If your providers (doctors, hygienists, etc.) work alternating schedules, different hours, or rotating shifts, you can easily manage their availability in Practice by Numbers (PbN). This ensures accurate tracking of Hours Worked, Hours Available, and Schedule Utilization.
Setting Provider Hours
Go to Provider Hours Settings
Navigate to New Settings > Practice > Office and Provider Hours.
Set Their Regular Workdays and Hours
If a provider has predictable patterns (like every other Monday or half-day Fridays):
Add the specific days they work.
Enter their exact working hours next to their name.
This ensures PbN knows when they are scheduled to be in the office.
For Weekly Changing or Unpredictable Schedules
If a provider’s schedule changes from week to week, set their hours to Same as Office Hours.
PbN will then:
Look at their scheduled appointments.
Count them as available only on days when they have appointments.
Treat days with no appointments as days off.
For Offices with Extended Hours (Example: 7 AM–7 PM)
If your office has long or split shifts:
Manually assign each provider the specific hours they work.
If not set manually, PbN assumes the provider is available all 12 hours, which will make their Schedule Utilization look inaccurate.
Adjusting for Non-Working Days
Alternating Days (Example: Every Other Monday)
If a provider does not work on a specific day:
PbN will automatically show 0 Hours Worked if they have no appointments.
To correct Hours Available, go to New Settings > Practice > Provider Hours Worked, find the date, and set their hours to 0.
This prevents artificially low utilization percentages.
Vacations, Sick Days, or Leaving Early
Any time a provider is gone or leaves early:
Go to Provider Hours Worked.
Adjust their Hours Available for the specific day.
This ensures metrics reflect what actually happened.
How to Quickly Access the Provider Hours Worked Page
You can also access it from the Doctors dashboard:
Open the week you want to adjust.
Look for the Schedule Utilization section.
Click the arrow in the top-right corner.
Select Set Provider Hours.
This takes you directly to the correct week and provider.
Why This Matters
Keeping provider hours accurate ensures the following metrics are correct:
Hours Worked
Hours Available
Schedule Utilization
Accurate schedules lead to accurate insights — helping you measure performance correctly and avoid skewed KPIs.