A staff member in Opencals is a bookable person — the stylist, trainer, or consultant a customer picks when they book. This guide walks through adding staff members, giving each one a schedule, and assigning the locations and services they cover, so every booking is matched to the right person.
Add each bookable person under Staff, fill in their name, email and slug, then assign a schedule, the locations they work at, and the services they provide. A staff member becomes bookable once they're linked to at least one service. Assignments save automatically while you edit, and you can optionally link a dashboard login so the person can sign in.
Before you start
You'll need admin access to your Opencals dashboard. It helps to have your services and schedules created first, but you can add staff in any order and assign the rest later. Each plan includes a set number of staff members, so if you hit your limit you'll be prompted to upgrade before creating more.
A staff member is different from a user: a staff member is a bookable resource, while a user is someone who can log in to the dashboard. The two are separate, and you can optionally link them (covered in Step 5). Managing who can log in and what they're allowed to do is a separate topic — see Add team members and set permissions.
Step 1 — Open the Staff page and create a member
Go to Staff in the dashboard. This lists everyone you've added, with columns for Name, Email, Schedule, Locations, Products and Integrations. Click Create to add a new person.
| Name | Schedule | Locations | Products | Integrations | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
SJSarah Johnson | sarah@brightstudio.com | Full-time | Downtown | 3 product(s) | 1 integration(s) |
APAlex Park | alex@brightstudio.com | Weekends | Downtown | 2 product(s) | - |
MRMaria Ruiz | maria@brightstudio.com | Empty | - | 1 product(s) | - |
Each row shows an avatar — the staff member's photo, or their initials if they haven't uploaded one — next to their full name. Click any row to open that person's edit screen.
No staff members found
Create Staff MemberIf you haven't added anyone yet, the list shows an empty state with a Create Staff Member button.
Step 2 — Fill in the general info
The General info card holds the basics. Only three fields are required:
General info
- First name — required; the person's given name.
- Last name — optional. First and last name together form the display name shown across the dashboard.
- Email — required; a valid email address for the staff member.
- Slug — required. This is the identifier used in the staff member's booking URL. It's generated automatically from the name (lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens), and you can edit it.
- Photo — optional. Upload an image; if you skip it, the avatar falls back to the person's initials.
Pick a slug you won't change later
The slug appears in booking links. It's set from the name by default, but if you edit it, keep it short and stable — changing it later changes the URL customers may have bookmarked.
Step 3 — Assign a schedule
Still on the General info card, the Schedule field sets this person's working hours. Pick one of your existing schedules from the dropdown.
Each staff member has a single schedule. If you leave it blank, the staff member inherits the schedule of the services they provide. Customers can only book at times where the staff member's schedule and the service's availability overlap.
Availability is the overlap
If a staff member shows no bookable times, check that their schedule intersects with the service's availability. Bookings appear only where both are open.
Step 4 — Assign locations and services
The second card is where you make the staff member bookable and control where and what they can be booked for. In edit mode these fields save automatically the moment you change them — there's no separate Save button for them.
- Locations — assign the locations where this staff member works. Customers booking at a location only see the staff assigned to it.
- Services — assign the products (services) this staff member can provide. A staff member must be linked to at least one service to be bookable.
- Add-ons — assign the add-ons this staff member can deliver, on top of their services.
- Integrations — shown for reference. Calendar integrations are now managed per-user under Integrations and assign automatically to whoever connects them, so this field is read-only.
Staff created but not bookable?
The most common cause is a staff member with no services assigned. Add at least one service under Services and confirm their schedule overlaps with it.
Step 5 — Link a dashboard user account (optional)
At the bottom of the assignments card, User account lets you link this staff member to a dashboard login. Use it when the person needs to sign in — to see their own calendar, for example. Link a user account for dashboard access, then set what they can do under team permissions.
Leaving it unlinked is fine: the staff member stays a bookable resource without a login. Calendar sync is handled per-user under Integrations once the person connects their own Google Calendar.
Frequently asked questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Keep going
Set up your services
Create the services your staff provide, then assign each staff member to the ones they cover.
Manage schedules
Build the working-hours schedules you assign to staff so availability lands at the right times.
Manage locations
Set up your locations so you can assign each staff member to the places they work.
Staff members feature
See how Opencals handles bookable staff, per-person availability and assignments.
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