Change or Cancel an Appointment

When your program has scheduling switched on, you can move, transfer or cancel a student's appointment, or record what happened, without the student's booking link.

Nothing you change here reaches the student. TRIOPilot does not email or text them when you move or cancel an appointment. A student whose appointment moved may still come at the original time. Call or text them yourself; if they have agreed to texts, you can text from their profile (see Send a Text Message). If the advisor has connected their Outlook calendar, Outlook may also send the student an update of its own, but still tell them yourself.

Where the Buttons Are

The same controls sit on every appointment that has not been cancelled, in two places.

• Your dashboard. The Upcoming Appointments card lists your next few meetings, and each row carries the buttons. The card shows only your own upcoming appointments; an admin finds it on the Advisor Dashboard page. On a screen narrower than 768 pixels, such as a phone, the dashboard shows Next Appointments instead, without the buttons: tap an appointment to open the student's profile, then use its Appointments tab.
• A student's profile. The Appointments tab lists their upcoming and past appointments, whoever the appointment is with. Use it to change a colleague's appointment or to record what happened at a past one. The tab appears only when your program has scheduling switched on.

The buttons are Reschedule, Transfer, Mark Completed, Mark No-Show and Cancel. On a screen narrower than 1024 pixels, such as a phone or a tablet, the profile's Appointments tab puts them on their own line under the appointment, so its notes get the full width. On the profile's Appointments tab, every appointment also has Edit Notes, cancelled ones included (see Change the Staff Notes).

If you cannot see them, either your program has scheduling switched off (which also removes the Appointments tab), the appointment was Cancelled, or your role cannot change appointments. Changing appointments uses the Log Contacts permission on the Team tab of Settings: admins always have it, advisors have it unless an admin turns it off, and assistants have it only when an admin grants it.

Book an Appointment for a Student

When your program uses scheduling and your role can log contacts, you can book a time for a student from their profile.

1. Open the student's profile, choose the Appointments tab, and choose Book Appointment.
2. Pick the Appointment Type; each one shows its length. For something your types do not cover, such as a walk-in, choose Other (name it below) and type an Appointment Name.
3. Pick the advisor, who starts as the student's assigned advisor, and the Format. Every format your program has is offered, even ones students cannot book online.
4. Under Date and Time, pick a day, then an open time. The times are the advisor's posted hours in the next 30 days, in your program's time zone. To book outside them, tick Choose Any Time (see Book a Time Outside Posted Hours).
5. Add Staff Notes if they help; the student never sees them. Type @ to mention a colleague.
6. Choose Book Appointment.

TRIOPilot does not email or text the student, so tell them the time yourself. If the advisor has connected Outlook, Outlook sends the student an invitation when their record has an email address. Booking does not change who the student is assigned to, and booking on a colleague's calendar sends them nothing, so mention them in Staff Notes.

Move an Appointment to a New Time

1. Choose Reschedule on the row. The form opens on the appointment you picked. If the advisor who held it has since been archived, the Advisor box opens empty, and Move Appointment stays grayed out until you choose someone who can take it.
2. The times offered are the real free times on that advisor's calendar: their published hours, with anything already booked, blocked off, on their connected Outlook calendar or on a program day off taken out. Your program's Buffer Between Appointments and Minimum Notice apply too, so a time sooner than the minimum notice (24 hours unless an admin changed it) is not offered; use Choose Any Time for it. The list covers the next 30 days, or fewer if your program's Booking Window is shorter. Pick a day along the top, then a time.
3. Add a Reason for the Change if you want one. It is optional and it is saved on the record.
4. Choose Move Appointment.

The appointment type and the format carry over, so neither is asked again. The form shows both as plain text. The staff notes carry over to the new appointment.

The original appointment is not edited: it is cancelled, and a new appointment is created at the new time. The student's profile keeps both, the old one as Cancelled in the past list, and both appear in the activity feed. If the student booked online, the link they already have keeps working and points at the new time.

An admin can hide appointment entries from the activity feed on the Activity Feed Display card (Settings, Participants tab). They show unless an admin turns them off.

If the time is taken between opening the form and saving, nothing changes and the original appointment stays as it was. The message says why.

Move It to a Different Advisor

The Advisor dropdown in the same form is editable, so a reschedule can also hand the appointment to someone else. It offers the advisors and admins in your program who can carry a caseload, and never assistants.

Some moves are refused. The message usually names the cause:

• The new advisor does not offer that format, for example the appointment is online and they only take in person. The message says exactly that, and points you at the outside hours option if you want to book it anyway.
• The new advisor has that time blocked off. The message says that too, and tells you to pick another time or ask them to lift the block.
• The new advisor has a meeting on their Outlook calendar at that time, if they have connected it. The message says it is an Outlook meeting rather than blocked time; if they have both at that time, it names only the blocked time. Pick another time, or ask them to move the meeting.
• The program is closed that day, a holiday or a day off an admin has set. The message names the closure, and the fix is a different day, or an admin changing the program's days off in Settings under Features.
• The new advisor already has something booked at that time. The message says only that the time is no longer available. Pick another time, or ask the advisor.

Hand an Appointment to Another Advisor

On any booked appointment, choose Transfer. Pick the new advisor and confirm; the date and time stay exactly the same. You can transfer to any advisor or admin in your program, even outside their published booking hours. You will see a notice if the time falls outside those hours, or if they do not usually offer that format, so make sure they know.

You cannot transfer onto time an advisor has blocked off, onto a meeting on their connected Outlook calendar, or to someone who already has an appointment at that time; the message tells you who and why, and names which of those it was. Both advisors get a notification, though you are never notified about your own change. The student is not told automatically, so make sure they know who they are meeting. (When a student books, moves, or cancels an appointment themselves, they get an email confirmation if their record has an email address and your program has not turned off the Appointment Confirmation for the Student email on the Emails tab in Settings; changes made by staff send them nothing.)

Book a Time Outside Posted Hours

When the right time is not on the list, for example 7:00 AM that the advisor agreed to, tick Choose Any Time on the booking or reschedule form, then type a date and a time. Times are in the program's time zone, which the form names. The date can be up to 365 days ahead, and no earlier than the first day a contact can be dated, so a year typed wrong, such as 2062, is refused with a message under the date.

It books outside published hours. It also skips your program's Minimum Notice, Buffer Between Appointments and Booking Window, and the formats the advisor usually offers. It still refuses four things:

• It will not double book. If the advisor already has an appointment overlapping that time, the booking is refused outright.
• It will not book over blocked time. Blocked time means the advisor is away, so TRIOPilot refuses and tells you to pick another time or ask them to remove the block. See Manage Your Schedule.
• It will not book over a meeting on the advisor's Outlook calendar, if they connected it. The refusal says it is an Outlook meeting, not a block. See Connect Your Outlook Calendar.
• It will not book on a day the program is closed, a holiday or a day off under Days Off. The refusal names the closure; if the day should be open, an admin changes it on the Features tab in Settings.

If the picker shows nothing at all, read the sentence in the box. It says whether the advisor is not switched on for booking, which they fix on their own Schedule page, or has nothing free.

Mark What Happened

Mark Completed and Mark No-Show save straight away, with no confirmation step. They change the status on the record, which changes the label on the profile, the color on the week calendar and the activity feed entry.

What to expect:

• Only a Cancelled appointment loses its buttons. If a cancelled appointment should still happen, book a new one.
• You can change your mind after marking one. A row you have already marked keeps the other mark and Cancel: a Completed appointment offers Mark No-Show, and a No Show offers Mark Completed, so you can correct a mistake in one click. Reschedule and Transfer disappear, and so does the button for the status the row already has. Both the dashboard card and the profile's Appointments tab behave the same way.
• Marking an upcoming appointment closed does not free its time. If you mark tomorrow's meeting Completed by accident, that slot is still held against you, and there is no button that turns it back into a live booking. Cancelling it is what gives the time back, which is why Cancel stays available on an appointment you have already marked. The confirmation tells you what it will replace.
• Marking an appointment completed does not log a contact. Nothing about your APR changes. If the meeting counts as a contact, log it. See Log a Contact.

A past meeting still marked Booked needs you to record what happened. These rows stay visible in the Past list on the profile's Appointments tab. They are not on your dashboard card, which shows only upcoming appointments.

An appointment that was cancelled cannot then be marked completed. Book a new one instead of rewriting the old record.

Cancel an Appointment

Choose Cancel, and confirm on the box that appears. Keep It backs out. If the cancel does not go through, the box stays open and says why under its buttons: choose Cancel Appointment to try again, or Keep It.

• The time is freed immediately, so someone else can book it and it stops showing on the week calendar.
• Nothing is deleted. The appointment stays on the student's record as Cancelled, and the cancellation stays in their activity feed.
• The student is not told. The confirmation box says so.

What You Are Told About

Changes to appointments arrive in the notification bell, and they open the student's profile. One of them can also come by email: when a student books with you online, you get an email notice as well as the bell entry, unless an admin has turned off the Appointment Booked With Advisor email on the Emails tab in Settings. If you chose an hourly or daily digest on your account page, the notice can arrive in the digest. Everything else stays in the bell.

• A colleague cancels an appointment on your calendar, or moves one, or moves one on to your calendar or off it. The notification names who did it and the time involved.
• A student books an appointment with you online, or cancels or moves one through the link they were given when they booked.
• If your program has the student portal switched on and a student changes an appointment from there, two people are told rather than one: the advisor whose calendar the appointment sits on, and the student's assigned advisor.
• You are never notified about a change you made yourself.

Two changes notify no one. Marking an appointment completed or a no-show notifies nobody. And booking an appointment on a colleague's calendar sends them nothing, so mention them in the Staff Notes or tell them.

Change the Staff Notes

The Appointments tab on a student's profile shows each appointment's Staff Notes under its time. Long notes show two lines; choose Show More to read the rest.

1. Choose Edit Notes on the appointment.
2. Change the notes. Type @ to mention a colleague.
3. Choose Save Notes.

You can change the notes of any appointment, including a completed, no-show or cancelled one, because the notes are part of the record. Editing the notes never changes the appointment's status. A colleague you newly mention gets a notification; people already mentioned are not notified again. If someone else changed the notes while you were editing, you are asked to reload and try again, so neither change is lost. The change is in the audit log as "Edited Appointment Notes". Students never see staff notes.

Good to Know

• Every change you make is recorded. Cancelling, moving, transferring, and marking an appointment all land in the audit log with your name and the time against them, reading as "Cancelled Appointment", "Rescheduled Appointment", "Transferred Appointment", "Updated Appointment Status" or "Edited Appointment Notes". A change a student makes through the link from their booking leaves no audit log entry; the appointment record shows what happened. If your program has the student portal switched on, a change a student makes there is in the log under their name, with the role Student. See See Who Changed What.
• Staff Notes you type when you book show on that appointment's entry in the student's activity feed and on the Appointments tab, for staff. To change them later, choose Edit Notes on the appointment in the student's Appointments tab. The student portal does not show staff notes. Type @ to mention a colleague; see Mention a Colleague.
• Times use the program's time zone. Every time shown and typed is in your program's time zone, which each form names.
• Your dashboard card is personal, even for an admin. To reach an appointment that is not on your own calendar, open the student's profile and its Appointments tab. Admins can also see the whole program's week on the Schedule page, and each appointment there opens the student it belongs to.
• Scheduling is switched on by an admin in Settings, on the Features tab, along with your booking rules and your appointment types. See Set Up Appointment Scheduling, and Manage Your Schedule for posting your own hours.