Not everything that takes up time on the calendar is a booking. The daily lunch break, the Thursday product training, the afternoon you spend at the doctor, the unexpected call from a team member sick at home: none of these are clients, but they all close the schedule. In BookHero these intervals are called time blocks, and they exist so that nobody (not you, not the public booking page) can book over them by accident.
This guide takes you from the right button to a confirmed block: which fields to fill, how to decide between blocking the whole team or just one employee, what happens when a booking tries to overlap a block, and when a block is the wrong tool entirely (answer: when you need formal time off).
Where the button is: Block vs Schedule
In the bottom-right corner of the calendar there are two round floating buttons, always visible. One green, one grey. They work as a pair but for opposite jobs:
- Green 'Schedule' button: creates a client booking (existing or new). If you are not familiar with that flow yet, see our full guide on creating manual bookings.
- Grey 'Block' button: opens the time block panel. No client, no service, no price. Just an interval saying 'not here'.
Step by step: create a block
Click the grey 'Block' button
The 'Create block' panel slides in from the right. It has three zones: date (top), the block card (employee, hours, label) and a footer with the total duration and the confirm button.
Choose who it applies to
Right above the card is a row of chips: 'Whole business' (with a globe icon) or one chip per employee, each with an avatar. 'Whole business' closes the interval for the entire team at once. Picking a specific employee closes only that column.
Set the date
Defaults to the day you were viewing on the calendar. You can change it to any other date via the picker. There is no recurrence: each block is a single interval, on a single day. If lunch is every day, you create one per day for now (shortcut: leave the panel open and repeat).
Set the start and end time
Both in HH:MM, in 5-minute steps. The end-time picker shows the resulting duration (1h30, 45min) next to it as you change the value, so you don't have to do the math. Hard rule: end must be after start, otherwise the confirm button stays disabled.
Optional label
Free text up to 100 characters. If you leave it empty, the calendar uses a generic label like 'Block'. Give it a name anyway: 'Lunch', 'New product training', 'Doctor', 'João day off'. Later, when you come back to the block, it helps you remember why it is there.
Confirm
Green 'Create block' button at the bottom of the panel. The block appears immediately on the calendar, with a grey diagonal pattern over the employee column (or all columns, if you picked 'Whole business').
Whole team or a single employee?
This is the most important choice in the panel. Pick the right chip and save yourself confusion for the rest of the day.
| Scenario | Whole team | Specific employee |
|---|---|---|
| Team lunch together (12:30-13:30 everyone) | Use this | No |
| Mandatory training for the whole team | Use this | No |
| Internal holiday or one-off closure | Use this | No |
| Staggered lunch (each employee at a different time) | No | One block per person |
| João's doctor visit, team keeps working | No | João only |
| Unexpected sick day | No | Only that person |
How the block shows up on the calendar
Visually, a block looks different from a booking: grey diagonal pattern, no employee colour, no client name. Instead, it shows the time range and the label you chose.
- Day view: each block sits on the column of the employee it applies to. 'Whole business' blocks cross every column.
- Week and Month views: appear as smaller bands, with the label showing through where there is space.
- Public booking page: the times covered by a block stop being available for online booking, with no specific message, they simply don't show.
Booking over a block: what happens
A block closes the slot for the public page, but internally the system lets you decide. If you try to create a manual booking that overlaps an existing block, the create panel surfaces a warning before you confirm: it's a warning, not an error. You can go ahead with an extra confirmation (VIP client, a one-off exception).
Edit or delete a block
Today blocks are not editable in place: once created, they are created. To change the time or the label, delete and create a new one. It's deliberately simple for a one-off use case.
Click the block on the calendar
The detail panel slides in from the right. It shows the label (or the generic 'Block'), who it applies to ('Whole business' or the employee name), date and time range.
'Delete block' button
At the bottom of the panel, with a trash icon. Opens a native confirmation dialog to avoid deleting by accident.
Confirm the deletion
Once you confirm, the block disappears from the calendar and the interval is available for bookings again (public and manual). Not reversible: if it was a mistake, create it again.
One-off block vs formal Time Off
There is another BookHero tool that at first glance looks similar but serves a different purpose: formal time off, in Employees > Schedules > Time Off. Decide based on the table below.
| Time block (calendar) | Time Off (Employees) | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it's created | Calendar, grey FAB button | Employees > Schedules > Time Off |
| Approval | No. Immediate. | Yes. Owner or manager approves. |
| Reason logged | Optional free-text label | Structured category (vacation, sick, personal) |
| Typical length | Minutes to hours, in one day | Full day or several days |
| Shows in reports | Doesn't count as time off | Counts towards employee leave totals |
| Typical use case | Lunch, training, one-off doctor visit | Vacation, sick leave, personal day |
Simple rule: if what you are logging is less than half a day and the decision is yours, right now, it's a block. If it's a planned absence that involves approval, a formal reason and an attendance record, it's Time Off.
Frequently asked questions
Can I create a recurring block (every day at 13:00 for lunch)?
Not yet. Each block is a single interval on a single day. If lunch is every day at the same time, the recommendation is to set it as a break inside the employee's schedule, because there it becomes permanent and you don't have to create it manually. Calendar blocks are for one-off situations.
I blocked the whole team but I want to leave one person available. How?
Delete the 'Whole business' block and create individual blocks for each employee who needs to be closed, leaving out the one who stays open. It's more work than a single global block, but it's how the system understands that this person can still take bookings.
Do clients see any message on the public page explaining the slot is blocked?
No. The slot simply doesn't show as available, the same as it would outside business hours. The client sees the next available times and picks from there. There is no public-facing 'closed for lunch' message.
I deleted a block by mistake. Can I recover it?
There is no undo. Deletion is final. The good news: recreating it takes under 30 seconds. If it's a block you keep creating over and over (lunch, training), consider defining it as a fixed break in the employee's schedule to stop relying on manual creation.
Who can create and delete blocks?
Anyone with the edit-bookings permission: owner, manager and employees with that permission enabled. Permissions are set per employee inside the Employees page. By default, basic employees can only see the calendar, not create or delete blocks.