The first step is to define the basic parameters for the evening – what it is, where it is, when it is and who it is for. Enter a title for the evening together with the venue, date and starting time of the first appointments. These will appear at the top of the appointment lists.

The second time is the time at which the last appointment finishes. Enter the length of each appointment in minutes. You can choose to leave a gap between parent appointments equal to the appointment length, equal to double the appointment length or leave no gap at all. No gap is left automatically between teacher appointments although one may occur depending on the scheduling.

You can if you wish leave a break so that staff can take a breather or you can make general announcements to parents. The default is no break. Remember that the break should be an exact number of appointments long. Otherwise, you can add gaps for teachers on an individual basis. Click the ‘Populate Staff & Parents’ button then ‘Edit Staff’ – now you can click the ‘Apps’ button and double click any times to be added as breaks (they will change from the default "Yes" to a "No")

When appointments are selected you can choose to favour either parents or staff in the selection, i.e. make their appointments as close together as possible. This value is set globally by the System Manager.

The text of the messages is printed on the relevant appointments slips. It can be used for communicating information such as the absence of a particular member of staff.

Tutor appointments – if the checkbox is ticked appointments will be created with the pupil’s tutor as well as with their teachers.

Max tutor appointments – if left as zero the system will attempt to create as many appointments as possible within the designated time. If any other number is entered, the system will only create this maximum number of appointments for any teacher.

Pupil years – select one or more school years. If desired, you also can include Real Time activities and Timetable exception groups by highlighting the relevant option at the bottom of the years pick list.