Please note: this article is only applicable to websites built after November 2018.
This article shows you how to change your practice opening times. If you want to add opening times to your site please see this article How do I add opening hours.
In this article:
- Adding a new opening time
- Editing an existing opening time
- Removing opening times
- Adding temporary closures
- Add additional opening hours
- Setting a multi-week schedule
- Common problems/mistakes
- Common Questions/FAQs
Adding a new opening time
Log into the website as an admin and select 'Opening Times' from the editor menu.
On this screen you will need to select 'Add Opening Times' for the branch site you are looking to add times for.
You can then choose from the options available:
- Display site as closed on public bank holidays? - This will apply the bank holidays for the country in which the practice is in. Additional note - Scottish bank holidays vary between regions and may not apply the correct bank holidays for your region.
- Add Time Slot - This will allow you to add the opening times for the practice for each day of the week.
Once you click on 'Add Time Slot' you will then be able to set an opening and closing time for the practice e.g. 8:00 - 18:30.
If the practice closes for lunch, you can choose the initial boxes to be set for the morning and then click 'Add Time Slot' to add an additional time row. This will allow you to set times such as 8:00 -13:00 and 14:00 - 18:30.
Once you have finished adding the times you can then click 'Save' at the bottom of the page.
Please note
If you have additional opening hours outside of the standard weekly schedule, please see 'Add additional opening hours outside regular schedule'
There is an additional section called 'Special Closures' to set practice closures, training days, etc. Please see 'Adding temporary closures'
To set up a multi-week schedule please see 'Setting a multi-week schedule'
Editing an existing opening time
Please note if you are looking to add a temporary closure, see 'Adding temporary closures'. If you are adding an opening times outside of your standard schedule, see 'Add additional opening hours outside regular schedule'. If you need to set up a multi-week schedule, see Setting a multi-week schedule.
Log into the website as an admin and select 'Opening Times' from the editor menu.
On the Opening Times page, click the 'Edit Opening Times' button below the site you would to update the opening times for.
If the issue is a Bank Holiday closure that does not apply, you can untick the 'Display site as closed on public bank holidays?' box.
For updating the opening times, you can choose which days and times you would like to update.
If you need to split to have morning and afternoon opening times, you can update the closing time for the morning shift and then click 'Add Time Slot' to create a new row of opening times to apply the afternoon shift times.
Once the opening times are updated click save at the bottom of the page to apply the new opening times.
Split shift days will appear as the following on the website:
Removing opening times
Depending on need, you can remove an entire site's opening times or remove an individual day from a sites opening times.
To remove an entire sites opening times
Navigate in the editor menu to the 'Opening Times' page. Find the site you are looking to remove all the opening times for, and select 'Delete Opening Times' below the site's times.
You will have a prompt to confirm that you'd like to delete the opening times for that site. Click 'OK' on the prompt and the opening times for that site will be delete.
To remove an individual day from a sites opening times
Navigate in the editor menu to the 'Opening Times' page. Find the site you are looking to remove an opening times for, and select 'Edit Opening Times' below the site's times.
If you are looking to remove the entire days times slots, select the 'Remove All Time Slots' option from below the day you are removing. If you have a split morning and afternoon day, you can click the trashcan icon next to the time slot you would like to remove. Please note there is no confirmation for deleting these. Once you click either delete button, the times slots for that day will be removed.
Adding temporary closures
The Special Closures tool allows you to set specific dates where your practice hours differ from your regular timetable without needing to change your permanent weekly schedule. These entries act as an override; for example, if you are usually open 8am to 6pm every Friday but add a special closure for next Friday, the system will keep your standard schedule for the future but mark that one specific date as closed.
Log into the website as an admin and select 'Opening Times' from the editor menu.
On the Opening Times page, click the 'Edit Opening Times' button below the site you would to add a temporary closure date to.
Towards the bottom of the page, there will be a section called 'Special Closures'. You will need to click the 'Add Special Closure' button.
This will open a row with the following options:
- Closure Date - This will be the date in which you want to set the closure for.
- From To - If you have a partial day closure, you can set the 'From' box to the start of the closure time and the 'To' box to the end of the closure time. E.g. Staff training day could to be set to 'From 13:00' and 'To 18:30'
- Reason - This is for internal monitoring and will not be displayed on the website. This allows you to keep track of why closures were set.
- All Day Closure - If you are setting an all day closure, you can tick the box and leave the 'From' and 'To' boxes blank and it will apply the closure to the entire scheduled day.
- Recurrence - If you have a reoccurring closure day such as a staff training day every 4 weeks, you can set the recurrence to apply the closure to repeat after a period of time. This allows anything from 2 to 13 weeks.
For additional closure days, you can click 'Add Special Closure' to add a new row to apply the closure to.
If you no longer need the closure, you can click the trashcan icon next to the row to delete the closure.
Once you are finished setting closures, click the Save button at the bottom of the page.
Before and after adding a temporary closure:
Adding additional opening hours
The Special Openings tool is designed for instances where your site is open outside of its standard operating hours, allowing you to add specific dates that act as an extension to your regular timetable. This is particularly useful for one-off events or recurring late-night shifts; for example, if you normally close at 6:30pm every Thursday but wish to stay open until 8:00pm every second week, you can add those specific dates here to ensure your website reflects the extra availability.
Log into the website as an admin and select 'Opening Times' from the editor menu.
On the Opening Times page, click the 'Edit Opening Times' button below the site you would to add a temporary closure date to.
Towards the bottom of the page, there will be a section called 'Special Openings'. You will need to click the 'Add Special Opening' button.
This will open a row with the following options:
- Opening Date - This will be the date in which you want to set the opening for.
- From To - This will be when you need the additional opening to apply to. E.g. A late opening would be set 'From 18:30' and 'To 20:00'
- Reason - This is for internal monitoring and will not be displayed on the website. This allows you to keep track of why closures were set.
- Recurrence - If you have a reoccurring opening day such as a late opening every 2 weeks, you can set the recurrence to apply the closure to repeat after a period of time. This allows anything from 2 to 13 weeks.
For additional opening days, you can click 'Add Special Opening' to add a new row to apply the closure to.
If you no longer need the opening, you can click the trashcan icon next to the row to delete the closure.
Once you are finished setting closures, click the Save button at the bottom of the page.
Before and after adding a special opening:
Setting a multi-week schedule
When setting up a multi-week schedule, such as a bi-weekly schedule, you can use a mixture of the Special Opening and Special Closures sections to apply this.
An example of this would be a practice that is open 8am to 6:30pm one week, and then on the following week opens late on a Tuesday till 8pm and closes early on a Friday at 4pm. You would need to apply a Special Opening from 6:30pm to 8pm on the Tuesday with a recurrence of every 2 weeks and apply a Special Closure from 4pm to 5pm on the Friday with a recurrence of every 2 weeks.
See the 'Adding temporary closures' and 'Add additional opening hours' for instructions on how to apply Special Openings and Special Closures.
Common Problems/Mistakes
I've set my opening hours but they're not appearing on the website.
Ensure that you have added the opening times widget to your site and that you have made the widget visible.
Common Questions/FAQs
We have a branch site, can we show their opening times too?
The opening times tool allows you to add branch site times too. The tool will take from the 'Sites' section and you can apply opening times to each branch site. When you add the widget you will see a drop down menu which allows you to choose which practice opening times to display.
Keywords/meta tags
Opening, times, hours, shift, closed, open