Not every job is settled when you put it in the diary. He's ringing you back Thursday. She wants to check with her husband. The landlord has to get the tenant to agree a day. You want that slot held, but you don't want to promise anything yet.
That's a pencil. It goes in the diary like any other job and holds the time, but it's clearly marked as not confirmed, and nothing at all goes to the customer until you say so.
What a pencil does
- It holds the slot. Nobody else gets booked into that time, and your AI receptionist won't offer it to a caller.
- It shows shaded in the diary, with a pencil icon, so you can tell at a glance which bookings are real and which aren't.
- The customer hears nothing. No booking confirmation, no appointment reminder. Those only go out once you confirm it.
- It stays put until you deal with it. A pencil never quietly disappears to free up the time. Someone rang you and is sat there assuming it's in hand, so Mucka won't drop it behind your back.
Pencil one in
Just ask Mucka:
"Pencil Janet in for Thursday at two, boiler service."
"Provisionally book the Walkers for Tuesday morning, they're confirming tomorrow."
Or tick the box. When you add or edit a job, near the bottom of the form there's Pencil it in. Tick it and save.
Confirming it
Open the job and tap Confirm booking. That's the moment it becomes a real booking: the shading comes off, and if you've got booking confirmations or appointment reminders switched on, the customer's texts are queued then and not before.
You can also just tell Mucka: "confirm Janet's Thursday job".
If it's fallen through instead, delete the job as normal and the time frees up.
The AI receptionist pencils things in too
When your receptionist takes a booking on a call, it pencils it rather than booking it outright, and leaves you an approval card to tap. It's the same state, and the same rule applies: the caller is told the team will confirm the time, and nothing goes to them until you approve it. See your voice receptionist.
Common gotchas
- Pencils don't chase themselves. Because they never expire, a stale one will sit there holding a slot forever. They're shaded in the diary and badged Pencilled in your jobs list so they're easy to spot. Worth a scan now and again.
- A pencilled series is all-or-nothing. Pencil a recurring job and every visit in the series is pencilled too. Confirm the first one and the whole series confirms with it.
- It still counts as a clash. Because a pencil holds its time, booking something else into that slot gives you the usual double-booking warning. That's deliberate, and you can override it if you mean to.
- Don't pencil just because you're missing a detail. If you've got the job but not the postcode, book it properly and add the address after. A pencil is for when the job is uncertain, not the paperwork.