Setting Up Your Schedule

Loka's scheduling system lets students book lessons based on your availability. Set your weekly hours, define constraints, and sync everything with your personal calendar.

Setting Weekly Availability

To configure your recurring schedule:

1. Go to Settings > Schedule in your educator dashboard
2. Select the days you're available to teach
3. For each day, add one or more time slots (e.g., 9:00 AM -- 12:00 PM, 2:00 PM -- 6:00 PM)
4. Click Save to publish your availability

Students will only see open slots when booking through your school's booking page.

tip

Set your timezone in Settings > Profile before configuring your schedule. All time slots are displayed in your local timezone to students in theirs.

Time Slots

You can set multiple time blocks per day. This is useful if you want to block out lunch breaks or reserve time for preparation:

Day	Morning	Afternoon
Monday	9:00 -- 12:00	14:00 -- 18:00
Tuesday	10:00 -- 12:00	13:00 -- 17:00
Wednesday	--	14:00 -- 20:00

Slots that are already booked will automatically show as unavailable to new students.

Schedule Exceptions

Need to take a day off or adjust your hours for a specific date? Use Schedule Exceptions to override your weekly pattern:

• Block a date -- mark a specific day as unavailable (holiday, personal day)
• Modify hours -- change your available times for a particular date without affecting your recurring schedule

Exceptions take priority over your weekly availability.

Booking Constraints

Fine-tune how and when students can book with you:

Advance Notice

Set the minimum lead time required before a lesson can be booked. For example, requiring 24 hours of advance notice prevents last-minute bookings that you can't prepare for.

Cancellation Policy

Define how far in advance students must cancel to avoid being charged:

• Flexible -- cancel up to a few hours before
• Moderate -- cancel 24 hours in advance
• Strict -- cancel 48 hours or more in advance

Your cancellation policy is displayed to students at the time of booking.

Buffer Time

Add buffer time between lessons to give yourself a break, review notes, or prepare for the next student.

Calendar Integration

Loka syncs with your existing calendar so you never double-book:

Google Calendar

1. Go to Settings > Integrations
2. Click Connect Google Calendar
3. Authorize Loka to read your calendar events
4. Events from your Google Calendar will automatically block those times in your Loka availability

iCal Feed

For other calendar apps (Apple Calendar, Outlook, etc.):

1. Go to Settings > Integrations
2. Copy your iCal feed URL
3. Add it as a subscription calendar in your calendar app
4. Your Loka schedule will appear as read-only events

note

The iCal feed is one-way -- it pushes your Loka schedule to your calendar app. To block times based on your personal calendar, use the Google Calendar integration.

Best Practices

• Be consistent -- students appreciate predictable availability week to week
• Set realistic hours -- account for preparation time, breaks, and admin work
• Use exceptions early -- block upcoming holidays as soon as you know about them
• Review weekly -- check your schedule every Sunday to confirm the week ahead looks right