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.
- It shows on your Google or Outlook calendar as a pencil. It's titled Pencilled and marked tentative, so you can tell it from a real booking, and it turns into a normal booking when you confirm it. If you'd rather only confirmed work went on there, switch off Pencilled bookings on your calendar in Settings → Work → Diary.
- 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. It's on the pencilled banner, on the job pop-up from the diary and on the full job page; on your phone it's also at the top of the status list on the diary card, as Book it in….
That opens one short form, so booking it is one step instead of four:
- Book it as: the status it goes to, from your own list. Mucka remembers the one you picked last time, so if you use a status of your own called Booked, it starts there.
- Getting in: what the tenant or customer said. Someone will be home, Key collect, and so on.
- Key safe, codes, parking: the notes kept on the property, so you can put the key safe code in while you're there. Every future job at that address shows them.
- Who hears about it: exactly who will get the booking confirmation, by text or email, before you press anything. If nobody will (confirmations switched off, nobody with a number, or a status that isn't a booked one), it says so and why.
Press Book it and 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. If the engineer is already booked at that time, it tells you who's in the way and offers Book anyway.
To change the day or time, use Change the time on the same form. It takes you to the full job form, where the time and arrival windows live.
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.
Can't make that time?
Sometimes the time that was pencilled in just won't work. The parts won't be in, the day has filled up, or the job needs longer than the slot. Next to Confirm booking there's Can't make it? It's also on the booking card your receptionist leaves you, as Can't make that time?
It gives you two choices:
- Ask them to pick another time. Mucka texts and emails the customer to say sorry and why, and the email carries a link where they pick a new time from your diary. The old time comes out of your diary straight away. The job stays pencilled with no date until they pick, and their pick comes back to you as a card, the same as any booking. Approve it and they get your usual booking confirmation.
- Say sorry, can't take it on. Mucka tells them you can't do it this time and why, and the booking comes out of your diary.
Pick a reason (parts won't be in, fully booked that day, needs a longer slot) or write your own. They see it, so write it the way you'd say it to them. When you're asking them to pick again, you can also set Don't offer anything before: the link won't show any time earlier than that day. Mucka fills it in for you when it can: with the first day the job's service can be booked, if that service needs notice (a boiler install set to three working days, say), or the day the last part is due if you're tracking parts on the job, whichever is later. It says which under the date.
You see the text and the email in full before anything goes, and you can change any of the words. A text can't carry a link (phone networks block them), so the text says the link is in their email. If there's no email address on file for them, the text asks them to get in touch instead and adds your number.
Nothing changes in your diary unless at least one message actually went. If neither could go (no mobile, no email, or they've replied STOP), it tells you, and you can ring them instead.
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.