Set minimum notice and booking window in Microsoft Bookings

Set the page-wide policy#

1. Open Bookings, go to Shared booking pages and pick your page.
2. Select Booking page in the left pane.
3. In the Scheduling policy section, set:
   • Lead time in hours: the minimum notice. Microsoft describes it as "the number of hours in advance that customers must book or cancel an appointment".
   • Maximum days in advance: the booking window. Microsoft's docs say it can be "365 days or more".
4. Select Save and publish.

Microsoft's FAQ and some screens call the same two settings Minimum lead time and Maximum lead time.

Two rules to know:

• The minimum counts clock hours. It's "based on regular hours and not business hours". A 2020 thread asked whether 120 hours meant 15 working days. It doesn't: 120 hours is 5 calendar days from now, measured against the appointment's start time. To think in working days, estimate the calendar days and use Maximum days in advance for the far limit.
• The two values must be at least 24 hours apart. The FAQ says so explicitly. The maximum can only be 1 day when the minimum is 0 hours. With a 48-hour minimum, the maximum has to be at least 3 days.

Give one service a different policy#

Services inherit the page's policy. For example, you might accept next-day bookings for a quick call but want a week's notice for an on-site visit.

1. Go to Services and open the service.
2. Switch off the Default scheduling policy toggle.
3. On Availability options, set this service's own lead time, maximum days in advance and time increments.
4. Select Save changes.

"The lead time is greyed out" or "stuck at 24 hours"#

A 2021 Q&A thread (21 "same question" votes) had exactly this problem: the page-level minimum was changed to 1 hour and saved, but the service still showed 24 hours, dimmed. The fix the asker found was to turn off the service's default scheduling policy, after which the service-level lead time became editable. In today's service editor, that's the Default scheduling policy toggle described above.

If you've changed the page-level value and nothing seems different, check whether the service has its own policy. The page-level policy applies to services unless you modify them per service, so a service with the default switched off keeps using its own values.

Can the maximum go beyond 90 days?#

Microsoft's scheduling policy doc says the maximum can be 365 days or more. In a 2025 thread a user reported that the drop-down in their tenant only went up to 90 days. The moderator said this depends on the service plan. Microsoft doesn't document any plan-based cap for shared booking pages, so treat that explanation with caution.

If you see a 90-day ceiling:

• Make sure you're on a shared booking page (Shared booking pages on the Bookings home page), not a personal "Bookings with me" page. The two have different settings.
• Check the service-level policy as well as the page-level one.
• If it's still capped, raise a Microsoft support ticket and refer to the scheduling policy doc.

Related settings#

• The minimum lead time also governs late cancellation and rescheduling. For stricter control, see stopping customers cancelling or rescheduling.
• A long minimum combined with narrow hours is a common reason the page shows nothing. See no available times.
• A short maximum also reduces placeholder bookings. See limiting bookings per day.