Scheduling Settings

Scheduling Settings are the guardrails around your schedule. Customers will only see time slots that fit within these rules.

Go to Availability → Settings.

Minimum Buffer time (in minutes)

Use this to build in extra time between accepted orders. The default is set to 30 minutes but you can change it to fit your needs.

Use this for travel time, minor clean-up, gear prep, parking, and wrap-up.

AI Smart Buffer

When you accept a new order, Smart Buffer checks the live drive time from your current location to the next shoot. If it's longer than your Minimum Buffer Time, we automatically push your start time back - snapping to the nearest 15-minute interval - to give you breathing room.

Example: If you set 30 minutes and it's a 15-minute drive to your next shoot, Smart Buffer keeps the 30-minute gap. But if it's a 50-minute drive, Smart Buffer automatically gives you 60 minutes instead—no manual tweaking needed.

Smart Buffer also looks at your connected Google Calendar. When one of your calendar appointments has a location, Fotello factors in the live drive time to and from it — just like it does between shoots — so the slots your customers can book always leave you enough time to get there and back.

To connect a calendar, see Calendar Integration.

Minimum notice

This is the minimum lead time required before your customer can book.

Example: 4 hours means customers can’t book anything starting in the next 4 hours.

Maximum notice: Limit future bookings

This setting limits how far into the future customers can see and book slots.

Example: 30 days means customers can book up to 30 days ahead. The maximum allowed limit is 90 days.

Click Save to lock in your changes.

These settings apply to both Exact time and Time of day booking modes. When using time-of-day windows, buffer time and minimum notice still apply — Fotello uses them to determine which slots exist inside each window. To switch between exact time and time-of-day windows, see Order Settings.