Front Desk Appointment Center

Owned by Spartan Connect, created
Last updated: Sept 21, 2023
6 min read

Overview

Professional staff and student staff that have front desk responsibilities can use the Appointment Center functionality to manage existing appointments, create new appointments, and manage drop-in queues.

Users must have the appropriate Front Desk role (student or staff) in order to see the appointment center. If you have not yet been granted this role, use this guide to prepare.

Starting the Appointment Center

Begin at the Spartan Connect homepage.

Users with the appropriate roles can launch the Appointment Center from the “waffle” icon menu at the top right of the Spartan Connect page, above the logo.

1. Click on the ⋮⋮⋮ icon.

 

2. Select the Appointment Center option from the dropdown.

All of the available locations will display.

If the location you’re looking for is not visible, reach out to Spartan Connect Administration for assistance.

3. Select the appropriate location.

The Appointment Center will load and display the Scheduling Grid page, defaulting to view the calendar for today.

Appointment Center Modes

The dropdown below the student selection and above the grid filters allows you to select one of three possible display modes:

  • Scheduling Grid (default): Shows a calendar grid of scheduled appointments and availability

    • Most useful when scheduling new appointments or looking for staff availability

  • Drop-in Appointments: Shows the current drop-in queues and supports management of drop-ins

    • Most useful when adding students to staff queues and managing time tracking check-ins.

  • Scheduled Appointments: A simplified view of upcoming, current, and past appointments.

    • Most useful when only working with existing appointments and managing check-ins.

Scheduling Grid

The scheduling grid displays the calendar of appointments and availability for a single day. Staff can view appointments, create appointments, and check students in from this page.

Review the following features of the Scheduling Grid:

Student Selection

Selecting a student is optional, but recommended assist with data that needs student-specific context to display.

a. Search for students by ID number (preferred and recommended), name, or email.

b. If a student is selected, their “card” will appear, displaying their name, ID number, email, and major. If the student has any upcoming appointments, those will appear as additional “cards” to the right.

Basic Display Selections

Switch between modes and specify the date/times to view.

c. The view selector allows you to switch between the three Appointment Center Views: Scheduling Grid, Drop-In Appointments, and Scheduled Appointments

d. Selecting a date will update the calendar view to display appointments and availability for that date.

e. The start and end time dropdowns change the visible time range of the calendar view.

f. The refresh button reloads the calendar view to display updates to appointments or availability.

Grid Filters

These selections layer on to filter in only staff that match the selections.

g. Care Unit defines the overarching type of appointment that the system displays. Some locations may have multiple options.

h. Choosing a service will show only staff that offer that service.

i. Choosing staff will show only selected staff.

j. Meeting Types will show only staff that offer services for the selected meeting type.

k. Use Find First Available to locate the first available appointment time for all of the selected filters. If a student is selected, their schedule will also be considered for availability.

Grid Display Settings

l. This legend shows the color difference between available and unavailable time for staff in the grid.

m. The Orientation selector allows you to display the calendar grid either vertically (recommended) or horizontally.

n. The Display Name selector allows you to choose to view the name of the service or the name of the student on each appointment.

Appointment Grid

o. If a student is selected, their schedule will appear on the far left.

p. Staff that are active for the day will have their appointments and availability display on the right.

q. Note the difference between (gray) unavailable time, (white) available time, and (blue) drop-in availability.

r. Existing events will appear for students and staff. Note that courses are displayed for students and scheduling over course times is never recommended.

Drop-in Appointments

This view is best used for times when drop-in services are primarily used. The front desk staff can add students to specific staff queues, or the first available queue seen by all staff, as well as check students in for time tracking.

a. The Add to Staff Queue button adds a selected student to a staff queue (either a specific staff person or the first available queue). Track Time and Record Visit are also options when the location offers non-staff-specific services (like study hall or computer use).

Queues

b. Students In First Available’s Queue displays students that are waiting for the first available staff person. All staff that currently offer the selected service at the specified location will see these students in their queue (marked as “first available”).

c. Students Checked In With Staff displays students waiting for a specific staff person.

d. In-Progress Visits displays currently active meetings for students and staff. Note that this is based on the presence of an active Appointment Summary so it may not be entirely accurate if the staff person has not completed previous summaries.

e. Students Checked In For Track Time displays active students tracking time for specific services, not associated with staff.

Scheduled Appointments

This simplified view displays lists of upcoming, current, and past appointments for the selected date. Useful if checking in students for appointments is the primary task of the front desk, rather than scheduling.

a. Upcoming Appointments displays appointments that start in the future or past appointments that have not yet started.

b. In Progress Appointments displays appointments that staff have started but have not yet completed. This may mean the student is still meeting or it may mean the staff person has not yet saved the appointment summary report.

c. Recent Appointments displays appointments that have been completed.

Common Tasks and Functions

Checking Students In for Existing Appointments

Find and select the student using the search box. If they have an upcoming appointment, it will display next to their profile information. Click on the Check-In button to complete the check-in:

Moving an Existing Appointment

If an appointment needs to move either from one staff person to another or from one day/time to another, the Appointment Center makes this change fairly simple.

First, find the appointment to move, then hover over the event to display the popup information. From this overlay, click on the Move link:

The system then prompts you to click on the new slot for the new staff/day/time for the appointment. Hover over the new slot and click to move:

The appointment will be moved and the slot updated: