Online booking gives clients a page where they choose a service, a time and, if you like, a professional, without making an account. You turn it on under Settings → Booking → Online booking and set its rules under Settings → Booking → Booking rules.
Before you start
- Who can do it: admins and owners with permission to manage online booking.
- Three things must exist: a location, at least one service, and working hours for your team. Without all three, clients find nothing to book, and the page tells you what's missing.
- Services must allow it. Each service needs Available for online booking on. See Services and pricing.
Turn on online booking
Open the setting
Go to Settings → Booking → Online booking.
Switch it on
Under Public booking, switch on Accept bookings from the public link.
Choose what guests can change
Switch Guests can reschedule and Guests can cancel on or off. With cancel off, guests are asked to call you instead.
Add a welcome line
Write a line or two in Intro copy. It sits under your business name on the booking page.
Save and share
Select Save changes. Select Copy beside Your public link to share it, or the open icon beside that to try the page.
Set the booking rules
Open Settings → Booking → Booking rules:
| Setting | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Minimum notice | How soon before a slot a client can still book it, so nobody books 9:00 at 8:57 |
| Booking window | How far ahead clients can book |
| Time slot interval | The gap between start times offered, such as every 15 minutes |
| Cancellation cutoff | Clients can't cancel or reschedule online within this time before the visit |
| Hold a chosen time for | How long a client has to finish booking after picking a time. Nobody else can take it meanwhile. |
| Buffers | Time kept free Before appointment and After appointment. A service's own buffer wins. |
| Let clients choose their provider | Shows a "choose a professional" step. Off, clients just pick a time and you're assigned whoever is free. |
Select Save changes in the bar at the bottom. Under Each location, select Override on a location to give it its own rules.
Also on the Booking rules tab
| Section | What it does |
|---|---|
| Scheduling recommendations | With Show recommended times on, your team sees suggested times when booking from the calendar, for example to Favor compact schedules. It never changes what's available. |
| Revenue opportunities | With Show revenue opportunities on Today on, Today lists clients overdue for a return visit and packages about to expire with sessions left. |
Closed periods, the waitlist and group booking
Close for a holiday
Go to Settings → Booking → Closed periods and select Add closed period. Choose the Start date and End date, and add a Description such as "Public holiday". With more than one location, choose All locations or Selected locations, then select Add.
Clients can't book online on those days. Bookings already made stay on the calendar, so move or cancel them yourself. All locations covers the locations you have now: a location you add later isn't included, so add it to the period then. A period that has ended moves to Past; you can open it but not change it, because your reports still count it.
More choices and switches
| Setting | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum notice | Booking rules | Includes 15 and 30 minutes, and 4, 5, 6, 7 and 14 days. |
| Time slot interval | Booking rules | Includes 90 minutes and 2 hours. |
| Show your phone number when online changes are closed | Booking rules | On, a client inside the cancellation cutoff sees your number so they can call. Off, they're asked to contact you. A location can set its own under Each location. |
| Clients can book for a group online | Booking rules, under Online group booking | Off removes group booking from your booking page. Your team can still book a group from the calendar. |
| Clients can join the waitlist online | Online booking, under Waitlist | Off removes "Notify me if a time opens" from your booking page. Your team can still add anyone to the waitlist. |
| Only during opening hours | Online booking, under Waitlist | Clients can only ask for days and times the location is open, and not for its closed periods. |
Each switch starts the way online booking worked before it existed: everything on except Only during opening hours.
Who gets "Any professional"
Under Booking rules → Any professional, choose who gets a booking when the client picks "Any professional": whoever is least booked that day (the usual rule), this week or over two weeks; each person in turn; or Your own order, which you set by moving people up and down. Switch on Returning clients go to the person they saw last to send a client back to the person who did their last completed visit, when that person is free and the client is signed in or gave their email before picking a time.
To leave someone out of "Any professional" while clients can still book them by name, open them in Team and switch off Include in "Any professional" online. While clients can't choose a team member online, at least one person must stay in.
A booking where the client picked the person is now marked Requested by the client, which a requested-provider bonus and the reports use. On the calendar, switch on Requested by the client when you book for a client who asked for someone.
Online suggestions and checkout info
Under Booking rules → Online suggestions, switch off Suggest services, Suggest a membership or Suggest a package for the whole business. A service's own suggestions show only while the matching switch is on. With packages on, the confirmation screen suggests one package that includes the service booked, best value first.
Under Online booking → Public booking, write Important info at checkout, up to 1,000 characters, such as parking or what to bring. Clients read it before they confirm a booking, and before they pay for a gift card, membership, package or shop order.
Gap control
Under Booking rules → Gap control, choose which start times clients see online:
| Choice | What clients see |
|---|---|
| Show every time | Every free start time. This is how online booking has always worked. |
| Reduce gaps | Times that would leave a gap shorter than Shortest gap to leave (10 to 60 minutes) before or after the visit are hidden. |
| No gaps | Only times right next to a booking, a break or the start or end of the team member's day. |
Gaps are counted for each team member, with the service's buffers and their bookings, holds and blocked time. A location with its own booking rules can have its own gap control. It applies to online booking only: your team can still book any free time from the calendar, and a client moving their own booking still sees every free time.
Make room for requests
Switch on Booking rules → Make room for requests to let a client book someone by name when that person's time is taken only by an "Any professional" booking. If another team member can do that service, works then, is free and charges the same, the "Any professional" booking moves to them and the client who asked gets the time.
- It's off until you turn it on. A booking where the client asked for someone, or one marked Requested by the client, is never moved.
- Stop moving bookings keeps bookings close to their start where they are, 24 hours before by default.
- Include bookings your team made also moves bookings your team made after you turned this on.
- Only a booking with one service and no add-ons moves, and never one that's part of a series or a group, already checked in, or for a service set to Keep the same team member (see Services and pricing).
- Rooms and equipment come along: the moved booking keeps its room or machine, and the client who asked gets another free one of the same type. If they need the one the moved booking had, the moved booking switches to a free one of the same type. When no room or machine works out, the time isn't offered.
- The move, any room switch and the new booking happen together, so nobody else can take the time in between. The moved booking gets a note saying why, the move is in the audit log, and the moved client's reminder names their new team member. Any commission follows the person who does the visit.
- Email the client when their booking moves to another team member is on to start. The moved client gets one email, in their language, saying who they'll see now; the time stays the same. It follows your Rescheduled email's on and off switch in Emails. The same switch decides whether "Tell the client about the change" starts ticked when your team moves a booking to someone else by hand.
Online group booking
Under Booking rules → Online group booking, choose how the guests in a group booked online can be seen. Guests can be seen one after another is on to start with, so clients choose At the same time or One after another when they pick a time.
| Choice | How the guests are booked |
|---|---|
| At the same time | Everyone starts together, each with a different team member. This is how group booking has always worked. |
| One after another | Each guest starts after the one before finishes, the organiser first and then in the order they were added. One team member sees them all when they have room; otherwise the next guest goes to someone else. |
| Some together, the rest after | Some guests start together with different team members, and the rest start after the first of them finishes. Clients don't choose this: it's offered, with times one after another, when they chose At the same time and no time that day fits everyone together. |
Longest wait between guests is how long a guest can wait after the one before finishes: No wait, or 5 to 60 minutes. It's 15 minutes to start with. Start times stay on your Time slot interval, so the wait includes the time to the next start: with 30-minute slots, a 45-minute visit at 10:00 ends at 10:45, and the next guest starts at 11:00 at the earliest. When one team member sees two guests in a row, the buffers between their visits come on top of the wait.
What clients see:
- Each time on the booking page shows when the group finishes, such as "to 11:30". After they pick a time where guests start at different times, Each person's time lists each guest with their service and times, and it shows again before they book and once they've booked.
- On a day with no time for everyone together, they're offered times where some or all of them are seen one after another. Find a day for everyone together looks for a day in the next two weeks that fits everyone at once.
- The group link lists the guests in the order they start, each with their own times. Cancelling the group cancels every guest, and the Cancellation cutoff counts from the first guest's time.
- When guests start at different times, the organiser's confirmation email lists each guest's time under Your group's times, with a link to the group. Each guest still gets their own confirmation.
On your calendar, each guest is their own appointment at their own time, and opening one shows Part of a party. Guests one team member sees one after another sit back to back in that person's column, and the party panel lists everyone in the order they start. With Send emails to booked team members on, a team member with more than one guest in the group gets one email that lists them all under Your guests in this group.
Switch off Guests can be seen one after another to offer only times where everyone starts together, as before. Longest wait between guests is hidden while it's off.
Share booking links
Under Links and QR codes in Settings → Booking → Online booking, make a short link or QR code that opens your booking page, some services, one person, a plan, gift cards or your shop. Each saved link shows its visits and bookings. See Links and QR codes. To put a Book button on your own website, see Embed booking on your website.
Get emails about online bookings
Email notifications in Settings → Booking → Online booking decides who is emailed when a client books, reschedules or cancels online. That covers the booking page, group bookings, waitlist offers, the client's manage link, the client portal, and a whole group cancelled from its own link. Bookings your team makes aren't emailed.
| Choice | Who gets the email |
|---|---|
| Send emails to booked team members | On to start with. The team member the client booked with. When a client cancels or reschedules, the managers who run the calendar get one too. |
| Send emails to owners and admins | Off to start with. Every owner and admin. This used to be Email me about new online bookings under Time off & notifications. |
| Send emails to specific addresses | Off to start with. Up to 10 addresses separated by commas, such as a front desk inbox. |
Select Save email notifications under the choices.
Each address gets one email per booking, reschedule or cancellation, even when it is on more than one list. A group counts as one booking: the team member of each other guest hears about their own guest. The email shows the client's name, the services, the team member, the time and the booking reference. It never shows the client's phone number or email address. Your team's copy has an Open in calendar button. An address that isn't on your team gets no button, a line saying your team can see the booking in Owneli, and a line saying your business added the address and to ask you to remove it.
The bell in the top bar shows these bookings to your team whatever you choose here.
Add addresses for one location
Open Settings → Business → Locations, choose the location, and add addresses under Booking emails. They get the emails for bookings at that location, on top of the business list, while Send emails to specific addresses is on.
Check it worked
Open Your public link in a private browser window. Your services appear and you can pick a time. Booking yourself a test visit shows it on the calendar; cancel it afterwards.
If something goes wrong
"Set up a location, a service and staff working hours first"
Add whatever it lists. Working hours are set for each team member under Team → Scheduling.
A service is missing from the booking page
Check Available for online booking on the service, that it's active, and that it's switched on at that location.
No times are offered
Check the team's working hours that day, the Minimum notice and Booking window, and that someone who does the service is working. With Gap control on Reduce gaps or No gaps, fewer times are offered on purpose; choose Show every time to see them all.
A group isn't offered times one after another
The next guest can only start on your Time slot interval, within Longest wait between guests of the one before finishing. If the next start is further away than that, choose a longer wait. With Gap control on Reduce gaps, a wait shorter than Shortest gap to leave between two guests with the same team member isn't offered either.
The link shows "page not found"
Accept bookings from the public link is off. Switch it on and save.