How to Create a One-Time, Nonrecurring Service in Microsoft Bookings
Question details
The user wants to know how to schedule a service that occurs only once, as the default settings display recurring weekly customer hours.
- Product
- Microsoft Bookings
- Device & OS
- not provided
- Scenario
- Scheduling an individual, nonrecurring appointment or event for a customer without setting up a weekly repeating schedule.
- Observed behavior
- Microsoft Bookings displays service settings as recurring weekly, making it unclear how to restrict a service to a single, one-time occurrence.
Ensure you have administrator or scheduler permissions in your Microsoft Bookings calendar to create new services and adjust staff availability.
Configure Specific Availability for a One-Time Service
Instead of trying to change the service type itself to nonrecurring, you can control when the service is offered by adjusting its availability dates or by creating a manual booking.
A service in Microsoft Bookings acts as a template and does not inherently have to be recurring. You can create the service normally and then restrict its bookable hours to a specific date, or keep it hidden and manually schedule it for the customer.
Open Microsoft Bookings, navigate to the 'Services' tab, and click 'Add a service'. Fill in the standard details such as the service name, location, duration, and assign the appropriate staff members.
Scroll down to the 'Availability options' section. Under 'General availability', change the default setting to 'Not bookable'. This ensures the service does not appear as a recurring weekly option on your public booking page.
Click on 'Set different availability for a date range'. Choose the specific date (and times) for your one-time service, and set the availability for that specific window to 'Bookable when staff are free'.
If you do not want the service on your public page at all, toggle off 'Show this service on the booking page'. Then, go to the 'Calendar' tab, click 'New booking', select your newly created service, and manually assign the required date, time, and customer.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can I hide a one-time service from my public Bookings page?
Yes. When creating or editing the service, you can turn off the toggle for 'Show this service on the booking page'. This allows you to manually schedule the one-time service from your admin calendar without customers booking it publicly.
How do I delete a service after the one-time event has passed?
Go to the 'Services' tab in Microsoft Bookings, hover over the service you want to remove, and click the delete (trash can) icon. Note that deleting the service will not remove past appointments from your calendar history.
Can I assign multiple staff members to a single one-time service?
Yes, during the service setup, you can select multiple staff members from the 'Assign staff' list. You can also allow customers to choose their preferred staff member if the service is set to be publicly bookable.
