I would love to see Phorest add the ability to control which services an individual staff member can be booked for during specific days, shifts, or time periods.

Currently, service availability is primarily assigned at the staff-member level. However, there are many situations where a provider may perform several services but, during a particular shift, the business needs that provider available for only one service or service category.

For example:

Thursday evenings are very busy for spray tans at my business. I may want to add another esthetician to the schedule from 4:00–8:00 PM specifically to increase our spray tan capacity.

That esthetician normally performs facials, waxing, dermaplaning, and spray tans. However, for that Thursday evening shift, I would want online booking to offer only spray tan appointments with that provider.

I do not want a facial or another longer service to be booked into that additional shift and eliminate the spray tan capacity I specifically added the provider to accommodate.

Ideally, Phorest would allow businesses to create service permissions at the shift level, for example:

Staff Member:

Thursday, 4:00–8:00 PM

Online booking services: Spray Tans Only

Same Staff Member:

Friday, 9:00 AM–5:00 PM

Online booking services: All Assigned Services

This could be accomplished through the staff roster by adding an option such as “Services Available During This Shift”, with the ability to select individual services or service categories.

This would allow businesses to strategically staff for demand, increase appointment availability for high-demand services, and prevent other services from consuming capacity that was intentionally added for a specific purpose.

It would be especially useful for salons and spas with providers who are cross-trained in multiple services and whose staffing needs change throughout the week.