Appointment Scheduling Software

[owensdj]

Does anybody have a recommendation for some software for scheduling appointments for multiple professionals at an office? All of the appointment scheduling systems I've found so far are online/cloud-based. I was thinking of something that could run on a local network(AD domain).

 

[mikeymikec]

Do you need people to be able to see each others' calendars? Do you also need appointment details to be private when another employee looks at an employee's calendar?

I personally prefer Mozilla Sunbird but it's been discontinued. It lives on as an add-on called 'Lightning' for Mozilla Thunderbird, but I think that's simply because Mozilla has a hard-on for emulating Outlook (ie. e-mail and integrated calendar) when there's no real call for it.

With Sunbird / Lightning you can set up multiple calendars per user, network it, http/ftp it, and if you have the file system permissions correct then users can look at each others' calendars, but there's no private appointment support there.

The Microsoft solution is for you to buy Outlook + Exchange, which is not an insignificant investment. If you don't need the group calendaring support, then you can do without Exchange, which saves a fair bit and doesn't require IT support of another server-side bit of software.

 

[owensdj]

mikeymikec, yes people will need to see others' calendars. The receptionist needs to see all of the appointments in one calendar so they can see who has an available 30 minute slot at a given time. Appointment details don't need to be private, but it would be a plus to have the ability to restrict who can change/delete appointments.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Have you ever looked at teamup calendar? Even google calendar allows you to perform business functions.

https://www.teamup.com/

https://gsuite.google.com/products/calendar/

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

What's wrong with outlook?

 

[owensdj]

What's wrong with outlook?

Isn't Outlook for a single person's appointment/events? This system needs to allow a receptionist to schedule appointments for multiple people.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Isn't Outlook for a single person's appointment/events? This system needs to allow a receptionist to schedule appointments for multiple people.

It can be used to schedule for every user.

 

[owensdj]

It can be used to schedule for every user.

Does Outlook show every user in a grid for each time slot? The receptionist needs to be able to go to a time and see who has a slot open.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Does Outlook show every user in a grid for each time slot? The receptionist needs to be able to go to a time and see who has a slot open.

Yes, it does. All users/group members are shown side by side.

 

[owensdj]

Yes, it does. All users/group members are shown side by side.

That sounds interesting. Can Outlook also be set up so that multiple users on the network can access the same appointment database?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

That sounds interesting. Can Outlook also be set up so that multiple users on the network can access the same appointment database?

Yes, every user can see everyone elses schedule.

 

[mxnerd]

MS Exchange server with Outlook clients.

 

[CSMR]

I was thinking of something that could run on a local network(AD domain).

The Microsoft solution is for you to buy Outlook + Exchange, which is not an insignificant investment. If you don't need the group calendaring support, then you can do without Exchange, which saves a fair bit and doesn't require IT support of another server-side bit of software.

On-premises Exchange is a large investment, not only because you have to buy it, but more so because any on-premise solution has large setup and management costs.
The standard solution is therefore cloud based, which cuts down on both. Exchange provided with O365 costs £4/user/month, so a very small investment which is also ridiculously easy to administer.

 

[PliotronX]

One of our clients uses atlas software and I don't know if they've upgraded or tweaked newer versions but the older one relies on an Access 2000 database which does not play well with SMBv3... Just thought I'd toss it out there though!

 

[sonitravel09]

For a good online scheduling solution that has a completely free plan check out SuperSaaS, I hear they're great

 

[Kaido]

Does anybody have a recommendation for some software for scheduling appointments for multiple professionals at an office? All of the appointment scheduling systems I've found so far are online/cloud-based. I was thinking of something that could run on a local network(AD domain).

If you NEED something local, Synology has an integrated calendar server in their NAS boxes:

https://www.synology.com/en-us/dsm/feature/calendar

You can share calendars & then use CalDAV to sync up iOS, MacOS, Thunderbird, and Outlook.