We strongly recommend creating a new schedule for each new scheduling period, such as for each new semester or year. Not only does this help keep your data for each scheduling period separate, but this also makes schedule management and system management much easier. Keep in mind, too, that you shouldn't ever delete schedules, staff or resources, or other data from your system. WCONLINE is designed to hold an unlimited amount of historical data and make that data accessible for future reporting.
In brief, to set up a schedule for your upcoming semester, you’ll first want to create a new schedule in Schedule Management. Then, in Staff and Resource Management, you’ll either add new staff or duplicate existing staff onto that new schedule. Next, in Starting Availability Management, you’ll add your staff hours to the schedule. Finally, you’ll make your new schedule the default schedule and hide or archive your old schedule back in Schedule Management.
The steps below provide much more detailed and complete instructions.
Step One:
Go to Schedule Management in your Welcome menu. If you're unfamiliar with that control panel, feel free to review the extensive information in our manual or simply hover over the question mark icons next to the various options within WCONLINE itself.
If you're creating your first schedule for a given center or scheduling need, select "add new schedule" from the "Area Tools" menu. Then, fill out the resulting form. Be sure to set the new schedule's AVAILABILITY to AVAILABLE TO ADMINISTRATORS ONLY if you want to prevent clients from accessing the new schedule while you set it up.
If you're creating a schedule for a new scheduling period, select "schedule" from the "options" menu to the right of the previous schedule for that center or scheduling need. Duplicating a schedule simply creates a blank copy of an existing schedule with the options that you had in place on that previous schedule. This provides you with a quick way to set up for a new scheduling period. Once you've completed the form to duplicate an existing schedule, select "edit" from the "options" menu next to the new schedule in order to review the schedule's settings. Pay close attention to the DATES for the schedule since those are likely to change between scheduling periods and therefore are not duplicated. Also check the TIMES to ensure that they're set to the earliest your center opens and the latest that it closes in a given week. And, be sure to set the new schedule's AVAILABILITY to AVAILABLE TO ADMINISTRATORS ONLY if you want to prevent clients from accessing the new schedule while you set it up.
Step Two:
Go to Staff and Resource Management in your Welcome menu. If you're unfamiliar with that control panel, feel free to review the extensive information in our manual or simply hover over the question mark icons next to the various options within WCONLINE itself.
If you have returning staff or resources, click the "duplicate" from the "Area Tools" menu at the top of the page. Then, select the staff or resources who are returning. Next, select the new schedule that you just made and then click the "duplicate" button. WCONLINE will create copies of each selected staff or resource and add those copies to the new schedule. Note that this does not duplicate any appointment or blackout data; rather, the function simply copies the staff or resource and all of the associated settings.
If you have new staff or resources, select "add new staff or resource" from the "Area Tools" menu at the top of the page. Then, fill out the resulting form with the details of the new staff or resource. Be sure to select the your new schedule when adding the new resource.
Note that you should not edit existing staff or resources and change the listed schedule to your new schedule. This moves the staff or resource's appointments and blackouts from the old schedule to the new schedule. Instead, follow the instructions above to duplicate the returning staff or resource entry onto your new schedule.
As an additional possible step, if you have restricted any basic administrator's access to specific schedules, go into Administrative Access Management to select SET SCHEDULE RESTRICTIONS in that basic administrator's "Options" menu to add access to the new schedule or schedules. If a basic administrator has no restrictions, you do not need to add this step.
Step Three:
Go to Starting Availability Management in your Welcome menu. If you're unfamiliar with that control panel, feel free to review the extensive information in our manual or simply hover over the question mark icons next to the various options within WCONLINE itself.
Once in that control panel, select "add schedule" next to one of the staff or resources attached to your new schedule. Next, click on slots to make those slots available for scheduling. Once you have the staff or resource's schedule completed, select "install" and WCONLINE will automatically apply those hours to your schedule.
Step Four:
Return to Schedule Management in your Welcome menu. Then, click on "make default" from the "Options" menu next to the new schedule. Next, edit your old schedule and set its AVAILABILITY to HIDDEN/ARCHIVED. That will hide the old schedule and the staff and resources attached to that old schedule while preserving all of your data.
A few notes...
If you know the days that your center will be closed, such as for holidays or other breaks, select "manage holidays and closures" from the "Area Tools" menu at the top of Schedule Management. Then use the resulting form to add your holidays and institutional closures. This prevents clients from making appointments on those days.
If you have appointment form questions that are attached to specific schedules, go to Form Setup: Appointments in your Welcome menu. Then, add any schedule-specific questions to your new schedule by holding the "control" or "ctrl" or "command" key on your keyboard and selecting the new schedule's name. If a question doesn't have any schedule names selected, then that does mean that that question will appear on every schedule.
SECTION 1: Creating a First or New Schedule
SECTION 2: Addressing Emails Not Being Received (or Emails Sent to Spam)
SECTION 3: Adding Images to Announcements, Bios, and Mass Emails
SECTION 4: Multiple Centers Sharing a Subscription
SECTION 5: Adding New Administrators
SECTION 6: Accessing and Changing Your WCONLINE URL
SECTION 7: Drop-Ins and Walk-Ins
SECTION 8: Different "Finals Week" Schedules
SECTION 9: Individual Not Recognized as an Administrator
SECTION 10: Using Group Appointments with Focuses
SECTION 11: Students Select a Different Course and Focus