# Tell Mucka how you run your diary

Source: https://help.mucka.ai/settings/how-you-run-your-diary
Category: Settings
Last updated: 2026-09-01

> Pick exact start times, morning and afternoon, your own slots, or overlapping arrival windows — and stop Mucka calling a deliberate overlap a clash.

Not every business gives customers a time the same way. Some say "Tuesday at nine". Some say "Tuesday morning". Some work like a delivery firm and tell four people "sometime between eleven and two", then work through them in order.

Mucka used to assume the first one. That's why some owners got told they were double-booked on jobs that were perfectly fine.

## Where to find it

**Settings → Work → Diary.** You need the *manage workspace* permission to change it.

## The four ways to work

### Exact start times

The default, and what Mucka has always done. You give someone a time and turn up at it. If you try to put two jobs on the same engineer at the same time, Mucka stops you and asks first.

Pick this if you book proper appointments.

### Morning or afternoon

You promise half a day rather than an hour — "we'll be with you Tuesday morning". That half-day then belongs to that customer, and nothing else goes in it, including anything the AI receptionist books.

### Your own time slots

Same idea, but you set the slots: 8 to 10, 10 to 12, 1 to 3. One customer per slot.

### Overlapping windows

This is the one for you if you work like a delivery firm.

You set slots that **overlap on purpose** — 9:30 to 12, 11 to 2, 12 to 3 — and several customers can sit inside the same stretch of the day. You're not promising to be at all of them at once. You're promising to turn up somewhere in that window, and you work down the list.

On this setting Mucka counts **the work**, not the window. So six customers all told "sometime this afternoon" is a normal afternoon, not six clashes.

<Callout icon="clock">
  **Put the real length of the job in.** If a call takes you an hour, put an hour — not the three-hour window you gave the customer. The job length is what Mucka now measures, so if you keep entering the width of the slot it will still think you're busy.
</Callout>

It also stops the "no travel time" warning on this setting. Working straight through a list is how the job gets done, not a mistake worth flagging every morning.

## What never changes

**Two jobs on the same engineer at the same minute is always stopped**, whichever setting you pick. One van can't be on two doorsteps. Mucka will still tell you and still let you go ahead if you really mean it.

Your **opening hours** are a separate setting, under Settings → Business → Details. Those are the hours you're open; this is how you hand times out inside them.

## Booking a job into a slot

Once you're on morning/afternoon, your own slots or overlapping windows, booking a job asks **which slot** rather than which minute. Pick "11 to 2" and that's what goes on the job, and that's what the customer's confirmation text says.

**"An exact time" stays on the list**, whichever setting you're on. An emergency at half past two isn't a delivery slot, and Mucka won't pretend it is.

On overlapping windows, several jobs can share a slot. Mucka spaces them through it in the order you'll actually work them — three jobs in an 11-to-2 window land at 11, 12 and 1 in your diary, while all three customers are told "between 11 and 2".

**Opening a job that's already in a slot shows you that slot**, so you can see what the customer was promised and move it to a different one if you need to. Changing the length of the job on that screen changes the work, not the promise — the customer still gets told the slot.

## Changing this setting later

You can change it whenever you like, and **jobs already in the diary keep the times you gave them**. Nothing gets moved.

What does change is what Mucka *shows* you. Go back to exact start times and the diary stops labelling old jobs with the slot they were sold as — it shows the real start and the length you booked. The customer's confirmation and reminder texts say the same thing, so nobody gets told "morning" for a job you've now got down as an hour.

<Callout icon="info">
  If you shorten a job and the diary looks like it hasn't taken, check this setting first. On morning/afternoon or your own slots, a job's card shows **the slot you promised**, not how long the work takes — that's the whole point of it. The length is still saved; it's what decides whether you're double-booked.
</Callout>

## Not done yet

- **Your AI receptionist still keeps its own copy of this setting** for now, under AI Receptionist → Settings. Change it in both places until they're joined up.
- **"A number of jobs a day, no times at all"** is designed but not switched on yet.