How to put a mediation date on hold

A hold is a date pencilled in for a firm that hasn't committed yet. It takes the date off the booking page so nobody else takes it, and it carries the firm's name so anyone looking at the calendar knows who it's being kept for.

Holds are placed from an inquiry, not from the calendar. That's the whole point — a hold with no inquiry behind it is a date nobody can explain a week later.

Before you begin

• You need an inquiry. See How to create an inquiry.
• Fill in the inquiry's Requesting Firm before you hold anything. The firm

name on the inquiry is what gets stamped on the hold and shown on the calendar. Leave it blank and the date reads as "On hold" with no clue who for.

• The dates must already be open on the mediator's schedule. A date the mediator

never opened can't be held — see How to open up a mediation date.

1Open the inquiry and click Hold Dates

2Pick the dates and the half-days

The calendar greys out anything you can't hold: dates already booked, dates already held by someone else, and dates the mediator simply hasn't opened. For each date you pick, choose Full Day, Morning or Afternoon.

You can hold up to 60 dates in one save.

3Set how firm the hold is

Three types, escalating:

• Soft Hold — they've asked, nothing more
• Pending Confirmation — they've said yes, you're waiting on something
• Confirmed — as good as booked

All three block the date equally. The difference is for you and the mediator: the type is what tells you whether it's worth ringing the firm to ask.

4Set how long it runs

Presets are 1 day, 2 days, 3 days and 1 week, or set your own. A week is the default. The screen shows you the follow-up date it works out to before you save.

You can also turn on an On-hold confirmation and an Expiration notice.

5Save

The held half-days show amber on the Schedule board and on the mediator's own calendar in Scale, labelled with the firm and the date the hold runs to.

Releasing a hold

• It converts. When the inquiry becomes a booked case, every hold still on it

is released automatically. You don't tidy up.

• It dies. Release the hold from the inquiry — either one half-day or the

whole date.

• It runs out. Holds expire on their own once the duration is up.

What's next

• How to book a case on behalf of a mediator when the firm commits
• Reading a mediator's calendar