Configurations for the New Staff Calendar Framework

This topic provides the prerequisite configurations to work with the new Staff Calendar framework.

1. Configure the Staff Calendar Settings in the Default Configuration Page

2. Configure User Location

3. Configure Office Hours Record

4. Associate a Department with the User

5. Configure the Appointment Types Duration

6. Configure the Buffer Time for Appointments

7. Configure the Auto-accept Appointment Option

Configure the Staff Calendar Settings in the Default Configuration Page

In the Default Configuration page, configure the following fields in the Staff Calendar tab:

• New Staff Calendar Framework - Set this field to Yes.

  Note

  • This field is set to Yes by default for all the fresh installation of Anthology Reach Reach 2024.3 and later. Existing Reach customers who are upgrading to Reach 2024.3 or later are required to transition to the new staff calendar framework for a better user experience and to take advantage of ongoing product investments.

  • When this flag is set to No, the appointment slots will continue to be displayed in the previous format based on the existing appointment duration. For information about the old staff calendar framework configuration, see Configurations for the Old Staff Calendar Framework.

• Advance Booking Duration (Days) - From the current date, available booking slots will be displayed for a count of days that is configured in the Advance Booking Duration (Days) field. The Book Appointment link will not be displayed in Anthology Reach and on the portal beyond the count of selected days.

• Booking Restriction Duration (Hours) - It is t he minimum number of hours required before a new appointment can be scheduled. The typed value will prevent students from booking appointments on the portal if the slot occurs within the number of hours from the current time. For example, it's 9 AM now, and a student want to book an appointment for 2 PM. Even though the slot is available, the student will not be able to book the appointment because the value 8 is typed in the Booking Restriction Duration field, which means the earliest appointment can be booked at 5 PM.

• Default Delivery Mode - The value selected in this field will be populated as the default value in the Delivery Mode field while creating an appointment record in Reach and on Portal. The Default Delivery Mode field has the following values:

  • In-person

  • Virtual

  On the portal, when a student creates an appointment through the Success Network page, the default value in the Delivery Mode field will be set based on the user location(s) configured for the Student Advisor as follows:

  • When both Virtual and In-person user locations are configured for the Student Advisor associated with the student in the Success Network, the Delivery Mode field will populate the value selected in the Default Delivery Mode field in the Default Configuration page.

  • When only one user location is configured for the Student Advisor associated with the student in the Success Network, the Delivery Mode will populate the user location configured for the Student Advisor.

    The following table illustrates the above scenario.

    Advisors in Reach	User Locations for the Advisors	Default Delivery Mode Configuration	Default Value in the Delivery Mode Field
    Advisor 1	Virtual, In-person	In-person	In-person
    Advisor 2	Virtual	In-person	Virtual

    Note: While a student is creating an appointment on the portal, if the Reach administrator changes the value for the Default Delivery Mode field, the updated value for the Default Delivery Mode field will appear only after the portal user clears the browser cache or logs in to the portal from a new browser window.

• Check Other Calendars for Conflicts - Based on the external calendar that an institution is synced with, appointments from Google or Microsoft Outlook will be considered for hiding the advisor’s Book Appointment slots. One of the following synced calendars can be selected:

  • Google Calendar: For more information, see Google Calendar Integration.
    OR
    Outlook Calendar: For more information, see Microsoft Outlook Busy Sync Settings.

  Note: For information about troubleshooting staff calendar sync issues, see Troubleshooting Staff Calendar Sync Issues.

Note: For more information about these settings, see Default Configurations.

Configure a User Location Record

The User Location record determines whether the user's appointments will be In-Person or Virtual.

Note: While multiple user location records of type In-person can be created for a user, only a single user location record of type Virtual can be created per user.

Steps to Create a User Location Record

1. In the Reach environment, navigate to the User Location record.

2. In the Delivery Type field, select one of the following values:

   • In-Person

     When this option is selected, an account record (i.e., a venue) of type Campus must be set in the Account field. Appointments will happen (in person) with the user at this venue.

     

     Note: The time zone displayed in the Schedule Appointment page will be inherited from the primary address record associated with the account set in the user location record.
     After using a User location in an Active Office Hours, if you change the timezone of the Primary Address associated with the Account, recheck the timezone in the related office hours record and if required recreate the office hours to avoid impacting the already published availability of the staff member.

   • Virtual - When this option is selected, it implies that appointments with the user will be conducted remotely, i.e., through online meetings or on the phone. Hence, the Account field will not be displayed in the user location record.

     

     Note: For a Virtual User location, the timezone displayed in the Office Hours record defaults to the timezone of the selected staff member in the Anthology Reach application.

Configure Office Hours Record

Office Hour records determine the user's availability for the Appointment types at the associated user location. In a record, the Office Hours Type field determines when a user will be:

• Available - The duration in the workday when the advisor is available at the location.
• Unavailable - The duration in the workday when the advisor is unavailable at the location.

Steps to Create an Office Hour Record

1. Select a user location that will be associated with the Office Hour record.

2. In the Office Hours Type field, select Available or Unavailable.

3. In the Appointment Types field, select the required appointment type(s).

   Note

   • To create office hours for specific appointment types, select the desired type(s) in the Appointment Types field. For example, if you are available from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. for Career Planning sessions, select Career Planning in the Appointment Type field. You can choose one or more appointment types as needed. If an advisor should be available for all appointment types during the specified office hours, it is recommended to leave the Appointment Types field blank.

   • The ability to create and use office hours with specific appointment types is available only in TPC portal version 6.1 or later.

4. In the Start / End Date section, configure the date, time, days of the week and the timezone when the advisor will be available.

Associate a Department with the User

To publish availability in the Staff Calendar, ensure that a department is assigned to the user in the Organization Information section of the user record.

Configure the Appointment Types Duration

Each appointment type should have its duration configured in minutes, allowing the Anthology Reach system to determine the appointment length when booking and creating appointment slots.

Configuring an appointment type and its duration involves the following steps:

1. Create an Appointment Type Record

   Reach administrator needs to configure the appointment type and its duration in the Appointment Duration Settings page available under Settings > Staff Calendar area.

2. Associate Department(s) with the Appointment Type Record

   For each appointment type, Reach administrator can associate one or more Department records such that the appointment type will be available only for the users belonging to the selected Department(s).

The following table lists the default Appointment Duration Setting records that are shipped out of the box with the Reach solution:

Appointment Type	Duration
Career Planning	30
Counselling	30
Interview	30

Steps to Configure an Appointment Type Duration Record

1. In the Reach Model-driven App, go to Settings > Staff Calendar > Appointment Duration.

2. In the Appointment Duration Settings page, click New.

3. In the New Appointment Duration Settings page, specify values in the following fields:

   1. Appointment Type - Select an appointment type from the drop-down list.

   2. Duration - For the selected appointment type, select a duration for the booking the appointment.

4. Click Save.

5. In the Department section, click the Add Existing Department button.

6. In the Lookup Records page, select the required Department name(s) and click Add.

7. The Department details are added in the Department section.

Configure the Buffer Time for Appointments

Setting up buffer time allows a staff member to create a gap between consecutive appointments, preventing back-to-back scheduling. For example, a 15-minute buffer ensures that the next available slot will be 15 minutes after the previous appointment, preventing immediate back-to-back meetings.

You can set the buffer time for a user or staff member on the User Configuration page, located under the My Work sitemap in the Reach area.

Steps to Configure the Buffer Time for a Staff Member

A Staff Member in Anthology Reach can perform the following steps to configure buffer time for themselves:

1. In the Reach Model-driven App, navigate to Reach > My Work > User Configuration.

2. On the User Configuration page, perform the following steps:

   1. In the Buffer Time field, select a value (0, 15, or 30 minutes) .

   2. Click the Assign to Me button to apply the buffer time to the logged-in user.

3. Click Save.

Steps to Configure the Buffer Time for a Group of Users

1. In the Reach Model-driven App, go to Reach > My Work > User Configuration.

2. In the User Configuration page, perform the following steps:

   1. In the Buffer Time field, select a value from 0, 15, 30.

   2. In the User List field, select a User List (either static or dynamic) from the drop-down.

   3. Click the Assign to User List button to assign the buffer time to the selected group.

3. Click Save.

Configure the Auto-accept Appointment Option

The User record includes the Auto-accept Appointment option.

By default, the Auto-accept Appointment field value is set to Yes. Institutions will be required to write their own workflows to enable appointments to be automatically accepted on behalf of student counselors, staff and/or advisors.