**Note that removing the contacts will not remove any contacts who have logged in during the previous two months or any contacts who have created an appointment in the last two months. The "remove all contacts" will not remove any students who have enrollment in any events on your account.**
**IMPORTANT NOTE: **If you have any changes to key fields (for example, if new teachers will be using departing teachers' teacherIDs), then you will also want to have your previous conference contact information deleted. Or if your student ID's have changed for each student, you will want to remove the stored students.
# Checklist In order to set up your Parent‐Teacher Conference event using the PTA scheduler you will need to follow these steps: [**1. SETUP YOUR EVENT**](https://help.pickatime.com/books/simple-pta-setup-guide/page/step-one-setup-event "STEP ONE: Setup Event") You will need to create your conference event and name it appropriately for your conference (e.g. Fall 2026 Conferences) [**2. ADD OR IMPORT YOUR TEACHERS**](https://help.pickatime.com/books/simple-pta-setup-guide/page/step-two-add-or-import-teachers "STEP TWO: Add or Import Teachers") Our system will need information a new teacher file [**3. CREATE SLOTS FOR THE EVENT**](https://help.pickatime.com/books/simple-pta-setup-guide/page/step-three-create-slots "STEP THREE: Create Slots") After verifying your data you can create the time slots (including the dates, times and duration of appointments. [**4. CONFIGURE SETTINGS **](https://help.pickatime.com/books/simple-pta-setup-guide/page/step-four-adjust-settings "STEP FOUR: Adjust Settings") **Appointment Settings** There are several appointment settings that you can modify for the specifics of your event. **Configure Notifications (optional)** The pickAtime system offers the capability of sending out email confirmations and email reminder notices. You may choose to modify the default settings for these emails. [**5. TRY IT OUT**](https://help.pickatime.com/books/simple-pta-setup-guide/page/step-five-try-it-out "STEP FIVE: Try it Out") # STEP ONE: Setup Event #### Create Your Event When you first log in to your account from the pickAtime home page, you will be in the Admin tool and on the Event Reporting page. 1. Select the [**Events/Preview**](https://help.pickatime.com/books/additional-event-features/page/events-preview-page) button on the pickAdminUI sidebar (left side). 2. Click on the green Add button. 3. Enter in a name for your event, for example, "Fall 2026 Conferences." 4. Select type of **Simple PTA** 5. If you have previously used pickAtime, you will then have a pull down where you can select a template from one of your previous events. The template will determine the starting settings (from the UI Setup, Notification Setup, and CUI Messages pages) for your event. 6. Select the event time zone. 7. Optionally, you can add the Date and Location for your event. You will then see a row listed for your event. The date and location column can be left blank. They are used to differentiate the different events when more than one event is available. The date field is simply a label. If your conference has multiple dates, you can list all dates in this column, or you can leave it blank. For any event, you can also use the Event Details box on the screen to fill in any event-specific information that you may want to use in the display of your scheduler or in your emails for this event. Any text that you add in the Event Details box will be available as a macro field that you can use in your CUI Messages or in your Notification Setup. The macro for the Event Details is $(E\_DESCRIPTION). If you've used the system before and you will be importing new data, you can now delete the previous event(s). To delete an event click on the button. Doing so after you have created the new event will allow you to use your previous conference event as a template for your new conference event. Please also confirm that your new event is of type Simple PTA.If you have multiple dates for your Parent‐Teacher Conferences, you do not need to create multiple events. Any event can have any number of dates on it.
**Deleting your Contacts** To remove all contacts (parents, teachers, and students) from your account, go into the **Global Setup / Contacts Setup** tab. At the bottom of the page, you will see a button **Remove all customers**. This will remove all contacts from the database. Selecting this button will bring up a pull‐down where you will have the option of deleting your contacts by administrative access level. You would use this button if you would like to remove all previous login information from your parents. Note, that this will not remove any contact with full-powered Administrative access. Also, it will not remove any parent who has logged in during the previous month. # STEP TWO: Add or Import Teachers #### **Manually Add in Teachers** On the **Event Management** page of the Admin UI, select the Appointments tab. To copy your teacher roster from last time: - Select the Teachers drop-down - Then select Copy Teachers Once you have copied your teacher data from the old event, you can delete the old event. To start with a new roster, you will add each teacher one by one. To add a teacher: - Select the Add Teacher option from the Teachers drop-down. - A Select Person dialog box will come up. Here you can search for an existing teacher name by entering the teacher's name in the Search control area. If you locate the teacher, select the teacher's name. When you see the correct information on the right-hand side, press Select. To add a new teacher: - Enter the teacher's Last Name, First Name, and email address on the left-hand side and press the Add New button in the Select Person dialog box. Then press Ok. You should now see the teacher's name listed on your teacher list on the right-hand side. Continue this process until you have added all your teachers. #### **OR Import a Teacher File** ##### **Create the File** This file lists all the teachers. The teacher file must contain the following fields: **TeacherID** identifies the teacher **First** contains the first name of the teacher **Last** contains the last name of the teacher **Email** contains the teacher's email address. Only one email address should be entered here. **Room** is where the teacher will be at the parent‐teacher conferences. This does not have to be the same room that the class is held in. This field can be helpful for reporting purposes. If you use this field, you can then produce a report by room number.| TeacherID | First | Last | Room | |
| 234 | Angela | Frank | a@school.com | 106 |
| 225 | Bobby | Smith | b@school.com | Library |
This table must be provided in a tab‐delimited text file (MS Excel ‐> \*.txt (Tab delimited); Google Sheets ‐ > \*.tsv (Tab delimited).
The first row should contain the column titles. The column titles must be labeled exactly as listed above. Notice that none of the column titles have spaces in them. **TeacherID** is the key field on this file and must be unique. **Email** must also be unique. **Password** is an optional field **Other Optional Columns** **Password** creates an initial password for your teachers. If you do not import a password when the teacher logs in they will be prompted to create a password. The password must be at least 6 characters in length.Once the teachers have taken ownership of their account and created a password the import will not change the password. However, on the Global Setup / Contacts Setup page, you can reset the password for all your teachers. This is the reset administrative password button.
**Virtual Room** is used to import an online meeting link for the teacher if you are having Virtual Conferences or allowing a choice of In‐Person or Virtual conferences. It is only used when you are creating your own meeting links for your teachers. If you are using the pickAtime integration for online meetings, the link will be generated automatically. **AccessLevel** allows you to set the Admin level for your teachers. An AccessLevel of 3 will provide your teachers with Resource Administrator access, and they will then be able to block their own schedule. The default access level for a teacher is Appointment Viewer. **GroupName** allows you to classify a teacher with a GroupName (e.g., Middle School Teacher, Science Teacher). This is useful if you want to create different slots for different groups of teachers. For example, if all your Middle School Teachers needed 15-minute slots and all your High School Teachers needed 20-minute slots, you might set a group name for your teachers, and then create slots for the entire group. The Group Name can also be used on the parent scheduling page to display teachers under the Group Name. A column called **Action** can be created in order to delete an existing entry. If you need to delete previously uploaded data, you could resubmit the data file with this column title and the word delete entered in each row. This column defaults to "update" if the column is not present. The Action column is only needed if you will be deleting data. ##### **Import your File** Once you have created your teacher file, you are ready to import this file to your pickAtime account. The file must be a tab‐delimited text file. Locate the Importer under Main Navigation on the left side. 1. After logging into pickAtime, click Importer. 2. Select Data Type of School. 3. Select your event from the Event pull‐down. 4. Set the File Type to teachers 5. Click Browse and locate your teacher file on your computer 6. Click on Import If you leave out some data, you can simply import the missing data. ##### **Error Messages on Import** Found contact with teacherid of ABC and a different contact with the email of betsy@noemail.com This message indicates that you have a row in your teacher file with teacherID ABC and email address betsy@noemail.com. However, in the Admin UI, you already have a contact with a teacherID of ABC and a different email address than betsy@noemail.com, AND a contact with the email address of betsy@noemail.com and a different teacherID than ABC. For example, on your import file, you have this: TeacherID Email ABC betsy@noemail.com But in the Admin UI, you have two different contacts. TeacherID Email ABC annie@noemail.com DEF betsy@noemail.com You need to correct your data in the Admin UI and then re‐import your teacher file. In the Admin UI, search for the contact with that email address that was flagged. If the contact you locate has a different teacherID than on your teacher file, and is an old contact, then delete that contact and re‐import your teacher file. During the teacher file import, we look for a matching teacherID record or a matching email address record. If we find a match on either, we update the rest of the information. For example, if we find a matching teacherID, we update the email address and name of the teacher. If we find a matching email address, we update the teacherID and the name of the teacher. However, if we find two different contact records, one with a matching teacherID and one with a matching email address, we do not know which one should be updated, and we flag this error. #### **View Your Data** Once you have imported your data, you should go to the **Appointments** page to confirm that your teacher list on the right-hand side is correct. # STEP THREE: Create Slots ### **Creating Slots** To get started, go to **Events > Preview**, select your event, then click the Appointments tab. From the left-hand calendar, select the date you want to work with. Then open the Slots drop-down and choose Create Slots. #### **Step 1: Choose which teachers to create slots for** In the slot generator, choose whether to create slots for selected teachers or all teachers/resources. To select multiple teachers, hold Ctrl while clicking names in the right-hand panel. #### **Step 2: Set your time and duration**| **Field** | **Description** |
| From | Start time of the first slot |
| To | End time of the last slot |
| Duration | Length of each appointment (in minutes) |
| Travel Break | Optional gap between appointments |
Example: 10-minute slots with a 5-minute travel break create slots at 8:00–8:10, 8:15–8:25, 8:30–8:40, and so on.
Note: If you need a break that doesn't align with your slot duration (e.g., 20-minute slots but a 40-minute lunch break), create slots in two batches — one before the break and one after.
#### **Step 3: Choose appointment type**| **Type** | **Description** | **Indicator** |
| In-Person | Parents receive room/location info | P |
| Virtual | Parents receive a meeting link | V |
| In-Person or Virtual | Parents choose their preferred format | PV |
| **Option** | **What it does** |
| Visible for Customer | Available for online booking |
| Hidden from Customer | Hidden from parents; visible in Admin UI only |
| Shown with "Call" Status | Visible to parents, but they're prompted to call the school to book |
| Make Unavailable | Visible in Admin UI but not bookable online (use for lunch breaks, meetings, etc.) |
Tip: If you created identical slots for all teachers at once, individual slots won't display until you click a specific teacher's name in the right-hand panel.
### **Updating Existing Slots** Use Update Slots to change the characteristics of existing slots without deleting and recreating them. To access it, go to the Appointments tab, select a date and teacher, then choose **Slots > Update Slots** from the drop-down. **You can update:** - Appointment type (e.g., switch from in-person to virtual) - Maximum appointments per slot - Slot visibility (hidden, unavailable, etc.)Important: Update Slots does not change start times, end times, or appointment duration. To change those, you must delete and recreate the slots.
The "Keep existing slot type on slots being updated" checkbox is useful when teachers have already blocked parts of their schedules — it lets you change appointment type without affecting slot type.
### **Blocking Slots** Blocking is the preferred way to temporarily remove availability without permanently deleting a slot. To block a slot, go to the Appointments page and click the X in the corner of the slot. It will turn red and display "Blocked." You can enter a custom message (e.g., "Lunch Break" or "Staff Meeting"). To unblock it, click the X again to restore it to available.Blocked slots appear on reports when the Show All Slots option is enabled.
### **Deleting Slots** Use Delete Time Slots when you need to permanently remove slots. To access it, go to the Appointments tab, select a date and teacher, then choose Slots > Delete Time Slots. If appointments already exist on those slots, a second dialog will appear with these options: - Move appointments to the red Appointments List (a holding area where you can manually rebook or cancel them) - Cancel appointments without sending a notification - Cancel appointments and send a cancellation emailTip: Review whether parents need a cancellation notification before confirming any deletion.
### **Moving Slots** Use Move Slots to transfer an entire day's slots — and any existing appointments — to a new date. This is useful for school closures, rescheduled conference days, or teacher availability changes. To access it, go to the Appointments tab, select a date and teacher, then choose Slots > Move Slots. In the dialog, select the destination date, choose whether to move slots for all teachers or selected teachers, and confirm. Existing appointments transfer to the new date with all parent information intact. Appointment times remain the same.Important: Calendar notification emails are not sent automatically. Advise parents to update any calendar entries they've saved.
You can send a custom notification email to affected parents explaining the change. ### **Copying Slots** Use Copy Slots to duplicate a day's slot structure to another date or teacher — without copying existing appointments. This is helpful when multiple days share the same schedule, or when you want to quickly replicate one teacher's setup for another. To access it, go to the Appointments tab, select a date and teacher, then choose Slots > Copy Slots. Select the destination date and/or teacher(s) and confirm. Slot visibility, appointment type, and availability settings are all preserved. If you also need appointments to transfer, use Move Slots instead. ### **Changing Slot Duration or Times** You cannot modify slot start times, end times, or duration in place. To change any of these, you must: 1. Delete the slots you want to change (or all slots for that day) 2. Recreate them with the correct settings **Example**: If you have 10-minute slots from 8:00 AM–2:00 PM but want 9:00 AM–1:00 PM instead, delete the 8:00–9:00 AM and 1:00–2:00 PM slots (or delete all and start fresh), then create the new schedule. ### **Quick Reference: Which Tool to Use?**| **Situation** | **Use** |
| Temporarily remove availability | Block Slots |
| Permanently remove slots | Delete Time Slots |
| Change appointment type or visibility | Update Slots |
| Reschedule an entire day | Move Slots |
| Duplicate a schedule to another day or teacher | Copy Slots |
| Change slot duration or times | Delete + Recreate |
| **Color** | **Meaning** |
| Blue | Available |
| Red | Blocked |
| Grey | Teacher is booked elsewhere (team meeting or personal appointment) |
| Yellow | Time has passed |
IMPORTANT NOTE: The event URL you see listed on this page will take the customer directly to the event. However, if you have any other open events on your account, the event table will be displayed to the customer, and they will be able to toggle to the other events. You can use the Category Option if you want to direct a parent to a certain event without an option to toggle to the other opened event on the account. The Scheduling link for the category would display a scheduler for the event(s) that fall in the category.
#### **Scheduler Display** - **Display in a Condensed/Expanded mode -** pickAtime offers both **Condensed** and **Expanded** scheduler views, so users can choose the experience that works best for their scheduling style and screen space. - **Condensed View -** Best for users who want to see more availability with less scrolling. The Condensed view uses variable time steps, creating a cleaner and more compact layout. This option is helpful for smaller screens or users who want to quickly browse open times without focusing on exact interval spacing. - **Expanded View -** Best for users who prefer a traditional scheduling layout with fixed time increments. Expanded view displays fixed time slots in consistent intervals, making it easier to visually search for appointments of a specific length or compare gaps between appointments. This view closely matches the classic scheduler experience and can be preferred by long-time users familiar with the original CUI. Users can switch between views at any time using the toggle button located in the top-left corner of the scheduler. - Display multiple dates with a **Paginator** or a **Calendar**. The **Paginator** option will allow the parent to see multiple dates on the same page. The **Calendar** option will display one day at a time to the parent, with a small calendar displayed where the parent can select a different date. #### **Scheduler Display Limits** - **Display X weeks of slots ****xxx slots on the scheduling page** - This setting determines how many days or weeks are shown on the parent scheduling page at one time. This only applies if Paginator was selected under the Scheduler Display. #### **Teacher Display** - **Display resource description** - If you have added a description to the Resource Name, then it will be displayed on the parent scheduling page. This displays when the small info icon above the teacher's name is clicked. - **Display class names** - If you have added Class Names to the Appointments page, then checking this box will show the class names on the parent scheduling page. This displays when the small info icon above the teacher's name is clicked. #### **Teacher's Group Name** - **Sort by Group Name** - This section allows you to group your teachers. For example, you might want to group all your Lower School teachers together, and then have a grouping for Middle or Upper School teachers. Enter your group names in this section, then go to the Appointments page on the right-hand side, where you can see the list of teachers. There is the Group Name column, from which you can select a category from a drop-down, so you can assign each teacher to a Group. #### **Miscellaneous** - **Require parents to select their student name from a drop-down when booking an appointment (requires that students have been imported to the account)**- This is used when you want a parent to attach a pre-imported student to their account. ### **Advanced Settings** #### **Online Meeting Provider** - **Use 'X' for online meetings** - Select from the drop-down menu which Online Meeting Provider you want to use for this event. #### **Multiple Appointment Booking** - **Allow a parent to make conflicting appointments for themselves** - If this box is checked, the parent will be able to make more than one appointment at the same time. #### **Appointment Changes** - **Allow customers to see and cancel past appointments** - Check this box to allow your customer to see and cancel past appointments - **Don't allow customers to change appointment time** - Check this if you do not want the participant to have the option to change the time of their appointment. ## **Notification Setup** The Notification tab in the Settings section allows you to toggle between the following options: **Confirmation Email / Cancellation Email / Reminder Email /Custom Email / Follow-up Email / Resource Notification Email / Calendar Event Notification**. #### **Confirmation Email** **Subject **- Allows you to change the text in the subject line of the email. **Header **- Allows you to change the text in the header line of the email. **Body** - Allows you to change the text in the body of the email. **Footer** - Allows you to change the text in the footer of the email. **Send Confirmation and Cancellation Emails** - Check this box if you would like a confirmation email sent after the appointment is made. This is generally left unchecked for schools. **Support Email** - Enter an email address in this box, and you will receive a reply when your customer selects "reply" in the confirmation, reminder, or cancellation emails. If you leave this blank, any replies will receive an automated email response directing them to contact the scheduling organisation. **Replace the Email Body with the Printable Schedule** - the recommended option is to check this box. Then your parent will receive an email with a table of their appointment schedule, instead of an individual email for each appointment. #### **Reminder Emails** ##### **Send Reminder Emails** Select Add and enter the time (in hours) prior to the appointment for which you would like an email reminder to be sent. You can add multiple times. The duplicated values are not allowed and would be removed automatically. There are two ways reminder emails are sent: - If the '**Replace the Email Body with the Printable Schedule of Appointments**' option is turned on, all your appointments will be grouped into one reminder email, sent a set number of hours before your first scheduled appointment. If you have appointments on multiple days, you will get a reminder email each day, listing all your upcoming appointments. For example, if reminders are set for 24 hours and 12 hours before the appointment time, you'll get two reminder emails, 24 and 12 hours before your first scheduled appointment. - If the '**Replace the Email Body with the Printable Schedule of Appointments**' option is turned off, you will get one reminder email for all appointments booked within the same hour. For example, if you have appointments at 9:00 AM, 9:15 AM, and 9:30 AM, they will be grouped into one reminder email. If you book more appointments at 10:15 AM and 10:30 AM, you will get two separate reminder emails: one for the 9:00 AM, 9:15 AM, and 9:30 AM appointments, and another for the 10:15 AM and 10:30 AM appointments. **Subject for combined email** - When a combination email will be sent, for example, when an appointment is cancelled and immediately rescheduled, the text here will be in the subject line of the combined email. ##### **Recommended Option** On the Confirmation and Reminder emails, you have the option to insert the printable schedule or appointments as the body of the email. The printable schedule or appointments is a table that summarises all the appointments a parent has booked. To include this option, check the "Replace the Email Body with the Printable Schedule or Appointments" box. When you check this box, your email will contain the Header text, the printable schedule, and the Footer text. See the CUI Messages / Print Schedule section for the formatting of the printable schedule. The format of the table of appointments that is included is referred to as the printable schedule, as this table will be the same as the table a parent would see if they clicked on the Printable Schedule link on the parent scheduling page. The information included in this table is set on the Settings /CUI Messages page under the Print Schedule section. When the "printable schedule or appointments" option is selected, one email will be sent containing the schedule of appointments made by the parent. The parent will not receive one email per appointment booked. ## **Configure CUI** The pickAtime system allows you to customise many of the display settings that your parents will see when booking appointments. To modify the CUI messages: - From the **Admin UI,** select the **Events / Preview** option on the dashboard. Then select your event from the list and click on the button. - Select the **Settings** tab and then the **CUI messages** tab. - On the left-hand side, you see many different labels that you can optionally modify. When you select a label, the right-hand side will display the text that will show up on the CUI. The text on any of these labels can be changed. - To edit the title on the login page for your scheduler, select **Sign In page / Welcome message\*** and edit the text on the right-hand side. - To add a logo to your scheduler, go to the [**Global Setup / Business page**](https://help.pickatime.com/books/additional-event-features/page/global-setup-business-page). Under the **Account Level Settings / Account Logo**, click on the Upload icon to upload your logo. To edit (or view) the HTML, select the HTML icon (<>) on the toolbar. # STEP FIVE: Try it Out 1. From the Admin UI on the **[Events / Preview ](https://help.pickatime.com/books/additional-event-features/page/events-preview-page)**page, select your event. Click on the Go To Event button to open the Event Management page. 2. Select the **Settings** tab and then the **UI Setup** tab. 3. To turn on the online scheduler so parents can use the website and schedule appointments, modify the **Open scheduler to customers on** and the **Close scheduler to customers on**. Any days that you want to make available for parents to schedule appointments should be within the start and end dates specified. To allow yourself (and other Administrators) access to the scheduler when it is closed to your parents, check the box "allow Admins access to the CUI at all times". View for yourself the appointment booking web page. The appointment URL is listed in the Account URL section at the bottom of the [**Global Setup / Business**](https://help.pickatime.com/books/additional-event-features/page/global-setup-business-page) page. To test out the system, you can click on the URL or copy and paste this URL into another browser window and try out the site as if you were a customer. You can customize this URL by checking the box **Set custom URL** and entering in your preferred URL name in the white box. The **Appointment URL** will change to reflect your selection, and the new URL will be available in approximately 5‐10 minutes. #### **Additional Checks** ##### **Is the URL that I've provided to my parents correct?** You can confirm your link by going to the **Global Setup / Business** page of the Admin UI. Under the **Appointment URL** **for customers** section, you will see the unique scheduling link for your school. Here you also have the option to customize your link. ##### **Are my slot durations correct?** The duration of your time slots can not be changed. If your slot duration is incorrect, you need to delete the incorrect slots and create slots with the correct duration. For example, if your parents start booking appointments every 15 minutes, and you then discover that you need 10‐minute slots, you will need to delete the 15‐minute slots and cancel the appointments. Then you will be able to create slots with a duration of 10 minutes.