Setting Up Exclusionary Time Slots

Exclusionary Time Slots give you precise control over your Direct Booking calendar. Use them to set recurring windows where specific appointment types, specific providers, or both should be unavailable for online booking — perfect for lunch breaks, surgery hours, or steering certain appointments to certain times of day.

Common ways clinics use them

• Protect lunch breaks across the whole team.
• Keep wellness exams in the mornings and reserve afternoons for follow-ups or surgeries. 
• Steer new-patient appointments to specific days of the week.  
• Match a provider’s rhythm — e.g., Dr. Smith sees urgent care only on Tuesday afternoons. 
• Carve out recurring meetings or training time without juggling your PIMS.
   

How to set up an Exclusionary Time Slot

1. In Flow, go to Settings → Appointments and open the Direct Booking Availability
   tab.
2. Toggle on the Exclusionary Time Slots section.

3. Click + Add New Exclusion and fill in the details:

   

   
   ◦ Exclusion rule name — a short label for your team (e.g., "Lunch — all
   providers").
   ◦ Active toggle — keep this on to apply the rule; switch off to pause.
   ◦ Appointment types — the appointment types the rule applies to.
   ◦ Providers — the providers the rule applies to.
   ◦ Days and time ranges — add the time range and select every day it should
   apply to (one range can cover multiple days).

4. Click Save.
    

Editing, pausing, or deleting a rule

Your rules live in the Exclusionary Time Slots section.

Edit: click the pencil icon, make your changes, and Save.

Pause: open the rule and switch the Active toggle off — it stays in your list, ready to
switch back on.

Delete: click the trash can icon and confirm with Yes, Delete

 

Important caveats related to exclusions:

• Holiday Hours do not impact Direct Booking Availability. If you want Otto to restrict bookings during your clinic's off-hours, then you must create exclusionary time slots that match. For more information, see Holiday (Alternate) Hours.
• Exclusionary Time Slots are not synced with Practice Management System calendar templates (e.g., Cornerstone Templates or ezyVet Planning Guides). These templates must be manually replicated as Exclusionary Time Slots in Otto.
• Exclusionary slots work best for regular, repeating patterns. Ad-hoc or irregular events may require more frequent updates.
• For clinics with highly specific booking patterns (e.g., only allow: 15 and: 45 for a certain doctor), exclusionary slots can become complex and require more frequent updates.
• Exclusionary slots are stored and calculated in UTC, but displayed in the device’s local timezone in the UI. This can be confusing if staff are in a different timezone than the clinic, etc.

Q&A

Will pet parents see my rule name?
No — rule names are just for your team.
How quickly do changes take effect?
Right away. Save the rule, and the next refresh of your booking widget or app reflects it.
Can I have multiple rules at once?
Yes — stack as many as you need. Clear names make them easy to manage.
 

Need a hand?

If you’d like help mapping out a more complex setup, please reach out to Otto Support, and we'd be happy to help.