Booking buffer

A booking buffer is padding added before or after an appointment that stays blocked on the calendar. It gives a shop time to clean down, reset a station, and take payment without the next client's slot starting early.

Also called: buffer time, turnaround time, gap between appointments

Buffers are the difference between a schedule that works on paper and one that works in the room. A 30-minute cut that really takes 40 by the time the chair is swept will run late by mid-morning and be an hour behind by close.

The practical approach is to set the service duration to the time in the chair and the buffer to everything around it. Clients see an honest finish time, and the calendar stops promising slots the shop cannot serve.

In Booked, buffers are set per service and are included when availability is calculated, so a buffered appointment blocks the following slot automatically.