Siebel Field Service Guide > Setting Up and Using Scheduling > Booking Activity Appointments (End User) >

Booking Appointments from the Activities Screen

This task is a step of Process of Scheduling Activities.

The Activities screen's Schedule view provides the Book Appointment and Cancel Appointment buttons for running the ABS and Optimizer interactively. See Canceling Appointments for more information about canceling a booked appointment.

To book appointments from the Activities screen

1. Navigate to the Activities screen > Activity List > Schedule view.
2. Select an activity record in the Service Activities list.
3. Click the Book Appointment button.

   Clicking this button sends a synchronous request to the ABS for time slots in which to book the selected activity. The available appointments are returned in a dialog box.

   NOTE:  If you do not specify Earliest Start or Latest Start times for the activity, the ABS - Days to Start and ABS - Days to End parameter values, as well as the schedule for the service region, are used. For example, if today is March 16th and the ABS - Days to End parameter is set to 1 and the service region opening hour is 8 A.M., the assumed earliest start is 8 A.M. on March 17th. Unless the service region is extremely full, the value of the ABS - Days to End parameter does not apply.
   
   You should also note that the activity does not need to end before the Latest Start time—it must simply start before that time.

4. Using the dialog box, select and confirm an appointment or cancel if none are appropriate.
   • To confirm an appointment, select an appropriate record and click Confirm.

     Clicking this button in the Book Appointment dialog box sends a server request to confirm the selected appointment and release the lock on the remaining slots.

   • If you do not want to select any of the available appointments, click Cancel.

     Clicking this button in the Book Appointment dialog box sends a server request to reject all proposed appointment slots and to release the lock on these slots.

TIP:   There is no need to cancel an activity before rebooking it for another time. Instead, you can simply click the Book Appointment button. When you confirm a time slot, the old time slot is automatically released within the ABS. The Cancel Appointment button is used when you want to cancel an appointment and not rebook it.