Keeping your team's availability up to date

Keeping your team's availability up to date is essential for smooth scheduling. Photeria lets each team member set their working hours and connect their Google Calendar so the system knows when they're free. This guide covers how to configure availability settings.

Where to Find Availability Settings

Availability is managed from the My Profile page. Click your avatar or name in the bottom-left corner of the sidebar, then select the Schedule tab at the top of the page. You'll find two sections here: Working Hours and Google Calendar.

Setting Up Working Hours

The Working Hours card lets you define your regular weekly schedule.

How It Works

• Toggle switch - Turn a day on ("Working") or off ("Off"). Days that are off won't show any time slots for scheduling.
• Start time - The time you start accepting jobs.
• End time - The time you stop accepting jobs.

Configuring Your Schedule

1. Go to My Profile and click the Schedule tab.
2. In the Working Hours card, you'll see all seven days listed.
3. For each day:
   • Toggle the switch to mark the day as working or off.
   • If the day is working, set your start and end times using the time pickers.
4. Click Save Changes when you're done.

By default, Monday through Friday are set to 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and Saturday and Sunday are set to off. Adjust these to match your actual schedule.

Tip: The Save Changes button only becomes active when you've made changes. If it's grayed out, your current settings match what's already saved.

Connecting Google Calendar

Connecting your Google Calendar allows Photeria to check your existing calendar events when scheduling jobs. This prevents double-bookings by blocking time slots that conflict with your personal or other work commitments.

How to Connect

1. Go to My Profile and click the Schedule tab.
2. Scroll down to the Google Calendar card.
3. Click the Connect Google Calendar button.
4. You'll be redirected to Google's sign-in page. Select your Google account and grant the requested permissions.
5. After authorizing, you'll be redirected back to Photeria with a success message.

Once connected, you'll see the Google Calendar icon turn active (colored) next to your name on the Team page's Members tab.

Calendar Preferences

After connecting your Google Calendar, you'll see two configuration sections:

Block Availability From

This controls which of your Google calendars should block your scheduling availability. Toggle on any calendars whose events should prevent job scheduling. For example:

• Turn on your primary calendar so personal appointments block scheduling.
• Turn on a shared team calendar if it contains events that affect your availability.
• Leave off calendars like birthdays or holidays if those shouldn't block your work schedule.

Events on selected calendars will block scheduling availability, meaning jobs won't be scheduled during those times.

Save Jobs To

Choose which Google calendar new job appointments will be written to. Use the dropdown to select from your available calendars. Most people select their primary calendar, but you can choose any calendar in your account.

After adjusting these preferences, click Save Changes.

Refreshing Calendar Data

If your calendar list seems outdated, click the Refresh button next to Save Changes to reload your calendars from Google.

Disconnecting Google Calendar

1. Go to My Profile and click the Schedule tab.
2. In the Google Calendar card, click Disconnect.
3. Confirm the disconnection.

This removes the calendar integration. Your working hours will still apply, but Google Calendar events will no longer block your availability.

Re-authorization

Occasionally, your Google Calendar connection may need to be re-authorized (for example, if you changed your Google password or revoked permissions). If this happens, you'll see a warning message on the Schedule tab. Click the button to reconnect your account.

Service Areas

Service areas define the geographic regions where a team member works. These are configured by an administrator through the team member edit dialog, not on the profile page.

How Service Areas Affect Availability

• All Areas (default) - The team member is available for jobs in any service area.
• Specific areas - The team member is only available for jobs within their assigned areas.

To update a member's service areas:

1. Go to the Team page and click the Members tab.
2. Click the edit icon next to the team member.
3. In the Manage Team Member dialog, scroll to the Service Areas section.
4. Toggle All Areas off to select specific areas, then click on area badges to assign them.
5. Click Save Changes.

Accepting Orders Toggle

Each team member has an Accepting Orders toggle that controls whether they appear in the photographer assignment dropdown when scheduling jobs. This can be found in the Manage Team Member dialog.

• On - The member shows up as an available photographer for job assignments.
• Off - The member is hidden from the assignment dropdown. This is useful for team members who are on vacation, on leave, or who don't directly handle shoots (like office managers or editors).

How Availability Comes Together

When scheduling a job, Photeria considers multiple factors to determine a team member's availability:

1. Accepting Orders - Is the toggle enabled? If not, they won't appear as an option.
2. Working Hours - Is the job within their configured working hours for that day?
3. Google Calendar - Are there any blocking events on their watched calendars at the proposed time?
4. Service Areas - Does the job location fall within one of their assigned service areas?
5. Skills - Does the team member have the skills required for the job's services?

All of these factors work together to help you assign the right photographer to each job.