A scheduling software is a computer program that helps multiple people, such as companies or departments in companies, to manage meetings and other types of appointments and is also essential to manage teams that work in shifts. Modern scheduling packages are more than just a calendar in which appointments and meetings are marked – they are much more complex and they offer a much wider range of functionalities in an intuitive and straightforward way. Here are some of the features that your should look for when choosing your new online appointment scheduling software package.
An Intuitive User Interface
You probably don’t want software that takes ages to become familiar with – what you need is a system that can be learned quickly by you employees, that doesn’t have hidden features that are important, but difficult or complicated to access.
Shareable Calendars and Invites that Are Easy to Send to Confirm
Key employees with busy schedules need to be able to share their calendars with others to make meeting scheduling more efficient. The process of setting up a meeting should be easy and confirming attendance should not take more than a couple of clicks either.
Tested to Prevent Overbooking
Large organizations that have and use lots of meeting rooms are constantly affected by the issue of overbooked meeting rooms. Reserving the room that is of the right size and is equipped with the right type of office equipment is essential for efficient meetings, so you need a software that is able to handle not only the reservations, but can also provide information about the level of equipment of the available rooms.
Able to Manage the Scheduling for Large Groups
You might have employees who only work the night shift or only on specific days of the weeks; you might have others who are free only in the mornings – your software needs to be to handle all that. The software also needs to be able to handle time-off requests and vacations, especially during vacation seasons, when you will have multiple co-workers off work in the same period and you need to make sure that the human resources at your disposal are still sufficient for performing the work processes as usual.
Try Various Options
For scheduling, you can try to use standard office tools, such as word processors and spreadsheets; you can try simple software solutions available for free or you can try paid software bundles each of the three solutions has pros and cons. While a properly constructed spreadsheet that is shared across your departments can serve as an excellent scheduling tool for smaller companies, if you have thousands of employees that need to be coordinated, you will need a more streamlined, dedicated solution. While the members of your office teams can easily manage their schedules via the calendars offered by email clients or they can use freely downloadable scheduling programs with limited functionality, if you run a large company, you need to try and test several dedicated software bundles to be able to choose the most suitable option.
