It is recommended that you create blocks of no patient appointments within the EMR's schedule for the days or times that the provider is not working.  Do not use the template or colour code the blocks because the EMR and the Portal only sync actual appointments and not templates.  This will allow the appointment blocks to sync over to the Portal, so when you publish appointment availabilities, they will not overwrite the blocks.  Therefore, when you go to Publish Pending availabilities, you do not need to go to the the schedule to remove any availabilities that inadvertently wrote in dates and times that the provider is not working.