How to use Location Schedule Type in Schedules (Hours of Operations)

Hello,

Thank you for visiting our Qtrac Knowledge Base library. We hope the below article will assist you. Based on your inquiry, it looks like you are trying to setup Location Schedule Type. In order to accomplish this, you will need the following permissions: 

Admin role with access to view, add/edit schedule permission.

Location Schedules also formerly known as Hours of Operations, provide organizations with a structured and efficient way to manage operating hours across one or more locations. By defining when a location is open, closed, or operating with limited services, Location Schedules ensure that services, queues, and customer interactions follow accurate and predictable timeframes.

With Location Schedules in place, businesses can align staffing, services, and customer expectations, reducing confusion and improving overall service delivery.

Key Benefits of Location Schedule Type

• Consistent Operating Hours Management
  Location Schedules allow administrators to define standard hours, holidays, and special schedules in one central place, ensuring consistency across services and systems.

• Improved Customer Experience
  Accurate schedules help prevent customers from checking in or arriving outside of operating hours, reducing wait-time frustration and missed appointments.

• Better Staff and Resource Planning
  By clearly defining open and closed hours, teams can align staffing levels and service availability with expected customer demand.

• Service-Level Control
  Location Schedules ensure that services and queues only operate during designated hours, preventing unintended check-ins or announcements outside business hours.

• Support for Special Dates and Exceptions
  Easily manage holidays, special events, or temporary schedule changes without affecting regular operating hours.

• Reduced Operational Errors
  Automated enforcement of schedules minimizes manual intervention and helps prevent misconfigurations that could disrupt daily operations.

The Location Schedule Tempalte have multiple sub categories that you can configure individually:

• Location Hours: 
  Location Hours define the overall hours of operation when a location is open and ready to serve customers in the Virtual Queue. These hours don’t always match the physical branch hours, giving your team more flexibility to manage customer flow and staff readiness.

  One major benefit is improved customer experience by allowing customers to join the queue before doors open. For example, if a location opens at 8:00 AM, Location Hours in Qtrac can begin at 7:45 AM so customers can start lining up virtually and reduce congestion at opening time.

  Location Hours can also be adjusted to support operational readiness. For instance, Qtrac Location Hours may start at 8:30 AM if employees need 30 minutes after opening to prepare before serving customers. This ensures the queue only opens when the team is fully ready.

  Overall, Location Hours help organizations control queue availability, reduce long wait times at peak periods, support smooth daily opening routines, and ensure customers receive consistent service based on staffing and business needs not just physical building hours.

• Service Hours (For Walk-Ins and Bookings):
  Service Hours allow you to control exactly when specific services are available for Walk-Ins and Bookings, giving you more flexibility than using Location Hours alone.

  A key benefit is that Service Hours override Location Hours, but only within the timeframe of the Location Hours. Think of Location Hours as the main outline, and Service Hours as specific time blocks inside that outline. This helps ensure services run only when the right staff or resources are available, without changing the location’s overall queue availability.

  Service Hours are especially useful when:

  • Certain services should only run during peak staffing times
  • Some services need limited availability (example: midday only)
  • Walk-ins and bookings require different schedules
  • You want better control over workload distribution and wait times

  This feature improves service efficiency, reduces customer confusion, and ensures customers can only select services when they are truly supported.
  
  

  Note: Service Hours will override the Location Hours but, only within timeframe of the Location Hours. Example, imagine the main outline are the Location Hours but the Service Hours are in between.

• Standard Holidays:
  Standard Holidays provide organizations with a consistent and efficient way to manage non-working days across locations and services. By defining holidays in advance, organizations can maintain accurate schedules, prevent unintended service availability, and set clear expectations for both staff and customers.

  Standard Holidays work alongside Location Schedules and Service Hours to automatically adjust availability on designated dates. This reduces the need for manual changes, helps avoid scheduling errors, and ensures the Virtual Queue reflects real-world operations.

  Note: This is automated based on the location's addresses. So if it is international customer with different addresses all those countries will be available for selection. We highly encourage verifyimg this with your organisation. We use google API to pull these holidays, but they can easily be modified as needed.

• Custom Hours:
  The Configure Custom Hours feature in Location Schedules allows organizations to set specific operating hours for a location based on unique business needs. Instead of following standard weekly hours, administrators can define custom time ranges for selected days, special events, limited-service periods, or temporary schedule adjustments.

  Custom Hours are especially helpful when a location needs to override normal hours for specific dates, such as holidays, early closures, extended service days, staff shortages, or special appointment-only periods. This ensures the Virtual Queue reflects the real-world schedule, preventing customers from joining when the location is unavailable and helping staff manage workload more effectively.

  Overall, Custom Hours improve scheduling accuracy, reduce confusion, and provide a smoother customer experience by aligning Qtrac availability with changing operational requirements.

Once you confirm that you do have access to this settings, please follow these articles of how to properly configure each of them:

Article 1: How to configure Location Schedule tempalte

Article 2: How do I set my service hours in the Schedules templates

Article 3: How to add or edit standard holidays in the Location Schedule Type

Article 4: Configure Custom Hours in location schedules

Article 5: Publish to template functionality

Article 6: How to assign Location Hours to specific Location

Best Practices

• Use clear naming conventions for schedule templates.
• Configure holidays early to prevent accidental bookings.
• Use Custom Hours sparingly for exceptions.
• Always review service hours after changes to avoid conflicts.

We hope this article helped you out with your inquiry. 

If you still have any questions, please feel free to get in touch with our Qtrac Help Desk.