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Find a Time

No more back-and-forth asking "when are you free?" Copera's Find a Time view lays your invitees' schedules side by side, shades the hours they're busy or away, and lets you drag a proposed meeting into a slot that works for everyone --- then create the event in place.

Opening Find a Time

Find a Time is part of scheduling an event. To open it:

  1. Start creating an event (click a slot on the Calendar, or open the full event form).
  2. Add at least one participant --- Find a Time compares the people you've invited.
  3. Click Find a time in the new-event popover, or switch to the Find a time tab in the full event form.
note

The Find a time option appears once you've added a participant who is a workspace member. With no members added, there's nobody to compare, so the option stays hidden until you add someone.

Reading the Availability View

Find a Time shows one column per participant, side by side, over the day or week you're looking at. Within each column, Copera marks the times each person is unavailable:

What you seeWhat it means
Open (unshaded) timeThe person is free and within their working hours
A shaded blockThe person is busy --- they have another event at that time
A dimmed column areaOutside that person's working hours
A marked rangeThe person has time off scheduled

A small legend explains the colors, so you can tell at a glance who's free, who's busy, who's outside working hours, and who's away.

info

Find a Time shows when someone is busy, not what they're busy with. The titles and details of other people's events stay private --- you only see that the time is taken.

Each person's working hours and time off come from their own settings, calculated in their own time zone. To control how your availability appears to others, see Availability & Working Hours.

Proposing a Time

Your meeting appears as a single bar that spans every participant's column, so you can see at a glance whether the slot overlaps anyone's busy time.

  • Drag the bar up or down to move the meeting to a different time.
  • Drag its edges to make the meeting shorter or longer.
  • Click an open slot to jump the proposed meeting there while keeping its length.

As you move the bar, the event's start and end times update automatically --- so when you've found a clear slot, the time is already set.

Switching Day and Week

Use the Day and Week buttons in the toolbar to change how much you're comparing at once:

  • Day zooms into a single day for a precise look.
  • Week spreads the columns across a week so you can scan for the best day.

Navigate forward and back with the toolbar controls to check other days or weeks.

Creating the Event

Once your proposed meeting sits in a slot that works:

  1. Switch back to the Event details tab (or simply confirm in the popover).
  2. Review the title, location, reminders, and participants.
  3. Click Save.

The event is created at the time you found, and --- if you choose to notify them --- everyone gets an invitation. See Scheduling Events for the full set of options.

Tips and Best Practices

tip

Add all the people you need before opening Find a Time. The more participants you include, the more accurate the side-by-side picture of who's free.

tip

If the week looks crowded, switch to Week view first to spot the best day, then switch to Day to fine-tune the exact start time.

tip

Encourage your team to keep their working hours and time off up to date. Find a Time is only as helpful as the availability people share.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why don't I see the Find a time option?

You need to add at least one participant who is a workspace member. Until then, there's no one to compare availability with, so the option is hidden.

Can I see what someone else's meeting is about?

No. Find a Time only shows that a time is busy or free --- it never reveals the title or details of other people's events.

Does Find a Time account for different time zones?

Yes. Each person's working hours are calculated in their own time zone, so the busy and free blocks reflect their real local schedule.

Why does someone look unavailable when their calendar seems open?

They may be outside their working hours or have time off scheduled for that period. Both appear as unavailable so you don't book over someone's personal or off-hours time.