Overlaps and processing time
Two clients in one slot on purpose — the setting that allows it, the confirm that stops it being an accident, and how to find the time a colour frees up.
3 min readUpdated August 16, 2026Managers
A full head of colour is booked for two hours. For forty-five minutes of it the colour is developing, the client is reading a magazine, and the stylist is standing about. Whether you can sell that time is a decision your salon makes, not one the software should make for you.
Allowing overlaps
Out of the box, two appointments cannot occupy the same stylist at the same time. Turn Allow double-booking on in Settings → Calendar and they can — but only when someone says so out loud, every single time.
With it on, booking or dragging an appointment onto an occupied slot brings up Double-book this slot?, naming what it overlaps and offering Book anyway or Cancel. With it off, the same action is refused, and you're shown the nearest times that would actually work instead of a dead end.
Editing a booked visit behaves the same way. Add a service that no longer fits and the panel says That doesn't fit — it runs into the next booking, then offers you the honest choices: keep it double-booked, move the visit, or book the added service as its own appointment another time.
Working hours are a warning, not a wall
Dropping an appointment outside a stylist's working hours is allowed. You'll see it flagged as you drag, and it books. This is on purpose: someone staying an extra half hour on a Friday is a normal salon evening, and software that refuses is software you end up working around.
Processing time
Processing time is set on the service, not on the appointment, and it lives inside the duration rather than adding to it. Forty-five minutes of processing on a two-hour colour means that of those two hours, forty-five are the stretch where the colour is developing.
What it does not do is release the chair. The appointment holds its full two-hour window on the grid, drawn as one solid block, and nothing goes into the middle of it unless a person puts it there. That's the right default — the alternative is a diary that quietly sells the same stylist twice.
What recording it buys you is that the calendar can find those windows.
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Open Assist in the calendar toolbar.
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Press Fill gaps. It scans the day when you open it — nothing runs in the background.
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Read the list. Each row is a stylist, how many minutes they're free, and the exact window: Nora Feld · free ~45 min.
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Check who'd fit. Where someone on your waitlist matches the window, they are named on the row, with what they asked for.
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Book it yourself. From the grid or the waitlist — this tool tells you the gap is there, it doesn't fill it.
If nothing on the day has a fillable window, it says so rather than offering you a stretch too short to sell.
Common questions
Where do I turn double-booking on?
Settings → Calendar. It's the first card on the page, and it applies to the whole salon rather than to one stylist.
With it on, can someone double-book by accident?
No. It never happens silently — booking or moving onto an occupied slot always asks first, and the appointment is only written once you say yes.
Can I double-book over a lunch break?
No. Blocked time is blocked whatever this setting says. That's the one hard wall on the calendar, and it's the reason blocking time is worth doing properly.
Does processing time free the chair up automatically?
No. The appointment holds its whole window on the grid either way. Processing time describes the shape of the visit so that Fill gaps can find it; putting someone into that stretch is still a decision you make.
Where do I set processing time?
On the service, under Timing — see How long a service takes. It sits inside the duration you already set rather than adding to it.
Someone's second appointment is off the grid's working hours.
That's allowed. Booking outside a stylist's hours warns you and books anyway, because a stylist staying late for one client is a real thing that happens.
Related articles
- How long a service takesServices · The catalogue duration is a starting point, not a rule — every service line can be retimed for the client in the chair, in one press.
- Fill a gap in the dayCalendar · Someone cancels at two o'clock. The waitlist is the list of people who already said yes — and the calendar offers it to you the moment the slot opens.
- Change what a visit includesCalendar · The client is in front of you and they want something else — colour after the cut, eyebrows before it, a different stylist for the second half. Change the visit from the calendar and the time, the bill and the record all follow.
Can’t find what you’re looking for?
Book a 20-minute walkthrough and we’ll answer it on a screen share — or start free and try it on your own salon’s data.