A collection slot at the pantry, a half hour with an adviser, a first conversation somebody would rather not have at a counter. Picktime gives the people you serve a private way to book one, spreads the slots across the session so nobody waits outside, and confirms each in writing so everybody knows which one is theirs.
Blu CommunityBook online
Pantry collection20m · Thu 11:00Free
Benefits appointment30m · adviserFree
Debt conversation45m · TueBook
Next free11:00 AM11:20 AM11:40 AM
Booked online
11:15 PM
Without asking anybody
11:00 window
2 of 2
Spread across the session, not all at ten
Confirmation
Sent
Email, with the address on it
Four things that take the queue, the phone call and the standing at a counter out of the way of the thing somebody actually came for.
One link, no account and no queue at a desk. Somebody who would not ring an office in front of their family will book a Thursday morning at quarter past eleven at night.
Household size, dietary needs, whether there is a referral, whether an interpreter is wanted. Your own questions, answered at booking, are on the paid plans; what a household tells you is held against their record either way, so nobody is asked the same thing at every visit.
Offer short windows across the session and the whole morning stops arriving in the first twenty minutes. Nobody waits outside, and the volunteers on the day know how many are coming and when.
A confirmation the moment they book, on the free plan, carrying a link to move the appointment; a reminder before the day, by email or text, is on the paid plans. Somebody whose week changes rebooks rather than not arriving, and the slot goes back for the next person.
A pantry collection, a benefits appointment, a debt conversation and a drop-in are four different lengths, four different rooms and often four different people. Give each service its own duration, its own adviser and its own days, and each site its own opening hours, so somebody booking a debt appointment at the outreach venue is only ever offered a time that genuinely exists there. It all sits on one colour-coded calendar rather than four sheets in a shared drive.
Mark each appointment on the day and the ones nobody attended are still on the list when the session ends, against the record rather than in somebody’s memory. A household that has missed twice is a household worth ringing, and that is a very different thing from a household that quietly stopped coming, which on a paper list is something you notice by accident or not at all. Everything anybody has been booked into stays in one place.
Ten past ten on a Thursday. The session runs from ten until one and almost everybody who is coming has arrived in the first fifteen minutes, because the only thing anybody was told was the day. There are two volunteers, a queue on the pavement, and an adviser sitting in the back room with nobody booked in to see her.
Picktime offers short windows across the whole session and tells each household in writing which one is theirs, with a reminder before the morning on the paid plans, so the same forty people arrive across three hours instead of in one.
A collection, a benefits appointment, a debt conversation, a drop-in. Give each one a length and say who delivers it and on which days, so the page can offer a real time.
Short windows across the whole session, with the number of households each can hold, so the morning is spread rather than queued. On the paid plans you also write the questions asked at booking (household size, dietary needs, a referral number, whether an interpreter is wanted), and the answers arrive attached to it.
On the website, in the referral email, on a card handed out at the door, or as a QR code on a poster. Nobody needs an account to book, which is the point.
A small organisation cannot staff a telephone, and the people ringing it are often ringing at the moment they have decided to ask for help. The Picktime AI receptionist answers on a number of its own, around the clock and on more than one call at a time, takes the caller’s name and number, guides them through what your services are and books the appointment straight into the calendar, or hands the call to somebody when there is somebody to hand it to. Every call is transcribed into your dashboard, so a call at eight in the evening is written down rather than a missed number nobody recognises.
The free plan has no end date and no card behind it, which is the part that matters when the funding is confirmed a year at a time.
Appointments land in the Google or Outlook calendar the staff already keep, so a trustees’ meeting or an outreach afternoon put in there is never offered as an advice slot. A conversation that has to happen remotely can carry a Zoom or Meet link generated with the booking, on the paid plans.
Picktime opens in a browser on a phone or a tablet as well as the office computer, and there are iOS and Android apps, so whoever is on the door can see who is booked in for the next window without going back to a laptop.
Yes. Picktime has a free forever plan with no end date and no card: a page the people you help book from, an online calendar, self-service rescheduling, and email notifications. You pay when more staff need their own login.
The one the people you serve can use without an account, on a phone, at eleven at night. Picktime’s booking page needs no sign-in from whoever is booking, which is usually the constraint that actually decides it.
Yes. Offer short windows across the session rather than publishing a day, and the same number of households arrives across three hours instead of in the first fifteen minutes.
Yes, on the paid plans. You write the questions yourself, the answers arrive attached to the booking, and they stay on the record so nobody is asked the same thing at every visit.
Yes. Every service has its own length, its own staff and its own days, and every site its own opening hours, so somebody is only offered a time that exists where they chose. Where the sites are country offices with their own holidays and their own rooms, NGO appointment scheduling is written for that scale.
Yes. Mark each appointment on the day and the missed ones stay on the record, so a household that has not come twice is visible rather than quietly gone.
No. They open the link, pick a time and enter what you ask for. Only your own staff sign in, and each of them has their own login on the paid plans.
Yes for eligible organisations, though it has been called Google Workspace since 2020 and the free tier comes through the Google for Nonprofits programme rather than from Workspace pricing. Eligibility is decided by Google and by its validation partner in your country, so the application is the part worth starting early. It gives you mail, documents and Calendar; it does not give you a booking page the public can take a slot on, which is the gap this page is about.
Zoho runs a nonprofit programme with reduced pricing rather than a blanket free tier, and the terms differ by product and by country, so Zoho’s own nonprofit page is the only version worth relying on. Several Zoho products also have free tiers open to anybody, charity or not, which is where the confusion comes from. If the answer turns out to be a discount rather than nothing, compare it against what a free plan already covers before you apply.
Calendly, on name recognition, because it spread through meeting invitations rather than through search. That is a poor guide for a charity, since Calendly is built for arranging meetings between people who both have calendars, and most of what a nonprofit books is a member of the public taking one slot in a session. The question worth answering is which tool the people you serve can use without an account and without a laptop.
Sessions A first conversation booked without going through a receptionist.
See counselling scheduling
Surgeries A resident books the department they need instead of holding on a switchboard.
See council appointment scheduling
Drop-ins Rooms, drop-ins and groups with a limit on them, all on one calendar.
See community centre schedulingFree forever for a small service. No card, no trial clock, and the next session can be bookable this afternoon.
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