By default, a practitioner's appointment book is completely available. This includes any time that no roster applies, unless the practitioner is set to Unavailable when no roster applies for that business (see below). By using Rosters and Roster Overrides, you can define a practitioner's exact availability, and that availability is what powers several other tools:

In other words, a Roster isn't just a display preference — it's the source of truth PracSuite uses to decide what can be booked, when, and by whom (staff, online patients, or the waiting list).

Go to Settings > Practitioners > Rosters and select Add. Use the drop-down arrow next to Add to pre-set the roster's hours based on a selected business.

See Creating Rosters and Roster Overrides for screenshots of each step.

In the Roster Availability section you can customise:

You then choose which booking types are allowed by default, when no rule is present:

Finally, select which days should appear on the appointment book, and set the start/end time for each enabled day. Note that Roster Overrides (below) can override these day/time preferences.

Rules let you carve out exceptions inside a day — lunch breaks, regular meetings, new-patient-only slots, and so on. Select Add Rule for the relevant day and configure:

See Creating Rosters and Roster Overrides for screenshots of each step.

If the same rule applies to multiple days, use Copy to add it to other days, or Copy All Rules if every rule on a day should be duplicated elsewhere.

Overrides handle changes to the normal pattern — a practitioner picking up an extra shift, alternating fortnightly schedules, a temporary closure, and more.

See Creating Rosters and Roster Overrides for screenshots of each step.

You can create an override two ways:

Either way, you'll configure: repeat frequency, start/end dates (optional), display text, start/end time, appointment types, colours, and — for multi-column practitioners — which column the override affects.

To delete an override: open the roster, select Manage Overrides, click Edit in the top-left, then use the delete icon on the override itself.

Creating a roster doesn't apply it anywhere on its own — the final step is assigning it to a practitioner. Either:

See Assigning a Roster to a Practitioner for screenshots of each step.

Set a start date (and an end date if the change is temporary or scheduled). If a practitioner's hours are changing significantly on a known date, set an end date on the current roster and a start date on the new one so the transition happens automatically.

By default, a practitioner is available for all of the business's opening hours whenever no roster applies. To make that time unavailable instead, turn on Unavailable when no roster applies for the business on the practitioner's file. This is set per business, per practitioner. See the section below.

The roster list on the practitioner's file shows Current and upcoming rosters by default. Change the Display filter to All to see rosters that have ended.

If no roster applies to a practitioner at a business, they are available for all of the business's opening hours. That is the case before their first roster starts, after their last roster ends, and in any gap between two rosters.

To make that time unavailable instead, turn on Unavailable when no roster applies for the business on the practitioner's file (Settings > Practitioners > Practitioners, select the practitioner, Edit, then the Roster section). No appointments can be booked in unavailable time. The setting is per business, per practitioner. This is the recommended way to prevent bookings when a practitioner has no roster.

See Making a practitioner unavailable when no roster applies for the steps.

An N/A roster (a roster with every day unticked) does the same job and is still supported. It can also be set as the default roster for new practitioner files. The same article covers the steps.

When a new roster is similar to an existing one, copying saves rebuilding it from scratch. Open the roster you want to copy, select the cog icon at the top of the page, choose Copy Roster, make your edits on the new copy, and Save.

See Copying a Roster for screenshots of each step.

Days Off completely rule out a date range for one or more practitioners, or an entire business — the appointment book column(s) won't accept any bookings at all. Typical uses: annual leave, sick leave, and public holidays.

See Days Off for screenshots of each step.

To delete a Day Off, tick the checkbox next to it and click Delete. Use the filters at the top to find entries for a particular practitioner, business, or date range.

Online availability and Waiting List availability are both driven by the same roster mechanics, layered on top of each other:

See Specifying Available Time for Online Bookings and Specifying Available Time for the Waiting List for screenshots of each step.

If a practitioner is set to Unavailable when no roster applies, no online or waiting list bookings can be made in time that no roster covers.

You can also restrict what appointment types are bookable in a given window (e.g. reserve a block exclusively for new patients) via the cog icon when editing a Rule.

Practitioners with multiple appointment book columns often don't want online bookings appearing in every column. Two approaches:

See Specifying Available Time for Online Bookings for Multi-Column Practitioners for screenshots of each step.

For practitioners working across multiple locations/businesses, each business generally needs its own roster, since a roster's hours are tied to a business. If you only want a practitioner's column to appear on the days they're actually rostered at that location (rather than showing an empty/blocked column on their days off), the cleanest approach is the inverse of the usual pattern: disable the day in the base roster, then add an override that opens it only for the weeks/fortnights they're actually rostered on. This keeps the appointment book clean instead of leaving a redundant blocked column every other week.

Practitioner missing from a business's appointment book entirely? Also double-check the business is still ticked/active in the Businesses section of the practitioner's file (Settings > Practitioners > Practitioners) — this is separate from roster setup, and a business can end up unticked there even while the roster looks correct.

These are the roster issues that come up most often in support conversations — worth knowing before they trip you up.

"I set up an override but staff still can't manually book that time"

This is almost always a second, higher-ranked override quietly blocking the time. In one real case, a practice set up an alternating Saturday/Sunday override for a staff member, but manual bookings were still blocked on the Saturdays. The cause was an older, unrelated override ranked above it that had the "M" (manual) box unticked. The fix: open Manage Overrides, check what's ranked above your new override, and either tick "M" on the blocking override or delete it if it's no longer needed.

"I set up an override but it's not showing up on the appointment book"

Two different things cause this. First, check whether the roster assignment it lives in shows as Future rather than Current on Settings > Practitioners > Rosters — an override inside a Future assignment (one that hasn't started yet) saves correctly, but won't display until that assignment starts. Second, check the business's own opening hours for that day on Settings > Businesses > Businesses > Appointment Book — an override can never extend a day past what the business itself is open for.

"I changed a practitioner's roster and it deleted their patients"

It didn't — nothing you do with rosters can delete appointments or patient data. What happens is that unticking a day on a live roster hides that column going forward; the appointments still exist and still appear in reports and patient files. The recommended way to change a recurring pattern (e.g. someone dropping Thursdays) is:

This keeps history intact (you can still see the old column in the past) while cleanly switching the pattern going forward.

"I followed the Copy Roster steps above but the new roster won't show up to assign"

If the practitioner's file was already open (in this tab or another) while the new roster was being created, that open file's roster list won't include it — it only reflects what existed when the page first loaded. Close and reopen the practitioner's file after saving the new roster, and it will appear in the list.

"How do I stop a temporary or casual roster from reopening after someone finishes?"

Turn on Unavailable when no roster applies for the practitioner at that business. For a student or casual staff member with a known start and end date:

They are unavailable before the start date and from the day after the end date. If the option is off, they are available for the business's open hours whenever no roster applies.

"I need to block out a whole week for every practitioner at once"

Don't add individual Roster Overrides per practitioner — Days Off supports selecting multiple practitioners and/or an entire business in one entry. For something like a Christmas closure, one Days Off entry covering the whole business is much faster than overrides on every column.

"There's no time field on Days Off for a half-day"

Correct — Days Off only blocks full days. For a partial day off, use a Rule Out or a Roster Override by highlighting just that time range directly on the appointment book.

"I ticked 'auto-add public holidays' but the holiday still shows as available"

Public holidays sync on a weekly schedule (Sunday nights), not instantly when you tick the option. If a public holiday is coming up before the next sync, add it manually as a Days Off entry rather than waiting.

"A practitioner works at two locations and I want a clean appointment book"

Set up separate rosters per business, and where a column should be hidden on the days a practitioner isn't at that location, disable the day on the base roster and use an override to open it only on the weeks/days they're actually there (see the multi-column section above).

"Can I add an appointment-book column just for one specific day?"

No — columns are configured per practitioner (Settings > Practitioners > Practitioners > Businesses > number of columns) and apply to every day that practitioner appears on the appointment book. A Roster Override can change a column's hours or close it for a specific day, but it can't add a column that only exists on a single date. If a column is only needed occasionally, keep it configured permanently and use an override to close it (untick M/O/W) on the days it isn't needed.

"Can a Roster Override make a practitioner's day shorter?"

No. A Roster Override doesn't change the Start Time and End Time of the day on the roster, so the day will still show the same hours. What an override can do is fill or rule out time within the day. To stop bookings in part of the day, such as after 4pm, create an override for that time with M, O and W all unticked, or use a Rule Out on the appointment book. If the day should finish earlier every week, edit the day's End Time on the roster itself.

"The roster won't save — 'Rule start/end time cannot be before/after day start/end time'"

This means a Rule's Start or End Time falls outside that day's own Start Time / End Time on the roster itself (set on the roster page, not the business). To fix it, either widen the day's Start Time / End Time so it covers the rule, or adjust the rule's time so it sits inside the day's current Start/End Time.