has the tools to keep your practice running smoothly whether you’re planning months in advance or making last-minute changes.


Practice Better is the complete practice management platform for nutritionists, dietitians, and wellness professionals. Streamline your practice and begin your 14-day free trial today.

Keep Exploring

Woman using phone in front of laptop, writing a Google review

The Path to More Bookings is Paved with Automated Google Reviews 

Published September 13, 2024

Woman waving at computer using AI Charting Assistant to help her take notes.

Take Better Client Notes with AI Charting Assistant

Published August 22, 2024

A woman in headphones working at her computer, using Practice Better's Food and Mood Journal

Tracking Client Progress with a Food & Mood Journal

Published August 14, 2024