# Processing time and padding between appointments > How processing time frees a stylist while a colour develops, booking someone else into it, changing it per appointment, and padding for set-up and clean-up. Source: https://docs.fullcolumn.com/calendar/processing-time While a colour develops, your stylist is free to take someone else. Processing time tells the calendar exactly that: the stylist is busy applying the colour, free while it processes, and busy again for the finish. Padding does the opposite, keeping a few minutes clear before or after a service for set-up or cleaning up. ## What processing time is A service with processing time has up to three parts: - **Busy**: the stylist is working, like applying the colour. - **Processing**: the colour develops, and the stylist is free for another client. - **Busy after processing**: for a service with its own finish, like a package. Processing time is set on the service, under **Settings → Services**: turn on **Processing time** and choose **Busy** and **Processing** (and **Busy after processing** if it has a finish). See [your service menu](https://docs.fullcolumn.com/services/service-menu). The client is in the salon for all of it, so the appointment's length includes the processing. The stylist is only busy for the busy parts: clash warnings and online booking treat the processing as free time. ## How processing time looks on the calendar The busy part is a card of its own. Below it, the processing is left empty, joined to the card by a faint dashed line, so another appointment can go there. A finish after processing is a second card, labelled "finish". Hover over the card to see when the processing runs ("Processing 10:45am – 11:30am (free for someone else)"). A tall enough card says "Processing until 11:30am", and the appointment itself lists the service as "incl. 45m processing". ## Booking another client during processing time Click the empty time inside the processing in the stylist's column to start a new appointment there, with them, or drag an appointment into it. There's no clash warning as long as the new appointment fits inside the processing, padding included. In the same visit, the next service starts after the processing to begin with. To have it done while the colour develops (a cut by another stylist, say), change that service's **Starts** time in the appointment. ## Changing processing time for one appointment In **New appointment** or **Edit appointment**, a service set up with processing shows **Busy** and **Processing** (and **Busy after**, when it has a finish), in 5-minute steps. Under them, a line says when it processes: "Processing 10:45am–11:30am, free to take someone else; Cut & blow-dry starts after it." Longer processing makes the appointment longer, and the services after it move along. Changing the service's **Duration** changes the processing first, keeping the busy times, down to 5 minutes of processing. On the calendar: - Drag the bottom edge of the busy card to change the busy time. The processing moves along after it. - With a finish, drag the top edge of the finish card to change the processing time, and its bottom edge to change the finish. - Without a finish, the processing runs to the end of the service: change it in the appointment. Busy and processing times move in 5 minutes, at least 5 minutes each, and the rest of the visit moves with them. A message says what changed ("Processing now 40m, ends 12:10pm"), with **Undo**. On a phone or tablet, touch and hold the appointment, let go, and drag its grips. Processing time can only be changed for services set up with it: you can't add processing to an appointment's service that doesn't have it on the menu. ## Processing time with faster or slower stylists When a team member has their own length for a service (see [price levels](https://docs.fullcolumn.com/services/price-levels)), their speed changes the busy time. The processing, and any finish, stay as the service has them: a colour takes as long to develop whoever applies it. Only when someone is so quick that no busy time would be left does it all shrink to fit. ## Padding time before and after a service Padding is time the stylist needs around a service that isn't part of the client's appointment: setting up, a consultation, cleaning up. It's set on the service under **Settings → Services → Padding time**, **Before** and **After**, from 5 minutes to 2 hours. - On the calendar, padding is a light hatched strip labelled "Padding" above or below the appointment, in its colour. - In a visit with several services, padding only goes at the start and end of each stylist's run, so a colour's clean-up doesn't push back the cut that follows it. - After a service that ends in processing, clean-up starts when the busy part ends. Clash warnings allow for padding ("Not enough padding time next to Mia's booking…", "The padding time runs outside Mia's hours"), and online booking leaves room for it. ## Gaps between appointments booked online How your booking page offers start times, and **Reduce gaps** to stop small holes filling the day, are part of your [online booking rules](https://docs.fullcolumn.com/online-booking/booking-rules). ## Common questions ### Can I book someone with the same stylist during processing? Yes. The stylist is free during processing, so booking them in there isn't a clash. ### Why doesn't my service show Busy and Processing? It isn't set up with processing time on your menu. Turn on **Processing time** for it in **Settings → Services**. ### Does processing time count in how long the appointment is? Yes. The client is in the salon for it, so the appointment runs from the start of the busy time to the end of the processing (or the finish). ### Why is there a hatched strip before or after an appointment? That's padding time from the service's settings: time the stylist keeps clear for setting up or cleaning up.