Scheduling, editing or cancelling a maintenance visit

Besides the visits that get scheduled automatically, you can create one yourself from the contract.

Schedule the visit from the contract

Note — this is the most common mistake. If you create a regular calendar appointment of the type Maintenance, that is not a maintenance visit. Such an appointment doesn't appear with the contract, doesn't count as "something is already scheduled", gets no reminder emails and can't be completed with the complete button. So always schedule a visit from the contract itself, using the button below.

1. Open the contract (via the customer, Maintenance tab).
2. Click New visit.
3. Choose a staff member — or leave it empty and assign later.
4. Pick a day in the calendar on the right; you immediately see what that staff member already has on. Set the start time and end time (the end time jumps to an hour later automatically).
5. Optionally fill in an internal note. That's for your own team only.
6. Want to inform the customer? Tick Notify customer by email. Use the question mark next to it to preview what that email looks like.
7. Click Schedule.

If the customer has no email address, that checkbox is disabled.

What the customer sees in that email

The confirmation email contains the contract title, the date and time, the customer's address and the name of the assigned staff member, plus a button to add the appointment to their own calendar. Your internal note is not included — that stays within your team.

Editing and cancelling

Click a visit in the Timeline or List on the contract. Under Edit visit you adjust status, staff member, times and note.

• Cancelling is done by setting the status to Cancelled. The customer gets no notice of this — let them know yourself.
• Deleting is possible with the button in the same window. That's permanent.
• You can also drag a visit in the calendar to move it.

Is a visit marked Overdue (orange)? Then the scheduled date has passed while the visit is still set to scheduled. That's purely a signal; no notification goes out.

Reminder emails to the customer

Under Settings → Email → Reminders you set how many days before a visit the customer automatically gets notice. There are two reminders; by default fourteen and two days in advance. Enter 0 to switch one off, and make sure Maintenance is ticked among the types reminders go out for. You adjust the texts under Email templates.

This setting applies to your whole environment, not per contract.

Good to know

• Maintenance visits do not appear in a linked external calendar (Google, Apple, Outlook). They only exist in 4planning itself.
• A technician can only edit visits assigned to them. Unassigned visits are for administrators.
• Reminder emails always go out in Dutch.

Frequently asked questions

• My appointment isn't showing with the contract. Then it's a regular calendar appointment of the type Maintenance, not a visit. Create it again via New visit on the contract.
• The customer didn't get a reminder. Check whether Maintenance is ticked under reminders, whether the number of days isn't set to 0, and whether the customer has an email address.
• I don't see the staff member choice. That only appears if the Staff feature is enabled in your environment.