Not all "unavailable" is the same. This lesson covers the three states (Free, Busy, Unavailable), then takes you through the In/Out Board — including scheduling future absences for agents — so you can read availability accurately and plan around it.

Free, Busy, Unavailable

Problem: When you look at an agent's calendar, you'll see chunks of time that aren't available for new work. But "not available" isn't all the same — sometimes it's "this slot is taken" (the agent has a meeting at 2pm), sometimes it's "this whole day is gone" (the agent is on PTO). If you treat them the same, you'll miss scheduling opportunities or accidentally assign work to someone who isn't actually working.

Horizon's answer: Three states. Each one tells you something different about an agent's eligibility for work.

The three states

• Free — available. The agent has no calendar block in this window, isn't marked Out, and can take new work — both for scheduling at this specific time and for general ticket assignment.
• Busy — schedule blocking. A specific time slot is taken: a scheduled todo, a meeting, a calendar event. The agent is otherwise working today and can take ticket assignments for other time slots; they just can't be scheduled for new work during this specific block.
• Unavailable — assignment blocking. The agent is off the table entirely — marked Out, on PTO, sick day, scheduled away period. Dispatch skips them. They won't be scheduled for anything during this period, and they won't be assigned any new tickets — even ones with no specific time.

Why the distinction matters

What you'll see on the Dashboard

• Free time — empty stretches on an agent's lane.
• Busy blocks — colored time-blocks on the lane (scheduled todos, appointments, external calendar events synced in).
• Unavailable — usually rendered distinctly (e.g. greyed-out lane, banner, or a marker indicating the agent is Out for that period). The agent will also appear in the Currently Out table on the In/Out Board.

Common dispatcher mistakes

• Treating Busy as Unavailable. "Bob's got a meeting at 2pm — skip him." Wrong. Bob is still available for tickets, just not for the 2pm slot. Schedule his work around the meeting.
• Treating Unavailable as Busy. "Alice has a scheduled vacation block on Thursday — let me try to fit something in around it." Wrong. Alice is Unavailable on Thursday. Don't schedule anything for her, and don't assign her tickets due Thursday either.
• Trusting the calendar over the In/Out Board. Calendar shows time-blocks (Busy). The In/Out Board shows away periods (Unavailable). They tell you different things; check both.

Tip: Before you assign a ticket or schedule a todo, do a two-step check on the agent: (1) Are they Unavailable today? (In/Out Board.) (2) Is the time slot Busy? (Calendar.) Two seconds of looking saves the assignment-then-undo cycle that comes from misreading the calendar.

The In/Out Board

Problem: The previous lesson covered the basic action of marking an agent Out. The In/Out Board does more than that — it's the team's availability dashboard. If you only ever use it for the "mark someone out" action, you're missing the situational awareness it gives you for the rest of the day.

Horizon's answer: A four-table view of the team's availability — present, scheduled future, recently past, and currently available — all on one page. Treat it as a daily scan, not just an action page.

The four tables

1. Available Now

A grid showing every agent currently In, grouped by team. Each agent appears as a badge with their name and team affiliation. This is your "who can I assign to right now?" view.

Use it when:

• You're about to assign a ticket and want to see who's actually online.
• A specific team is overloaded and you want to spot people who could pick up extra work.
• You need a sanity check that the team you think is staffed is actually staffed today.

2. Currently Out

Every agent who is presently Out, with:

• User — who they are
• Note — the reason
• Out since — when the away period started
• Until — when it ends (or "until they come back" if open-ended)
• End Now action — bring them back manually

Use this table to:

• Spot anyone who's been Out longer than expected and needs follow-up
• End an away period when an agent is back but didn't toggle themselves
• Read the notes to understand why the team is short-staffed today

3. Scheduled (future away periods)

Every away period that's set up but hasn't started yet. Columns:

• User, Note, Start, End
• Edit action — change the time/note before it starts
• Cancel action — remove the scheduled absence entirely

Use this for weekly review of who's planned out, catching scheduling collisions ("Bob's on PTO Monday — but his calendar still shows an onsite that day, fix that"), and editing or cancelling absences as plans change. Creating new scheduled away periods is covered below.

4. History

Past away periods, with filters. Columns: User, Period, Note, Status, Created By.

Use it for:

• Looking up "when was Alice last out?"
• Auditing — who marked someone out and why
• Spotting patterns (frequent absences, suspiciously short-notice marks-out)

The History table has filters for date range, user, and status, so you can narrow it to just the periods you care about.

Daily rhythm with the In/Out Board

1. Start of shift — open the board. Glance at Currently Out, Scheduled (anyone going out later today?), Available Now (who do I have?).
2. Mid-shift — hit it whenever you need to mark someone Out, end someone's period, or check who's still available.
3. End of shift — quick scan to make sure nobody is left in a stuck state.

Scheduling a future away period

The previous lesson covered marking an agent Out right now. But most absences aren't surprises — agents take PTO next week, fly to a conference next month, get scheduled training in three days. If you wait until the morning-of to mark them out, the system has already routed work their way that should have gone to someone else.

Set the absence in advance — Horizon flips the agent to Out automatically when the start time hits, and back to In when the end time passes. No one has to remember.

Schedule a future away period

1. Open the In/Out Board.

2. Click New Away Period (header button).

3. In the form:

   Field	What to do
   User	Pick the agent.
   Go out now	Leave OFF (you're scheduling the future, not going Out now).
   Start	Date and time the period begins.
   End (optional)	Date and time the period ends. Leave blank for open-ended (use only if you genuinely don't know the return date).
   Note	Reason — "PTO," "Conference," "Vendor training," etc.

4. Click Save.

The period appears in the Scheduled table. Until its start time arrives, the agent is still In and can take work normally.

What happens automatically

• When the Start time arrives, the period transitions from Scheduled to Active. The agent flips to Out. Dispatch starts skipping them. They appear in Currently Out.
• When the End time arrives (if set), the period transitions to Completed. The agent flips back to In. They re-appear in Available Now.

You don't have to do anything for these transitions. A scheduled command runs continuously and processes them as time progresses.

Edit or cancel a scheduled period

Find the period in the Scheduled table:

• Edit — change the Start, End, or Note. Save.
• Cancel — removes the period; the agent stays In on those dates.

Once a period has started (transitioned to Active), you can't edit or cancel it through the Scheduled table — it's now in Currently Out and you'd use End Now to bring the agent back early.

Common errors when scheduling

• End before Start — the form will reject it.
• Overlapping periods for the same agent — Horizon prevents stacking active away periods. Edit the existing period instead.

Tip: The In/Out Board is the closest thing Horizon has to a "team status board." Bookmark it. And when agents tell you they're taking time off, log it that day — even if the time off is months away. The two-minute cost of logging it now beats the cost of the team finding out at 9am that Bob is unexpectedly gone. Hygiene task, not event-driven.