Date Overrides

Your weekly schedule defines your regular, recurring availability -- the hours you are open for appointments week after week. But life is not perfectly regular. You take holidays, go on vacation, attend conferences, or occasionally need a few hours off. Date overrides let you mark specific dates or time slots as unavailable without changing your weekly schedule. They are one-time adjustments that take priority over your recurring hours for the dates they cover.

What Are Date Overrides?

A date override is a rule that says "on this specific date (or range of dates), I am not available." Overrides are designed for exceptions -- the days that do not follow your normal pattern. They give you precise control over your calendar without forcing you to constantly edit and re-edit your weekly schedule every time something comes up.

For example, if your weekly schedule says you are available on Wednesdays from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, but next Wednesday is a public holiday, you can create a date override that blocks that specific Wednesday entirely. Your regular Wednesday availability remains unchanged for every other week.

Creating a Date Override

To create a new date override:

1. Open your Leenkies dashboard and navigate to Availability in the sidebar.
2. Scroll down to the Date Overrides section below your weekly schedule and booking types.
3. Click the Add Override button to open the override creation form.

Selecting Dates: Single Day vs. Date Range

When creating an override, you first choose which dates it applies to:

• Single day -- Select one specific date from the calendar picker. Use this for individual holidays, sick days, or a single day where you need to block specific hours. For example, blocking December 25th or blocking the afternoon on a Friday before a long weekend.
• Date range -- Select a start date and an end date to block multiple consecutive days entirely. Use this for vacations, conference attendance, or any multi-day period where you are completely unavailable. For example, if you are on vacation from July 14th through July 21st, create a single date range override that covers all eight days at once rather than creating eight individual overrides. Date ranges always block the full day -- if you need to block only certain hours, use single day overrides instead.

Override Behaviors

After selecting your dates, you choose how to block your availability. For single day overrides, there are two options:

Block Entire Day

Selecting Block Entire Day (the "All Day" option) marks the selected date as completely unavailable. No time slots will be shown to customers for that day, regardless of what your weekly schedule says. This is the right choice for:

• Public holidays -- Christmas, New Year's Day, national holidays, or any day you do not work.
• Vacation days -- Block the day so no one can book while you are away.
• Sick days -- If you are unexpectedly unavailable, quickly add a block override for today.
• Personal days -- Any day you need off for any reason.

When a customer views your booking calendar during a blocked date, that date will appear as unavailable and they will not be able to select it.

Pro Tip: For multi-day absences like vacations, use a date range override instead of creating individual overrides for each day. Date ranges always block the full day automatically.

Custom Time Slots

If you do not want to block the full day, uncheck the "All Day" option to define specific time windows to block instead. You set a start time and end time for each slot you want to mark as unavailable. The rest of your day remains open for bookings according to your weekly schedule. This is the right choice for:

• Morning appointments -- If you have a personal commitment from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM on a specific Tuesday, block that window. Customers can still book from 11:00 AM onward based on your weekly schedule.
• Afternoon off -- If you need to leave early on a Friday, block 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Your morning hours stay available.
• Mid-day breaks -- If you have a long lunch meeting from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM, block that slot. Your morning and afternoon hours remain bookable.

Custom time slots are only available for single day overrides. Date range overrides always block the full day.

Overrides Take Priority Over Your Weekly Schedule

This is the most important thing to understand about date overrides: they always take priority over your weekly schedule. When the booking system calculates available time slots for a given date, it first checks whether a date override exists for that date. If one is found, the system uses the override to remove availability before showing slots to customers. If no override exists, the weekly schedule applies as normal.

This priority system means:

• If your weekly schedule says Tuesday is available 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, but a date override blocks next Tuesday entirely, customers will see no available slots for next Tuesday.
• If your weekly schedule says Tuesday is available 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, but a date override blocks 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM, customers will only see slots from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM.
• Overrides do not permanently change your weekly schedule. Once the override date has passed, your regular weekly schedule automatically resumes for future occurrences of that day.

Managing Your Overrides

All of your existing date overrides are listed in the Date Overrides section of the Availability page. Each override shows the date or date range and whether it blocks the full day or specific time slots. From this list, you can:

• View all upcoming and past overrides at a glance to understand how your calendar is customized.
• Delete an override if your plans change and you want to revert to your weekly schedule for that date. Simply click the delete action on the override you want to remove, and your weekly schedule will take effect again for those dates.

Pro Tip: At the beginning of each year (or each quarter), create date overrides for all the public holidays you plan to observe. This prevents any customer from accidentally booking on a holiday, and you will not need to remember to block each one as it approaches. A few minutes of planning saves potential scheduling headaches throughout the year.