Set Engineer Availability and Working Hours
Accurate availability is the foundation of a well-run schedule. When Trade2Base knows when each engineer works — and when they're on holiday, training, or otherwise unavailable — you'll never accidentally double-book or schedule a job on a day off. This guide walks through setting up working hours, marking unavailable days, and keeping everything up to date.
Setting weekly working hours per engineer
Each engineer in Trade2Base has their own working hours schedule. This is separate from your general business hours and reflects when that specific person is available to be assigned jobs.
Click the gear icon at the bottom of the sidebar to open Settings, then select "Team" from the left menu.
Click any engineer's name to open their profile. You'll see a tab called "Availability" — click it.
Toggle on the days this engineer works. For each day, set a start time and end time. For example: Monday–Friday, 08:00–17:00. Engineers can also have different hours on different days — useful for part-time staff or those who work shorter Fridays.
Toggle on the lunch break option to mark a period mid-day as unavailable for scheduling. Set the start and end time. This period will show as blocked in the scheduling calendar.
Click "Save availability". Changes take effect immediately in the scheduling calendar.
Marking unavailable days — holiday and training
One-off unavailability — like annual leave, training courses, sickness cover, or a bank holiday — is managed separately from the weekly schedule. These are added as date-specific blocks that override the regular hours.
In the engineer's Availability tab, scroll to "Date exceptions" and click "Add exception". Pick a date, choose the reason (Holiday, Training, Sickness, Other), and click Save. That day will appear blocked in the calendar.
For a week or fortnight of annual leave, click "Add exception" and toggle on "Date range". Set the start and end dates. All days in the range are blocked, including any normally working days.
If an engineer is away for a morning only (for example, a training course until midday), set the exception as a partial day by specifying the start and end time rather than the full day.
All exceptions are listed under the "Date exceptions" section. Click the pencil icon to edit or the bin icon to remove an exception if plans change.
How availability affects the scheduling calendar
The Trade2Base scheduling calendar uses availability to show you at a glance who is free to take a job and when.
Time slots outside an engineer's working hours, or on blocked days, appear grey in the calendar. You cannot drag a job into a grey slot — Trade2Base will warn you if you try.
The daily header for each engineer shows a coloured capacity bar: green (plenty of space), amber (nearly full), or red (fully booked). This updates in real time as jobs are scheduled.
When you're assigning a job, Trade2Base filters the engineer list to show only those available during the job's scheduled time. Engineers who are on holiday or outside their working hours appear greyed out with a tooltip explaining why.
If you manually schedule a job outside an engineer's normal hours (managers can override the block), Trade2Base flags it with an amber warning icon on the calendar so you can review it.
Bulk availability updates
If you need to update availability for the whole team at once — for example, a company-wide bank holiday closure or a team training day — use the bulk update tool instead of editing engineers one by one.
Go to Settings → Team → Bulk Availability. This view shows all engineers on a single screen.
Tick the engineers you want to update. Use "Select all" to choose the whole team, or hold Shift to select a range.
Choose the type of update: block a specific date range (e.g., Christmas closure), update regular working hours for all selected engineers, or copy one engineer's schedule to others.
Trade2Base shows a preview of how the change will affect the calendar before you commit. Review for any jobs already scheduled in the affected period, then click "Apply".
Applying a bulk block does not automatically move jobs already scheduled in that period. Trade2Base will flag any conflicts so you can reschedule them manually. Always check the conflict list after a bulk update.
Next steps
With availability set up, explore the scheduling calendar views — the day, week, and list views all use availability data to guide your scheduling decisions. You can also sync engineer schedules with Google Calendar or Outlook so engineers see their jobs alongside their personal commitments.
Still need help? Contact support
Trade2Base keeps your calendar conflict-free with engineer availability built in from day one.
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