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Cross Line of Business (Cross LOB) Scheduling

Written by Meredith Bird
Updated over a week ago

In this article

Objective

The Cross Line of Business (Cross LOB) Scheduling functionality that is included with Multi LOB add-on enables financial institutions to offer a seamless, unified booking experience within their institution. It allows staff members to view schedules, book appointments, and collaborate with colleagues across different business units (e.g., Retail, Wealth, Commercial) through Coconut’s appointment scheduling product.

This functionality streamlines internal referrals and fosters better team collaboration while strictly maintaining privacy controls for sensitive business units.

Prerequisites and Key Concepts

Before configuring this feature, it is important to understand the hierarchy and some terms that will be used in this article.

As a reminder, the Multi LOB feature establishes a hierarchy within a Coconut instance

  • The Enterprise-level is the top-level parent, encompassing all individual lines of business. It provides an aggregated view of all data.

  • A LOB-level represents a specific business unit (e.g., Wealth) and is a child of the Enterprise.

Setting up the Cross LOB functionality establishes a set of rules that define how staff within each LOB can manage appointment scheduling use cases. As such, when discussing these features, there are a few key terms that need to be defined.

  • Current LOB: This represents the line of business the current user is accessing when logged into Coconut.

    • For example, if the user is logged into Coconut for the Retail LOB, then the Retail LOB is the “Current LOB”.

  • Other LOB: This represents the line of business that is not “Current” LOB

    • For example, if the user is logged into Coconut for the Retail LOb, then the Wealth LOB would be considered an “Other LOB”.

  • Current user: This represents the person that is logged into the “Current LOB”.

    • This is important because each person logging into Coconut has differing roles and permissions, as well as assumes they have access to the “Current LOB”.

  • Staff: This represents any person that works at “Current” or “Other” LOB in the context of the schedules and events that may be accessed through Coconut

    • Note: This could include the “Current user” in some situations

  • Multi Staff Appointments: Multi staff appointments is an optional feature available through Coconut.To use the "Multi-LOB Attendees" feature, the vendor must have the Multiple Staff Appointments feature enabled in Cocotools.

Cross LOB Settings Overview

There are 4 settings that are used to configure Cross LOB functionality.

These settings are configured per line of business, and define how other lines of business can collaborate with the configuring line of business.

For example, configuring these settings for Retail will control how Commercial or Wealth is able to interact with Retail staff schedules.

Note: All use cases are limited within the branch the users are assigned to. Configuration of these settings does not allow for viewing or booking for staff at other locations the user is not assigned to.

Setting Name

Definition

Dependency

Use Case

Schedule Visibility

Allows staff in this LOB to be visible in the schedules of other LOBs at the same location.

Required for the other settings to be enabled.

A greeter or teller in the Retail LOB needs to check-in clients for appointments booked with the Wealth LOB at their location.

Cross LOB Bookings

Allows staff from other LOBs to book appointments for services and staff within this LOB.

Requires the Schedule Visibility setting to be enabled.

A staff member in the Retail LOB needs to book an appointment for a customer with a Wealth advisor.

Joint Meetings

Allows staff from this LOB to be added as additional staff attendees to appointments organized by other LOBs.

Requires Schedule Visibility setting, and Multiple Staff Appointments feature to be enabled.

A Wealth advisor is meeting with a client and needs to bring in a Mortgage specialist (who sits in a different LOB) as an additional attendee for a single appointment.

Private LOB

Hides sensitive appointment details from staff when viewing schedules for this LOB through other LOBs.

Requires Schedule Visibility enabled.

The Wealth LOB wants to allow for collaboration, without exposing full meeting details.

Note: These settings do not impact the behaviour of viewing schedules, and managing appointments when accessing Coconut through the Enterprise-level. Full access and functionality to all LOBs will be available regardless of how an LOB has these settings configured.

Configuring Cross LOB Settings

Configure Schedule Visibility Across Lines of Business

  1. Login to the specific Line of Business (e.g., Wealth LOB) as a user with access to the settings pages

  2. Navigate to Settings > Admin View.

  3. Toggle Cross-LOB Visibility

  • When Cross LOB Visibility is ON

    • Staff in other LOBs can see that this LOB exists and view staff schedules at shared locations.

    • The other Cross LOB Scheduling settings are able to be configured.

  • When Cross LOB Visibility is OFF

    • This LOB is invisible to anyone not explicitly assigned to it, and logged into the LOB directly.

    • The other Cross LOB Scheduling settings are not able to be configured.

Configure Private LOB for Masking Event Details Across Lines of Business

  • When Cross LOB Privacy is ON:

    • When viewing the events for this LOB on the Schedule within another LOB, details of the event are masked. They will only see a "Busy" block for the staff to provide accurate availability without revealing sensitive information.

    • When viewing events for this LOB on the Dashboard, limited event details will be available to support with appointment check-ins. Only the client’s first name and last initial will be displayed along with the service, location, date/time and assigned staff.

  • When Cross LOB Privacy is OFF:

    • Full details of the events for this LOB are visible to staff in other LOBs.

The "All or Nothing" Rule

Logic for hiding event details for a private LOB is all or nothing. There is no option to hide details for only specific staff within a LOB on the Schedule.

Visibility Rules

The following rules apply when a user from LOB A views an appointment belonging to LOB B:

Scenario

Visibility Result

LOB B is not Visible

LOB Excluded: Users at LOB A will not see a staff group for LOB B on the Schedule. They will not be able to see any staff schedules or events from LOB B on the Schedule or Dashboard.

Exceptions:

Multiple LOBs assigned: If a user at LOB B is also a part of LOB A, they will appear on the Schedule as part of LOB A group Their schedule will be viewable. To ensure accurate availability is shown, events from LOB B will appear in LOB A but will be masked as if they are private. Events from LOB B will not appear on the Dashboard.

LOB B is Visible

LOB Included: Staff will appear on the schedule and be grouped in LOB B section.

LOB B is Public

Full Visibility: User A can see all details of the appointment from the Schedule and Dashboard page.

LOB B is Private

Masked on Schedule: User A sees a busy time block but details are hidden.

Limited on Dashboard: To ensure a client can be checked into an appointment through the Dashboard page for any LOB allowing visibility, limited appointment data will be visible, where client details will be first name only. Client phone, email will be hidden as well as private notes, and questions.

Exceptions:

User A is an Attendee: If User A is invited to the meeting, they see all details.

Enterprise View: Users with Enterprise-level access see all details when accessing Coconut at the Enterprise-level regardless of LOB privacy settings.

Appointment Booking & Attendee Management Controls

Once Visibility is on, you can configure specific actions to control access to meeting management use cases.

Configure Cross LOB Bookings Across Lines of Business

  1. Login to the specific Line of Business (e.g., Wealth LOB) as a user with access to the settings pages

  2. Navigate to Settings > Admin View.

  3. Toggle Cross LOB Visibility (if not already set) to access the Cross LOB Booking setting

  4. Toggle Cross LOB Bookings

  • When Cross LOB Bookings is ON, staff in other LOBs can book services and staff belonging to this LOB. (e.g., If enabled for Wealth, Retail staff can book Wealth appointments).

  • When Cross LOB Bookings is OFF, staff in other LOBs cannot book services and staff belonging to this LOB. (e.g., If enabled for Wealth, Retail staff cannot book Wealth appointments).

Configure Joint Meetings Across Lines of Business

Note: This setting is only available for vendors that have 'Multiple Staff Appointments' enabled in Cocotools

  1. Login to the specific Line of Business (e.g., Wealth LOB) as a user with access to the settings pages

  2. Navigate to Settings > Admin View.

  3. Toggle Cross LOB Visibility (if not already set) to access the Multi LOB Attendees setting

  4. Toggle Multi LOB Attendees

  • When Multi LOB Attendees is ON, staff from this LOB can be added as additional attendees to appointments organized by other LOBs. (e.g., If enabled for Wealth, Retail staff can book Wealth appointments).

  • When Multi LOB Attendees is OFF, staff in other LOBs cannot book services and staff belonging to this LOB. (e.g., If enabled for Wealth, Retail staff cannot book Wealth appointments).

Viewing Schedules Across LOBs

Once configured, staff members accessing Schedule at their LOB level will see enhanced visibility options.

  • Staff Grouping: The Staff Picker is now grouped by Line of Business. The current LOB is displayed at the top and expanded by default.

  • Visibility: Staff can select or deselect entire LOB groups to view availability across the branch

  • Privacy Masking: If a staff member views the schedule of a "Private LOB", appointments will appear as "Busy" blocks. Details such as meeting title, location, and attendees will be hidden.

Booking Cross LOB Appointments

This workflow allows a staff member (e.g., a Retail Banker) to book an appointment for a colleague in a different department (e.g., a Commercial Banker) where the booker is not an attendee.

  1. Navigate to Schedule within your LOB view.

  2. Click New Appointment or select a time slot on the calendar.

  3. In the Service dropdown, search for the desired service.

    • Services from other LOBs will appear with a LOB label provided Cross LOB Bookings is enabled for that target LOB.

  4. Search for the staff member performing the service.

  5. Complete the client details, add any other required information for this service, and save the appointment

Creating Joint Meetings Across LOBs

This workflow is used when a staff member (e.g., Wealth Advisor) wants to host a meeting and bring in a colleague from another department (e.g., Insurance Specialist) as a secondary attendee.

  1. Navigate to Schedule and start a New Event.

  2. Select a Service and Staff from your current LOB.

  3. Once the organizer from the current LOB is added, the search will allow for for the colleague you wish to add from the other LOB

    • The colleague will appear in the search results only if their LOB has Multi-LOB Attendees enabled

  4. Complete the client details, add any other required information for this service, and save the appointment

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