Need 1-minute increments for Service Duration for my business appointments

[santamax88]

I need to set up Santa Claus appointments every 7 minutes. However, the only Duration option is every 5 minutes. Can you help me with this?
Thanks,
Mrs. Claus (Marge Maxwell)

[Bryan-Square]

Certainly! As you mentioned the Square Bookings API only allows you to set durations in 5-minute increments, you can still do 7-minute intervals by creatively managing your scheduling logic. Here’s one approach to set up Santa Claus appointments every 7 minutes:

Step 1: Set Up the Service

1. Create a Service: First, create a service with the nearest possible duration, which would be 5 minutes.
2. Buffer Time: Add buffer time to approximate the 7-minute interval. For example, you can add 2 minutes of buffer time to each 5-minute appointment.

Step 2: Manage Scheduling Logic

Since the Square API won’t inherently support 7-minute intervals, you’ll need to handle this logic on your server or client-side application. Here’s a high-level approach:

1. Track Appointment Times: Maintain a list of appointment start times.
2. Check Availability: When a new appointment is requested, check if the desired start time is available (i.e., 7 minutes after the last booked appointment).

Step 3: Code Example

Here’s a pseudo-code example to illustrate the logic:

import datetime

# Initialize the first available time
start_time = datetime.datetime(2023, 12, 24, 9, 0)  # Example: 9:00 AM on Dec 24, 2023

# List to keep track of booked appointments
appointments = []

def book_appointment():
    global start_time

    # Calculate the next available time
    next_available_time = start_time + datetime.timedelta(minutes=7)

    # Add the appointment
    appointments.append(start_time)

    # Update the start time for the next appointment
    start_time = next_available_time

    # Return the booked appointment time
    return start_time

# Example: Book 3 appointments
for _ in range(3):
    print("Booked appointment at:", book_appointment().time())

# Output:
# Booked appointment at: 09:07:00
# Booked appointment at: 09:14:00
# Booked appointment at: 09:21:00

Step 4: Integrate with Square Bookings API

When creating appointments via the Square API, use the start_at parameter to specify the exact time for each appointment.

import requests
import json

def create_square_appointment(start_time):
    url = "https://connect.squareup.com/v2/bookings"
    headers = {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN",
        "Content-Type": "application/json"
    }
    payload = {
        "start_at": start_time.isoformat(),
        "location_id": "YOUR_LOCATION_ID",
        "customer_id": "CUSTOMER_ID",
        "service_variation_id": "SERVICE_VARIATION_ID",
        "team_member_id": "TEAM_MEMBER_ID"
    }
    response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, data=json.dumps(payload))
    return response.json()

# Example: Book an appointment at the next available time
next_appointment_time = book_appointment()
response = create_square_appointment(next_appointment_time)
print(response)

Managing the appointment times in your application and using the Square API to create appointments at those times, you can effectively schedule Santa Claus appointments every 7 minutes. This will at least ensures that you stay within the constraints of the Square Bookings API while fulfilling your scheduling requirements.

[santamax88]

Thank you so much for your reply!

• It does sound like the easiest option would be to add buffer time or “Block extra time after appointment” for 2 minutes. However, the only option that I see is also in 5-minute increments. Is there any way that 1-minute increments could be added to my account for that?
• Is there a way to add an internal field in the customer profile? I need a space to put the picture link for each family in their profile.

I would love to use the Square Appointments for our Santa business. We serve around 2000 families (by appointment only) in November and December. I love your texting features with your program.

Thanks again for your quick response!

Marge (Mrs. Claus)

[Bryan-Square]

At this time one minute increments isn’t currently available with the Bookings API.

[santamax88]

Hi! You mention above that we can create a service for 5 minutes, and then add a 2 minute buffer at the end, but the option for the service itself as well as the buffer time is in increments of 5. Thus, this solution doesn’t work as far as I can tell:

Step 1: Set Up the Service

1. Create a Service: First, create a service with the nearest possible duration, which would be 5 minutes.
2. Buffer Time: Add buffer time to approximate the 7-minute interval. For example, you can add 2 minutes of buffer time to each 5-minute appointment.

Can you tell me where I can add the 2 minute before time since it is not available on the service options??

[santamax88]

[santamax88]

[Bryan-Square]

Those screenshots are from our 1st party offering. Are you not building a custom application that uses our APIs?

[santamax88]

We are using a wordpress site and truly would just like the most simple application for this if possible.

[Bryan-Square]

Okay, so since WordPress built the integration your using additional customization like a 2 minute buffer would have to be built by WordPress. If you were building your own application you could apply this however since your using a partner application feature are limited to what they offer and expose within the integration.