A branch time slot is a recurring window at one branch — for example 10:00 to 11:00 — with a number of places for each day of the week, and it is what the booking wizard offers when someone books a product demo or a service appointment at that branch. You set slots up once per branch, after the branch exists and before staff start booking. Each day a slot is booked, xMatix keeps a Branch Time Slot Booking record that counts how many places that date has used.
Overview
A slot answers three questions for the booking screens:
- Which branch and which kind of booking. Every slot belongs to one branch and has a Transaction Type: Product Demo At Site, Service Appointment or Delivery.
- When. A Start Time and an End Time. A slot repeats every day it has capacity for. There are no dated slots: one slot record covers every week.
- How many. A Monday Capacity through Sunday Capacity, plus a Maximum Capacity. A weekday whose capacity is 0 is closed on that day.
Slots can also be narrowed to one item or one item group, and to a Service Type and Service Job Type, so that, for example, a "Warranty repair" slot is offered only for warranty work.
Branch time slots are the capacity behind the Booking Wizard (the New Booking dialog) on the web and in the mobile app. They are separate from the newer appointment-scheduling engine, which uses slot templates and bookable resources and is described in Scheduling appointments.
When to use it
Create branch time slots when a branch takes bookings that must fit its capacity: product demonstrations at a showroom, service appointments at a workshop, or delivery windows offered by an online store. If a branch takes no bookings, it needs no slots.
How xMatix handles it
- Where slots live. Slots are kept on the branch. Open the branch and look at the Branch Time Slots list on its Storage Locations tab, below the storage locations. Slots are not on any app menu of their own.
- Which slots the wizard offers. The wizard lists the slots of the chosen branch that are Active and whose Transaction Type matches the booking. Unless the wizard has been set up with its own transaction type, a Sales Branch gets Product Demo At Site slots and a Service Branch gets Service Appointment slots. A slot narrowed to an item or item group is offered only when the record being booked is for that item or an item in that group. A record with no item sees only slots that are not narrowed. A slot with a Service Type is offered only for that service type.
- Places left on a date. For the date picked, the wizard starts from that date's booking record if one exists, otherwise from the slot's capacity for that weekday, and subtracts the places already used. Dates in the past, closed weekdays and branch holidays are shown as Past, Closed or with the holiday's name, and cannot be picked.
- Taking a place. A place is taken when a confirmed product demo (the record the wizard creates) is saved. xMatix checks the slot again on save, takes one place on that date's booking record — creating it the first time the date is booked — and copies the slot's start time onto the demo. A full date is refused on save, so two people cannot both take the last place.
- Giving a place back. Cancelling the demo, moving it to another slot or date, or deleting it gives the place back. Moving takes a place on the new slot in the same save.
- Capacity is fixed per date once booked. The first booking on a date copies that weekday's capacity onto the date's booking record. Later changes to the slot's weekday capacities do not change dates that already have a booking record.
Prerequisites
- The branch must exist and be active. See Branches.
- The organization must use branches. When We operate from multiple locations is off, branch time slots are hidden everywhere (see Configuration).
- Create and edit access to Branch Time Slot in your security profile.
- To narrow a slot to an item group, the item group must exist and have its members.
Procedure
Step 1 — Open the branch
Open the app launcher, choose the Platform app and select Branches. Open the branch that takes the bookings and select its Storage Locations tab. The Branch Time Slots list is below the storage locations list.
Step 2 — Create a slot
In the Branch Time Slots list, select New. The form opens with Branch already set to this branch.
- Enter a Name that people will recognise, such as Morning 10–11. The name appears in booking messages and in the name of each date's booking record.
- Check Branch.
- Choose the Transaction Type: Product Demo At Site for demos at a sales branch, Service Appointment for service bookings, Delivery for online-store delivery windows.
- Turn on Active. A slot that was never switched on is not offered and is refused on booking.
On the Details tab:
- Leave Applicable To Item and Applicable To Item Group empty for a slot every item may use, or fill one of them to keep the slot for that item or group. You cannot fill both.
- Optionally choose a Service Type (Accidental Repairs, Item, PDI, Paid Repairs or Warranty Repair) and a Service Job Type.
- Set Start Time and End Time. The end must be later than the start.
On the Capacity tab:
- Enter a Maximum Capacity greater than 0. It is required in practice: a slot with 0 is refused on save.
- Enter the number of places for each weekday, Sunday Capacity through Saturday Capacity. A weekday you leave empty is saved as 0, which closes the slot on that day — enter a number for every day the branch takes bookings.
Select Save. The slot's record page opens.
Step 3 — Check the slot
The record page header shows Start Time, End Time, Transaction Type and Maximum Capacity. The Details tab has three sections — Key Information, Product Applicability, Service Applicability — and Capacity. The Related tab lists the slot's booking records, one per booked date, with the capacity and the places used.
Repeat Step 2 for every window the branch offers. Two slots at the same time are allowed, for example one for warranty work and one for paid repairs.
Step 4 — Change or close a slot
Select Edit in the page header, or use the pencil on a field, change the values and save.
- To stop offering a slot, turn Active off. Existing bookings keep their place. A booking that is later edited and saved again is refused with "The selected time slot is inactive.", so move those bookings to another slot first.
- To close one weekday, set that day's capacity to 0.
- A changed weekday capacity applies to dates that have not been booked yet. A date that already has a booking record keeps its capacity: open that booking record from the Related tab and change its Capacity to change that one date.
To remove a slot, select Delete on its record page. Prefer turning it off: bookings point to the slot.
Step 5 — See what has been booked
Open the slot and select Related. Each row is one date: Booking Date, Capacity and Capacity Utilized. Booking records are created and counted by the bookings themselves; you only need to edit one to change the capacity for a single date.
Fields
Branch Time Slot
| Field | What it means | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Name | The slot's name. | Shown in the wizard and in refusal messages such as "The time slot 'Morning 10–11' is fully booked on 21-Oct-2026." |
| Branch | The branch that offers the slot. | Filled from the branch when you create the slot from its record page. A booking must be for the same branch. |
| Transaction Type | Which kind of booking may use the slot. | Delivery, Product Demo At Site or Service Appointment. The wizard matches it exactly. |
| Active | Whether the slot is offered. | Must be turned on. Empty and off both mean the slot is not bookable. |
| Applicable To Item | Keeps the slot for one item. | Optional. Cannot be combined with Applicable To Item Group. |
| Applicable To Item Group | Keeps the slot for the items in one group. | Optional. Cannot be combined with Applicable To Item. |
| Service Type | Keeps the slot for one service type. | Accidental Repairs, Item, PDI, Paid Repairs or Warranty Repair. Empty means any service type. |
| Service Job Type | Keeps the slot for one service job type. | No values are shipped; an administrator adds them to the picklist. The wizard copies it from the slot onto the booking. |
| Start Time | When the slot begins. | Copied onto the demo as its time when it is booked. |
| End Time | When the slot ends. | Must be later than Start Time. |
| Maximum Capacity | The slot's overall number of places. | Must be greater than 0. Used for a weekday only when that weekday's capacity has no value, which the form does not normally allow. |
| Monday Capacity … Sunday Capacity | Places available on that weekday. | Default 0. A day with 0 is closed. |
Branch Time Slot Booking
| Field | What it means | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Name | The booking record's name. | Set by the system as the slot name and the date when the first booking on that date is made. |
| Branch Time Slot | The slot this date belongs to. | — |
| Booking Date | The date being counted. | One record per slot per date. |
| Capacity | Places available on this date. | Copied from the slot's weekday capacity on the first booking. Edit it to change one date only. |
| Capacity Utilized | Places taken on this date. | Goes up by one for each confirmed demo and down by one when it is cancelled, moved or deleted. Never goes below 0. |
Business rules
- Item or group, not both. A slot with both Applicable To Item and Applicable To Item Group is refused with "Either Item or Item Group must be specified." The message means only one of them; clear one field.
- Capacity above zero. Maximum Capacity of 0 or less is refused with "Maximum Capacity cannot be Zero or Negative".
- End after start. An End Time that is not later than Start Time is refused with "To Duration Cannot be less than From Duration".
- Checks when a demo is booked. Saving a confirmed, not-cancelled demo with a slot checks, in order: the slot exists, it belongs to the demo's branch, it is active, the service type and service job type match the slot's (when the slot has them), and the date has room. A date whose capacity is 0 is refused with "The time slot '…' is not available on …. Please pick another slot or date."; a full date with "The time slot '…' is fully booked on …. Please pick another slot or date."
- What is not checked on save. The transaction type, branch holidays and past dates are applied by the wizard only, not on save.
- Unconfirmed demos hold nothing. A demo that is saved without being confirmed, or is cancelled, takes no place.
- Delivery windows. For an online store, only active Delivery slots with no item or item group are offered, and full or closed windows are left out. The list covers seven days by default and never more than fourteen. When a checkout carries a chosen window, its place is taken when payment starts and given back if the payment never completes or the cart expires.
Example
A showroom branch, Lakeside Showroom, runs demonstrations in two morning windows and does not open on Sunday.
- The administrator opens the branch, selects Storage Locations, and under Branch Time Slots selects New.
- They enter Name Demo 10–11, Transaction Type Product Demo At Site, turn on Active, set Start Time 10:00 and End Time 11:00.
- On Capacity they enter Maximum Capacity 3, Monday to Friday 3, Saturday 2 and Sunday 0, and save.
- They create Demo 11–12 the same way.
A salesperson books a demo for Tuesday in Demo 10–11. The Tuesday booking record is created with Capacity 3 and Capacity Utilized 1. After two more Tuesday bookings, the wizard shows the slot as Fully Booked for that Tuesday, and a fourth save would be refused. When one customer cancels, Capacity Utilized drops to 2 and the place is offered again. Sunday shows as Closed.
Training
Practice exercise
In a sandbox, open a branch of type Sales Branch and create a slot Practice 15–16 with Transaction Type Product Demo At Site, Active on, 15:00 to 16:00, Maximum Capacity 1 and a capacity of 1 for every weekday. Book a demo into it for tomorrow from an opportunity, then try to book a second demo into the same slot and date.
Expected result: the slot's Related tab shows one booking record for tomorrow with Capacity 1 and Capacity Utilized 1, and the wizard shows the slot as fully booked for the second booking. Cancel the first demo and check that Capacity Utilized returns to 0.
Quick reference
- Slots are on the branch's Storage Locations tab, under Branch Time Slots.
- Always turn Active on.
- Enter a capacity for every open weekday; empty means 0, which means closed.
- Maximum Capacity must be above 0.
- Fill Applicable To Item or Applicable To Item Group, never both.
- Sales branches book Product Demo At Site slots; service branches book Service Appointment slots.
- Only confirmed demos take a place; cancelling gives it back.
- To change one date's capacity, edit that date's booking record.
Permissions
Slots and their booking records follow the normal entity access in security profiles: read access to see them, create and edit access to set them up, delete access to remove them. The shipped Standard User, Sales, Sales Executive, Sales Manager, Service and System Admin profiles have full access to both.
People who book need create access to the record the wizard creates (the product demo). They do not need to edit booking records themselves: the place is taken by the save of the demo.
Configuration
- Branches on or off. Setup → Feature Hub → Administration → Org Settings, Organisation shape, switch We operate from multiple locations. When it is off, branch time slots, booking records and the slot fields on documents are hidden. Slot bookings cannot work without branches.
- Transaction Type and Service Type values. The values listed under Fields are shipped. Service Job Type has no shipped values; add them to the field's picklist in Design Studio before using it. The wizard matches transaction types by exact value, so do not rename the shipped values.
- Which transaction type a wizard books. The Booking Wizard on a page can be given its own transaction type in the layout designer. When it is not set, the branch's type decides (Sales Branch → Product Demo At Site, Service Branch → Service Appointment).
- Holidays. The wizard closes a date when a Holiday record names the branch, names the branch's company without a branch, or names neither. A holiday of type Restricted does not close the branch. A holiday linked only to business hours is an SLA calendar entry and does not close the branch.
- Delivery windows for online stores. Create Delivery slots, with no item or item group, on the branch that delivers the orders. See Partner microsites.
Common problems
The wizard says "No bookable time slots for this branch" and that slots are not marked Active
The branch has slots but none has Active on. Open each slot, turn Active on and save.
The wizard says "No time slots configured for this branch with transaction type …"
The branch has no slot with the transaction type the wizard is looking for. Check the branch's Branch Type (sales branches look for Product Demo At Site, service branches for Service Appointment) and the slots' Transaction Type.
A slot shows Closed on every day
Its weekday capacities are 0. Enter a number for each weekday the branch takes bookings and save. Dates that already have a booking record keep their old capacity; edit those records if needed.
"The time slot '…' is fully booked on …"
Every place on that date is taken. Pick another slot or date, or raise Capacity on that date's booking record.
"The selected time slot is inactive."
The slot was turned off, or Active was never turned on. Turn it on, or move the booking to another slot.
"The time slot does not belong to the specified branch."
The booking's branch is not the slot's branch, usually after the branch on the record was changed. Pick a slot of the booking's branch.
"The service type does not match the time slot's required service type."
The slot is kept for one service type and the booking has another. Choose a slot without a service type, or one for the booking's service type.
"Either Item or Item Group must be specified."
Both Applicable To Item and Applicable To Item Group are filled. Clear one of them.
A slot for one item is never offered
The record being booked has no item, or a different item. A slot narrowed to an item or item group is offered only for that item or the items in that group.
Common questions
What happens to existing bookings when I change a slot's capacity?
Nothing. The capacity for a date is copied onto that date's booking record the first time the date is booked, and from then on that record decides. New capacities apply to dates that have no booking yet. To change a date that already has bookings, open the slot's Related tab, open that date's booking record and change Capacity. Lowering it below Capacity Utilized does not cancel anything; it only stops new bookings on that date.
Can two people book the last place at the same time?
No. The wizard shows the places left, but the check that counts is made when the demo is saved, and a save that would exceed the date's capacity is refused with "is fully booked". The person who saves second sees that message and picks another slot or date.
Do the slots know about the branch's business hours?
No. Slot times are what you enter on the slot. The wizard closes dates using Holiday records, past dates and weekday capacities of 0. The branch's business hours are not read when offering slots.
Are branch time slots the same as appointment slots?
No. Branch time slots are the capacity behind the Booking Wizard for product demos and service appointments, and behind online-store delivery windows. Appointment slots belong to the separate appointment-scheduling engine, which generates dated slots from templates and claims bookable resources. See Scheduling appointments and Resource availability.