Where do I find it?
Go to Administration > Online booking. It sits in the sidebar under Appointments. The page has four tabs, each a question: When, Who, After booking and Self-service.
Everything on the first three tabs applies to online booking. From the dashboard you can always schedule any time, even if a customer couldn't book it online. You keep changes on all tabs together with Save at the bottom. Switch tabs and what you've changed stays put.
When
Booking window
- Maximum advance booking: how far ahead customers can book online, from 2 weeks to 6 months, or No limit.
- Minimum notice: how long before the appointment an online booking has to come in at least, from 1 to 48 hours, or No minimum. With 2 hours, nobody books a 14:00 appointment at 13:45.
- Notice counts: appears once you choose a minimum notice. With Always, every hour counts. With Not at night, your night's sleep doesn't count, so a booking made at 02:00 can't take your first morning slot before you've seen it. The Example shows what that does.
If a service has its own booking window, it's listed below the card. Click its name to change it.
Slot intervals
Here you see every how many minutes a new time starts. With Adjust per service you set it for each service. Every change there saves straight away. How that works is in what is the slot interval?.
Connected booking
Steers online bookings towards times right next to existing appointments, so your day doesn't end up with small gaps. With Prefer connected times the widget highlights those times and the others can still be chosen. With Only connected times it offers only those. Under Fill from day edge you choose how an empty day fills up: From opening time, Toward closing time or Both.
Buffer time around appointments is set under Administration > General, because it also applies to what the calendar and the till suggest.
Who
Who can book online?
- Everyone: any visitor can make an appointment online.
- Only existing customers: only email addresses you already know as a customer. Under Applies to you choose All services, Only selected services or All except selected.
- Only existing customers during set periods: everyone books for the rest of the year, but during the periods you add only existing customers can. Handy for a busy December. With Add period you give each period a start and end date, and a name if you like.
Booking threshold
- No threshold: the customer books straight away, with no extra step.
- Email verification: the customer first confirms their email address through a link in an email. Until then the appointment has the status Unverified. Under Display before verification you choose whether you already see it in your calendar, and under Expiry duration how many hours the link stays valid, between 1 and 168.
Maximum bookings per email decides how many open appointments one email address may hold at the same time. Cancelled and completed appointments don't count. Leave the field empty for no limit.
Block customers with no-shows
Turn this on and choose under Block from after how many no-shows a customer can no longer book online themselves. You can always still book them in at the counter. To exempt a regular, turn on Never block from online booking on their customer card.
Employee assignment
Decides who gets an online booking when the customer hasn't picked anyone. Under Distribution you choose Smart (recommended), which fills gaps in the calendar and takes into account how busy each staff member is, or Take turns. With Remember preferred employee, the staff member a customer saw before gets a slight priority.
Bookable online
Here you see how many staff members customers can book online. You turn that on or off for each staff member under Manage staff. Anyone who isn't bookable online stays in your calendar, and you can still book them in yourself.
After booking
- Auto-confirm bookings: when this is on, an online booking is confirmed straight away. When it's off, the appointment stays Pending until you confirm it.
- Request attendance confirmation: the reminder email gets a button the customer uses to let you know they're coming. This also applies to appointments you make yourself in the dashboard.
Online payment isn't set here. Whether a customer has to pay when booking is decided per service. Read taking payment during booking for that.
Self-service
This tab is about the links in the emails to your customer. They also apply to appointments you make yourself in the dashboard.
Cancelling and rescheduling
You only see this card when the Customer self-service module is on. A field only appears when its part is on.
- Customers can cancel themselves until ... hours before the appointment: after that, a customer can no longer cancel themselves.
- Customers can reschedule themselves until ... hours before the appointment: after that, a customer can no longer pick another time themselves. A time you propose is always possible.
- Rescheduling resets status to 'pending': when a customer reschedules a confirmed appointment, you have to confirm it again. Off by default.
- Policy text: your cancellation terms. Customers see them when booking and in the confirmation email.
Leave a period empty for no limit. A customer who paid online can't cancel themselves. They're asked to contact you instead, so you can arrange a refund.
Own details
You only see this card when the Own details part is on. You choose whether a customer may change their own name and phone number through the guest link, and whether you get a notification in the app when they do. Only you change the email address. Which custom fields a customer sees or fills in, you choose per field in Customer data. Read more in how customers reschedule or cancel themselves.
Can't see a tab?
When, Who and After booking belong to the Booking widget module, Self-service to Customer self-service. When a module is off, you don't see its tab. Check it under Administration > Modules.