Shared Busy Time Visibility Across Providers
How providers can share busy blocks across PracticeRunner organizations, show them on the calendar, and decide whether they should block online scheduling.
Shared busy time visibility lets one PracticeRunner provider share only busy blocks with a provider in another organization. This is useful when a clinician works across more than one practice, supervises or consults in another setting, or wants another provider to see when they are unavailable without sharing appointment details.
Shared busy times can be shown on the recipient provider's calendar. They can also be set to block public and portal scheduling, so clients do not request times that conflict with another shared calendar.
What gets shared
PracticeRunner shares the time range only.
Shared busy blocks do not include:
- client names
- case details
- services
- locations
- notes
- billing details
- clinical information
On the calendar, shared busy blocks appear as read-only busy time. The source provider and source practice can be shown so the recipient knows where the block came from.
When to use shared busy times
Use shared busy time visibility when:
- a provider works in more than one PracticeRunner organization
- a provider has another PracticeRunner calendar that should be considered for conflicts
- a practice wants to see another provider's unavailable times without seeing private appointment details
- online scheduling should avoid another provider calendar when the recipient chooses to use those blocks for booking conflicts
This is different from sharing a full calendar. It is meant to answer a narrow scheduling question: is this provider busy at this time?
Sending an invite
The source provider starts the connection.
- Open Settings → Scheduling.
- Find Shared Busy Times.
- Enter the invited provider's email address.
- Send the invite.
PracticeRunner sends a verification link to that email address. The invited provider must sign in with that email address before they can accept the request.
Accepting a shared busy time request
When the invited provider opens the verification link, PracticeRunner asks them to accept or decline the request.
If they are not signed in, they are sent to the login page and returned to the request after signing in. If they are signed in with a different email address, they can continue back to their calendar or sign in with the invited provider email to review the request.
When accepting, the invited provider can decide whether the shared busy times should prevent online booking conflicts.
Calendar display
Accepted shared busy times can appear on the recipient provider's calendar as read-only busy blocks.
Turn on View busy blocks in calendar for a share when the recipient provider should be able to see those blocks in the calendar. When this setting is on, the calendar provider dropdown can include views for the provider's own calendar, the provider's calendar plus shared calendars, and each shared calendar by itself.
If View busy blocks in calendar is off, that share does not appear in the calendar dropdown and its busy blocks are hidden from the calendar. The share can still block online scheduling if Prevent online booking conflicts with these busy times is turned on.
The block shows:
- Busy
- the source provider's initials when available
- the source provider's name in day and agenda views
Clicking the block opens a small read-only dialog with source details, such as the source provider, source practice, time, and whether the block is used for online booking conflicts.
Online scheduling behavior
The recipient provider controls whether shared busy times block online scheduling.
If Prevent online booking conflicts with these busy times is turned on, public and portal scheduling avoid those shared busy blocks for that recipient provider.
If it is turned off, the blocks can still appear on the calendar for provider awareness, but online scheduling does not treat them as conflicts.
Changing or disconnecting a share
In Settings → Scheduling → Shared Busy Times, the recipient provider can:
- show or hide accepted shared busy times on their calendar
- turn online booking conflict blocking on or off
- disconnect the share
The source provider can revoke a sent share from the same section.