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Minister availability

Minister availability tells Sacramentum when each priest, deacon, or extraordinary minister of Holy Communion is free to bring the sacraments to the homebound and to care facilities. Setting this up correctly keeps visits inside realistic time windows, prevents conflicts with parish duties, and gives the route planner the starting address it needs to build an efficient driving route.

The Minister Availability page​

Navigate to Admin Dashboard → Visitation → Availability. The page opens with a minister selector at the top and three configuration cards that appear once you choose a minister: starting point, effective date range, and weekly visitation schedule.

This is admin-side configuration specifically for the visitation ministry. It is separate from a priest's general availability for Mass and confessions, which lives in the priest's profile and schedule. Use this page to capture when a minister is available for visits — typically a few mornings or afternoons each week.

Selecting a minister​

  1. Click the Select Minister dropdown.
  2. Choose the priest, deacon, or lay minister whose availability you want to edit. The list includes everyone marked as a visitation minister at your parish.
  3. The page loads any availability already saved for that minister. If nothing has been configured yet, all weekdays appear disabled with default time windows.

Use the Refresh button next to the dropdown to reload availability from the server, for example after another administrator has made changes.

Setting the starting point​

The Starting Point card defines the address the route planner uses as the origin for each day's driving route.

  1. Choose a starting point mode:
    • Use Parish Location — pick one of your configured parish locations. This is the right choice when ministers head out from the rectory or main parish campus.
    • Custom Address — enter a street address, city, state, postal code, and country. Use this when a minister starts from home or another fixed address.
  2. If you chose a parish location, select it from the dropdown. If you chose a custom address, fill in all the address fields.
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The starting point is required for route optimization. Without a valid origin address, the route planner cannot calculate driving distances or build an optimized order of visits. A custom address must include the country so that geocoding can resolve it to map coordinates.

Setting an effective date range​

The Effective Date Range card controls when this availability pattern is in force.

  • Start date — the first date the schedule applies. Defaults to today.
  • End date (optional) — the last date the schedule applies. Leave empty if the pattern continues indefinitely.

Use an end date when a minister has a known sabbatical, leave of absence, or seasonal schedule change. To replace one pattern with another, save the current pattern with an end date and then save a new pattern starting the day after.

Configuring the weekly schedule​

The Weekly Visitation Schedule card lists each day of the week. By default every day is disabled.

  1. Toggle the switch next to a day to mark the minister as available that day.
  2. Set the From and To time pickers to the daily visit window. For example, Tuesdays 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM means the minister can take visits between those times every Tuesday inside the effective date range.
  3. Repeat for each day the minister is available.

The visit window represents working hours specifically for visitation, not all-day availability. Keep it tight to what is realistic — short, focused windows produce better route plans and avoid overcommitting ministers.

Adding blocked times​

Inside an available day, you may need to block off shorter windows when the minister has a recurring commitment, such as Mass at a nursing home, a meeting, or a daily holy hour.

  1. With the day enabled, click Block Time.
  2. In the dialog, set the Start Time and End Time of the block.
  3. Enter an optional Reason so other administrators understand why the time is unavailable (for example, "Mass at St. Mary's Nursing Home" or "Daily 12:00 confessions").
  4. Click Add.

The blocked time appears as a red entry under that day's visit window. Visits cannot be scheduled inside a blocked time, and the route planner skips over these windows when sequencing stops.

To remove a blocked time, click the trash icon next to it.

tip

Blocked times are perfect for the recurring obligations a minister can't move — daily Mass at one facility, a parish staff meeting, or a regular school chaplaincy slot. For one-time absences like a retreat or vacation, use an end date on one availability record and a fresh start date on a new one instead.

Saving changes​

Once you have set the starting point, effective dates, weekly windows, and blocked times, click Save Availability at the bottom of the page. A toast confirms the save.

The button is disabled until you have unsaved changes. If you switch ministers without saving, your changes are lost — save first, then change ministers.

How availability shapes the calendar and routes​

Availability rules don't prevent you from scheduling a visit outside a minister's stated hours — administrators can always override the schedule when pastoral need requires it. Instead, availability serves three purposes:

  1. Route planning. When you open the route planning page for a minister and date, the planner uses that day's visit window to set the departure time and the latest arrival, and it uses blocked times to avoid scheduling stops during those gaps.
  2. Starting point geocoding. The starting point is the origin point for every route on every day. Without it, the map and driving distances cannot be computed.
  3. Coordination across administrators. When several staff members schedule visits, having published availability avoids accidentally booking a minister at the wrong time of day.

Difference from a priest's general availability​

A priest's general parish availability — the times they are at the parish for Mass, confessions, or appointments — is configured separately on their user profile and on the parish schedules. Minister availability is narrower: it covers only the visitation ministry and only the time windows when this person can be sent out to visit.

A priest who is also a visitation minister will appear in both places. Setting visitation availability does not change their parish-side calendar in any way, and editing their parish schedule does not affect their visitation hours.

What's next​

  • The visitation calendar — schedule and view the visits this availability supports
  • Route planning — see availability turned into an optimized driving route for a single day
  • Visitees — keep your homebound directory current so visits can be assigned
  • Managing users — add and configure the priests and ministers who appear in this dropdown
  • Visitation facilities — manage the hospitals and care homes where group visits and many individual visits take place
  • Your calendar — how a priest sees their own visitation schedule alongside Masses and confessions