Advanced Online Booking Per Service Category

This feature allows businesses to define how far in advance clients can book services online based on specific service categories. This is particularly useful for managing appointment availability across different types of services—such as grooming, consultations, or classes—each of which may require different scheduling lead times.

Things to know:

• The ability to configure this setting is governed by the "Editing Settings" access control setting.
• The Online Booking Settings by Service Category modal allows you to:
  • Set the earliest date a client can book online
  • Specify how far in advance clients can schedule appointments for each service category
• The "How far in advance can clients book?" setting defines the maximum booking window for online appointments per category.
• Any settings defined in the Online Booking Settings by Service Category modal will override the general setting configured at the account level under “How far in advance can clients book?”
• If a service category is deleted, it will automatically be removed from the Online Booking Settings by Service Category modal.

To configure online booking settings by service category:

1. Navigate to Business Setup > Settings 
2. Under the Online Booking section, locate the "How far in advance can clients book?" setting
3. Click the “set advanced settings by service category” hyperlink to open the configuration modal 
4. In the Online Booking Settings by Service Category modal, adjust the following for each service category:
   • Service Category: Lists the categories configured on your services menu.
   • Clients can book from: Specify how soon clients can book from the current time (e.g., immediately, in 1 day, in 3 hours). Options include minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years.

   • Clients can book up to: Define how far in advance clients are allowed to book services from today’s date. This also supports minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years.

     
5. After completing the configurations, click Save at the bottom of the Online Booking Settings by Service Category modal.
6. Then, click Save again at the bottom of the main Settings page to apply all changes.

Let's look at an example below:

Let’s walk through an example to see how the settings apply in the booking widget.

Configuration:

• Clients can book from: 3 days in advance
• Clients can book up to: 6 months in advance
• Current Date: May 8, 2024

Minimum Booking Window – "Clients can book from"

With the setting requiring at least 3 days' notice, the earliest a client can schedule a Haircut appointment is May 11, 2024. As a result, all dates before May 11 will be grayed out and unavailable in the booking widget.

Since bookings are limited to 6 months in advance, clients will not be able to book beyond August 7, 2024. All dates after August 7 will also be grayed out and unavailable for selection.

For more information contact us at support@mytime.com.