How Openings work

Patcher watches your schedule for gaps between appointments and helps you fill them by moving existing customers into those gaps. This article explains what you'll see on the Openings page and how to send your first proposal.

Overview

An opening is an empty slot in your schedule that is big enough to fit an existing appointment. When Patcher finds one, it also looks through your upcoming appointments for a candidate — a customer whose appointment could move earlier into that slot without breaking your rules.

You don't have to find openings yourself. Patcher detects them automatically based on your hours, your scheduling rules, and changes from your connected scheduling tool.

The Openings page

Open the left navigation and click Openings. You'll see the heading “Openings — find schedule gaps and move appointments into them.”

The page has two sides on desktop:

  • List (left) — every opening Patcher has found, with counts of available candidates and proposals already sent for each one.
  • Detail (right) — the opening you've selected, its ranked candidates, and any proposals in flight.

On mobile, you'll see the list first and tap an opening to drill into the detail view.

[SCREENSHOT: Openings page on desktop showing the list on the left and the detail panel on the right]

Patcher Score

Every candidate shows a Patcher Score — a number from 0 to 100 that ranks how good a move is for that opening.

Patcher Score considers:

  • Travel time and route efficiency between the move and the appointments around it
  • Your scheduling rules, hours, and resources
  • Whether the move is safe to make given your settings

Higher is better. You can tune what the score emphasizes under Settings → Scoring.

[SCREENSHOT: A candidate card with the Patcher Score badge visible]

Sending a proposal

Once you've picked an opening from the list, the detail panel shows its candidates ranked by Patcher Score. Here's how to send a proposal to one of them:

  1. Click a candidate card to expand it. You'll see the customer's name, what service they have booked, and the impact on your route if they accept.
  2. Click Review proposal. A drawer opens with the message Patcher will send.
  3. Edit the message if you'd like, then send it.
  4. Patcher texts your customer the proposal. You can track it from the Proposals tab on the detail panel.

If the customer accepts, Patcher moves the appointment into your schedule and the opening closes automatically. If they decline or don't respond, the opening stays open for the next candidate.

[SCREENSHOT: The Review proposal drawer with the message preview]

When Patcher has nothing to show

When you've filled every actionable opening, the page shows a “You're all caught up” message. That means your schedule is packed efficiently for the moment.

New appointments, cancellations, and schedule changes generate new openings automatically — you don't need to refresh or scan anything yourself.

  • Proposals — tracking, customer acceptance, and expiration
  • Scheduling rules and Patcher Score
  • Connecting your scheduling tool