# Create a Request Learn how interview scheduling with Cronofy works. Streamlined workflows for interview and appointment scheduling. ## Creating a scheduling request At its core, a scheduling request is a link you generate and send to your invitee, they then can choose a time to book based on what you offered. You can choose **when**, **what** times and **who** you would like to participate. With Cronofy you can schedule your own appointments as a host, or act as a coordinator to manage scheduling for others, maximising your teams time and productivity. ## Create requests Click on any of the icons below to navigate to the section you’d like in the article. **Create a request** Discover how to create your scheduling link, step by step, and unlock all the best options for effortless scheduling. **Quick request creation** Create new request for recent ones or templates quick and easy! **What a invitee sees** Preview your request and share it with you invitee. They will then choose a slot based on the availability you shared. ## 1. How do I start to create a scheduling link? You can start by opening your cronofy **extension,** the **overview **in your dashboard or your **integration icon**, then you click on the **create a new request** . Choose if you want to create a single event or a *multi-event link*. Multi-events are not enabled by default, you can request them though our [**support**](mailto:support@cronofy.com). Single events: One link for one event to be booked. Multi event: One link for up to 5 events to be booked. We recommend you create your first link using **guided** **mode** that will teach you the basics of creating a scheduling request. You can toggle this anytime on or off by using the slider. Next, you are going to pick the events participants. ## 2. Who can you schedule for? After selecting the event type, it’s time choose the participants. **WHO** are you creating the request for and who should participate? Generally you need a **HOST** that offers time and an **INVITEE** that will pick the time. Attendees are optional. Simply paste or type their emails in the field to add them. You can also add a [**selection**](https://www.cronofy.com/guides/user-onboarding/creating-groups)[ ](https://www.cronofy.com/guides/user-onboarding/creating-groups)[**rule**](https://www.cronofy.com/guides/user-onboarding/creating-groups) as a **host** or **attendee**. *Schedule as* option appears if you have multiple OU in Cronofy, you can then switch between OU's from there, matching therefore any branding you have setup. You can schedule for yourself or click on the turning arrow icon and schedule for someone else in your organisation. Other attendees can have their calendars synced as well, if they are in the same OU as you. You always can hover over the **? **icon to get more information about what each field in a request means. **Synced Calendars: **The green calendar icon next to someones name indicates that the calendar is synced and their availability is being taken into account. **Ignore** **availability:** this is if you want us to ignore all events on someone’s calendar, giving the ability to schedule over other events. Hover over a participant’s calendar icon and select the option; the calendar icon will then be greyed out. This only works for users in your Cronofy OU. ## 3. What are you scheduling? Here you can add all information pertaining to the **WHAT and WHERE** of the event you would like to create. You can now fill out the fields like Title (*required*), location, duration (d*efault from preferences*), conferencing, a description, tags and attachments. You can use **placeholders** for your titles and descriptions, a list can be found [here](https://www.cronofy.com/guides/user-onboarding/templates#5b72cf81d65dc215d04fd0f0b2873c87). A separate invite can be added here by clicking the **+** sign next to the event details, where your invitee will receive a different title and description from the host and attendees. Tags can be create by typing the tag name and pressing enter, then can be used again in other request. These can help with organising your events and when [setting up limits.](https://www.cronofy.com/guides/user-onboarding/limits) You can **attach** a file to your request, should you need to review documentation with your invitee during the event. You can attach up to **5 files** in the request. ## 4. When will they be able to choose? Finally you choose the time you would like to offer, this will be based on your needs and the type of event you want to have. They are broken down to: - **Availability preferences**: these are based on the preferences you have set in your account and are available as: - *Working* hours or *Interview* times - **Custom** **hours**: are time-blocks you can choose in the availability preview to green to make them available. - **Specific** **slots**: as the name suggest these are specific time slots you can offer to invitees. The [availability options article ](https://www.cronofy.com/guides/user-onboarding/availability-options)will explain in detail how these modes work and when you should select them. By default you will have Availability preferences set to active. **Offer slots during selected times, **is an option offered with custom hours and specific slots and you will be able to choose from: **Only when I'm free: **Cronofy will only book free slots in you calendar. **Whether I'm busy or not: **we will book over busy slots in your calendar, except other Cronofy created events. You can allow the invitee to **reschedule** the event by revisiting the scheduling link. ## Quicker ways to Create Requests - **Templates** are a great way to standardize your invites. They act as **scheduling rules **that you can reuse to schedule a high volume of similar events in one go. After you create a template you can use it **multiple times** or make a unique public like. More information you can find in the [**Templates Article**](https://www.cronofy.com/guides/user-onboarding/templates)[.](https://www.cronofy.com/guides/user-onboarding/templates) - After you have created more scheduling requests, they will be saved for you, for up **10 recent requests.**These saved requests can be **reused** for scheduling recurring or similar interviews, allowing you to have the following fields pre-filled: - **Host** of the meeting - **Event** **details**: title, location, duration, and calendar invite text - **Tags**: if interviewer limits are set up - **Custom** **hours** or **specific** **time** slots you previously selected. - **Rescheduling** **option**: whether the "Allow Rescheduling" checkbox is enabled or disabled You can access the 10 most recent scheduling requests **you created**. Simply select one, and we’ll copy all its details into your new request, saving you **time and effort**. ## Book Now **Book now** is a feature that lets you **instantly** book a meeting for someone when you need to without needing an invitee to choose a slot. **You** create a scheduling request as usual and then **select** your preferred slot to instantly book the meeting. To enable this feature in your OU you need to head to your OU's **Settings** and the **Scheduling Tab. **Scroll down until you find **Show** **Book** **Now** **button** tickbox, then click save. You will now have the button show up when creating a new request on the bottom of the page. ## Finishing up Now that you have made your choices above you can click on the "**Create scheduling link**". This will generate the link and a new window will pop-up, giving you the option of **copying** or **sharing** your link. You can **preview** your link, which will be what your invitee sees. They’ll then need to choose an available slot, and your event will be booked in your calendar. You’ll also receive an **email** notification once this is done. ## Whats next? ### Manage Requests --- ### Cancel and Reschedule ## **<****[ Go Back](https://www.cronofy.com/guides)** **Q: Is the availability that is shared with a candidate real-time?** A: Yes. This will always be updated based on the calendar changes of the interviewer pool. Only when you choose to [override availability](https://www.loom.com/share/fbfc2ec9c15f479b94ae7c6a3bbb7103), or [ignore availability](https://www.loom.com/share/fbb070ffb5f246df821c86a797487561), will we disregard any calendar updates. **Q: How do I schedule for a pool of interviewers?** A: You'll need to first [create a selection](https://www.cronofy.com/guides/user-onboarding/creating-groups#d3bcc54c5ad4) rule. After that you can add this rule as the host of the meeting and we will select one person, or multiple people, to attend the meeting. **Q: How does Cronofy select an interviewer?** A: This is 100% randomized based on whoever is available at the time the candidate selected. **Q: Why does the availability preview show different slots when I create the request than in the final booking form?** A: To ensure we calculate the availability of needed interviewers as fast as possible, we select a randomized subset of interviewers from the larger selection rule. This subsets' availability is usually ˜6-10 interviewers. When you create the request you will only see a preview of availability, when you create the request the booking form will select a final subset of interviewers that is static and will be shown to the candidate. **Q: Will Cronofy calculate the availability even when I use a selection rule (pool) as a host?** A: Yes, we will share real-time availability with the candidate. Once a time is selected we will randomly choose an available person from the pool as the host. **Q: Will everyone's time zone be automatically be taken into account? ** A: Yes, we will take availability based on the interviewer(s) timezone settings and share this with the candidate in their own timezone.