Booking a viewing
Once a sales applicant or lettings applicant persona exists for a lead, you can book a viewing - the appointment where they visit a property on the market.
For a lettings applicant, the applicant row on the lead's persona card has a Book viewing button. Selecting it opens the booking panel in the action panel on the right.
For a sales applicant, open their record from the Sales Applicants list and select Book viewing in the header. A drawer opens with the same booking steps. See How do I see a sales applicant's search?.
For any applicant, without opening the lead or the record first, you can also add a viewing straight from the Diary: select New appointment or click an empty slot, choose Viewing as the event type, then pick the property and the applicant. See Using the Diary. The rest of this article covers the booking panel used from a lead or a sales applicant's record.
Choosing the property
A viewing is booked against a property on the market, so the panel first needs to know which one:
If the lead was created from an enquiry about a specific property, that property is used automatically and you go straight to the timeline.
Otherwise - or if you want a different property - a property picker appears. Search by address or postcode (and optionally a minimum number of bedrooms), then select the listing. The list is scoped to the side of the market the persona is on: a sales applicant sees properties for sale, a lettings applicant sees properties to let.
From a sales applicant's record, the applicant's matches are listed first, ten at a time - use the arrows below the list to see more. Below them, Search all listings finds any other property for sale or under offer. Withdrawn and completed properties aren't offered.
Once a property is chosen the timeline appears, and a back arrow sits at the top left of the panel header - use it to return to the picker and choose a different property.
What the panel shows
Once a property is set, the panel reads top to bottom in the order the booking is made up:
The property - a compact row with a small photo, the price and status, the address and rooms, and View property, which opens the property's record in a new tab so the booking stays where it is. When the property is under offer, a line below says to check with the vendor (or landlord) before confirming.
Next available - the first free times on the day shown (see below).
The availability timeline (below) - capped at half the panel's height and scrolled inside, so a long staff list can't push the rest out of reach.
The booking details, once you've picked a slot.
The applicant isn't named again in the panel: they're the lead or record you opened it from.
Finding an open slot
With the property set, a staff availability timeline appears - the same one used for market appraisals. It shows one row per negotiator, with the day's hours across the top and the appointments already in each diary, so free gaps are easy to spot. Cancelled appointments aren't shown here - their time is free again, so the slot is offered as bookable. (The Diary still shows them, where they're part of the record of the day.)
Next available today (or First available on another day you've moved to) offers up to four free times on the day shown as buttons, each with a negotiator who is free for the whole booking. They're half-hour starts between 9am and 6pm, from the next half hour when the day is today, and the property's own negotiator is offered first when they're free. Select one to pick that slot, exactly as if you'd clicked it on the timeline. When nothing on the day shown is free in those hours, it says so instead; use the date arrows to try another day.
Other offices - use the Timeline preferences button (the settings icon at the top right) to search for and add negotiators from other offices.
Change day - use the arrows or the date button (which opens a calendar) to move between days.
Today - when the day is today a line marks the current time, and the timeline opens scrolled to the current hour so the next free slots are already in view. Times earlier in the day are greyed out and can't be booked.
Making the booking
Click an open slot in a negotiator's row, or one of the Next available times, to start the booking. The bar below the timeline says Pick a time to continue until you do, then names the day and negotiator you picked (the property is already identified by the row above):
Length - the select beside it, from 15 minutes to 2 hours (1 hour to begin with). It also sets how much of the timeline a slot covers as you hover. Change it after picking a time and the booking keeps its start and takes the new length.
Start and End - the visit's times, seeded from the slot you picked. Type into either field, use the time picker, or nudge with the up/down arrow keys (in five-minute steps). Length follows what you type, and shows a length that isn't one of its choices (such as 1 hour 15 min) as it is. The end must be after the start, and a time that has already passed today can't be booked.
Notes - select Add notes to show the field and add anything the negotiator should know before the visit.
If the times you've picked clash with something already in that negotiator's diary, a warning names the clashing appointment. This doesn't stop the booking - pick a different time, or select Book anyway to go ahead with the clash.
The appointment type is a Viewing, and the applicant is added as the appointment's attendee automatically - linked to their applicant record, not just the underlying contact, so viewing feedback and any subsequent offer stay connected to it. If you're the negotiator the viewing is booked with, you're marked as confirmed straight away. Cancel and Book sit at the bottom of the panel when you book from a lead; Book is available once you've picked a slot. Select Book to confirm - the appointment is saved and appears in the diary.
From a lead, the panel then switches from the timeline to the new appointment's own details, where the next moves are: confirm the attendees, add follow-up notes, or amend it. From a sales applicant's record, the new viewing opens in its own details sheet in place of the drawer, the same sheet the Viewings tab and the Diary open it in, so you can check it or Edit it straight away.
After booking
Once a viewing is booked, a Viewing booked banner appears as a line across the top of the lead's record card, showing the appointment's date and time, at any column width. The banner tracks the applicant's next upcoming viewing - whichever property it's against, and whether or not it was booked from this lead. Cancelled viewings are ignored, so the banner always names a live appointment.
On a lettings applicant's row, the Book viewing button stays regardless: the banner reports what's already arranged, while the button is how you arrange another (an applicant can view several properties, and a cancelled viewing usually needs replacing). Once the applicant has a viewing of the property they enquired about, upcoming or past, the button reads Book another viewing instead, so it doesn't look as though nothing is booked.
Selecting an appointment on the timeline - or the booked banner on the lead - opens its details panel, where you can edit it in place - change the property, reschedule to a new date/time, or change and remove participants - and cancel it from the Danger zone at the bottom of the panel. You can also record what happened afterwards on the Follow-up tab. See How do I view, change or cancel an appointment? for how the appointment details panel works, and How do I record an appointment follow-up? for the follow-up itself.