Suggested times and overbooking hints
How the booking form picks its suggested times, what the ◆ mark means, and why neither ever stops you booking what you want.
When you book an appointment, the form does two extra things to help: it suggests the best open times, and it flags a slot where a second booking is reasonable. Both are advice only — you can always pick any open slot.
Suggested times
Once you've chosen a branch, provider and day, a box called Suggested times shows up to three slots, each with a reason.
How they're chosen
Only slots that are completely free are considered — a slot that already has a booking is never suggested. Free slots are then scored:
| Reason | Points | What you'll read |
|---|---|---|
| The slot starts right when another booking ends, or ends right when another begins — it closes a gap | 2 | "Fits right next to another booking, leaving no gap" |
| The slot is within an hour of the time this patient usually comes | 1 | "Around the time this patient usually comes" |
Ties go to the slot closest to the patient's usual time, and then to the earliest. If nothing scores, the earliest free slot is still offered, labelled "Earliest open slot".
Why "no gap" matters: a provider's day with a lone booking at 10:00 and another at 11:30 has an awkward hour in between. Filling around existing bookings keeps free time in one useful block instead of scattering it.
The patient's usual time
A patient's usual time of day is worked out from their last ten completed or missed visits — the middle value of the times they came. It needs at least two past visits before it counts as a pattern. A new patient simply gets the other reasons. It only looks at appointments at branches you can see.
Next available
If the day you picked has no free slot — or the provider isn't working — the form looks up to 14 days ahead for the first day that does, and offers a button: Next available: Tue 22 Sep from 9:00 AM — go there.
Overbooking hints (◆)
Overlapping appointments are allowed in BusinessCopilot — some providers really do see two patients at once. When you pick a slot that already has a booking, the form warns you but lets you book it.
Sometimes a second booking in the same slot is a sensible thing to do, because the first patient probably won't turn up. In that case the slot shows a ◆, and selecting it shows: "The booking here is high no-show risk and still unconfirmed, so a second booking in this slot is reasonable."
The hint appears only when all of these are true
- Exactly one appointment overlaps the slot — never two or more.
- That appointment is still unconfirmed (Scheduled, not Confirmed).
- That appointment's no-show risk is High.
What it never does
- It never suggests a triple booking — with two bookings already there, there's no hint.
- It never books anything for you.
- It never blocks you, and the normal overlap warning ("The provider already has 1 appointment(s) overlapping this time. You can still book it.") is still shown.
- It disappears the moment the first patient confirms, because they're no longer likely to miss it.
Should you use it?
It's your call. Use it if your provider comfortably handles two patients at once and you'd rather not waste a slot. Skip it if the visit needs the provider's full attention — for instance a 60-minute medication review.
On the mobile app
The same Suggested times box, ◆ marker (shown after the time) and Next available button appear on the booking screen.